Monk's Week Off Blog Project: Day 2
Now when it comes to long term relationships, the only other person who has known me nearly as long as Tambo would be my friend Dave. He and I have seen a lot of life together and have proped each other up on many occasion when the winds of change have tried to blow the other one over. Enjoy this while I spend the day paying Tambo back for her months of patience and support.


To paraphrase Voltaire, if there were no Monk, it would be necessary to invent him.

Some sixteen years ago, as I fumbled awkwardly, still newly adrift in the world, I might have imagined an optimal friend and companion. After creating base compatibility by envisioning someone as intelligent, inquisitive and tenacious as myself, I would add some qualities I felt I lacked: Charismatic, street-wise, daring and spontaneous.

Fortunately, fate dropped him in my lap.

Now, at first, I wasn't so sure about Monk. He was several years my junior, and looked like, well, one of those people that listened to "Rock 'n' Roll", or whatever the weirdoes called it. (I never would have guessed that we shared relatively similar conservative Christian upbringings.) But, with time, conversation, and a trip or two to the Wendy's salad bar, Monk dragged me kicking and screaming into the grown-up world of complex moralities, personal responsibility, and girls.

Monk is personally responsible for a number of firsts in my life: Finally moving out of my parents' house, learning to appreciate music not found on Top 40 or Christian radio, my first - date/kiss/girlfriend (All in one night, I was making up for lost time), losing my virginity, falling in love, proposing to the woman who is now my wife and, most recently, Kink.

It is simply impossible to summarize my relationship with Monk over the years. But suffice it to say the good greatly outweighs the bad, I have a lifelong love and respect for a deeply complex and profoundly alive individual, and I would not give up a single moment of it. In the course of our exploits, I learned a vast array of life rules, some of which are likely more applicable on a day-to-day basis than others. A few are:

* When a friend sets you up, discretely inquire as to whether she is supposed to be a one-night-stand, or serious relationship material.

* While there is a varying scale of quality, there is no such thing as bad tequila.

* The Corvair was a thoroughly under appreciated vehicle.

* Some things should never be mixed with vodka.

* There is such a thing as too much looking, and not enough leaping. Leap.