It is only fitting that I start a page dedicated to my friends with the woman who has been my best friend for almost the entire time I've known her.  Sure it seems kind of corny to put my wife first and call her my best friend, but it's the truth.  Even if we hadn't started dating I know we would still be best friends and talk to each other almost as much as we do now.  Theryn means the world to me.  She's always there for me and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt will always be there for me.  She loves me and that love has seen me through some tough times in my life and has also helped me overcome obstacles that I otherwise may not have been able to overcome.  I am the luckiest person in the world to have found someone so completely matched to me at so young an age.  Whether or not you believe in soul mates, I believe that however our meeting had played out, in the end we would have been together.  Luckily, we didn't have to go through much to reach that point.

    I met Ben in Latin class in our junior year of high school.  I don't remember why we started talking but I do remember that I became comfortable enough with him to suggest we go see Natalie Merchant in Kansas City.  Sure, I had a bit of an ulterior motive - I needed a ride home from said concert.  I convinced him to go with me and he convinced his dad to pick us up and the rest is history.  He had a grand time and learned to trust my judgment from then on.  Well, he should have learned to do that, anyway.  My friendship with Ben has had its ups and downs, but in the end we've remained good friends and know we can count on each other in a pinch.  If it weren't for Ben I may not have entered the online world as early as I did.  If not for Ben, it may have been a much, much longer time before I met Theryn.  And if not for Ben's compassion and understanding, I may not have his friendship.  Ben moved to Boston when Theryn and I moved to Bloomington and I truly miss his companionship.  But, that's life and he seems to be doing well in his new city with his girlfriend, Beth, who is also a friend of mine.  He's since moved to Denver with Beth and is, as I predicted, doing quite well out there, too.  I think he'll do well where ever he goes, but I hope some day we're both in the same town again.  If for no other reason than I need someone to play cards and Madden with.

      For a long time after I met Mia, which I think was around 1997 or 1998, I wanted to get to know her better.  Back then, however, she really wasn't Mia - she was the second half a pair of girls that I thought were super cool - Jill and Mia.  Jill and Mia, it seemed, were always together.  I'm sure I met them at the Java Break and I'm sure they thought of me as the second half of Rodney and Eddie.  Without going into too much detail, because this could be a long, long story, Mia started dating Rodney, my best friend at the time, and that's when I really started to get to know her as a person and not just one of two cool, cute girls.  After her relationship with Rodney ended I made sure that my friendship with her didn't go the same way.  Since that time we became very close and she started hanging out with me and Ben a lot.  I don't know why, but I'm having a hard time putting my friendship with Mia into words.  I love this girl to death and would do just about anything for her.  She moved to the pacific northwest when Theryn and I moved to Bloomington and I miss her terribly.  We still talk online and even write snail mail letters, but just about every time I have a day off and am about to go run errands I still think to call her and see if she wants to come out with me and get some lunch.

    I've known Paula since about 1988 or 1989.  She and I were boyfriend-girlfriend off and on from fourth to sixth grade.  We lost contact in junior high and high school.  I remember fondly my grade school years and have actively tried to reconnect with some of the people from those days.  It was this search that led me to find Paula again in 2000.  I signed up at highschoolalumni.com (before it became a pay site) and several weeks later I got a message from the site saying someone named Paula had sent me a message.  I was ecstatic.  I read her message and replied right away and we reconnected in that way.  She was living, and still is, with her navy husband and three (now four) children.  As luck would have it she was planning a visit to her parents soon after we started talking online and so we were able to get together and hang out many late nights in the summer of 2001.  I was still in school but it was out for the summer and Theryn had to work early mornings so I ended up going out with Paula for late night coffee consistently that summer.  Late nights because she had to wait for her kids to fall asleep.  I can't believe it'll be three years this summer since I've seen her.  After a little initial awkwardness, it was like we'd never been apart.  It's amazing that friends can remain so closely matched through all the years.  Our political views and opinions on religion and faith get us into some heated arguments sometimes but it's all good.  We disagree on some major points but our friendship survives despite our differing views and I think that shows just how strong a friendship it is.

    I first met Nick, not surprisingly, at Best Buy.  Corey told us he had a friend from back home that needed a job and a short time later I met Nick.  The first thing I thought when I saw him was that he was much shorter than I imagined he would be.  While he is small in stature, he makes up for it in his work ethic and his personality.  He's one of the best guys I know.  I don't remember when he and I started hanging out outside of work but it wasn't long after we discovered that we both loved music and live shows.  He is one of the few people I've found in Bloomington that like doing all the same things I do - live shows, video games, hockey, smoking the occasional cigar (though he's pretty hardcore about it), and just hanging out with friends even when there's not a lot to do.  He is easily my best friend in Bloomington and will be one of the people I miss most when we move.

    Melanie is yet another friend I met through working at Best Buy. She was hired into home theatre but soon moved to digital imaging where she remains today. I'm not sure how exactly it was that we became friends. I do know that once I got her to join the weekly poker game at my house it was certain that she was one of my best friends. Little did I know that she was a card shark and would end up winning more nights than anyone else - even more than her boyfriend Kevin. She calls our dog Maple and plays mean air drums. I could use a bunch of adjectives to describe her but the list would be either way too long or fall far short. She is definitely one of the best people I met in Bloomington and will likely be shown to be one of the best people I've met in my life.

    I met Chad on October 25th, 2003 at culture training for my new job at Best Buy.  He was my supervisor in the media department from that day until about July of 2004 when I was promoted into another department.  While I worked with him we became good friends and he was the first person in Bloomington that I really became friends with and who showed any sort of effort to get to know me.  It was nice to finally have someone who liked to do the stupid stuff I like to do - video games, watching sports, playing pool.  It is also helpful that he and his girlfriend, now wife, Jen are pretty much like me and Theryn in that they liked to just hang out and don't have to go out all the time.  Unfortunately ever since I switched departments it's been harder to hang out with them - we don't know each other's schedules every week - so we haven't been hanging out as much lately.  I'm hoping to change that soon.

    Damien also opened Best Buy #858 with me and Chad.  He was the other person who made me feel welcome in Bloomington.  He quickly became a good friend.  He moved to the wireless department after a while but we were still able to hang out a lot.  He had to move back home to French Lick, IN several months back and so I don't get to see him nearly as often as I would like.  He and Chad were my two best friends in Bloomington for that first year at Best Buy and in Bloomington.  It sucks that I don't see Damien anymore because I still consider him to be one of my best friends.  He's a cool guy.

    I met Sheryl on the same day I met Chad and Damien for she also opened Best Buy #858 in the media department (noticing a trend?).  She was always a friendly co-worker but it wasn't until well into our tenure at Best Buy that we really got to know each other.  Through our discussions over DVDs and eventually cell phones when she moved to wireless, we discovered that we were both on Livejournal.  Through Livejournal and more work discussions we discovered that we both enjoyed late nights at Denny's and playing cards and board games.  We've been doing that just about every weekend for quite some time now and it's great fun.  Plus, she's become somewhat of a confidant - if there's something I need to talk about to get another opinion she's always there for me, and in turn, I'm there for her.  She's a great person and wonderful friend.

    I met Corey when he started working at Best Buy in 2003.  I didn't talk to him much at first because we were in different departments, but I did get to know him a little bit.  A few months after he started I was promoted and became one of his many bosses.  Through working closely together we became good friends.  He's a good kid and I enjoy working with him.  We've hung out outside of work many times but not nearly enough.  I keep trying to convince him that he needs to quit school and work full-time so I can promote him when I get promoted, but he keeps wanting to continue with his pesky schooling and become an accountant - something about making lots of money.  He's one hell of a worker and it is because of him that I now know that rednecks are people too.

    When Abbie started working at Best Buy in the wireless department we didn't talk much for the first month or two.  Neither of us can really remember why, but ever since we did start talking there's been no stopping us.  I was looking for a way to see if she'd be interested in joining me and Sheryl at Denny's some night or something of that sort - I wanted to get her into my network of friends because she seemed really cool.  I couldn't come up with anything so I went with honesty.  One day at work I said to her, "I'm going to try to say this as platonically as possible - you're cool and I think it'd be cool to hang out sometime".  If I ever forget that I said that to her, she'll definitely be right there to remind me.  Soon after that she did start coming to Denny's with us but now that she's freshly 21 she's been going to the bars more often.  Who can blame her, though.  She'll come around one day and realize that Denny's for cards and conversation is not only more fun in the end than going to bars and drinking, it's also much, much cheaper.  Abbie is a great kid and I find myself trying to look out for her.  She's fANtastic.