Of Hard Drives and Pet Names

I’m a music downloading maniac – which is what I’ve been doing today. Remember I said a while back about how Dan and I got drunk one night and listened to music for hours? Well, we were laughing because he kept referring to his “external hard drive” and since we’re 12, we’re like “ha ha – you said external hard drive,” and it’s become a running joke. I keep asking him when he’s going to let me utilize this mythical “hard drive,” and finally the other night, he let me. Oh no, you pervs, it's an ACTUAL computer disk drive with about a jillion songs on it. So I made a folder with all my choices on it, and Dan let me take the drive home. So I’ve spent this morning loading 215 songs onto my laptop. Dan sent me an email the other day asking if the hard drive was “satisfying my needs,” and so Dan? Yes. Needs satisfied. Heh.

Part of the reason I was downloading music is that I’m making another mix. My friend Jeff turns 30 next week, and so tomorrow night we’re going out. Jeff and I have been friends since 7th grade – we met in math class, so at least I got one good thing out of 7th grade math. And since he was also a music guy, we spent a lot of time together in high school.

We were occasionally partners in our show choir and once we had to gaze into each other’s eyes romantically while someone else sang a solo. Of course we couldn’t just sit there quietly and so we started whispering things to each other like “you’re the scum on my soap dish” or “I love you like I love the little piece of wilted lettuce at the bottom of the fridge.” Needless to say, we got in trouble for laughing during a SERIOUS song. We still sign our emails to each other in that way. And I can’t actually remember the last time I called him “Jeff” when I talk to him. One time in high school (again) we were talking about how we had a hard time pronouncing our names when we were little – I called myself “Ambo” and he called himself “Beffrey Nonnooner.” His last name is rather difficult to pronounce for a little kid and actually nothing at all like Nonnooner. But ever since then, we’ve been Beffrey and Ambo.

I once got a letter from him in college on Valentine’s Day. It was doused in cologne and was the cheesiest love letter ever – supposedly written by Mitch, a guy I had a ginormous crush on. In the letter, “Mitch” was professing his undying love for me and it came complete with occasional words smeared by “tears.” I laughed so much – it was a great Valentine’s gift.

Anyway, now that we’ve conquered our teens and 20s together, we move into our 30s. We’ve been friends for more than half our lives – and I imagine we’ll probably be celebrating many more birthdays together. So tomorrow night I’ll raise my glass to my boy Beffrey – Happy 30th Birthday my little moldy apple core!!

*The picture is us on Halloween -- you can't see his outfit, but he has a sport coat covered in playing cards and there's a dorsal fin on his back -- he's a Card Shark. And I'm well, STREET.*