When it comes to making my ribs ache from long, loud laughter, nobody does it like Bobby. Bobby is the best! He delivers the perfect combination of serious love and attention and silly nonsensical joy. It's quite a thing. How he balances the potent levels of serious concern and loyal friendship with the giddy, ridiculous, and hilarious bouts of sheer elation we share is quite beyond me. The genius of it is how seamlessly and how, at such quick intervals, this exchange happens in cycles numerous times in any given exchange between us.
I met Bobby in 1997. We were 19 and we shared a best friend, Aaron. Both boys were graduates of Cathedral High School, the all boys Catholic school downtown. Aaron was going to UT and convinced me to move out to Austin. Bobby helped me move. Aaron had already been living in Austin for a year and I was now joining in on the fun. Bobby stayed in El Paso but he came with us on the move and eventually ended up in Austin a few months later. He was in Austin about every other weekend, which was great fun for both me and Aaron.
Bobby and I became friends during a weird time in my life. I had just broken up with a semi-famous musician in El Paso who I had thought I might marry. A few comments sealed our fate though: "You would make the perfect politician's wife," and "I think all of humanity as one giant whole," were among the doomed utterances. It did not pan out in the long run. Then there was my conversion to Mormonism which steered me even further away.
And there was Bobby! Saving the day! All fun and laughter and sunshine! We played like children! One of our favorite activities was recording our thoughts on a hand-held mini-tape recorder. Some of our thoughts were very, very deep....or so we thought....but most of the time we recorded the silliest things you could dream of uttering. I would love to find that stuff! Priceless! Usually it went something like this: We'd be on our way to a party. We would log our predictions for the night, i.e., who would do or say what to whom, who would we encounter, what would they do or say, blah, blah, blah. Then, at the end of the night, which was very often the next day, we would log the realities of the night, whatever did in fact end up happening. Very often our predictions were dead on. Sometimes there were surprises though. For example, we never anticipated our dear friend Michael would spill copious amounts of some dark, mysterious liquid all over his very handsome shirt. We referred to him as "La Mancha", the stain, for the rest of the night. I think we called him that for a few months actually. All of these little surprises were fun to document.
Well, as time pressed on, life took us in two different directions. I eventually got married which swept me off the radar almost completely. Bobby moved to a few different places and was managing restaurants, doing music, singing in a band, etc. I had heard rumors, here and there, about how great the band was, and I was sorry I didn't know more and hadn't seen or heard it for myself. Then, one winter morning, I was enjoying some lovely breakfast tacos at Taco Deli when all of the sudden I see MY BOBBY!!!! It had been over eight years. He heard me virtually scream his name. He turned suddenly and said, "Kristin! When I heard that voice I knew exactly who it was!" It was so good to see him. He explained he was living in San Antonio but would soon be moving back to Austin. I explained I had recently moved back to Austin from Chicago. We quickly caught up in very general terms. We exchanged info and found ourselves on the phone a lot, catching up on many, many, things that life had dealt us. Some of it was amazing. Some of it was heart breaking. All of it was wonderfully expressed and received. There was something very healing about it.
Now, here we are, 2010. Bobby's band, Politics, is amazing. I now know for myself. We check in on each other regularly and I always feel loved after our conversations. He is wise and caring and just as fun as they come. I'll be at his show at the Parish on February 12. Will you? Then we'll go somewhere after the show and I've promised to bring my new recording device. I think I'll log my predictions for the night on the way downtown. Bobby and I will check them after the show.
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