kellinator | A very special happy birthday

It was summer 1995. I was seventeen, and I was at the University of Tennessee at Martin, where I was attending the Governor's School for the Humanities. I was on the newspaper staff and had recently read a column I'd admired in the college newspaper, and -- I suppose this is a sign that God wanted us to meet each other -- though I'm notoriously bad with faces, one evening I saw a guy on campus that looked a lot like the photo by the column and I walked up to him and said "Are you Jason Tippitt?"

In the more than eight years since then, Jason (who some of you know as

scarcrest) and I have put each other through a fair amount of hell at times. Hell, we even went a year without speaking.

But that's just the proof that you hurt the ones you care about. Jason, you have been there for me like no other person, including my own family. You have talked me down from some of the darkest moments of my life. You've put up with me hysterical, shitfaced, and incoherent -- sometimes all three at once. And while you were at it, you introduced me to Judd Winick and Homicide.

I know your friendship is more than I deserve. God bless you for it. Happy birthday, and may this be the year all your dreams come true.