MC Gelfling and the Dark Cristal
I’m a HUGE Robot Chicken fan. I love the beginning of this – I can almost see the meeting really happening.
via Frogboy (who needs to start his own blog – he sends me some great stuff)
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Archive for September 6th, 2009
Feeling ESPECIALLY mortal today
WARNING HUMAN EMOTION: I got an unexpected call from my old childhood friend Mike. We first met in 5th grade and were in school together through High School graduation). Subconsciously, I recognized his voice right away but I was surprised to hear from him, so it didn’t register at first. After a bit of banter about how good it was to hear the other an so on, he got to the point… which was to tell me that our mutual friend Hal had died.
UPDATE: I visited my folks for dinner and to take a stroll through memory lane (they still have all my old memorabilia). I found this photo from my Senior photos. I had both BFFs Hal and Mike come in with me so I could have good pictures of us together (and looking back I am SO glad I did). Bumping due to photo. (I’m on the right).
Hal and Mike were my closest friends for 8 years of middle and upper school at a VERY small private school in Omaha NE. Mike was the true blue and dependable by the book, boy scout type who would give you the shirt off his back. But he was also the one whose first instinct at the prospect of getting in trouble was “I wasn’t here!!!” Hal was more of a troublemaker at heart. While he was a good kid and we never did anything REALLY bad, there was a mischievous imp at his core that was definitely a force with which to be reckoned. If I had to think of a phrase that reminds me of something Hal might say, it would have to be “If you don’t have anything nice to say, come sit next to me.”
Hal and I were gay best friends long before either of us knew we were gay. At that point Denial was just a river in Egypt and neither of us had a clue – at least I didn’t. I used to spend the night at his house all the time and we would watch TV (I remember seeing the Thriller premiere and Heavy Metal on his Cable TV) or draw together, sometimes I’d help him work on his paper mache woodland habitat for this collection he had of little poseable mice and creatures (stuffed dolls with wire armatures). Yeah we were big ‘ol dorks.
As we grew older, but remained good kids who didn’t act out (I held off on the wild life til college in Boston), there wasn’t that much to do in Omaha but movies and dining out so our group did that a lot. I wish I could afford to eat out as well or as often as I did then (spoiled rotten). We grew up. He got a girlfriend and we had less and less time hanging out solo, but our clic still socialized weekly. Some of my favorite memories of Hal are out at dinner either with the gang or by ourselves as I listened to his fashion police routine… his vicious wit nailing everyone within view – and in 80’s Omaha targets were plentiful. His humor was sharp as a knife and just as cutting. Although there was often more than a little friendly fire involved in his mocking it was still worth a bit of verbal shrapnel to hear what he’d come up with next.
We seemed to lose touch after we left for college, but I oddly finally really became friends with Hal’s high school girlfriend who I hadn’t REALLY known that well in school other than as “that girl he kept ditching us for.” One visit home during college she and I hung out and really hit it off due to similar new interests. Eventually, I found out from her that he’d taken a semester off, was gay and in therapy. And years later, I’m sure she was also the one to tell him about me when figured things out and came out myself. I saw Hal when I visited for Mike’s wedding a few years back, but he and I never REALLY reconnected in any real way or talked about why we grew apart. I always figured he’d show up out here in San Francisco for a visit someday. But alas…
I’ll always miss you Hal and will never forget how you made me laugh. My thoughts and condolences to his family, friends and loved ones. As sad as the occasion is, I’m glad I’ve had the chance to reconnect with some really great old friends. I hope to get a chance to visit soon so we can all share our memories of Hal.
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