This blog is dedicated to one of my best friends of the past 7-8 years or so, the one and only Piya P. (Last name withheld for privacy sake but it rhymes with "dunker", for those who know more than one Piya P.) He recently moved away from the fine state of Illinois to the land of cheese (Wisconsin), so I figured this would be a good time to write about my boy. I think he won't be getting internet access for another week, so he won't be reading this immediately, but that's ok. I'm writing this more for myself and everyone else who knows and loves him.
My first memory of Piya came in sophomore year of high school (DGS), when we were in the same gym class. It was the first day of our swimming unit, and as we were leaving the locker room to go to the pool with the rest of the class he stopped me and asked "hey, are you good at swimming?" I said no, and he replied "ok good, cause I don't really know how to swim". So that was our first bonding moment, based on our mutual lack of swimming skills. It might seem stupid, but in high school, you don't want to be the only kid who gets put in the "beginner's group" for anything, especially in gym.
The next thing I remember about P was junior year English class with Mrs. David, when I sat in the seat in front of him. Every single day for that entire year, the first thing he said to me when I walked in was "did you see Simpsons last night?" For those of you who don't know Piya, he is probably the biggest fan of the Simpsons that you will ever meet. I know some of you think that you're the biggest fan, but you're not. He is. Actually, now that I think of it, I think he signed my yearbook back then with a drawing of Homer's head. Haha.
Senior year of high school brought more common threads to our budding relationship, in addition to the ones I already mentioned (sucking at swimming and talking about Simpsons). Being both top AP students, we had around 4 or 5 classes together, and we were also both on Math Team. In other words, we were brought closer due to being huge nerds. Throughout the year, there were plenty of memories, but among the highlights were:
1) AP Physics, sitting behind Garza and Kuettler (better known as Audit Boy) and watching the fun unfold
2) English with Mr. Connaughton teaching Moby Dick, George of all people becoming teacher's pet, field trip to the Art Institute, and of course, Gina trying to hit on Piya the whole year
Anyways, despite the fun times in high school, it wasn't until college that the real fun started. There's no way I could list everything me and P went through together in those 4 years, and I don't even know where to start. One big thing was, since we were the same major, we had so many classes together. I think for at least one or two semesters we had the exact same schedule. Which meant:
- Holding each other accountable for going to class
- Using each other as an excuse for skipping class (he had to fill me in on lectures more than the other way around)
- Skipping class together to shoot pool or craft
- Many nights studying together at Grainger for the same exams
- Copying Vas's homework from last semester (thanks Vas, mad props)
- Making fun of our professors and TA's
When we weren't doing anything school related it was a lot of video games:
- Playing Starcraft while watching TRL (and many other situations)
- In NFL Blitz, me trying to get green on all the categories against him, and him just trying to prevent me from doing so
- Picking up Rover after class, then playing Triple Play with our fantasy baseball rosters. Barry Bonds capping off a huge comeback for me with a grand slam is a memory that comes to mind. Also Tim Hudson's unhittable breaking pitch is worth mentioning.
- Playing Puzzle Fighter not so much to win, but more about trying to build the hugest solid block possible of one color, and then cracking it to see how much crap you could drop on the other guy at once
And there's other fond memories:
- Fiending for the first episode of Baseball Tonight at the beginning of the MLB season
- Making immature derogatory versions of people's names and other words in normal conversation
- Pact with Chras and Dennis
- Flamin Hot Cheetos
- Running over the possum
- Using .WAV files to talk on AIM through Direct Connect (James Iha: "What up", or Local H: "You crass badass!", or Homer: "U-R-GAY hehehe", or Chris Rock: "Why you gotta say that?")
We also talked about the possible future things to do:
- If we ever started a band and made it onto SNL or Letterman to perform, we would wear ECE-Illinois T-shirts
- Someday returning to Grainger, bringing huge speakers to the quiet 2nd floor study area, and blasting Rage Against the Machine's "Bulls on Parade"
Neither sounds too likely at this point, but maybe we will actually end up accomplishing those goals, who knows?
Anyways, I don't want to make this blog too long, and it wasn't supposed to be a farewell tribute or anything like that. Just wanted to take the chance to remember some good times with one of my favorite people in the world, and share it with anyone else who also feels like remembering our buddy Piya at the moment. I don't know about the rest of you, but even though he's only an hour and a half away, it still feels to me like he's much farther away from us now. So maybe writing/reading this blog will make it almost seem like he's still around. Any of you guys out there who have favorite Piya memories should share with us here too.
The blog wouldn't be complete without some pictures:
Outside Everitt
Thug Luv
Me and P
Just Chillin'
Me and P Part 2
Kissing the McNown League trophy
