Reunion Friday Random Ten

My old friend Dobie has had quite the life's journey. He grew up on the South side of Chicago. We met in college in 1981, and lost touch for a while when he joined the Air Force Reserve. As luck would have it, we ended up in a class together when he came back to school, and we resumed our friendship. We roomed together on and off during and after college, and then about 13 years ago, we lost touch again when he moved to Arizona to take a job. About four years ago, I tracked him down. Turns out that he left that job and ended up in Singapore working as an English teacher. About a year ago, he moved to Indonesia, and yesterday came back to Chicago to visit family and friends.

I gave him a call this morning, and it turned out that he was staying with his brother about a ten minute drive from my place. I drove by to pick him up so he could run some errands he needed while we caught up. For one, he needed a converter so he could use his Powerbook, which had a 220v converter. And he also needed gloves-- having been living in tropical countries for over a decade, he hadn't owned a pair of gloves in years.

It was great hanging out with him and catching up with him. Since I'd last seen him, I've been married three times. He nearly got married once. He made a lot of friends overseas, had a lot of great experiences, and I think both of us realized we'd both grown up a lot and both of us had certainly come to realize what a good friendship we had. It was a funny realization, though-- we're a couple of guys who have been friends since we were 18 and 20 years old, and now we're looking around the corner at 50. And looking forward to a lot more years of friendship.

The best news today, though, was when he revealed that he wasn't just here for a visit-- he's back here for good. It's the best Christmas present I could have gotten this year.

1. Tales of Brave Ulysses- Cream
2. Shake Your Money Maker- The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
3. Get Over You- The Undertones
4. Black Dog- Led Zeppelin
5. Drug-Stabbing Time- The Clash
6. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band (Reprise)- The Beatles
7. Let's Dance- Chris Montez
8. Do You Believe In Magic?- The Lovin' Spoonful
9. Rainy Night In Georgia- Brooke Benton
10. After the Gold Rush- Neil Young


Notes:
1. Eric Clapton and the boys rocking the Odyssean legend.
2. From the incredible debut album-- an Elmore James cover.
3. Read recently that Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey works in the business end of the music business.
4. From Zeppelin's fabulous fourth album.
5. December 22 will be the seventh anniversary of Joe Strummer's untimely death. Still miss him greatly.
6. My kids both love the Beatles. Where did I go right?
7. This song is played not once but twice in Animal House.
8. Can't hear this song without singing along.
9. For years I thought this was a Ray Charles song.
10. Neil Young does science fiction.