Happy Birthday To People I Love

November is a prodigious month, apparently. There are three birthdays to celebrate, for three people who are near and dear to me for different reasons. Let me count the ways...

Aqua Boogie

First is our teammate (whom hasn't yet posted but I promise she is spectacular) whom I love and I am in love with. Yes, I said it. Aqua Boogie, also known by another name which I will let her reveal at her discretion, has been a close friend of mine since we attended Howard University together, and for reasons I can only figure involve fate, have shared many similar life experiences concurrently. Her storyline reads almost the same way as Mom & Pop Story, and her endeavors are remarkably similar to what I've done and currently do. I had a vivid dream about her several years ago in which we were both standing backstage in a theater participating in a particular show... when I noticed her, I began to babble profusely about how much I loved and cared for her. Suddenly she shushed me with a finger to my lip and grabbing one of my hands. She looked me straight in the eye and whispered, "Words are an overkill..." at which point I woke up. I've been captivated ever since. AB lives in New Orleans (and was displaced by Katrina, which I hope she'll write about at some point) and works as a graphic artist and PA for live events and festivals. Maybe somehow I can manage to get her up here to work on some film and TV gigs (if anyone's curious about her work, I'm all for referring), but in the meantime she stays busy doing her thing there and I'm up here doing my thing... so we're good friends. You never know what life will bring except another day if you're there to receive it, but for the time being, I Dream of Boogie >;)

Macedonia

Next up is my best friend, teammate and spiritual twin brother, Macedonia. The two of us go back to Wappingers Falls, where in a spot of quick-thinking he saved me from being run over by a pair of weightful bike-riding twins (mutual friends as it turned out, I suppose I'll have to tell that story in another post.) Macedonia and I collaborated on audio cassette collages in a band called Cut-Up City and attended high school together as Big/Little Brother in the Big Brother/Big Sister mentoring program. Somehow we managed to think alike on many occasions; once I decided to wear a trenchcoat and fedora to school... I rode the bus to school that morning and when we got to his stop, he hopped on the bus, wearing the same trenchcoat and fedora (right down to the color). We looked at each other and said, "Wanna wear 'em all day? Okay." Needless to say, on many occasions we bugged many people out with similar feats of coincidence; particularly a girl that, as fate/coincidence would have it, we were both in love with. That is a long and interesting story in itself, but not one I need to tell here. All I have to say right now is Happy Birthday, lil' brotha...

Joseph Jr.

And naturally I gotta say Happy Birthday to my hero, my big brother Joe. Joseph has been an inspiration to me as an adult, I idolize him as a man and a father figure (he's twelve years older than me.) Joseph's own life story could inspire many books and movies of their own, to which we hope to one day be movie-making partners (hey, the Coens, the Wachowskis, the Weinsteins, you know it'll happen). Joe is currently training to be a top personal trainer among other things (when he was in the Air Force, he set a base weightlifting record and subsequently competed in bodybuilding contests) and is a member of a federal tactical force unit. But before you jump to any conclusions, let me tell you that he is absolutely no one's fool. For everything I am, Joseph is (that x 10). Don't mess with him, just wish him a Happy Birthday...

I love these people. They inform and inspire me yesterday, today and tomorrow, and perhaps in some token way I do the same for them. There's not enough I can say about them, so I'll just say "Thank you, and have a Happy Birthday" >;)

Comments

Jason Smith said…
Big Brother/Big Sister mentoring program? I don't remember that...

Granted, you were and always will be a big brother to me regardless, I just don't remember such a program even existing at RCK. all other details are dead-on, though. particularly the fedora and trenchcoat story (hee hee hee, totally forgot about that...)
Chyll Will said…
They did have it; it was something that was assigned to freshmen. I had one as a freshman, but I only met him twice and just went about my business. Somehow we ended up being assigned together without them realizing we already were close friends, so we didn't actually participate in the program (we didn't need to >;)

I guess the program was more low-key than I thought...