Hot Tub Truth Machine.

This is my best friend. No offense to any and all of you that I'd pledged that title to previously, but he played a superior card. 

The Big C card.

I was in the middle of dominating a garage sale at my Mom's house when he called to tell me that he had cancer. Yeah, I know, what a dick.

Right as I was about to milk . 50 cents out of a sweeeeet octogenarian..  I could practically feel those five dimes in my sweaty palm!

You know how hard that is!?

It's like finding a four leaf clover growing out of a baby brontosaurus' head!

Anyways, yeah, so I borrowed money from my Mom and T and I flew out ASAP to see him.

It was of utmost importance.

Also, this was all back in July.

Anyways, y'all ever been to Portland, OR?

Cuz that's where we went, and it was great.

Or was it?

I can't really remember, the whole trip was clouded with emotions and tears and laughing and more tears and then more laughing that produced lots of tears and hugging and then all of a sudden there was a moment of clarity which was accurately captured in the above photo which happened to take place in the middle of the most intense communal bath either of us had ever been in together. 

Then, the next thing I know I am on a plane back to WI and all I have is my memories and thoughts to chew on, which is where I have been stuck at ever since.

Because life moves on.

That is what we talked about in Portland anyways.

I mean, basically you start to die the minute you are born.

That's how life works.

It's nothing personal.

It's perfectly summed up here:

Anyways, so now I am back in NY, he is stillin' PDX (abbreviation for Portland's Airport) and he calls me with news that there is significant shrinkage in his tumors and all the numbers are really low, which is a good thing, and I'm a mixed bag of emotion all of a sudden.

This is truly an emotional roller coaster that we seem to be on.

But I suppose that the same could be said about anything, or any of us.

I mean, nothing really makes us special.

I mean, we make ourselves special or forgettable, it is us that does that to us.

Right?

Like, if Jay-Z fell in a forest and no one was around to give a shit, would he make a sound or sell any merchandise?

So, in closing, I love my friend, and that is all I can do is love him and keep moving forward, laughin' huggin' and cryin'. We all keep growing and moving along and you call each other and visit each other and you think about each other and you just keep each other in each other's hearts.

You just keep hoping for shrinkage.

#SHRINKSTRONG

Tweet it to the heavens.