Ales Rarus

Back in the day, when my wardrobe consisted almost exclusively of tie-dye and I had my hair long and walked around with a peace symbol necklace around my neck (this was, oddly enough, not more than a decade or so ago), I was friends with a kid named Eric Williams. Eric was a year older than me, was a classic rock fan like me, and he was so pale that when he stood in the sunlight, you got kind of sonogram picture of his heart beating through his chest. Seriously. I think we met in gym class during that first week of school when the gym teachers sat everyone down on the bleachers and paced back and forth, sizing up who was going to be a good gym student, who would be kind of a whiny weakling, and who would just generally not buy into the fact that gym was an integral part of their academic studies. Eric and me...we were in that last group. Or so I remember.

Anyway, years passed and as happens, I lost touch with Eric. I dated his sister Katie for a good chunk of my senior year of high school, became friends with her, then became sort of not friends with her, then became really good friends with her, and now have the honor of calling her daughter my niece. It's been kind of a saga is what I'm getting at, here. The last time I saw Eric was at Katie's wedding, and he had grown considerably from this skinny little pale kid into a not so terribly skinny or pale adult (Katie did this, too...round about her twenties she gained the ability to tan...I think the melatonin gene must just be a late bloomer in this family) who can dance like...well, like I will never be able to dance in my life. Anyway, he and I didn't get to chat much, but I was impressed with him nonetheless.

This is all back story to say that Katie e-mailed me today to ask if Eric could link to my blog from his. Of course he can, I said, though apparently our opinions are in stark contrast many times. He, for example, is Catholic. I am not. Which has never really been a problem for me in the past, but it makes me wonder if I will soon find myself arguing a lot. I do hope not. I lost my taste for argument sometime in college, when surrounded by Christians of every shape, size, and fanaticism, I discovered I could not win and just decided to set down the sword.

At any rate, in courtesy, I'm linking to Eric's blog here. It's called Ales Rarus for reasons that he names on his blog. I'll post a link in my sidebar when I have more time. Ciao, Eric!