Memories of Jim on his birthday

Jim would have have been 39 today. It's weird to think of him in terms of that age since I never saw him make it to 30.  I think about Jim all the time and wonder if he would have settled down by now, gotten married and had any kids. Where would he live and what would he be doing for a living? That's one of the many tragedies of passing on young - all the unanswered questions about what would have been that we'll never have the answers to.


One thing I know for sure is that Jim (aka 'Jimmy' to his family and 'Santana' to most everyone else) was a super smart, talented, funny ass kid who was one of my best my best friends in high school and college even though we never went to the same schools.  I met Jim through Anthony who had been best friends with Jim through grade school and we bonded over playing golf, listening to Pink Floyd and generally just 'weirding out'. One of our favorite pastimes was trying to come up with phrases or sentences that no one had ever said. One of Jim's that I've never forgotten - "you eat birds for pendulum swings". Still to this day, I bet no one has ever uttered that phrase. (Make one one yourself it's fun!) Another time he gave me a mix tape and labelled it "The SkIttlefish Outtakes'. To this day I still have no idea WTF a SkIttlefish is.

One of my favorite Jim stories was about the time in high school over Spring Break we drove to San Diego in his GTI (who will ever forget the 'GTI4JIM' vanity plates) and visited his sister Jenny at San Diego State. We then took a day trip to Tijuana where we proceeded to be taken advantage of and over-served by the locals resulting in myself getting detained at the border. This resulted in a border patrol officer making an infamous call to my mom at dinner time and asking 'Do you know that your 17 year old son is drunk and trying to enter into the US from Mexico?' I suppose that's more of a story about myself rather than Jim but he was there and got us home safely so it's a Jim story alright!. The following day when I was still nursing a wicked hangover we went on a hike where I took this picture which has since taken on new meaning.


Another fond memory was road tripping to LA in a beat up white panel van with no AC in the middle of the summer and singing along to the Red Hot Chili Peppers 'City of Angels' as we rolled into LA. (who hasn't sang that song driving around LA?) We were big on the sing-a-long - and enjoyed swapping out the real lyrics with our on non-sense. (see "weirding out" above)

I'll never forget the Christmas party his sisters threw at his house where again I was over-served Jello shots, Goldschlager and Jagermeister. The night ended with Jim and I wrestling/hugging/crashing into his mom's rose bushes on his front lawn while his mom screamed 'not in my roses!' in front of everyone at the party and my my dad who was there to pick me up.


I attended my first Grateful Dead concert with Jim - well kind of anyways - a 3rd party that won't be mentioned here (name begins with A, ends with Y and rhymes with 'Manthony' couldn't handle himself and decided he had to get out of there before the show even started. We had no choice but to leave and if you've ever tried to exit Shoreline Amphitheater BEFORE a concert when everyone is coming in, you know that's no easy task. We miraculously made it out with the help of a long haired hippie appearing out of no where to open a gate freeing us and my VW bus from the lot.

Jim was a Renaissance man. Double major in Poly Sci and Spanish, tennis and baseball player, golfer, caddy, barista, cook for a sorority in college (talk about an enviable position), grocery clerk and purveyor of fine men's clothing from Nordstrom's and Bloomingdales. He loved animals and worked at a veterinary hospital in San Francisco .


For someone of smaller stature, Jim could eat. I once saw him eat 2 Jack in the Box "Colossus" which each included 2 burgers, 4 slices of cheese and 8 pieces of bacon. He loved eggs and could eat a dozen in a sitting. A 10 pack of Taco Bell tacos would barely put  a dent in his hunger.

If I had to guess what Jim would be up to, I'd say he'd be living in Southern California close to a beach, working as a teacher and would have a wife and a kid or 2. He would still be playing golf, tennis and would still love to eat but I bet he'd be living a healthy lifestyle, eating right and doing yogi. We'd get together every year to play some golf, maybe see a Phish show and pick up 'weirding out' like we'd done 25 years earlier. Happy Birthday Jim.