January 18, 2002
Back in high school I was lucky enough to fall in with a great group of friends.
Anthony, Kieran, Scott and I spent countless hours at Dunkin’ Donuts, Denny’s, Point Pleasant, and various living rooms (though rarely Anthony’s, due to his dog’s almost maniacal hatred of me). They’re what I think of when I think back to those days: good, smart people, great conversations, and tons of laughs. After high school Kieran went to college in western Pennsylvania, then headed down south for graduate school, a teaching position, and marriage; Anthony got married soon after high school and moved to Atlanta; Scott stayed in central New Jersey; I ended up in Seattle, then back here in Jersey.
Though I had seen each of them occasionally over the last ten years, it takes something either very good or very bad to unite the entire group, and unfortunately this time it was the latter. Earlier this week Anthony’s mother, a fine woman, passed away peacefully after a long illness, which brought us all together in New Jersey for the first time in ten years. On Wednesday we went out for a long, enjoyable dinner in Freehold, where we talked about our lives, faith, family, September 11, pork roll, and, of course, the familiar litany of my embarrassing school days (the bowling fall, the lunchroom fall, the reckless driving ticket…they’ll be talking about those at our 50-year reunion). It was a wonderful, too-rare, experience.
The reason I'm posting this is because without Anthony, there would be no Illuminated Donkey. There might be some kind of blog, but Anthony was the man who originally gave me the official Illuminated Donkey that has served me so well over the years. Thank you, Sir.
Anthony, Kieran, Scott and I spent countless hours at Dunkin’ Donuts, Denny’s, Point Pleasant, and various living rooms (though rarely Anthony’s, due to his dog’s almost maniacal hatred of me). They’re what I think of when I think back to those days: good, smart people, great conversations, and tons of laughs. After high school Kieran went to college in western Pennsylvania, then headed down south for graduate school, a teaching position, and marriage; Anthony got married soon after high school and moved to Atlanta; Scott stayed in central New Jersey; I ended up in Seattle, then back here in Jersey.
Though I had seen each of them occasionally over the last ten years, it takes something either very good or very bad to unite the entire group, and unfortunately this time it was the latter. Earlier this week Anthony’s mother, a fine woman, passed away peacefully after a long illness, which brought us all together in New Jersey for the first time in ten years. On Wednesday we went out for a long, enjoyable dinner in Freehold, where we talked about our lives, faith, family, September 11, pork roll, and, of course, the familiar litany of my embarrassing school days (the bowling fall, the lunchroom fall, the reckless driving ticket…they’ll be talking about those at our 50-year reunion). It was a wonderful, too-rare, experience.
The reason I'm posting this is because without Anthony, there would be no Illuminated Donkey. There might be some kind of blog, but Anthony was the man who originally gave me the official Illuminated Donkey that has served me so well over the years. Thank you, Sir.
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