The odd moment of the night occurred around 2:30 AM when a previous guest of the party phoned the host to state that his 15 year old daughter had been "sexed up" on the dance floor earlier in the evening. The party was mainly 40 somethings with children in tow and there was the odd older single gentleman in attendance without and escort and one of them was singled out for some sort of dance floor violation. I may or may not have future details.
I woke up late today and had coffee as the waves of alcohol poured over my body. I managed a 50 minute work out before calling in quits and meeting up with Mary Ellen for dinner, snacks and whiskey. Mary Ellen is my kind of girl, she loves Maker's Mark. We spent 7 hours living the good life, entertaining bartenders with ribald memoirs and lies.
In the midst of our merriment, however, I received a phone call from my mother. I knew looking at the caller ID in the bar it was not good news and I curtailed the conversation Mary Ellen and I were engaged in.
It turns out that my cousin (Jay Miller, who is less that 6 months older than me) died today.
Freak accident in the gym, as it turns out. I haven't seen Jay since the Summer of 1980. The picture I posted here was taken that summer. Jay was the oldest child of my Dad's youngest sister. I can't joke about his death, but I can relate a funny story (at least at the time) that I remember from the last time I saw him.My girlfriend (in 1980), Jay and myself decided to go see a movie. Jay was visiting our neck of the woods for whatever reason and we decided to go see "Airplane" which was just released. We all three laughed very hard in the movie and went for a hamburger and soda afterwards (really.)
On the way back home, Jay fell asleep in the back seat of my 1975 lime green Volkswagen Rabbit. I nudged my girlfriend to look back and she knew what was next. We did a countdown from 3 and then I slammed on the brakes and we screamed very, very loud to make Jay think we were about to be in a wreck. He woke up in a panic not knowing what was happening or if he was to survive.
That was my last memory of my cousin.
