She said "I could tell you stories that will make you cry, what about you?" I said "Me Too. I could tell you a story that will make you cry."

This day is starting to drag. For lunch, everyone in the office went to eat at the Deluxe Chinese Buffet and thus we all made the worst decision that any of us will probably make today. I'm miraculously unaffected but I've watched all my other coworkers make trip after trip the the bathroom, all returning to regale me with stories of different odors and feelings. So it goes.

Tonight, one of my oldest friends, Casey, is in town and will be joining us for dinner at the house. Chicken, Sausage, and vegetables on the grill with cheesecake for dessert, it will be good times. Casey and I became friends in 5th grade and if I can say anything about him, its that he made my youth a lot more interesting than it would've been without him.

I set him on fire once.

It was his idea. We were in 8th grade and his brother was in high school where there was a chemistry teacher with a love of explosions and flames. Apparently, Casey's brother had come home once and shown Casey a trick where he applied a mixture of Ethyl alcohol and water to his arm and then set it on fire. The water keeps the fire from reaching your skin somehow, I don't know, I never took the class. His brother neglected to share the part about the water with Casey and so one day he grabbed some alcohol and some matches and told me he wanted to show me something. He poured alcohol all over his arm and handed me the match.

I said, "What are we doing?"
He said, "You, my friend, are going to light me on fire."

I said that I certainly wasn't going to do that and we argued for a minute or two before he had me convinced. So I lit him on fire. When he yelled "Fuck" and doubled over I got the impression that things hadn't gone according to his plan. He had huge blisters all over his arm for a while. They were pretty gross.

Despite how that story makes him seem, he's easily one of the smartest people I've ever known. He actually teaches a Sunday school class at the church we grew up in and a buddy of mine says its pretty interesting to hear your Sunday school teacher talk about how much he loves marijuana and advocate its legalization. Its just not what you expect in an East Texas Sunday school, you know? I think the next time I'm in East Texas on a Sunday I'm going to try and witness this spectacle.