TRUE FRIENDSHIP RECOGNIZES NEITHER TIME OR DISTANCE

I CAN NOW TELL YOU FOR CERTAIN

 THAT THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE FACT!

In the time that has passed over the last 8 years or so I have learned many great life lessons.  Nearly all of those lessons have had great influence on the way I view life, love and friendship.  Those of you following early on in this blog more than likely know me in real life so you know first hand the value that I place on friendship.  They say that a friend will help you move but a True Friend will help you move a body!  I would say that this too I can tell you for certain but that would mean that I have moved a body and I can't say for absolute sure that there was a body in that old roll of carpeting.  I just keep watching re-runs of unsolved mysteries and hoping for the best.

I'll give you an example of what I am trying to say with the title of this post.  I guess it's about two weeks ago now that I was outside working in my back yard.  I was miserable and dicking with the most recent thing to go wrong with my old house.  Under my patio cover I keep a Sony 36" tv and a yamaha stereo, yeah, the weather is nice enough here to leave this shit outside uncovered for quite litterally 350 days per year.  Anyhow, I got the stereo on trying to help carry me through the joy of the combo of picking up dog shit for two good sized dogs that seem to be having a contest to see who can shit the most in the most extraordinary places, and wondering how in the hell I am going to afford this next repair.  I had just stepped back through the gate and swore I heard the DJ say something about Black Label Society.  I didn't know if it was how good the show was or how good it was going to be.  I have an old friend, as a matter of fact if we were friends and lost contact over the years and you didn't completely FUCK OVER either myself or someone I care about, we are still friends in my heart and mind.  Anyway, back to my old friend.  I hadn't seen him in years and one day I saw his photo on-line.  It was on Myspace of all places.  I sent him a friend request and he added me.  I couldn't believe that after all these years he was still doing what he loved and doing it big.  When I was a teenager in high school, I can remember the battle of the bands and seeing this guy play bass at 15 and thinking "holy shit"!  This guy is going to be somebody for sure.  As it turns out he is.  We spoke here and there and I was going to stop and see him a few years ago when I went back to Jersey but never did.  So as it turns out, they were in Phx and they were playing that night.  So I reached out to him and asked how long he had been on tour and when is the last time he had Italian home cooking?  For far too long was his answer.  I said well I'll tell ya what, get me +1 on the list and I will make you some of my famous Rigatoni with Vodka Sauce with Garlic Bread.  The deal was struck!  He told me to meet him at the tour busses at 7pm.  Now mind you, I am sure that this guy can only let so many people in on his "tab" so to speak and he is more or less responsible for the actions of said retards.  I began to think that nothing in his voice had changed, it was like I was calling him as a kid, I could have been talking about kick ball it felt so natural and normal.  While cooking I tried to figure out when was the last time that I saw him.  As it turns out, it was 13 years since our last chance meeting in a bar in Jersey.  Now I could care less about seeing the band play as we had no tickets for the show and I wasn't going to go drop 150 bucks the week before Thanksgiving, but I just wanted to catch up with an old friend.  It was as if virtually no time had passed upon meeting up with him.  We were both a bit older, we both had a bit more facial hair then last we saw each other.  We met him at the barricades where he had to explain to a member of the local Dominant here that he was sorry that only JackShit and Diane can come with him.  With each step we took towards that tour bus I could feel the happiness that my wife was feeling and I couldn't help but smile because I got to see a friend I wasn't sure I would ever see again.  We hung out on the bus for over an hour and a half while Phx's top DJ and assorted other misfits came and went and we ate pasta and caught up.

Everything was going swimingly between us as we spoke of friends and loved ones that we have lost over the years and what we had both been up to.  Well that is until his phone rang and on the other end was a 5'1" Blonde Chilean girl who was one of the leads in Cirque de Solei!  I'll be right back he said as he damn near jumped off the bus to go back through the gauntlet of everyone who wanted him to get them in too.  After a few moments they were back at the bus and I have to tell you what a sweetheart this girl was.  I tried my very best to repeatedly hint how badly we would like to see the show but since she is from So. America she did not understand the hints I was hitting her over the head with!  Well it was time for JD to get ready for the show and as I didn't want to be a cock blocker, not knowing the relationship between them I got ready to say my goodbyes.  You aren't staying for the show?  Well we don't have tickets.  Tickets?  With that he slapped two VIP passes on us and walked us through the door and into the elevator and on the the dressing rooms and right backstage.  Not only were we going to see the show, but we were going to see the show from the stage.

It was absolutely amazing to see A STELLAR PERFORMANCE by someone considered to be one of the very best bass players in the world.  Diane got to throw out Black Label Society BeachBalls to the crowd.  With the exception of having honed his skills, I couldn't see one thing different about this old friend.  He played with the very same enthusiasm and joy that I remembered from High School, it was just incredible to see.  It didn't matter to either of us that we lived 3000 miles apart and had not only not seen each other in over a decade but we had barely spoken over that time and we picked up pretty much where we left off in that Shit Hole Bar in Jersey.  The show ended and we hung out on stage for a little while.

Now JD had promised to take us onto the band Clutch's bus for a little bit of "happy time" and to hang out some more but we had to leave.  Why would anybody leave this you ask?  Because another friend, George the Painter had broken down on the Leaky Latowski and he needed help and to be picked up.  FRIENDS FIRST ABOVE ALL ELSE!  So we said goodbye and agreed to meet in another 13 years!  If not for my belief in friendship and the value that I put on it, I would never have even made the call and I would have sat home complaining about dog shit in the yard.  Instead we ended up having one of the best nights we have had in years.  Oh yeah, we never got to go to Cirque de Solei..... oh well, next time I will flirt with the guy, I may have much better luck.

If you are in my life, there is a reason.  If I am in yours the reason is probably because you were a scumbag in a former life and this is your payback.  I'll see ya somewhere down the road and cherish your friends because with this life we all lead, who knows if they will be there tomorrow!