Hello all!  This is Jimi, Keith’s friend from 1st grade to now.  Keith is out of the office today, so I thought I’d share some things to help you all along your day.  FYI, I may use terms that may seem slightly disrespectful, but after putting up with Keith for roughly 35 years, I think I have built some credit!

So I have been in the Chicago area for a month now.  Great weather comparatively, but still humid.  My golf clubs have been in corporate storage, and I get them tomorrow.  You have no idea how much this means to me!  I also believe it has a direct correlation to my singleness.  I moved up here for a job.  I am hoping that the move will help me create ambition, which I have lacked for a long, long time.  I’m pretty content in hanging out with my friends, playing golf and poker, and cheering for my favorite sports teams (Rangers, Stars, Mavs and Redskins).  What I have found so far is that most cannot believe I moved FROM TX TO ILLINOIS.  I also, without prompting, get to hear about taxes and corruption everyday!  I’m about as politically-minded as a 3-toed sloth.  I’m not some whine-bag, freedom-hating Democrat like Keith!!! (see how I said I’m not one way, then immediately follow with a completely contradictory statement that seems to prove otherwise?  That’s why it’s funny!)  Little things are starting to be noticed here.  You can buy liquor at CVS, and on Sundays too!  Perfect for those looking to hastily forget all they just heard in church!  There are taxes on everything here, even normal groceries.  I believe it is 7% in my county.  If you are going to the city, go the old-school route of printing off MapQuest directions.  GPS does not work in the city, especially when you get on Lower Wacker (where they filmed the scene in The Fugitive when HF washes the window of his friend’s BMW that turns out to be the mastermind of the crime that ends up with a dead wife.  Sorry, spoiler alert?).  Bars in the River North area are really friendly when the weather is like this.  Lake Michigan looks like an ocean.  I have seen more Ferrari and Lambourgini douchers in one weekend to serve me for the rest of my life.  The suburbs are just like the ones in DFW, except for all the corn and beans growing.  I’m living in Naperville, and I may be the only single person out of college in the whole city.  But enough about me.  If you want to know more, find the posting from about a month ago with a picture of me in 9th grade.

As a lot of you have read, a group of us get together each Spring to evaluate and determine a recipient of a scholarship in memory of our beloved friend Micah Lindstrom.  Today would have been Micah’s 40th birthday.  To think he would be 40 today, it really does create an introspective mindset.  If you have read anything about him, you know he was quite child-like.  By no means to I mean immature, as he was one of the most logical thinkers I can remember meeting. We have been meeting like that for 13 years.  I would have expected Micah to remain simplistic, but I really like to think he would have brought a gaggle of kids into this world.  John and Tim, two others on our committee, have combined to produce 8 children.  I understand to “be fruitful and multiply”, but this is overkill!  Oh, but to see Micah with 5+ kids right now, as annoying as hearing about them constantly would be, I would give up my horrible impressions and flat-falling jokes!  Micah was incredibly fit, but he falls into a category of Chris Farley, John Candy and John Belushi to me—his time here was much too short!  But, the fruit they all bore in their respective ways—priceless!  I will quote Banksy, the noted graffiti artist.  He said of death: “They say you die twice—one time when you stop breathing, and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.”

Keith talks about his dad.  I knew Keith’s dad.  Knowing Walter and Kim, Keith’s parents, was weird for me.  I never knew Walter to be anything but old.  Look at me, calling him “Walter”.  They were always Mr. and Mrs. Geeding.  My apologies.  But, my gosh, how was a 6 year old supposed to react to his first interracial couple???  There are many adjectives I can use to describe each.  He was old, stern, outspoken, hard-working, and resolute.  She was Vietnamese, short, soft-spoken, hands-on, and giving.  Together, they were loving!  Keith still speaks of them, so they haven’t gone thru the second death.  And, I know they never will while Keith is around.

Isn’t it funny how Keith takes a day off, and there are some of you who, for a however-brief moment, felt sad.  For some, it’s to look for his grammar errors (and there are many).  Some like the links he posts to satisfy their needs for entertainment without the work to do it.  And others genuinely see parts of their own lives lived out in the written word from Keith’s family and life.

That last one, do you see the treasure of life in that?  There is truth to everyone in that.  Some of you who read this are rolling deep in Jesus.  You guys get to see someone who has genuinely struggled openly about how you marry a love of Christ with the suburban lifestyle.  As someone who seeks a truth about Jesus that doesn’t come by way of the pseudo-hipster, perfectly-coiffed and bearded, ultra pretty 20-something that has never actually know what boredom or struggle is—I strongly admire Keith in his search.  Some of you are merely looking others that share in the same BS of life that we all feel sets us out in a weird way!  Whether you are a strong Christian (and I still don’t know what that means) or firm in your Humanistic modalities, you can find bits and pieces of your own life in Keith’s milieu.

Also, you should know that Keith sent me a housewarming gift.  It is a plastic fishbowl of 144 condoms.  Feel free to process that!

And now, the links:

www.divot.com—a daily, one-item golf deal
www.dealadaygolf.com—updated with a new deal each day, and you can still participate in past deals
www.woot.com—again, a great site for daily deals
deals.kinja.com—you know the drill

Random thoughts:

I have eaten at Chipotle for every lunch and dinner over the past 2 weeks.  I get the bowl with rice (don’t care which), mixed beans, chicken, hot salsa, a little corn, cheese and lettuce.  It has yet to be delicious!

There is a channel I have found call LAFF, and it shows four episodes of Night Court daily.  7-8 and 10-11pm.  The first 5 seasons were really good, and then it became slapstick till the end.  Why do shows have to derail?  Can they just not either be awesome or just go away?   Am I the only one who sees this???

Markie Post (who looked her Markie Post-est at that time) was insanely hot on that show!  INSANELY HOT!  For that reason alone should make people realize how much better Night Court was than Cheers.  Cheers was really funny, no doubt.  But Night Court is for people that truly appreciate the mullet on a woman done right!