I got a funny email today. I knew that someone was hitting my weblog recently searching under my brother's name. In fact, at least two people in two different cities have been doing that recently. Anyway, I got an email that had the simple subject line: Hello. Well, you know what most of us do with emails that have that subject line and a name we don't recognize, right? Delete! Still, I don't know why, I clicked on it. And it happened to be from a friend of my brother's from way way back. He was just searching for information on my brother and came across my weblog ... hadn't known that he had passed away. He was surprised that my insane and selfish uncle hadn't told his family, who he knows, but that, kind reader, is another story completely.
Anyhow, he wrote me a nice little email, chock full of little tidbits about the past, which I LOVE, because it reminds me so much of Ross and it reminds me in exactly the way I love to be reminded: in real anecdotes. He mentioned that he used to come over late night and watch MTV at my parent's house (everyone did, we were one of the first families with cable -- can you imagine that?) And then, as a PS, he asked if I still had the Jay Leno shoe. Well, I laughed so loud in my office here at work that I raised somewhat of a ruckus. See, back in high school my friend Dan and I used to stalk the comedians at Summerfest. Now, first, you have to remember that Summerfest back in the 1980s was a lot different than it is now, smaller and more accessible for sure. Anyway, we went to see Jay Leno a few times and chatted with him after his set. He was small time at the time. He had been on the Tonight Show a few times, that's how we knew him, but that's it. Well, he was distracted and looking around and finally, he looked at us and asked us to drive him to his hotel. We jumped at the chance!! He was staying at the Ramada Inn downtown and we drove him to his hotel and before he jumped out, I asked him to sign my shoe. I saved it for a while. And Dan used to point to his car seat all the time and say, "Jay Leno's ass was right there." Good times.
