It's been a while

I haven't posted in a while because I felt guilty about not finishing my letter to Sara. I finished it today and decided to include it here. It was good to see old friends and tell funny stories about Kris. I will never forgive myself for not speaking at his funeral. Here is the letter I wrote.

I met Kris Andrews my junior year at Georgia. I had taken a job with Food Services at Bolton Dining Hall and my job was dishwasher. It is possible I met Kris before this time because we had mutual friends at Sequoyah (his high school) and his step-brother Adam and my brother played soccer together for several years, but if so I don’t remember. Anyway, we got along pretty well and it turned out that we lived just down the hall from one another at College Place Apartments. I remember that we used to play this game when we were washing dishes as the trays came down the conveyor belt. We would take the dishes off the line and dump the food on the other guy’s hands and he had to guess what specific food was being dumped. It helped pass the time as the mostly minority staff played endless loops of Clarence Carter tapes. We didn’t last long and I think we eventually just stopped going, but an enduring friendship began.

I remember we hung out a lot at College Place. I think we were some of the only people in the country to watch Bay Watch Nights (an X-Files rip off with David Hasselhoff investigating strange goings on). We eventually decided to get an apartment at River Mill near the stadium for our Senior year where he would soon meet Sara when she brought a friend’s dog into our apartment. Kris was not pleased, but it all worked out. This was a hard time for me in some ways because I was coming to the end of a long relationship that just didn’t want to die. Kris helped me through it and when the leech was finally gone he also helped cover her side of the rent until we eventually got new roomies. He didn’t have to do that and I will never forget it.
It was one of the many ways he showed his true colors when it came to friendship.
Another way was taking out all my CD covers and stapling them to the wall with clever speech or thought bubbles attached that questioned my masculinity. You haven’t lived until an early 80’s picture of Dan Seals is talking dirty to you. There were numerous good times in this apartment. Kris started the Kappa Mu Lamdas (K for Kris, M for Mike, and L for Lawsons) while on a pottery date with Sara. We all attended most of the football games that year together including the Florida game, the Tennessee game and the Outback Bowl in Tampa. The maintenance man for the complex lived above us and he would come down every once in a while for a beer. I remember Kris and Dave and Drew all on the porch one time playing guitar, that was cool. Clint came over a good bit after Kris and Joel started up with the business fraternity.
One funny time ended up with Joel getting a MIP ticket(Minor in Possession). We had a few and I decided with Kris’s encouragement to wear my boots downtown. We didn’t go downtown much unless it was for coffee or a concert so the evening was already exceptional. My boots wouldn’t fit under my jeans leg so we decided to cut my jeans up the side and then staple them together after my boots were on. I looked ridiculous and that is probably what attracted the attention of the bike cops in the parking garage. They saw us and then saw Joel trying to throw away an empty beer bottle and decided to investigate. Joel got the ticket while I tried to argue probable cause with the cops. We ended up at Waffle House trying to convince Joel that he wouldn’t be disowned by his parents.
I met my wife and son while living there and that brings up another funny story. At some point after I started dating Nicole, Zach contracted lice at day care. I don’t think I have ever seen Sara so freaked out. She had long hair and she seemed convinced that there were already nits crawling through it.
Kris loved music and helped drag me out of my shell by making me go to strange shows with him. We saw Korn in Athens and moshed with a bunch of 14 year olds (Zach thinks that is a cool story). We saw GWAR in Atlanta and moshed with a bunch of weight lifting skin heads. We went to the Masquerade several times for their bubble nights. We saw Buddy Guy in Atlanta with Joel and almost got in a fight. We went to the last concert held at the Omni together, it was my first time seeing Metallica and probably his 50th time.
Kris loved to argue and if you had an opinion about most anything then you had better be ready to back it up. He asked me one time after we saw Metallica what I thought was the best concert I had ever been to. I told him either George Strait because I had good seats and it was such a simple show or the Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge tour because it was so elaborate. You would have thought I slapped him in the face he was so insulted. If you made a compelling case he would come around to what you were saying, but you had to be convincing. He always liked Baby Gordon, but I think eventually he respected Dale Sr. some. He never seemed to like any of the movies I liked, but I think it was because he had extremely high standards. We never really reached an accord on religion either, but these days I am closer to him on that issue than I ever have been. We used to go to Jittey Joe’s or Blue Sky when in Athens and he would get his cup and sit down and say “Which of the world’s problems are we going to solve tonight?”
After we left school we would get together at I-hop or Waffle House when we could and catch up. Kris and I stayed close through our weddings where we were each others best men and when we both lived in Holly Springs. He was always there for me when I needed him. When I finally left my dad’s business to work for Cobb County I realized belatedly that I would need a vehicle since I had been driving a company truck. Kris and Sara sold me her old red car at a loss and allowed me to make payments. I will never forget that. When I went to work for American Express and had no clients and didn’t know what I was doing they became clients and bought a plan from me and listened to my sales pitches. When my mother died they took time to comfort me and my family. Not long after Chloe was born Nicole came down with acute appendicitis and had to have her appendix out. My immediate family was notoriously unreliable at this time and I was a mess running around with a new job and the kids. They kept putting off Nicole’s release date because she couldn’t get rid of the infection. Finally they decided to release her and I was on the other side of Atlanta somewhere. Sara and Vicki drove all the way over to the hospital and picked up Nicole and took her home and made her comfortable.
I don’t now know how I didn’t make more time for Kris and his wonderful family before now. I miss this true friend every day. There are many more stories I can tell, but I think I will put a few off. I have pictures around I think that have survived numerous moves and somewhere there is the funny video we made for his bachelor party. I often pondered the saying “only the good die young” when my mother-in-law and then my mother passed away. My take on it is somewhat different than the traditional view. I think it means when someone good and worthy passes away and they are truly missed then it has happened too early no matter the age. My heart aches for my friend.