My main man Sabin was in town for a conference this week, and last night we finally got a chance to hang out. Life hasn't been no crystal stair for either one of us over the past couple of years. He was dealt a heavy dose of reality when he lost both of this parents over a span of several weeks, and I had to deal with the much lesser inconvenience of being unemployed for nearly a year. While one is obviously more serious than the other, both things change your perspective on life, death, and how to move going forward in this thing we call life.

So with that as a backdrop, we hung out last night. First we had dinner at a restaurant which was weird for me because a) we didn't sit at the bar and b) there was no tv. I honestly cannot a remember a time when I hung out with a dude (my father, my uncle, my boys, my son) where a bar and sports on multiple big screen televisions was not in play. Sometimes those televisions serve as a distraction, sometimes I genuinely want to watch something, and other times you just need those TVs to offset that inevitable dead-air space between conversation topics.

But there was none of that last night. No TVs, no sitting at the bar, just conversation about life past and present and just navigating life as men in our mid-40s. We've known each other since August of 1992, and although we haven't always been super tight all the time, when we get together it feels like we're back at Hampton in the dorm. Good times.

We kept the good times rolling after dinner by going to see the Miles Davis documentary The Birth of Cool, and man was it good. Obviously Miles is a polarizing figure. He was an innovator, a genius, a brilliant horn player and he showed the remarkable ability to adapt his style to the changing musical times. But he was also a drug addict, he beat up all of his women, and some would argue that he abandoned "real" jazz after his six-year hiatus in the late 70s/early 80s. The documentary did a stellar job of capturing all sides of Miles, while mixing in some humor, some sadness and lots of the beautiful music Miles made. In fact, as I'm typing this blog entry, I'm jamming to the live version of "So What"

I woke up this morning feeling inspired to blog, to write a sports article and to resume writing this magical book I've been discussing the past three years. Part of that inspiration came from Miles and a much bigger chunk came from hanging with my main man Sabin. Sometimes you don't even realize how much you miss someone and need that kick in the ass that only they can provide...