Celebration of Life - Week 11

Celebration of Life  

For those who knew and those that didn't, I (and the people in the pictures above) attended Gabe's mom's funeral this weekend. I know I sent that text in the group chat about his mom a month ago but the Celebration of Life ceremony happened in DC this last weekend. 

It started with a super early flight Saturday morning 7:20am takeoff to land us in DC at 8:30am. I don't think anyone here has ever traveled with my good friend Raymond but it is quite the experience. Ray lives about 25 minutes from the airport and doesn't have clear/TSA precheck/global entry meaning he just gets in line with normies. I say normies because its better than "the poors" and Ray does travel at least once a month for work and still doesn't have any of those fast passes. Nonetheless, Ray doesn't worry/fret/fear any travel. In the middle of a government shutdown, pure chaos throughout all US airports, and no fast pass.... Ray still leaves his house at 6:45am. Kathleen and I are literally in line boarding the plane and she says "I am totally worried about Ray not making it, should we text him?". I replied "You haven't traveled with Ray before". Two minutes goes by and I see this Asian guy waving like Forrest Gump walking up to our gate with a croissant in hand ready to board the plane. 

Everyone at this point knows Ray's a professional gambler on this side who now is up over 480 grand in winnings over the years. I've also been privy to watching him work throughout the years. Saturday was no different. 

At 7am-8am every day, ESPNbet offers their "morning boosts". Watching him work two phones, two accounts in a limited time span before takeoff was unironically like watching a Chinese Nike sweat shop operate. The speed at which his cruising both phones, the mental hedge numbers, the balancing of wagers, selecting which games; was so impressive. Meanwhile I have been stressed about traveling all week (didn't buy trip insurance), this fucking guy is making me hold his croissant while he's pocketing a quick couple thousand before takeoff. In short: that's Ray. 

Feldy on the other hand never flies and only drives. Well, he does fly but anything under an 8 hour drive, this kid just drives. I think it could be the "concrete construction project manager" line of thinking that your a pussy if you fly or it could be he gets time to himself as a married man father of 1 as #2 is on the way. Regardless as he is an hour out, he calls me and asks "Hey, you got any extra room in your hotel? If you do, I'll crash then dip out at 4am to make 11am catholic mass in Columbus". Mind you, we have talked about this trip since Gabe's mom died a month ago and this somehow never came up. As the guy I am, I say "Sure no problem dude, we got two queens so you can crash with Ray". I hop off the phone and turn to Kath/Ray and tell them Feldy is going to crash with us. Ray immediately asks me to call him back and ask if he brought his sleep apnea machine. Feldy is 1:1 the loudest snoring human on the planet. I call Feldy back and ask, he obviously didn't because him wanting to "stay the night revelation" didn't hit him until he was 5 hours into a 6 hour drive. Inform the troops that Feldy is staying, no machine, and we will be drinking. Ray then says he's buying his own hotel room unless we can buy a weed pen as he's to scared to bring his through the airport. So the few hours before the ceremony we had to walk around DC turned into a scavenger hunt for a dispensary for the Asian because the concrete worker decided he wanted to stay the night. 

After all of that we get dressed and hop in Feldys car to go to the celebration. We get to the celebration and obviously its unique in every aspect. The feel, the people, the energy, all of it just unique. We walk in and sign the guest book. Now Gabe enters the weekend. Obviously a tough hug, a quick chat, but then he's got to greet everyone so we slide past him. 

I have lived with Gabe for 9 years of my life. That's actually crazy to think about now a few years removed but because of those 9 years, I just know Gabe better than anyone else. Gabe was always and sneakily hooking up with the hottest chicks (facts are facts sorry Kath). Since moving to DC nothing changed, in fact he started hooking up with hotter chicks. When Gabe would come to town, we typically always blackout, and he then would facetime his lover not girlfriend at home in DC. So I had meant Taylor, the girl that was on Barstools Smokeshow weekly blog and has over 70,000 Instagram followers, many of times over facetime now. Taylor and Gabe were never official. Well she was there and introducing herself as his girlfriend which was shocking news to all of us, but comes up to us and we talk for a bit. Ceremony starts, its tough, Gabe speaks, I am crying, and then when the speeches are done we have an hour to hang around, drink and support everyone there. Gabe and Taylor come up to us and finally have a minute to chat. Gabe gives Feldy the biggest congratulatory hug for baby #2 on the way and says: 

Gabe: "Feldy congrats dude, baby #2 on the way."

Feldy: "Thanks dude we are pretty excited"

Gabe: " It's the circle of life, my mom died so you can have another kid on the way"

Me: "Jesus fucking Christ Gabriel"

All of that was said out loud, post everyone crying, in a tiny room, while everyone is still there and in earshot. That was my instant reaction. I was stunned. Obviously we all started dying laughing after a moment but my god. 

When the celebration of life ceremony ends, we hop back in feldys car and head back to the hotel. To keep this from being too long of a blog, obviously Feldy and Ray park the truck in an apartment complex not a parking garage. In worried about not being able to find where to pay, Feldy decides hes going to to go back and move his truck, Ray volunteers to join. I get a call from Ray asking me to come help as they are locked out of the garage and building. I told him I wasn't going to help because they are two grown adults and need to figure it out (also was at the hotel bar). They call the buildings security which claims that ray and feldy are lying because nobody should be able to get in that garage. They get in the building get lost and takes 30 minutes to get the truck out of there. 

Feldy snores all night forcing kath and I to sleep with headphones in. Leaves at 4am and does make mass at 11am in Columbus. Ray sleeps like a baby because of the weed pen. We get breakfast with Taylor and Gabe where when we ask about them Taylor admits: when it was time to have the "what are we talk" Gabe told her to her face he didn't want to date her which was the first time she's ever heard that. Our flight gets delayed 4 hours just in time for me to make it home to watch Rodgers play the worst football game of his career. 

To close, I know none of this was probably worth your time in reading. None of this is fantasy football related and or people you really ever see. But the reason I shared it two fold:

1.) This week is the trade deadline and I can't imagine trades aren't done here in the next few days that would totally fuck up my rankings and assessments of teams.

2.) This is why we added the new losing punishment if and when you do eventually lose. Stories and moments like these I personally will never forget and I can't wait for us to have some together sooner than later. 

Why not one more little view into this weekend.

Love you all, and commence trade deadline week,

~ My Brain