this long weekend has been so bizarre. i've done a variety of random things, dinner with sister, verdi, golf, car-shooting, making shao-lung-bao, car shopping with/for this crazy woman, gamble, and most bizarre, running into an old friend from work.

 

thinking back, i've had it rather easy growing up... a roof over my head, support from a loving family, good/clean friends... things were pretty much all spoon fed to me (not to make talk down on what i do have). i've never really had to work for it, pretty much always there, at times took it for granted, you know. but after running into my old friend, i've had a chance to think how fortunate i am. you see, my friend is now homeless. through drugs, stealing, addiction, and having the wrong group of friends, he's lost the mother of his child, his own child, and his home. granted he's lost all that, his spirits are stronger than any other person i know.

 

i ran into him at the park where we once played countless hours of basketball. i was leave the courts and from the corner of my eye i saw a silhouette of a man i easily recognized. i knew right away the tattooed, bald-headed fella was my old friend. i stopped and got out of the car. he looked much older... old beyond his age... his whole life in the backpack he carried on one shoulder. he came up to me, gave me a huge hug that cracked my back in three places... strong as ever... i hadn't seen him in over 3 years... last i heard he was in county jail for possession... we we're both happy as ever to run into each other. . i talked to him for 20 mins and finally asked him to come over for dinner. we had bbq steak and talked for the next couple of hours. he told me stories that i usually hear in movies... i wanted to help this guy turn his life around, but i didn't nearly have enough resources to do so. i told him that i'd help him out as much as i could... to a reasonable extent. he understood, he was still very smart in the head. he told me he was supposed to meet this guy in s.f. later tonight to buy two guitars. i was skeptical... guitars... really? nonetheless he handed me a phone number and i called... sure enough this fobby-asian voice was on the other line tell me he had been waiting for his phone call. it was already 10, 11pm... going to the city was an hour away and an hour back. i wanted to tell him to forget it... but i put myself in his shoes... an the one thing that he always found comfort was in his music. so we went.

 

when we got there, he told me he didn't have an money to buy the guitars. they were a measly $35 for two. he had $120 in counterfeit... but i told him we shouldn't cheat the righteous people selling him the guitars. so i bought the guitars and we came straight back to my place. when we got back to my place, he got out and talked about how he had big plans to be a good sales person, take care of his kid, everything. i gave him some tough love and said that that was great, but you can do all the planning you want and never do anything about it. he got mad, he had an anger management problem now... but i knew he understood what i was saying. we sat in the garage as he tuned his new guitars. then he started strumming his guitar and handed me the other... he started singing a song he wrote as a failed harmonize with the other guitar. his voice echoed down the dark, carbon-monoxide garage. nothing sounded sweeter.

 

i offered him to stay the night... but only for one night. the apartment is under my roommates name. i wouldn't want to put my roommate in an awkward situation. he refused my offer. he said he had to be somewhere, probably somewhere i wouldn't be safe. i told him he had to leave this kind of life, those kinds of people. he said he had to go or he'd be in trouble. i told him he had a choice, he reassured me he didn't.

 

he gave me a hug and he told me it was fate we ran into each other at that park. he thanked me for not treating him any differently just because he was now in a different situation. he walked off in the dead of night... all in black except his shinning white basketball shoes... backpack over one shoulder, new guitar on the other, strumming his new guitar, singing... for some reason i knew he'd be okay.