My friend Bob...

At Beth's request, I am going to share the tales of my friend Bob. I have known him for about 15 years now. He is one of the most creative and funny people I know. We used to work together and now are just really good friends.

He started out as my manager. I got as far as I did in the company with alot of help from him and tons of encouragement. I ended up getting frustrated at one point with where I was in the company and managed to follow him to another state just for the chance at advancing in my career. It was probably the biggest risk and the best thing that I have ever done. I had never been that far away from my family. Bob and his partner are like my parents away from home. I love the stories that Bob has told me from his childhood. I say that, but have to wonder if they weren't more recent in his life.

You know the things your mom used to say, like: "Don't make that face. It'll get stuck like that permanently," or "Don't stare at the sun or you'll go blind." He liked to test things like that. My favorite is when he wanted to test the theory of going blind by staring at the sun. He decided to sit on his driveway and stare at the sun with one eye covered. That way, if he did go blind, he'd have one good eye. Definitely my favorite. The other one he tried was taking a piece of string and tying it around his pinky toe very tightly. Wanted to see if it would really fall off. I am assuming the reason for this was so that if it did fall off, you wouldn't see it. His toe did turn purple, but he had to take the string off as it hurt.

He is also very creative. Occasionally, their friends will visit. On a hot summer day, they decided that it would be fun to use a slip and slide. Instead of buying one, they took a big blue tarp and ran water over it. They do have this great hill in their yard that is perfect for it. Can you imagine 4 adults on an adult sized slip and slide? I would have loved to see pictures of this.

Now imagine the same 4 adults deciding to use the same hill for sledding. They decided to make a sled. I had this lawn chair that I left there one summer. They took the lawn chair and attached it to water skis. This I did see pictures of. It actually worked. And yes, it was the same 4 adults.

When we were both working together, we would occasionally get bored at work and call each other. We both managed a tobacco store. Generally, there were extremely slow with the occasional rush. We'd spend so much time on the phone, that people would realize that if the line was busy that we were talking to each other. One day, he was working at my store. I had the day off for something. I came back the next day to find a clue taped to my cash register. Each clue led me to another. I had to have had at least 50 clues placed throughout the store. The prize was a hair scrunchie that I had left at his house one weekend. At least it kept me occupied. :)

One last Bob tidbit. He also likes to make up occasional phrases. My favorite is "lick it, it's flavored." I know what you must be thinking. I know that it isn't the fact that Bob is standing next to me and pointing to the nearest light socket saying "Lick it, it's flavored."