2005-07-16

Sometimes, the simplest things....

I just want to quote Shawn here. The specific line is the following:

Incidentally, after spending a year living with my father, Eric moved down to Florida to pursue a closer relationship with *his* father, and it seems that things worked out marvelously, as they seem quite close now.


I had never really thought about it until Shawn put my year or so in Idaho into this context.

Shawn and I go back several years. He was a transfer Frosh when I was on my second year at college, and something just clicked. I think the initial thing was the mutual appreciation that we both had for Rush. It's been quite the roller coaster (Literally. Remember that Shawn? The Mustang, you, Melanie, and I? 2 12" subs in a massive box? About a zillion miles an hour too fast on a hilly two lane county road?), and we've both grown and become... I hesitate to use the words "men" or "mature"... how about a little more sane? That's not quite right either, but it's all I can think of at this point.

The thing is that on the way, we've both pulled each other's asses from the fire more times than I can count. Shawn was one of those people who I bounced things off of to get a completely different opinion on. Shawn helped out creatively more times than I can count, through contacts and noodleing. We both discovered the joys of being a musician, and the pains that real life bills can bring. I *still* miss my ancient Mesa Boogie 1516 cabinet that I had to pawn to make a car payment. "That was one of the best sounding bass cabinets I've ever heard", If I recall the quote correctly. I'm in *complete* agreement on it. Huge as hell (cab was about the size of a classic Ampeg 8x10", except about 6" deeper), but it could do *anything* I needed. Unfortunate that Mesa Boogie decided to quit manufacturing it.

I miss Shawn. Hell, I miss *all* of my college buds. Ben, Jon, Don, Angie, Robbin, Kelly, Mike, Phillip, Ed, Dave (Dave was *particularly* nice to me by letting me live under his roof rent free while I was recuperating from my time with AOL), Josh... These people were my life for those years I was out in OKC. They were my family.

We've all moved on now... Shawn and Angie got married to each other. Jon married a girl from college. Robbin married. Phillip and Mike are now brothers in law through marriage. Don's munging code and data for a firm in ID. I'm married... All of these things have changed, and yet I still miss them all. It's kind of bizarre. Shawn's recent blog entries have reminded me of a lot of things that I'd forgotten.

I've moved on as well. I grew tired of ID and working for Microsoft by proxy. Coming down here has allowed me to remember some of the good things that happened during my childhood, and fix a few things that I needed to before time moved on too far. I won't say that it's all gold and flowers, but it's been good for me to be here for a while. Dad's a tough nut to crack. Maybe I'm just trying to dig too far into a man that's just who he is because of what's happened to him, and how he's dealt with it. He's an intelligent thinker, tho. He understands what it is to cut through all of the crap in a situation and get the nuts and bolts out.

Some boys say "when I grow up, I want to be just like my dad". I think that life's finally come around to where I can say that too.

JoeSixpack that sounded sappy. I can't think of any other way to put it tho.

So Shawn, Shawn's dad, thank you both. Immensely. You've done more for me than I previously realized. I'm shure that more will eventually come clear as my path continues.

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