This entry from Wil Wheaton got me thinking.

• WWdN: In Exile: gaming monkey

“This was my first CD,” I said.

“I know,” she said. “You tell me that every time we hear a song from it.”

“And one day, you’ll hear it, and I won’t be here for some reason or another, and you’ll wish I was here to tell you.”

Mike and I don’t do too much explaining our previous selves. We’ve known each other since third grade. When we bought our first CD players, we were buddies. He got his first, but I wasn’t too far behind him. I don’t need to tell him that the first two CDs I bought were Tears for Fears’ The Hurting and The Book of Love’s self-titled album. He already knows. He was there.

I got the CD player for $99 at K-Mart on sale. I put it in layaway and it took me a month to pay it off. In the meantime, I bought my two CDs and waited to be able to play them on that slim CD player. I ended up giving that CD player to Dylan and Joan. They didn’t have one and he kept protesting that he wasn’t going to buy one, so I forced him to upgrade.

We hardly ever reminisce, Mike and I. Maybe I should start just reminiscing whenever I hear a song from The Hurting just to open the conversation about our shared history.