Da Count - Silver and Gold Friends

"Make new friends,
but keep the old.
One is silver,
the other gold."
- an old campfire song

Me, Steve, Greg, Craig

Several weeks ago I was able to get together with a group of friends from high school in Burlington for what is usually a semi-annual gathering. Taki, Dan, Craig, Greg, Pete, Steve and I (all L.D.H.S - Levack District High School - friends) got together at the Boston Manor one Friday night a few weeks ago. Taki, Craig, Dan, Greg and I are regular attendees of this semi-annual gathering of high school buddies -- and it has often occured when Pete is in town visiting his sister -- but this occasion was special for two other reasons: Steve was also in town and it happened to be Taki's 40th birthday.

Taki on his 40th birthday (You can't see it but he's giving me
the finger - some things never change nomatter how old you get)

We played pool, caught each other up on the things we've been up to in our lives, but mostly we had some drinks and yakked and joked and occasionally remenisced about some funny or goofy thing we remembered about something from the past.

As my buddy Mathew Horbaty Growden would say: "Good times"

A drunken Mark captures Dan, Greg and Craig - kind of the way
everyone looked to me after I downed that last pitcher of draft.

As usual when I get together with these guys, I drank too much, laughed a lot and had a fantastic time. At the end of the evening I was reminded of just how damn lucky I am.

Despite my many drinks, I managed to at least get
one neat candid group shot of everyone

(The photos with this blog post are from that night - the blurry ones are the ones a drunken Mark took on his Palm Treo and the clear ones are ones that Pete took -- ironically, the two photographers among us, Steve and Greg, didn't have their usual sidekick cameras with them)

Steve wondering when I'm going to put down the camera phone and just drink nice.
Pete checking out the cool, non-blurry pictures he's been taking.

I'm very fortunate to not only to have been blessed with a large group of friends, and that I continue to regularly acquire new ones, but I've also been lucky enough to have maintained many friendships over the years.

I honestly believe that I'm rich behind my wildest dreams in the friendships I have invested in. They say real estate is the best investment, but I'd argue that friendship beats that hands down.

Pete, me, Steve

No, I'm not able to stay in touch with nor contact all of my friends regularly, even those who are among the dearest, but cool social networking apps like Blogger, Facebook and MySpace have allowed me not only to make new friends and find links and common bonds with others from all over the world, but also to get back in touch with friends I might not have seen for decades.

I'm lucky, and rich indeed. This week I'm counting that special investment in friendship. It's worth way more than every single penny of time you put into it.

"Across the land
Across the sea;
Friends forever
We will always be."