My Crazy Friend Steve

My life-long best friend is named Steven. Today he turned 40.

My earliest memory of Steven is going to his 5th birthday party. His dad was always something of a technophile, so he always had gadgets and gizmos around. At the birthday party we played Pong. The original Pong. It was awesome!!!

When I was eight, one of those wonderful things that only happens once in a lifetime happened. We moved to our new house...5 houses down from Steven! We had lots of fun times together living that close. When we were 12, his parents divorced and he moved with him mother into town, but we still saw each other all the time.

So, I thought I would just share a few thoughts, memories, and anecdotes about my best friend.

• Steven once tried to throw his watch across our pond. I don't remember how we got to the point where we were arguing about whether or not he could do it...but somehow we arrived there. It didn't make it.
  
• Steven and I were each other's best man in our weddings.
• Steven's dad had a TRS-80 Model I computer. We spent HOURS programming and playing on it. I probably have Steven to thank for my job I have right now. Thanks, Steven.
  
• Steven is possibly the smartest person I have ever met. He's an orthopaedic surgeon now, by the way. Most people in school didn't get him. He was just too smart for them.
• When we were about 9 Steven got glasses. That day he came over to my house and lost them.
• We both liked comic books, ninjas, and computers as kids. Not necessarily in that order.
• Steven failed band in 6th grade. He played the tuba...just not very well.
  
• Steven is very good at chess. I could hardly ever beat him...except the one time we played in a tournament!
  
• He drove a blue station wagon as his first car that had a bumper sticker that said, "If my car was a horse, I'd have to shoot it."
• He reminds me a little of Steve Martin...but funnier.
• He had a go-cart as a kid. One time he cranked it and it got away from him and ran into his neighbor's house: Mrs. Fuller. Mrs. Fuller was German and she came out and yelled at him that he had "hit her house with his go-thing!"nin her German accent.
  
• He's 6' 5" tall. Because of growing up with him, unless you're taller than that, you don't seem tall to me.
• Once, on a Science Club trip, we were staying at some condos in Houston. One of the things that we could do while hanging out at the condos during the day was check out bicycles, big over-size tricycles, and tandem bicycles. Steven got on one of the big bicycles...it was an old school Pee-Wee Herman style. I was standing down by the river that the condos were built near, and I saw Steven come out between a couple of buildings heading down the hill. About half way down, his feet slipped off the pedals and he couldn't stop. As I watched he hit the top of the retaining wall that was at the edge of the river, flew over the handlebars and disappeared into the river. Three seconds later he popped up saying, "I'm okay!" The river was very low and there was just soft dirt below the retaining wall, no water. This paragraph just doesn't do it justice...it is still the funniest thing I have ever seen.
  
• When, as a teenager, I would start to do something stupid, he would always say, "For the record, I am not condoning or encouraging this..."
• When I accidentally snitched on one of my other good friends in high school, I was pretty much ostracized by my entire class until everyone found out it was an accident. Steven was the only person that stuck by me the entire time.

Happy Birthday, Steven!

(P.S. In college I was in a band. After practice we would often sitting around shooting the breeze, and inevitably I would end up telling some story about me and Steven. My friends from the band still refer to them as my "crazy friend Steve" stories...hence the name of this post.)