A part of the good Lord's mercy toward me is that I was given the most spectacular group of friends with whom to weather the massive craphole that was my mid-to-late 20's. I love these men and women like my own family, and feel so blessed to know and be known by them.

The past year and half or so has brought a lot of change, and we're now spread about the country (and abroad, for some lucky b-tards), but there's a core group still in St. Louis, and we were able to get together for several hours on Saturday night.

For a good little stretch awhile back, we were able to have themed "family dinner" nights together, and we got close to that again this weekend. We had a Good Old Fashioned American Cookout, with burgers and salad and cheesy potatoes and lemonade and ice cream sundaes and more ('cause it IS America, and there's always more). We caught up, we played with each other's kids, we teased each other mercilessly, talked politics, and ate, ate, and ate.

Hopped up on sugar and trans fats, we floated our inhibitions down the mighty Mississippi and picked up the digital instruments of Wii Rock Band. This a group generally unafraid of a little histrionics in the first place, but put a microphone or electric guitar in our hands, give us a digital alter-ego with better abs and cooler hair, and you're asking for a show. Flora DaBluntwon overcame her initial protest over the lack of Joni Mitchell songs to find out she shares a similiar vocal range with Sting. Her husband, Fresh Inkk, proved to all of us that, alas, in spite of sharing a quality Georgian education, he is no Michael Stipe. Meanwhile, the curious pairing of myself with MacScot and Songbird Escalatia proved powerful enough to unlock TWO, count 'em, TWO songs that none of us had even HEARD before---on the first try! Amusement AND a sense of accomplishment, in the same evening. What more could you ask for?