You guys! While my computer situation has been getting sorted out, Eric Shane has stepped in as a guest blogger! I feel like it’s gonna be a thing, so let me know if ya wanna give it a whirl!
So one day while texting Stacie, I asked her if I could “guest blog” sometime. I mean I have a lot of thoughts and ideas, and I feel like how hard can it be to write some of those thoughts and ideas down for others to read? Well turns out that just coming up with a single thought or idea is difficult enough let alone writing intelligently about it. I think I am better communicating in gifs now. If you haven’t played that game, give it a go! You can have hours of stupid fun with it, and really is there any better fun than stupid fun??? Anyway first of all, nice work Stacie on being able to do this like you have! Secondly, I am not quitting my day job anytime soon to sit in a Starbucks with a laptop giving my two cents about topics. Also, not even sure if people blog on laptops? I feel like Johnny Mac could have been an amazing blogger, or podcast host. He was well known for having useless information. He was the Cliff Clavin of useless information! This was a self-proclaimed definition of himself. That brain of his held a plethora of knowledge, opinions and comments on almost every topic. He was always my number one pick in trivial pursuit partners, and would definitely be my first pick for a “phone a friend” if I were ever to need on a game show. And if you put a few Bud Lights in him, then that knowledge seemed to flow through him a lot easier! I cannot count how many times in college we would sit in his dorm room discussing music, movies, sports teams, even what the best type of snacks to eat were (which his opinion then was Teddy Grahams dipped in frosting). After college, those discussions moved to my kitchen table, just knowing the right topic to bring up or comment to get him really going into his “Tourette’s Rant” about sports, what in the world this city was doing, even what to put on a hot dog (telling him that ketchup on a hot dog is amazing would send him into a blue cursing streak that would make my dad, Joe Pesci, and a Navy Seal all blush).
So being on the wrong side of 40, I tend to think back to the “good times” with friends. Memories like those always pop into my head. I mean I could write books upon books of stories of myself and my friends while in high school, college and beyond. I don’t know if those would be technically memoires because people under the age of 21 should not read them. But they are funny and entertaining, at least to me and my friends. I mean we have our go to stories when we meet new people or have new people that we introduce into our big circle of friends. Everything from Johnny Mac falling down his stairs after an afternoon out drinking and coming home and deciding to do laundry (I mean I know laundry is the first thing I think of when I have been drinking for four or five hours), to Taylor and I actually meeting and drinking with Chris Chelios and John Cusack. These are all the stories that we have all shared so many times that we don’t know what is the truth and what we made up to make fun of each other about the story. Those are what we sit around laughing to tears at and with each other. It is what probably others that sit around us in public when overhearing us must think to themselves, either these people are hilarious or they are insane and should not be allowed in public. Everyone has these types of stories with their friends. It is probably what I cherish the most about my friends. We have the ability to laugh at ourselves and each other.
Also one thing that I always will remember, that I never really paid attention to before, is after John passed away and we were at his celebration of life, how many people came up to me to tell me how lucky we are. We are lucky to have such a big group of really close friends. It is what I have always known, so I really didn’t know any different, but thinking about it that is really true. I have been friends with the same core group of people for so long that I barely even remember life before them. I am truly blessed to have all of them in my life. We have been through a lot together and my hope is to go through a lot more together.
So the one thing I wanted to make sure I tried to get across in my first blog ever is cherish your friends. Don’t let petty stuff stand in the way. Life is short so let those things roll off your shoulders and forget it. Learn to laugh at yourself and each other, because when looking back, those are the things that will make you giggle out loud in an inappropriate place and time.
Stronger Than A Fifth Of Whiskey 