I should have known that something was up when my friend called three times during the O.C. At the time, I was enraged that he was insolent enough to interrupt the most sacred time of the week. I hit the voicemail afterwards. One of my good friends from high school died today.

In high school, he was part of my "core group." We hung out at Country Kitchen, made Eagle Scout in the same troop, got confirmed together, played in concert band, jazz band, marching band (which failed to yield us mounds of babes) and in general celebrated being popular among the nerds. He was always the person I could look to for moral guidance and he taught me the value of practical jokes. We both ended up at Lutheran colleges and as the years passed, we went our separate ways. However, he ended up working for the YMCA camp in my hometown so we talked occasionally. I would have seen him at my roommate's wedding.

I was mute with shock after getting the news. I was going to go to bar review, but ended up wandering around the square for an hour instead. This is one of those things, that in the grand cosmic scheme of things just doesn't make sense. He did everything right. When people talked to him, they found a source of kindness, courage, and really stupid humor (which is probably how we ended up being friends in the first place). We haven't really been in touch for a while now, but I know I'm really going to miss my friend. It goes to show that we should all be living life alot more intensely than we are because nobody knows what the future holds (until we invent a flux capacitor).