What Goes Around...

Okay, this is not about knitting. I may be knitting (happily) afterward but this is not about knitting. My father likes to search for old friends over the internet. He just told me the other day that he contacted a woman we knew from the bungalow colony we use to go to. Her sons were and still are the smartest people I have ever known plus they were into Pink Floyd. They were so ahead of their time. I think they are physics and mathematics professors. Sorry, I digressed. I decided to look up someone I was friends with during high school and halfway through college.

We lived in the same building. Growing up in an apartment building meant that you always had someone to play with. Halloween was great. You just went to each floor and got tons of candy. We were a building of 20 stories! This girl, named Joan, became a close friend of mine in high school, even though we went to different schools. Our dads worked in the same industry so that's how we were introduced to each other. She is 6 months older than me but I skipped 3rd grade and was in the same grade as her. She was the one who introduced me to my very first boyfriend. I hung out with her friends from her high school. This was in the 2nd half of my senior year. It was a great time. We ended up going to the same college together but agreed that we shouldn't be roommates. It was the smartest decision we could have made.

Things got rocky. I was still involved with my boyfriend. The relationship she was having with her boyfriend wasn't doing too well. It wasn't until I came home for Christmas break that I found out that she was saying very mean things about me to my boyfriend. She told me that she couldn't understand why he stays with me since I don't "put out" for him. (Remember, it was the '70's. Most girls were virgins). She would say similar things to him! I told her she should know that that doesn't work since she "did it" with her boyfriend and he wasn't really into her. We returned to school not the best of friends. We really went our separate ways. She was into partying, I wasn't. She would have our friend at home send her money from a small inheritance her grandmother left her and buy drugs and stuff. Later, I found out that she moved in with a dope dealer. Her mother use to blame me for all this stuff. I had to stop being friends with her completely. We never spoke again.

Fast forward to 2007...I looked her name up and there it was. I remembered her husband's name and looked him up and lo and behold, what did I discover? Her husband was indicted in 2005 while working for a big securities company for taking over a half million dollars in bribes! Then he set up a corporation and she was his only employee who collected a paycheck every 2 weeks. They were both charged! He is now serving a jail sentence. I read that they had to sell their 1.3 million dollar home in New Jersey to pay restitution. She's now in Brooklyn with her 3 daughters. Her charges were dropped as part of a plea bargain.

Am I happy? Not really. It's sad to find out that someone had been so greedy that they had to break the law. It's sad that the children won't see their father for a few years. However, I am glad that I stopped being her friend a long time ago for reasons much less than what she was charged with. I guess my intuition was right! What goes around, comes around.