mychai's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A diary about a blog written by a friend from Picayune now living in Chicago Ok. Ok. Before I forget, since I have been promising the oldest friend I've ever had for a week now that I would give him linkages, I will give my boy J.R. some linkages. But first... by Jon-Paul J.R. grew up just about a three minute walk from the house where I grew up. I met him when I was obviously very young, maybe around the age of three or four. I have no clue what our first meeting was like, but I can tell you one thing -- I never thought we'd still be friends well over twenty years later. J.R.'s folks and my folks had vastly differing parenting styles. His parents -- how can I say this without offending anyone? -- exercised such a highly specialized level of care and concern that they made a lot of extra steps to make sure he didn't get hurt. My folks, in contrast, gave me BB guns and knives as gifts, and I had my very own go-cart to buzz around the neighborhood at 20 mph merely inches above the asphalt. Neither parenting style, I think, was the better or worse one. I think we both had similar intellectual interests and abilities. His parents stressed him to focus his abilities and my parents... didn't. Therefore, he seemed to strive to make straight-A's in every one of his classes. I did... for one semester. Then I thought, "Eh. I can do it. I've proved I can do it. On to something new." Therefore, I made a lot of Bs and Cs in school. It always made me feel kind of embarrassed when I would come home with terrible grades next to his high ones, but I was busy learning all of the things that they never teach you in school. In hindsight, we had that whole Kevin Arnold and Paul Pfeiffer thing going on. You know... "The Wonder Years." And just like Paul, J.R. was pretty much allergic to his own snot. Looking back through the years, J.R. and I have led drastically different lives despite the fact that we grew up so closely together, yet somehow we have remained pretty great friends. I was in his wedding. He will most likely be in mine one day -- if, in fact, that day comes. He has a wife who is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. I mean... Wowza! If you would like to learn more about this guy who is so similar -- yet so different -- than the JP, go read his blog. He has a few regular sections -- his Talkback Topics, Schmoes of the Day, and Five Daily Facts -- that I suspect will eventually drop from the scene after he has written for more than three years like some of us. Even though we are quite different, we also have extremely similar views on life in Picayune. He wrote an exceptional piece about Picayune in this entry that sums up everything I've been trying to say. He is a little bit more bitter about Picayune than I am -- if you can imagine. So, be a bit forwarned. But not too forwarned. I've never heard this man say a single swear word in the twenty years I've known him. And how does that contrast with me? I just took the purity test. I am only 61.89% pure in a world where 69.3% pure is average. Where do you measure? Email me! I thought working on the dock at my dad's farm was going to be an all-day affair. I ended up laying down twenty boards to complete the dock in about 2-1/2 to 3 hours. I'm glad it did go quickly, though, because I ended up unknowingly getting quite a sunburn. Since it didn't take me long at all to put it up, and since everyone at my dad's went to work on Tuesday, I didn't get any pictures taken. But don't worry. We are having a big cook-out on Friday night, so many pictures will come from that. I went to see "X-Men 2" on Tuesday night with the same crew of misfits I have get-togethers with on Wednesday nights. It would have been really good had I seen the first "X-Men" movie and had any inkling as to the background story. When we all got back together last night, we watched "The Transporter," an action flick. I saw it once before when I was visiting Best Friend Lisa last month. And I have one comment about it. It's like a porno. Except it has fighting in the scenes where pornos have sex. Complete with the crappy background music and everything. At least, that's how I imagine pornos to be like. I've never really seen one. I've been unhappy pretty much since arriving in Picayune, yet I saw one thing yesterday that will probably make it all worth while. My beautiful niece walked for the very first time. How precious is that?! And what makes it better is that she made her first steps walking to me! I held up a toy, called her name, and my sister let her go. Her eyes never left the toy, and it was like she glided right on over. I have got to learn how to do this trick in a bar. And starting today, I think my sister started swearing the name of those who invented walking. My dear sis has about as much patience as she does height. This will be fun to watch. Ok. That's enough from me for one night. I hope you all have good Thursdays. Remember... Yer ol' pal JP loves ya! 11:55 p.m. - Wed., May 7, 2003 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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