magnificently uncommon

If you're reading this, you may be confused. Honestly, I'm confused too. Why are you reading this? This is a dead blog. Dead and forgotten. And for good reason. It was not a very good blog. The main premise was to track my progress as I attempted 101 goals in 1001 days. The culmination of which was to take place on October 29, 2010.

Do I need to mention that I did not meet most of these goals?

The rest of the blog served as a personal ranting/bragging/rambling space. My last post was just over 10 years ago, simply recounting the things I had accomplished that day. Riveting stuff. It's also riddled with lazy grammatical issues, please do not scroll down and read it. 

So, why am I here? Why now? Why dust off this decade-old blog for one more post? 

The reason is simple. It's the same reason I have been inspired or encouraged to do many things in my adult life. My friend Joe.

This Christmas, our obnoxiously large college friend group held a Secret Santa and I chose Joe. My initial reaction was one of relief. "Easy," I thought. "I know Joe."

I've known Joe since college. Since before I started this blog. But as I thought about my gift to him, I began to worry. For as long as I have known Joe, I could not think of a single fucking thing to give him. Maybe I was overthinking it. There were some obvious ideas. Mainly related to drinking. But that's so obvious. Joe's a pretty genuine guy. I felt like he deserved a pretty genuine gift.

I wracked my brain for an idea that felt more personal, but I lacked the time and resources for some of my better ideas:

Then suddenly, inspiration. Maybe I could make something for him. And I could do it in a medium that I know he'd appreciate.

For those not in the know, Joe has kept his blog, the aforementioned Puke on Your Birthday, alive for over 10 years. He posts regularly. In the last year, he's even started two new features - one where he encourages his friends to review an album a week and another where he interviews his friends about their favorite movie. 

These two new blog features are so quintessentially Joe. He loves to engage with others. He is constantly encouraging those around him to participate in his ideas. Even if you are hesitant to the idea, whatever it is. When Joe approaches you with an idea, a simple "ah, come on" is all it takes. Not to brag, but I'm listed first on the list of PoYB contributors (alphabetically).

And it's not just blogging. Joe has inspired two of my favorite adulthood adventures:

In 2015, he led a 7-mile pilgrimage to see the Pope when he came to Philly. To be fair, "seeing the Pope" wasn't really the point.  It was about the experience. With inconspicuous soda cans full of Franzia, we set off from Port Richmond to walk the abandoned streets of the city to where hundreds of thousands of worshipers had amassed. I'm not big on crowds, but with Joe leading the way, I was game. 

In 2017, during "Joe's New Summer", before Philly's worst kept secret blew up, got shut down and "trespassing" turned into Trespassing, we spent two lovely afternoons hanging out on Grafitti Pier. The first time, four of us sat in lawn chairs, drinking beers and shooting the shit. The second time, he hosted an end of the summer barbeque. Two perfect summer bookends. 

I could go on, but it's getting close to Christmas and I need to wrap this up (gift pun). 

So, here I am. Writing a tribute to my friend. Writing the most I have written in many, many years, all because of him. He would never admit it, but he's a pretty inspiring guy. 

Merry Christmas, Joe. Cheers! 

And, if you're playing along at home, you should drink for the number of times I said "Joe".