today is Jabez's birthday

Wikipedia says this about the name Jabez:


Jabez is a Biblical male given name from the Old Testament. It is of Hebrew Origin. In 1 Chronicles, Jabez is a well-respected man (ancestor in the lineage of the kings' tribe of Judah) whose prayer to God for blessing was answered (see 1 Chronicles 4:9-11).


which I didn't know when I met him on NYE three years ago and as a result proceeded to sit down next to him and ask him what his real name was, not his 'stupid raver nickname' and hassled him about it until he showed me his ID which, in fact, said Jabez on it.

whoops.

despite this though he decided I was okay to hang out with and one time came over to drink wine and hang out before Tyrone's show at some bar, and because Jabez is better at computers than I could ever be he linked his computer to mine and was sharing some cool tunes with me and we were singing obnoxiously and we had a good time. then the next day I deleted what I thought was the link to our computers without asking him and accidentally deleted a whole bunch of his really important IT work stuff.

whoops.

the poor guy must be a glutton for punishment because I can't even count the amount of times he's had us over for drinks and parties and I've passed out there, drank too much there, thrown up in his bathrooms, and otherwise been a bad guest. I've also been mad at him more times than I'd like because being friends with me is hard, sometimes.

whoops.

and despite all this he keeps on being my friend for reasons I don't understand. maybe it's because he's older than I am and hopes that I won't be a total douche forever (which is probably wrong), or because we both have good taste in movies and music and literature and it's fun to have what you think is a high-brow intellectual conversation with someone and then look back and realize that you were just talking out your ass to each other the whole time.

which is what friends are for, right?

so happy birthday Jabez. I hope when I'm as old as you I can be even half as cool, and thanks for being my friend.