Pen Pal

For my birthday, I got a book. I love books. I love to read. It is in keeping with that other thing that I do quite often: write. This book was a special one. It was written by a friend of mine. I haven't seen him for many years, not since he and his family moved back to Colorado. He's the guy who wrote all those haikus over there. He grew up in Colorado. So did I. He moved to California. Like I did. He worked at an employee-owned book warehouse. Just like me. He served on that company's Board of Directors with me. We used to laugh like crazy when we realized that people trusted us with the fate of their company. Considering that the place went out of business, maybe we should have taken it more seriously.
Actually, the truth is, we did take it seriously. We talked and discussed and compromised until late into the night, and we were never done. All the while, he kept writing. He used to read his poetry at readings and open mic nights. He was much more courageous than I was with my poems and prose. I preferred to hide mine under my bushel. That was not his way. Now he has a book full of it, Now, I should point out that his name will cause a stir, but he's not that James Frey. He's the James Frey that wrote "Umbrellas Or Else," and I couldn't be more proud.
And a little jealous. I don't have a book. My wife has a book. She has two. I have less than that. Not because I can't, mind you. I could make a book any old time I wanted to. I would just sit down and let fly with the best and brightest collection of words and ideas that would stand those literary types on their collective ears.
But I don't have a book. I've got this blog, and that works pretty well for me. And I take comfort in the fact that when I first started, I received this comment: "how come my friend's blog is so much cooler than my blog...not fair!!" That came from my friend J. Diego Frey. And now I can ask him: how come my friend's book is so much cooler than my book? Well, that one's pretty simple. While I have laughed and cried along with the poems in his book, his will always be superior to the one I am "too busy" to write. Congratulations, my esteemed colleague and friend.