My friend is lucky, he shares his birthday with Albert Einstein and Michael Caine plus it’s the infamous math constant for Pi.
Nelson remains on paternity leave/vacation; it’s a vacation because he’s enjoying the time with his four children, so he can do something special on his birthday. Drop him a call today, he told me he won’t be busy again until next week.
What else can I tell you about him, he deserves a decent blurb since I totally forgot his birthday last year. I’ll give him the title of being the longest post-college friend I’ve had. Huh? Well, all friends I made before Nelson were when I was a student (high school and during Marquette). When I met him, I had already graduated, thus the label. Anyway, Nelson was a friend of Jose’s through an organization at school; I knew they didn’t go to high school together and they were in different degree programs. Around the time we were introduced, I was underemployed at the newspaper and when I had some free time, I would hang out at Jose’s apartment to watch his vast collection of videotaped movies and comedy specials. One evening, Nelson dropped by Jose’s place to talk. Sadly, we didn’t hit it off. There wasn’t hatred, just independent questioning of Jose about “what’s up with that jerk?” I recall my question was, “who’s the super-hyper guy?” because Nelson is rather energetic. His of me was, “who crapped in his lunchbox?” I think I was having a rough day job hunting, making me the center of gloom in the room.
Nelson was the more forgiving type, he gave me another chance and we became friends during the Summer of 1991. He was also persistent in keeping contact after I left for Central IL. I wouldn’t have blown him off, he probably would’ve been unfairly forgotten through the enemy of all relationships…complacency. Now I’m a much better friend thanks to my cell phone, with all the rollover minutes Somara and I have, it’s no sweat to drop him a line every weekend.
Next goal? Get that guy to come to Austin for a visit!