it was super nice.

as always a lot of their kids were there, which is beautiful.

the kids are mostly in high school now, a few are younger, one is in college

but together they are their own adorable mini extended family.

for the most part the adults were outside in the cold around the fire pit while the kids were inside playing video games and yapping it up

they came outside when they got hungry.

while food was arranged, i asked a group of them if they were watching Euphoria

they lit UP, i asked some other questions and they were soooo into it.

none of the parents, my friends, had seen any of the show, they said they were scared.

i asked them which boys they thought were the hottest. i guessed. i was wrong.

then they all agreed the super soft spoken drug dealer was their fave

not the pretty boy.

i thought that was unusual and honorable.

they didnt like the pretty boy because he was a druggie who cheated on zendaya.

wow. good for these kids!

my friends called me the Teen Whisperer and suggested i do a podcast called

Tony Talks to Teens.

i said, do teens wanna be called teens? and also, isnt that creepy if a guy like me had a show like that?

so they said Tony Talks With People.

perhaps they are not aware I HAVE A PODCAST WHERE I DO THAT

but they were complimenting me, so thank you.

but for me the best part was when i revealed i didnt know any of the kids’ names

the kids were shocked, insulted, not sure if i was kidding.

they grilled me hard. it was so funny.

but i kept saying, no of course i dont know your name. i barely know which ones of you belong to my friends.

it was shocking to them.

hilarious to me a bit.

and the best part of the night.

didnt start off that way

ended up that way

all because of a good, long, super great conversation

with a long long friend.

we rarely get to have heart to hearts

but this was def that

and now i must sleep

the cats woke me up early today so i had to get up and put Michael into Laundry Room time out

it’s the only humane way i know to express my displeasure with the scratching of the door

sure theyre hungry, but either learn to use Door Dash or wait until I wake

i do wake every day. just wait. the food will be delivered.

in a way it’s actually good when they wake me early because that stops me from sleeping until 2pm.

but dont tell them this.

as soon as i wake i walk outside, look at the sun, inspect the parking in the street, judge people who park, and talk to the security across the street if theyre around.

today they were around.

it was a nice talk.

“rooting for the rams, tony?”

ah hellllll naw.

my neighbor who’s a nurse arrived while i was out there in my robe talking to the guards.

turned out she saved her BFs life by nagging him into getting vaxxed. months later he got covid but didnt die. he’s not grateful to her.

no one ever is.

last night i received a text message. a good friend wondered if i would do some freelancing for her company. we chatted for 45 minutes on the phone.

it was delightful.

you dont need millions of people to think you’re rad.

but it’s really nice when the ones who know you the best respect you enough to put their own reputation at work at risk to ask you to join forces.

and this job, as big or little as it may be or end up being, is right in my wheelhouse.

praise God.

maybe i was demotivated bc my body was all, fuck this shit im hibernating until Spring

everyone brought their lookalikes to os and kims backyard.

i got there at 4 and didnt leave till 1.

justin ordered three of the largest pizzas LA makes.

so many of our friends were there which was funny because os and kim were out of town. only two used the pool even though we all had swim suits

i think we just wanted to say hi hi hi hi to each other and chat because we hadnt seen each other in literal years.

i tried to be funny and start a very dark game

because it was so odd that every single child that has come from our friends is just cooler and smarter and just like their parents

so i said, ok, now lets vote on who is the Worst kid our friends have made.

lots of laughter

i drank three beers.

didnt pee once

carolyn and ben and A’magine and especially ken layne who talked to me for so long

im not a phone talker anymore but i had such a hard morning that i got on the horn and yapped

i needed, most of all, to know that i was not alone in this galaxy

which is funny because Ken is a UFO expert.

and during our epic convo he asked me if i had ever seen an alien

i had to admit that i had not, but i told him about an outer body experience i had

which he says counts but he was being generous.

sometimes i think the aliens arent going to be the space creatures we imagine

but people who vote by the millions for dudes who dont deserve their support

like how are so many poor people voting for republicans who dont give them covid checks?

are the poor aliens?

and you know, maybe the dems should just concede abortion if thats the only thing thats keeping people from voting for them

i know they got mad at obama for helping poor people have access to health care, but at this point why not try some tom foolery with abortion rights, federilly, and say its all states rights and if Arizona wants to say you cant have abortion there then we all chip in to fly women from AZ to CA to let them do with their bodies as they wish.

meanwhile after a while millions of people just have no more excuse to support a party that the klan supports.

are the klan aliens too?

wouldnt that be spectacular if they were?

it would make way better sense.

cuz right now why would a white guy *hate* black people? we are the victims. shouldnt it be the other way around? blacks worked free for 400 years, why hate us?

but if racists are aliens because in a galaxy far far away they got their ass beat by a planet of black folks who were mean to them, then yes i could understand. but this shit right here is confounding.

ken and i talk about once a year because hes not a phone talker much neither, same as ben

we’re just dudes who do our own thing and every blue moon

which today was

we’ll text first and say can i call you

and the other guy will say is everything ok?

and we’ll say, in this economy? ha!

and then we’ll blab for a couple hours and be grateful of long friendships built in mutual admiration and it would have been a great podcast but fuckit some things are just right the way they are.

it was sweet