4 moments in my life that Jared proved he was not just a friend to me, but a brother I never knew that I needed.
Gaming together: Hours upon hours of gaming on the Nintendo 64. Constantly getting better and better to one up each other. This competition spanned 25 years between us. It finally came to a head when we joined a gaming tournament together in front of a Best Buy midnight launch for a game. He tried first and still had the best score after 45 more people had their turns. He won a gaming system... And he liked to remind me of it any time I would think I was a pro gamer. I would always have to agree that I had nothing on him. He knew his games. He knew how to win. But above all, he wanted to include everyone who was there so everyone got their fair share of screen time.
Professional ties: Jared and I went to school together and worked side by side multiple times. There wasn't a problem we had a hard time figuring out together. School breezed by because we understood each other's thought processes. We could diagnose problems and find solutions together faster than our teachers. When we moved on to an SRO building in the DTES we had to create catalogues and teaching materials that we never really understood. But through brainstorming and a lot of Google... We managed it. There was very little we couldn't do together.
Teaching moments: Jared and I did a lot of walking together. Here, there and everywhere. Unfortunately, I wasn't in the best shape. One day, we had walked up to Blockbuster video to go rent some games... After we found the game we wanted, I was in a huge amount of pain. I told him I couldn't walk back, and that I had to take the bus. I sat and I waited for the bus for a solid 20 minutes. It took another 20 minutes for the bus to get me home. And lo and behold, there was Jared at my place talking to Momma. She says "Jared has something to say to you. Go ahead Jared."
Jared looks me in the eye and says: "I want flowers and chocolate as your apology."
I could have killed them both. My face turned bright red and boy did I feel dumb. I never took the bus home without Jared again.
Funny moments: There was never any shortage of hilarious situations with Jared and I. But I want to share the most recent that happened just days before he died. Jared came to stay with me at the place I was in... And he had his puppy with him. The place I was staying also had a puppy, a Pomeranian / husky cross. And anybody who met Yiss knows how big that dog was. He. Was. Massive. We learned a hard lesson that day. Don't let Yiss eat the small dogs food as it's packed with WAY more nutrients. Turns out Yiss ate the whole bowl. And it also turns out it didn't agree with his stomach. Fast forward to 5 am... I awake to the most disgusting amount and smell of puppy poop. Yiss got the squirts something fierce. And Jared being the comedian he always was, suggested it was the work of the dog 1/3 the size of his puppy. So I fetched the most recent poopy bag out of the garbage and dangled it over his head saying "Oh excuse me, this is the work of one behemoth of a dog YOU happened to bring into the house. You clean Behemoths poop now!" This incited riotous laughter from both of us. We both keeled over crying laughing.
I hope you’re still laughing brother,
til we meet again,
R.B.R.G.