Time Travel, Giving Thanks A Bit Late

With my bother and his friend both back in town for the holiday, we all spent a lot of our spare time together. As I mentioned in the previous post, my brother and I were not close as teenagers. So, I never really knew his friends. I knew who they were, but never hung out with them. Every night that they were here, we hung out, either at our home or his friend's. It turns out that his friend and the friend's wife are really cool and fun people. On Friday, we went over to his house to have a few drinks and hang out in the basement. We were all transported back to our childhoods, if our childhoods had alcohol.

We went down into the basement and my brother's friend started digging out a bunch of old stuff he or his parents had saved from his childhood and college years. He had G.I. Joe figures and vehicles. He had a Voltron toy where the lions all connected to make the big robot, "...and I'll form the head!" He had Garbage Pail Kids trading cards, of which I stole all of the doubles. We listened to vinyl copies of the Footloose soundtrack and Michael Jackson's Thriller. Looked through old yearbooks and school dance photos. We talked about mutual aquaintances and old friendships. We even played billiards on a table that was not quite level, so everything rolled to one side. This really brought me back. Even though we did not hang out together when we were younger, one of my best friends growing up also had a table that wasn't level. Needless to say, I managed to win most of the night.

We shared our stories of things that we had done or that one of the other people had done. My brother's friend had kept a break-up note that my brother had written in blue crayon to his college girlfriend. It was brilliant. I will not share the whole note or whole story of what had transpired. But, I will share a few of my favorite lines:

"...leave the rest of the money for the acid on the bed..."

"...if there is anything wrong with my car or anything is missing I will start breaking things that you like..."

Seriously, knowing the whole situation makes it really funny. I can't believe his friend kept it. It's pure gold.

It was one of those magical nights that if you're not careful, you will forget to appreciate. Everything seemed to be perfect, good friends, good music, good memories and I even happened to find a really good beer that one of my new friends had not had in ten years. She was in heaven.

So, belatedly for American Thanksgiving, let me give thanks for the wonderful occurances in my life this year.

First, thank you all for reading, I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have.

Also thanks for a great start to the year with fireworks over the mountain and the best powder/tree skiing I may ever experience for three straight days. Thanks for the moment in Hooters where Doug embarassed the new guy. Thanks for a few more semesters of undergrad education. Thanks for my new friends (real and cyber) and thanks even more for my old ones. Thanks for the lessons learned. Thanks for pulling me up on stage and helping me do things I would have never thought I could do sober, and thanks for letting a friend be there to back up the story. Thanks for making hockey more fun and opening my eyes to what it is really all about. Thanks for making me wear a kilt. Thanks for those "Wow" moments that seem to make it all worth while. Thanks for one last show with LeRoi.

And most of all thanks for my family. They have always made it easy for me to be me, even when it was extremely hard just to be.