August 10, 2015: Memory Lane

Somebody dies every day, but when that somebody was a part of your life, it hurts.  So we mourn.. and try to move forward… one way is by remembering the good days.  There were plenty of good times shared with this friend of mine, so I thought I’d make a list.  It’s not exactly Chicago sports related, but it’s what’s on my mind… Join me in my walk down memory lane.

The stripper:  There’s always a stripper story with your buddies right?  In our case, there was more than one as each one of us got married, and well before that.  This one was part of a bachelor party, and the inspecting began.  It was like he was checking out the product to make sure it was up to FDA standards.  She was, and the legend began…

The ride home:  Coming back home after a night of partying was always an adventure… thankfully, ones which I’m able to talk about to this day.  This one was a long trip home from one of our city’s finest gentleman’s club.  It was like National Lampoon’s vacation.  My friend next to me in the back seat… passed out.  My friend in the passenger seat… passed out.  The driver… passed out.  So as we start to drift onto the shoulder, and hear that noise to warn drivers that you are on the shoulder, I cracked my buddy on the shoulder.  I did that multiple times, as we safely made it home, as thankfully one of us stood up.

The practical joke:  We worked together for many years.  This is where we became good friends.  We opened mail for a living… Not the most exciting stuff, but we kept it exciting.  Whether it was dialing 900 numbers and transferring them to one of the manager’s office, or putting “kick me” signs on the back of someone walking to another department, he was always in the middle of it.  My favorite was when we pulled a prank on this new guy.. young Asian guy.  We had Ricobene’s for lunch that day, and decided to put the empty food wrapper… full of red gravy… into an envelope that he was about to open.  As he opened it, and saw the wrapper, he screamed “Animal Blood”, and pushed himself away from the desk.  We were laughing our asses off.

Vegas:  Another common thread with many guy stories.  You know, that story that the Hangover movies played out on the big screen.  Yeah, we lived that movie long before it was shown to the world.  Our trips to Vegas together were nothing short of awesome, with my friend telling the cab drivers that his father was the senator.  I’ll leave it at that, as you all know the saying…

Mexico:  OK, another trip for the ages happened together in Puerto Vallarta.  Yes, not many details to share here in this public setting, but Top of the Food Chain bitches!!!

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The crap:  As my friend’s son became potty trained, he wanted to share that moment with me.  So, he sent a picture of this crap… that winded around the toilet like a long link of sausage that had come out of his son.  I was dying laughing… Then, as my son grew older, I got my revenge.  One of the last text messages between us was one of a super sized log that came out of my boy… payback baby!

The point guard:  Of course we played sports together… in a work basketball league.  Yeah, we won a couple titles, and he was the point guard.  He was a soccer player playing point guard… kind of like those pickup games at McKinley Park.  He played aggressive defense to put it lightly… hacking away.  He played hard, and hustled.  That’s what made him good.  We like to root for these players on our teams, we had one on ours.

The birthday party:  His son’s first birthday was a memorable one.  With one of those inflatable jumpers in the house, my future wife and I took full advantage, and almost brought that sucker down.  But that’s not the story… of course we organized a football game.  I was quarterbacking, and I threw the pass across the middle to my friend.  He went for it at the same time his cousin did, and heads collided.  I can’t remember how many stitches it was, but he had to be driven to the hospital in the middle of his son’s party.  We never did learn…

His wedding:  So yes, I was the best man at his wedding… one wedding I don’t remember much of.  It was before the ceremony, before the reception in his uncle’s trunk, and pretty much non stop all day long.  I had this speech written out that I remember crumbling up in the bathroom when I decided I was going to freeroll.  I wish this speech was recorded somewhere because I’m pretty sure it was the worst ever.  With the mariachis blaring away, I’m pretty sure most people didn’t even care, let alone understand what I was saying…  It was all good.

Yet, it’s not all good right now.  The thing that was involved with most of the good times above was the thing that eventually brought him down.  That’s sad, and somewhat hard to understand.  My prayers go out to his wife and two boys.  This should not be something they have to deal with at this age.  I can only hold onto these memories above… only the tip of the iceberg.  In the story of my 20s, he played a main role.  As we got into the 30s, a smaller role.  And as I turn 39 in a couple weeks, and 40 next year, not at all.  Remember, I started this blog for therapy… my crazed sports fan therapy that I needed.  This was some more therapy for me.  Thanks for taking that stroll… and again, RIP my man.