Yesterday, I called my friend Brand X.  His name’s actually Chad, but he played for the wrong baseball team one year, so Brand X is how I have him labeled in my cell phone.  He said he was going to our friend Chris’ lake house for the 4th.  I hadn’t been up to the lake house party in a few years, and since I had no plans, I sprinted up the freeway  north to Kent.  I’m glad I did.  It was a pleasant evening, a food spread that was amazing, featuring BBQ pork shoulder and ribs, every kind of macaroni salad you could want and probably enough beer to get half the city drunk.

But mostly, I was just so thrilled to get to see my friends.  Throughout much of high school, our little foursome of Chad (Brand X), Flynn, Chris and myself spent countless hours playing cards, hanging out at one another’s houses, playing baseball together for our schools and for our summer teams and much more.  It’s kind of surreal to hang out 15 years after high school ended, Chris and Flynn both with two kids each, and wives, and houses, and me and Brand X still bachelors and both condo owners.  Chris is a farmer and works for his family business.  Flynn’s a retired Navy Seal and now Ivy League Business Student.  Chad sells medical supplies and is an 11 handicap.  I call horse races.  Kind of neat to see where we’ve all ended up since those days of quarter poker games like 3-5-7 and Guts.  I think we’ve all done pretty well.  We’ve all lived in different cities than one another for the last 15 years, but put us together, and it’s like there was no time missed.  I love those three guys and feel so blessed to have been able to call them friends for all these years.

“I never had any friends like the ones when I was a kid.  Jesus, does anybody?”

L to R (Chris, Me, Chad, Flynn)