RIP, Tony...

Today I got an invitation to a memorial service for someone I didn't know had died.

The person was a guy named Tony, who I knew through a college roomate who worked with him. Evidently, he was killed in a motorcycle crash a few days ago.

I'm debating if I should go to the memorial, I'm not sure if I knew him well enough to go.

Last fall, Sunny (my old college roommate) invited me and a bunch of his friends from various places to an art show/musical performance. Tony was part of the musical act, and his creations - instruments made from found objects - were part of the exhibit. A bunch of us went out for pizza afterwards, and Tony decided it would be cool to get together some time, so he invited us over for dinner at his house the next week.

It went well, and I ended up inviting the group over my house the next week. I dubbed it the "Monday night thing", and the event and the name stuck, and other people in the group began hosting get-togethers - generally dinner and board games. It was a nice chance to get together with a different group of people, to do something on a Monday night other than watch TV.

My connection to Tony was minimal - dinner, board games. I remember him playing with my cat. But from what I knew of him, he was a very cool person - musically talented, great with kids, social, outgoing, good with people, a "connector", and it's hard to believe that he's gone, that he won't be coming to any more monday night things, won't be giving any more silly definitions in Balderdash.

There's probably a lesson I should learn from this in the shortness of life, of the need to live each day like it was your last, to focus on the positive. But I probably won't.