hm

i wrote a decent entry yesterday via cellphone but apparently it didn't make it to the actual posting stage. Bummer.

Anyways, I was just explaining what I had been up to since last time...The Holidays, Scott's visit, Nico(beth's cat) joining us out here, $700 pet deposits, working more, and of course....Stu's fall.

First and foremost, check out www.stubutler.com if you don't know what I'm referring to, but assuming you do I guess I'll just take a few minutes to talk about my relationship with stu over the past few years and what it means to me.

I met Stu sometime in 2003 through Jason Thompson when they were in As Beauty Dies/For The Girls. Though I never really got into their music, I can't tell you how many times I saw them play or hung out during practice. What mattered the most was being able to hang out with a bunch of my friends and just have a good time. Stu was always the most quiet, go with the flow, non-edge dude I had ever been around so therefore I was inherently interested in him. I remember the first thing that ever came up whenever we talked about him was his unique ability to always date the cutest girls ever. The rest of us were stupid little shits with 3rd grade senses of humor and he was like this cool, older brother dude who would just do his own thing while everyone else took notice. Our paths didn't really cross for a while after I stopped hanging out with the rest of the guys in that band, but soon after Trey and I became friends I found out that he knew Stu too. The past year or so when I was either hanging out at Trey's or living there, I saw Stu at least twice a week, either for Original Sin practice or just to kick it on the front porch. It was during that time that I finally got some one on one with him and found out that basically everything I had already thought of him was true. Stu Butler is just one of those guys who always knows how to play it cool. I can't recall ever seeing him lose his temper, trap himself in conversation by saying something he couldn't defend, or give a shit about what was socially acceptable (though I still wish I could have persuaded him to vote for Obama). It really sucks that it takes things like this to get us to evaluate our relationships with some of our friends, but now that I think about it I can use this as a reason to consider my relationships with other people and maybe learn some more about myself in the process.