im writing you from chopper one high above los angeles.
my buddy bob is going to be at my house in about fifteen minutes.
we havent seen each other in 89 years.
he was my best friend from kindegarten through high school.
in kindegarten my mom says they saw me and i was insane and they saw him and he was shy and quiet and they throught we could balance each other out.
i wont say it worked but we grew up together and it was a nice thing.
sometimes my mom will ask if i had a good childhood and i will have to say i had a great childhood and part of it was due to bob and my other friends and their parents and the idylic world the white collar suburbs of chicago were at that time.
i had two pools to choose from on my street.
and a huge christmas tree farm inbetween my house and bobs house.
the forest had a golf range on it, which meant we got as many free golf balls as we wanted because of course many got “lost” in the forest.
because of that im an amazing golfer.
one day chicago great walter payton had his driver stop his jeep so walter could hit a few buckets of balls.
i was inside the arcade playing space invaders.
i begged the dude to let me have a pen so i could get sweetnesses autograph. he said no, leave mr payton alone.
so i ran through the forest to my home and got a pen and ran back. walter however was driving away. somehow he saw me running behind him and had his dude stop.
i handed him a pen and the business card of the driving range and he signed it.
my childhood was so good that that moment wasnt even in the top five moments of growing up.
one of them involved bob and his dad, however. one day bobs dad was driving me and bob to a basketball game. we were in the 3rd grade. the game happened to be the 3rd grade championship.
i was chewing bubble gum.
bobs dad said, you know if you chew gum when you play it will ruin your concentration.
that game i scored 50 points. i didnt miss a shot.
some called it the greatest game a 3rd grader has ever played in illinois.
bob was there, he’ll tell ya.
so he googled me the other day, we exchanged phone numbers. today hes here on business, but hes blowing it off to hang with me.
i was all, what do you want to do.
he was all, i dont care, i just want to meet karisa.
as you wish.