Celebrating a Life Gone Too Soon

So Friday night was a blast. Seeing people I hadn't seen in 10-15 years, celebrating a life gone way, way too soon, but really enjoying each other's company. It had been a tough week for my buddy Hector. Sunday his younger sister Mari was hospitalized, things got complicated fast, and she never made it out. I couldn't believe it when Priscilla texted me the news around 7:35 on monday morning as i drove to work. Suffice it to say, it was a really emotional week for Hector, Paul and the rest of his very tight knit family and by Friday night Hector and Paul really needed to get away so I did what I could to help. All his cousins were in town of course for the funeral this last weekend and what started off as me, Hector and Deedra over at Politics turned into a huge reunion of friends and family. Paul, Alexis, Jacob, Kristal and everyone's significant other. Jeez, I remember Krystal and Jacob when they were up to my knees and now Jacob's been married seven years and Krystal is pregnant with like her 3rd kid. Where did the years go?..

If you want to have an idea of how much fun we had at Politics celebrating Mari's life take this into consideration: my bar tab was upwards of $140 and Hector's was around $190. Yeah, thats a lot of Jenga and shots. Good times with great friends. And from Politics just about the entire group (minus pregnant Kristal) came to my house. All I know is Paul had a big bottle of Vodka (pictured above), I of course had beer in the fridge, and before I knew it Alexis had her flash drive plugged into my stereo system and I have a fuzzy memory of all of us jamming out to Lords of Acid and Nine Inch Nails. Jacob's wife Stephanie started setting up shots and somewhere around 4 am I went to my room and just crashed. I woke up ~~in the morning~~ at noon, walked into my living room, found Hector on one couch, Deedra on the other, and my living room furniture rearranged (had we made room for a dance floor or something?). "Everyone left around 8 this morning" they told me. Wow. What a great night.

It was fun trading stories about Mari. There were a few tears, but they were mixed in with a whole lot of smiles and laughs, and I'm really glad I got to be a part of it. I've lost way too many close, close people in my life from childhood friends to the closest of family, and while i still have a major issue going to funerals, I've found the best way to get through it all is to celebrate the life, and that's exactly what we did. We'll all miss you Mari.

Celebrating a Life Gone Too Soon