it doesn't make me old if I enjoy sitting around reminiscing about the "good ol' days," does it?

My first job out of college was at Kinko's Document Creation Center. It was in Rochester and when any number of stores throughout New England / New York got jobs in their store, they were sent to us, we completed them, and sent them back. Because I've always been able to type super fast and they needed a typist for the 3-midnight shift, I took the job that paid $11.00 / hour...at that time, not too shabby for a girl with a pretty useless English degree.

The "cool" people worked the night shift.

Heidi was a short and hilariously funny goth girl; the oldest of the group. Because our boss was uptight about our work matching as closely as possible to what came in, we had to match margins, fonts, etc. and Heidi was "The Font Girl." I couldn't tell what font was used? She'd look at it for a few minutes, tell me try something, and bam, that would be it.

Ross was closest to my age and one of the two gay guys. I was kind of Grace (with much better tits) and he was Will (and just as gay). He's kind of my now-a-day-cute-co-worker; the guy with whom I can be wildly inappropriate at work.

Tom was also gay, in his thirties at the time and a big lumberjack-lookin' guy. To this day, he's one of the wittiest people I have ever met in my life and always had the greatest sense of humor. We went to his house every so often and hung out with him and his partner, Eric, who was equally as witty and crazy. Their dining room had dark, bleeding purple walls and a piano.

Heather was the ecclectic prooreader who was always dark and mysterious in black outfits, her hair always in a bun. She smoked clove cigarettes and smelled delicious.

Sara was my first girl crush. She was also my age and we got along from day one. She had fiery red hair, we took smoke breaks every hour, and the only one I hung out with by myself outside of work. Every so often after we got off work, we'd go to her apartment and sit around with her boyfriend, Rob, who was a film student, watching some crazy-ass film and smoking far too much. She was the one who first got all of us to go out one night after work and it soon became a pretty regular thing for us to go to some bar that I can picture perfectly but can't remember anything about the name other than it was named "Mc" something.

Working the night shift, we screwed off a lot and we each took turns getting to choose which streaming tunes we would listen to. Tom and I mainly loved the oldies but for some strange reason, it seems like no matter what station we were on, Spin, Spin, Sugar would come on and we'd all be lovin' it. One oldies night, Midnight Train to Georgia came on and Tom and I started singing and within minutes, nobody was working anymore and I became Gladys and Tom became my personal pip. From then on, whenever it came on, work stopped and we got our groove back on. Sara's and my favorite was Elvis' Kentucky Rain and Ross and I loved Don't Pull Your Love Out On Me because we couldn't sing the "don't pull your love out on me baby" without smirking.

I don't even know how long ago it was now but when I still kept in touch with them after moving out to Chicago, Tom emailed us that he and Eric were moving to Florida and having a going-away party that he would all love or us to attend. I emailed him back that unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to make it but was secretly planning on coming back to surprise him because I figured it would be the last time I would ever see the man (sadly, so far, that's been the case).

I drove up to Rochester so I'd get there a little later than everyone else and will never forget the look on the man's face when I knocked on their door and walked in. I don't think I've ever been hugged so tightly before in my life. It was strictly a Kinkster's Reunion so we were all there and drank and smoked and laughed the night away.

The best part of the evening was when Tom got up, gave a little toast, and turned on Midnight Train to Georgia. I don't remember where it came from but he threw a boa at me and I performed with my pip for the last time, with the full "woo hoo" train sounds and arm motions in the appropriate places and all.

I remember at one point during the night, I went out on their front porch with my drink, sat in their comfy green loungy chairs to smoke a butt outside, and Tom came out to give me another hug, and somewhere in between our teariness, we told each other how glad we were that I was there.

Every now and then, I find myself thinking about them and wondering where everyone wound up post-Kinkster's; especially when I'm hanging out in my apartment flipping through my tunage and stumble across one of our oldies but goodies. Part of me feels sad as I sit here listening but then I remember that I'm also sitting here with a goofy grin on my face, singing too loudly, and remembering what I consider to be some of the best times I've ever had with some of the best people I've ever known. And it makes me feel nothing but happy.