Friendship!

 I'd like to devote this blog to my daughters... I want to talk about my views on friendship so they oneday can look back and know what there dad valued. So many of my cancer friends that I've talked to have mentioned that when they were diagnosed with cancer that they had some of there good friends pull away from them... I thought about this for along time and I realized I didn't have one friend of mine pull away! For this I feel lucky! In fact after my diagnosis I kinda reaquainted with alot of my old buddies as the phone calls poured in one after another... Also the newer group of friends that Jen and I have had the honor to hang with since moving to London 10 yrs ago... This group stepped up huge for us after I was diagnosed providing love,support,food, and advice. Of course my work buddies who gave me such generous gifts after I was diagnosed and they still call to check up on me all the time. I feel blessed and thank all of our friends for all your help and support.

I can honestly say that in 38 yrs of living I don't know if there would be more 2 people in my life that I've met that I don't like... There are some people that I don't love to be around alot but I wouldn't say I don't like them. I guess I was given the gift of patience towards my fellow humans. People really have a hard time pissing me off! I remember my dad telling me when I was young that there is 2 sides to every story and for some reason that always stuck for me. I tried not to judge people because of this. To me this is so true sometimes we all act out were not always the best friend. We all have are own fears or skeletons in our closets. Each and everyone of us has hurt are good friends oneway or another... I've never taken being hurt by my friends to personally because they are good people and I believed they never meant to hurt me. I have friends who I don't talk to for over 6months at a time, but when we speak It's like we hung out yesterday we laugh we share stories ask about each others families. I can't tell you how much that means to me to feel no guilt even know it's been tooooo loonngg since we talked. I often think of my gradeschool friends some of who I still speak with today... Of course there's the highschool buddies next and when I think back I find myself laughing my ass off because I had so much fun with all of you guys. God did we do some crazy fun shit back in those days... I remember trying to steal on of those huge party tents out of a park in Belle River at 3am one morning because we had this great idea that we would bring it to grand bend and set it up on the beach... It was a great idea until the OPP showed up. I remember my buddy Claudio falling out of the minivan we were in while it was moving and then we preceeded to run him over after he fell out. He was fine other then a nasty bruise on his leg. I remember fooling a bunch of american girls into believing I was Eric Lindros and then going back to there parents house to sign autographs after I didn't want anything to do with that one but my buddies talked me into it. I remember my buddy Roy made the best Ice tea ever and I still can't duplicate it! I remember a bunch of drunk guys sitting at a campfire crying and telling each other how much we loved each other... These are the kinda things that good friendships bring and there's alot more I just don't type fast enough. Then you move into your adult life and you have your adult friends neighbours,work friends, and all kinds of people you meet. One of my favourites is 4 of us from work went to a cottage for a weekend and we all stripped down and did naked cliff diving, I couldn't stop laughing the whole day... It was kind of a brokeback weekend as one of are wives mentioned. Friends come and sometimes we drift apart for many reasons this is natural are lives get busy... Don't be discouraged because no one can take away the good times so have lots of them. Your true friends are just a phone call away even if it's been over a year... With all these social networking sites it's becoming easier to stay in touch. I was lucky I have alot of friends who have giving me a lifelong worth of memories.

I want to thank everyone for all the great comments on my last blog, Jolaine at Matt glad you guys are here for me. Mom I do hate this fucking cancer too! Bryan and Brenda couldn't do it with out you. Erin I never thought I see someone request more blogging from me on facebook but you proved me wrong so here you go. Jen you and Mark do so much just by helping out on fridays and the lasagna and visits. Jewel ditto back at you girl. Colleen and Chico it's always great to hear what you're up to. Are you guys coming home from florida soon?