On July 11th, I will turn 32. On July 15th, Jason will turn 32. I will forever be 4 days older than he is.
I've known Jason since I was around 4 or 5 years old. That makes it around 27 years that I've known him. I can't remember when I met him it's been so long. We grew up together. We watched TV together. We scrounged for Playboys together. We recreated together. Saw movies together. We enver went on any dates together, although Jason once tried to set me up on a date when I came over to visit him in Bremerton (I lived in Idaho at the time). It woulda sorta been a double date kind of thing. He andhis wife. Me and the girl they invited over. Only he never told me, and I got a late start from Idaho and more or less missed my date. Ah well, such is life.
Jason's been taking electrician classes lately, but his class is done until this fall, and he and I went to "Goth Coffee" this Wedneday since he no longer had class. (A lot of people without class hang out with me.) We mostly sat with 
staxxy because everyone seemed to know her and stop by to chat with her, so it seemed an ideal spot for Jason to meet the Goth coffee crowd. At once point, I went up to get in line to get some coffee (fancy that, in a coffee shop???). I came back and Stax' comment to me was "Jason really likes you." Jason kind of relayed some stories of growing up with me to Stax while I was away.
But he does. And I like him. We each have our faults, and we have had times when we did not get along as well, or when we didn't keep in contact as much. But when the shit hits the fan, Jason has "been there" for me. I hate using the term "been there" because it usually is used in this fluffy context to indicate that a person said nice things about you and bashed you ex when you didn't like em and blah blah blah. So I wanted to list off a few things that Jason has done for me over the years and some of the qualities that I like in him.
Christmas morning, my brother Matt died in a one car rollover accident on the way to Christmas dinner with the family. Jason came to the funeral, and let me cry on his shoulder at the gravesite. On the Thursday following, he drug me out of my apartment and off to Deja Vu in Lake City to cheer me up. In his words, "What else makes a man as happy as naked breasts?" Matt would've wanted it that way, he told me. He is probably right. It was pretty pathetic there, but we laughed at how pathetic it was and it got me out of my funk somewhat.
I am a smart guy. But I am not really a particularly motivated guy and I definitely lack a lot in social braveness. Although I think Jason is as inherently shy as I am, he manages to do a lot better job of burying that aspect of himself than I do. More than once, Jason has been the instigator behind my coming out of my shell. Everything from prompting me to hold my pie shindig yesterday, to trying to hook me up with the married but promiscuous friend of his girlfriend, to organizing road trips, to retrieving me from the Mercury because a girl I am interested in is at the Vogue.
In any case, I could go on and on. I'm not going to at the moment though. If I ever get stuck for a topic for an entry, perhaps I shall whip out a Jason story from our youth. At least I will unless he pays me to keep quiet about them.
Last Saturday, Jason and I went out. We spent the bulk of our time at the Mercury. He got a little drunk, and bought a lotof drinks for women. Mostof the money came from my pocket. Jason would offer to get me a soda, take a $20, and come back with the soda and drinks for several girls on the way. Went through maybe 60 or 80 bucks that way. And some people wondered why I do that, why I "let" him spend my money that way. Because of our friendship, I don't think of it as "my money." It's not really like its "our money" either. It's just that because we've been a part of each other's lives for so long that we are family. And in the best way possible. So there is no counting.