We spent the day with Mike's family, as I have just about every holiday since we lived together. Fun was had by all, but I realized just how much I'd lost touch with his family because so much has changed. When we lived together (May '98 to March '00), we used to visit his parents almost every weekend, and they became like a second family to me. They still are, and still welcome me with open arms, but outside of a brief appearance to borrow his dad's truck when I was helping him move in October, I hadn't really seen or talked to them since last xmas. His dad has a new truck and a new paint job on his Harley, and his sister kicked her boyfriend out of the house, and I knew nothing about it. I'm kind of sad about that, because they've been so great to me over the years and I feel out of the loop now. I was even drifting away from Mike for a while, but we've been talking a lot more lately, so that's good. He's the best friend I've ever had, and he means the world to me. Even though he's a racist, homophobic bastard at times, and we've had our share of arguments (like the time we nearly killed each other at the laundromat after having bad days), but I love the man more than anyone else I've ever known.

The day itself went pretty much as expected. Good meal, lots of alcohol. Mike quit drinking a few months ago, then started again, but didn't tell his family that, so he was sneaking shots of Jack from my flask throughout the day. He's the one who introduced me to my favorite beverage, so it's kind of a tradition for us to do at least a couple shots together whenever we get together, even though I normally drink it on the rocks now. I had the advantage of being able to drink openly, so I had a few glasses of wine and a few beers on top of it. Don't really recall the ride home at all, but I managed to get undressed and in bed before passing out. Woke up later, stayed up for a bit, went to bed, got up and puked then went to sleep. He called this morning to inform me that he and Marla (his new girlfriend) found an open bar after they left, so he was hurting pretty badly today, too. Yeah, we're stupid and do this almost every time we get together. You'd think we'd learn...