Blunderooski

Here's why I moved my blog by the way--I pulled it up at someone else's computer and then couldn't make the damn link go away...and it was where my buddy Mike D. would be sitting at some point later...I sent him several of my blog entries and he really liked them, but is OBSESSED with finding the URL. And he’s already started to kind of mock me, like “why don’t you go blog or something…”He’s come at it from different angles, so it just tells me he wants this for some reason, and it’s probably not a reason that would be good for me.

Another reason is that it was probably a little too easy for someone to find me what with the naming of the blog and all...Hey, it's not paranoia if they really are after you...

So I couldn't chance it--Yes, he's my friend, but it is an odd relationship.

He's a turbo-powered genius, but, like many of that ilk, goes through friends like water. There's a wake of pissed off people behind him. My wife has even cut him off from ever eating her homemade lasagna again due to a time where he went back on a money deal between us (I forgave him and never mentioned it again). And when he gets in a fight, he goes freakin' scorched earth on your ass.

He's got a very funny sense of humor, and after knowing him for about 10 years now, I just know when he's moody and I tell him "Dude, call me when you get off the rag!" and promptly hang up on him. But I've stuck with him through some hard times, like getting a divorce from the love of his life--I know he appreciates me for that. Also, I appreciate that he helped me get my current job and really helped me learn the ropes in the lab when we first met as undergrads.

One of my favorite memories of college was when we were writing a paper together, and when we finished all the experiments, we called an unauthorized margarita party in the lab at 2:00 AM (shhhhhhh)! We got in the mood because we were working with citrus fruits and their essential oils, so the smell permeated the lab for weeks and finally we needed to do something to blow off steam from our constant wisecracks about tropical, fruity drinks.

But you have to watch your back all the time around this guy. Once at a formal conference he put a picture of me in his presentation without, ahem, clearing it with me—It was a photo of me in grungy hunting clothes and I was pretty trashed out. Another time he did a presentation at our company with me as a South Park character and made my character do all kinds of silly things. And from the “When Will I Ever Learn” department, another time we were testing a high speed camera and I sat and made silly faces for about 2 minutes—Yep. He saved the footage and whips it out every now and then to amuse everyone around us...

Before the outrage builds and you think, "What an asshole!" Let me get to the high points--they are significant too. On several occasions we’ve been hunting and had great times smoking cigars under the stars and just hanging out and having deep talks. We've had fun times. Working together, hunting, hanging out at the house playing computer games... And we have been the most successful sales team in company history. I think I’m as close to him as a friend can be in his world. My world has several deeper levels of friendship in them, thank God.

But I love my blog. I love the freedom to be cheesy and moody and euphoric and goofy and try too hard to be funny and then end up being accidentally melancholy and sometimes painfully mediocre. It’s so cool that I can let things play out as I go and see what the result is…I promise someday I will edit my stuff and someday I MAY even put a picture or 2 in this bitch. But I have to guard my deepest thoughts against being projected on a 20 foot screen in public for someone’s personal amusement. They’re too valuable. And I’m a little too vulnerable.