I was out last Saturday visiting friends of mine, Kelly and Steph, at their "Chateau" in Nanuet, NY. Now they call it the "Mansion", but I like "Chateau" better, but that is besides the point right now. They live with a whole bunch of Kelly's old friends from High School - I think 6 in total. Needless to say the "Chateau" is a mad house. Two things in particular stand out from that night that I will share. Before I go into details, I'm going to take a step back and tell you about my friends to put this story in a better perspective for you.
The Boyz that I hang out with, on a more or less consistent basis, all went to the same HS in Teaneck, NJ. Not all the same graduating class though (I think its 94-97). Even though this spread exists, and not only based on age, but ethnicity, culture, religion, race etc...(very eclectic), we have just about everything, the bond between them is quite tight. I was inducted as an honorary Teaneckian a few years ago after a brief stint of living there for a summer. Even though they have been hanging out for many many years, they have all managed to keep very distinct personality traits, but one of the few things that everyone has in common is what I will call the "hoh yes!" syndrome. I will not go into explaining what that is (if you would like further detail about what that is, check out my friend Luke's blog - quite entertaining). Now, most people out there think or say they have a group of friends that are "funnest and nuttiest". Two weeks ago you could have easily heard me respond to that comment with a: "let me tell you something, fukh that!"
So, without further adieu, here are the two things I had mentioned:
1) I'm sitting in their living room and their roommates start coming home, and every time another one came, I felt I was in the twilight zone. I mapped every one of these guys back to the Boyz that I know. The wierd thing about all this, is that not only did the personalities match, but their race and background did also. The craziest part is when the entire crowd got together, and thats where I started bugging out. There dynamic was exactly like what I am used to. I felt in my element with a large crowd faster than I have ever had with anyone, in less than two hours! Their version of "hoh yeses" were flying all night. I wish I had one of those hidden cameras that night to get all this and show it my crew, they would have definitely gotten a big kick out of it.
2) I found out that these guys have an annual roast where they pick one of their friends and roast him. Now this is not a regular night where they all kick back, have a couple of drinks and tear into each other, they take this very seriously. It is a formal event where they all get dressed up, rent out a room at place (restaurant/bar/etc...) for the night, get some video made with pictures and classic moments caught on photo or video of that person - it's the real deal. I couldn't help but think of how great and hilarious it would be if the Boyz were to do something similar.
Every day you learn something new...
