Friday Five
1. Do you remember your first best friend? Who was it?
When I was living in Seattle as a wee yute, there was this kid named Christian who lived nearby. He and I were close friends for a while, until I moved. But my first real best friends were John, Pat and Mike, when I was growing up in Milton. We were all a close bunch. For whatever reason, the movie "Stand By Me" reminds me a lot of those guys, even though I grew up in a different era and a different region, and we never walked on train tracks to see a dead body.
2. Are you still in touch with this person?
Nope, though my grandmother still lives in the Milton neighborhood where I grew up and, to the best of my knowledge, the Connollys do too (Pat's family).
3. Do you have a current close friend?
Well, my best friend who I get to sleep next to is Bonnie, which is fitting since she's my wife too. My other best friend is Corey Tamas, who I see far too infrequently because he's cursed with Canuckistanianism. We've never slept next to each other, which, as both of our wives will undoubtedly note, is probably just as well.
4. How did you become friends with this person?
Well, it started out with us both sharing a bizarre and rather unusual professional connection. But as it turns out, there are a disturbing number of parallels in our lives that really makes us both think that we're of one shared consciousness from time to time.
5. Is there a friend from your past that you wish you were still in contact with? Why?
Well, there are a few good friends who I'd love to drop in on and check on how they're doing, but I think friendship -- except in really special circumstances -- is kind of a transitory thing: It's something that occurs when people experience commonality in their lives that makes them identify and share with others. To that end, I figure the friends I've fallen out of touch with have gone their separate ways for good reasons. If we meet again, then great. If not, so be it -- I treasured the time we had.