Tradition...TRADITION.

Imagine the above post title coming from Tevye's booming tenor. Don't know Tevye? Then I dont know you. Go rent Fiddler on the Roof right now before you even finish reading this post.


Anyway, yesterday was Good Friday. For the past seven or so years, I have a rather unorthodox way of honoring this day of ultimate sacrifice. Since the day is spent fasting and refraining from meat, naturally my inclination is spend the first 10 minutes of Holy Saturday gorging on the finest meats and cheeses...from Dennys. You see, around 8 or 9pm on Friday, a few of my friends and I would rent a horror film or two, watch it and scream and drink cherry wine coolers. Then at the stroke of midnight, we would head out to the local Denny's for Moons Over my Hammy or the Western skillet or any of the numerous tasty items on the Denny's menu. This tradition began our sophomore year of high school and lasted well, until this year.

Those Fridays are fond memories. However one night sticks out in particular. I call it the Redrum Incident of '02. My best friends Amy, PW and Sarah came over around 9pm, we headed out to Blockbuster and promptly rented The Shining since we had heard it was the ultimate "horror" flick. We also got Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion to offset the creepy Jack Nicholson. After the first half hour, I think we were all pretty proud of ourselves because none of us had a. peed our pants b. screamed like schoolgirls and c. had to leave the room. However, this high was not going to last. Just when no play began to make Jack a dull boy, so did The Shining begin to make us tear at our eyes. Then it came, that creepy kid that to this day still haunts my dreams: REDRUM. REDRUM. I swear Amy hit the ceiling and Sarah unleashed the girliest scream I've ever heard. Sodas were spilled, blankets and pillows thrown around. We were effin creeped out. I dont think any of us knew what the hell was going on. We were nice little high school students. We didnt meddle with Wicca or read sci-fi books about aliens. We were honor students, student council members, a valedictorian and jocks. What the hell were we doing watching a little kid wiggle his finger and chant murder backwards? It was a scary, scary moment. It was made even creepier when my older brother who decided at that moment to flash the basement lights. I swear my heart jumped out of my body, did a jig and then died.
It took us all a moment to collect ourselves. We finished the movie in silence while exchanging "what the hell just happened looks?" I still to this day dont understand if Jack was a ghost and travelled back in time or what. The drive to Denny's was perpetuated with my smart-ass Redrum whispers to which I recieved violent cancer punches. The rest of the night was a blast. We had coffee, smoked cigarettes and due to our carbo induced late night breakfast, laughed like drunk monkeys at Romy and Michelle's hijinks.

The next year, before we could have Friday fun, Amy passed away while studying in Spain. We contemplated cancelling it since it was so soon after Amy's passing but sure enough when that Friday in 03 came along, I called PW and Sarah and we rented the movies and we ate Moons Over My Hammy. It was our first Good Friday in 4 years that Amy was not with us. Our conversation that night revolved around the Redrum Incident, Amy's penchant for berry wine coolers, and her disgust for cigarettes. It felt good to talk about her, like she was just missing the night because she was out with one of her many male admirers. And thats how I thought about it for a while. She was just missing out on things, not because she was dead, but because she was occupied with other stuff. Somewhere she was doing something important.

Yesterday was the first time it dawned on me that there may not be many Good Fridays left to be spent in a sketchy Denny's. Maybe it will just become one of those stories that we throw out at 10 year reunions. In the past 2 years, I have felt the excitement of the event fade away and made even more complicated by the fact that I no longer live in the same city as Sarah and PW. I dont know if its because we've all grown apart or grown up or grown lazy and jaded that we dont bother with the silly traditions that we used to do in high school. But to me, these traditions are what makes life liveable. They connect all of us and enable us to continually interact with eachother no matter how far away we get. It gives us the memories that we are so constantly reminded "will last us a lifetime."

I missed my friends yesterday.
I miss Amy everyday.