RIP

One of my best friends passed away this week after losing his battle with cancer. I am at a loss for words, and I start crying over anything and everything. I hope he knows how much I loved him and that he will always be close to my heart.

I recently reactivated my Facebook account (shocker of shockers, I know), and I wanted to post the following to his page. However, apparently there is a 1000 character limit to Wall Posts. I just need to memorialize these words.

Roddy, I hope you are noraebanging your heart out with a stone bowl bibimbap and a Midori sour at your side.

***

"In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night... You--only you--will have stars that can laugh!" - "The Little Prince"

Roddy, you always knew how to make me laugh. You were always there for me through everything. I only hope you knew how much you've meant to me all of these years. I remember all of the times we shared - the 10PM trip in the Rodmobile to Gibney's, your green shirt for the pink v. green tournament (yes, I'm still green with envy), Skee-Ball match-ups...a lot of them, when we freaked out at seeing that guy with the Carlton face shirt at APW (and then you got me a Carlton face shirt for Christmas!!!), picking up Joolie at the bus stop (me: "hey, isn't that Joolie?" and then you drove around the block for us to pick her up) and getting bubble tea, the epic hooky meal at Jean-Georges and all of the shenanigans that followed, last minute road-tripping to DC and making the executive decision to stop off at AC on the way up, the picnic in Washington Square Park that led to said road-tripping, our first night at Izu when we closed that place down after singing "Umbrella" (how many times did we shut it down afterwards? too many to count), how we refused to call it Karaoke Kave/Cave after it changed its name from Izu, going to dim sum...which turned into a 5-destinations-food-stop at dim sum, Baohaus, Doughnut Plant, Quickly, and Sugar Sweet Sunshine, going to BAM to watch "The Way We Were" with Robert Redford's in person interview (and racing NASCAR arcade games and playing Skee-Ball at Chuck E. Cheese's while we waited), how you drew "the flowchart" (with such accuracy and precision), clown-car-ing it in the photobooth on RDO and standing in a Hess gas station parking lot for 2 hours, how you were as excited as I was about New Kids on the Block floor seats at MSG (and how you confirmed that my touching Joey's jacket = yes, I touched Joey), White Castle in the parking lot like fugitives (yes, I know you loved it, and that's why we were both thankful to find I liked their mozz. sticks because that meant I wouldn't pull a face every time we wanted to find food at 2AM...which was often), talking until 4AM about anything and everything (um, yes, you do have work in 4 hours...and didn't I just pull a 16 hour day? "oh well"), countless nights at Izu, Verlaine and WRL (not to mention Bon Chon, Artichoke, Amy Ruth's, Cha-An, etc.)...I'll miss everything.

But most of all, Roddy, I'll miss you. I miss you so much already. I look to the stars, knowing you're smiling down on us.

Love to you and your family.

***

May peace be with you, Roddy.