How many of us have them?

I did a crazy thought experiment in my journal last year.  I made an attempt to list all the friends that I ever had from as far back as I could remember.  There wasn't anything too surprising.  Most of the people weren't even Black males even though they were the biggest block on the list.

There were a number of hot Black women on there.  Most of them were girls that I had a thing for but never had the balls to pull the trigger on.  There were also a number of White women on there I just remember hanging out with at random times.  I wasn't even trying to sleep with most of them.  There are a number of white guys and most of them have some story of debauchery that will forever ingrain them in my memory.  Those are my peoples though.

The experiment helped me remember some of my best of friends.  One of the funny things about that is some of these people I really had some bad times with.  You know that you have great friend when you can remember a distinct moment when you thought "I'm am about to beat the shit out of this person!"

Most of my friends have been out drinking with me.  While I don't get violent when I'm drunk, some of my peeps aren't the anti-violent type.  I remember when my home girl was going through a "karate chop you in the throat" phase.  That shit was hilarious.  And yes, she would literally chop people in the throat mid sentence.  I never wanted to fight her though.  Hell, that was my girl.  I even turned down a drunken threesome with her best friend and her sister, now that's love right there.

One of my best friend adventures was when me and my boy had to speed off from a bar in the burbs.  The offence?  Oh, well, he was hitting on some girl and this dude rolled up on him.  The dude didn't hit him, he hit ON him.  My boy jumped up and stole on this cat.  Now, I'm all cuddled up with this girl I was definitely out to see and my first thought was "Two Niggas in the middle of the burbs are fighting in a bar full of yuppies.  This isn't going to end well."  I grabbed his ass and was like "Let's get out of here!"  We were on some Shaggy and Scooby shit.  On our way out apparently somebody yelled out the word "Niggers".  Luckily I didn't hear it and neither did my boy.  That would have turned the story a whole new direction.  Fortunately, we hopped in the ride and mashed out.  Later we hooked up with some of the girls and they reported to us that we just missed the police and the witnesses mis-identified my car.

Then, there was another friend that accidentally stabbed me in the head on St. Patricks Day.  We actually stayed together for a year.  I almost had to whip his ass on another occasion but the craziest shit ever was when one of our homies beat the shit out of his car with his crutches one night.  I was passed out drunk and my boy that I lived with just ran in and said "Look what he did to my car!"  I can just imagine this fool hopping around on one leg (He shattered his ankle and had recently graduated from a wheel chair) and breaking out the windows of the Lumina.  I wish I would have had my camera phone out.

All of my friends don't have crazy stories.  I have some great female friends.  I made some pretty good ones by not attempting to get them naked.  One of my best freind's of all time is one of my sister's freinds I just happened to be around through highschool.  We just became closer and closer though the years. 

The girls that lived in the apartment across from me my sophomore year were the greatest.  One of them was Black and half the campus thought we were the cutest couple even though she never would have given any play whatsoever.  Me and my roommates would hook up with the girls next door and do some serious partying.  It wasn't those time that I loved the most.  It was the hungover Saturday mornings that we would hang out and discuss the plan for the night, playing Dr. Mario with my girl, or playing NBA2K with the roommates.  That's the great thing about real friends.  You have fun without even trying to.

Since I left school, I haven't made too many good friends.  I really have my friendships cup full.  I always enjoy meeting new peeps but there's nothing like those folks that watched you grow up and still want to be around you.  I still miss sitting in my mamma's basement listening to rap music and playing NBA Live with my boys from the block.  You can't build friendships like that when everyone has so much going on in their lives now so I cherish those memories.  The trick is to never forget it.  So, shout out to all my friends, past and present.  Thanks for helping me be the maniac you all knew I'd grow to be.