i was gonna write about this a few days ago but i never got the chance, ill just put in the original thought transcript from that night...

i was at the hockey game tonight. of course we lost, but not bad this time (only 4-0) go canes yeah yeah yeah... i wasnt really focused on the game, there were some bright spots, a few fights in the rink and one behind us. this woman somehow got hit and fell down into the row behind us, spilling pepsi on me and my leather jacket (thanks a lot, yeah, no) then a fight between 2 guys broke out. once that got separated enough, some old woman with a flashlight and a stop sign came up and reminded them courteously that they were disturbing the peace... they didnt really care and kept on. then some security dudes with guns came in and broke it up, taking them away. my dad and i were sitting on the concrete ledge just observing it all, it was more interesting than the game anyway. a little later one of the guys came back and said something like "see i told you it was his fault, bastard..." i dont really remember. other than that there was only 1 interesting point, the point which i came to tell about. there was this guy sitting next to me. he must have been in college or something, i couldnt really tell. he came with this older guy, maybe 40 or something who he talked to the whole time. when i say talked to the whole time, i dont mean he was the only guy he talked to, but that he talked the entire game. he was incessant, a chat box, a machine. he commenced to explain his entire life to this man, he wasnt related to him, i dont know exactly what they were doing there but he got a lot of ear. the thing was, being more interesting than the game, i listened to the guy. at first it was a little annoying but after a while i realized this was a pretty cool guy. he told of his classes in school, some of his philosophies, the type of music he played, his band, what he listened to... i just sat there staring at the ice but paying attention to the guy's every word. the other man didnt say much, just listened. he would interject every now and then but it was nothing special. the boy would tell about what i thought was college, his friends, some trip they'd been on and how one of his friends had talked to his girlfriend for hours (at the beginning he said the dude was whipped but at the end it got all weepy etc.) and how funny that was, playing pranks on people that trip... it was all amazing stuff, just to hear about this random guy's experiences, what his life was like. he told the man about his family, how his father got bad vision in one eye and trained himself to see out of the other so that when he got surgery and could see again he couldnt see shit, how his brother went too fast around a curve and ran off the road killing another girl and injuring him, all about the legal battle that ensued and how the other girl's dad wanted revenge, he told of his grandmother and her untimely death, how he had a dream about her telling him about his life and then a forcefield coming out of her forehead and then her falling down dead. this guy had so many experiences it was amazing, so much to say about life. he told of religion, his beliefs on enjoying it, parables and stories he'd heard, of his friend who was into meditation and how smooth he was with everything. literally, this college kid poured out his life to the man beside him and unknowlingly... me. i listened to it all, enthralled at some points and saddened at others, it was intoxicating. this got me to thinking of his life and mine. i was thinking, this guy has had an amazing life, all these things that have happened, all he's thought about, all he has done. i know he wont remember me, i didnt say anything to him but i wanted to. basically this all boiled up to one amazing point for me. that for both of us, all of our lives from the moment we were born, have built up to that one moment, those few hours right there in the rbc... all his adventures, family matters, philosophies... all that brought him here to the rbc sitting next to me. all my life took me here in the upper deck. both of us had our paths, his starting a few years earlier than mine, had gone all over the country, done innumberable things and had innumberable thoughts, all that suddenly intersected and here i was sitting 3 inches from this guy. in knew all about him and me and here we were. i didnt say anything to him, im not sure if it would have even impressed him any but it might have, that our paths had decided to cross right here and here we were. he wouldnt care that after the game we would leave and i would never see him again, never hear about the rest of his life. he would never hear about mine either so i guess i won in this situation. either way, im not gonna forget that night with that kid for a long time.