Russell was, for those of you who don't know my life before this blog, one of Mister's and my closest friends when we were living in Alaska. He was more than a friend, he was like our brother. He is the man our son is named after. He had his own room at our house, even though he rented an apartment within walking distance, and spent about every waking moment on our couch (and in my face).
See............Russell was truly, madly, deeply in love with me. Yup, that's right. (Didn't think I was wise to it, did you Russell?) Didn't make any difference to Mister, he knew Russ didn't stand a chance - I wasn't going anywhere - and I never will. In fact, I think Mister was amused by it. He got to watch Russell make an arse out of himself on a daily basis either to me or at work.
Russell was hilarious, but not on purpose. He was very selfish, very moody, and very demanding. He was like a woman with perpetual PMS. In fact, we called him Negative Nancy (usually just Nancy), Pissy Patty, and Sally. He sounds just awful, doesn't he? Well he wasn't. Those female qualities just made him more ridiculous.
What a hot mess.
Never a dull moment when he was around. Lots of arguing, but more laughing. Any of you who knew Russell know exactly what I mean, but reading this back to myself - it really sounds terrible.
HAHAHAHA. Once, he needed some furnishings for his apartment and didn't want to spend any money, didn't want to go by himself, and didn't want to change his clothes first. So he dragged me down the street to Fred Meyer's (a northern version of Wal-Mart) wearing a long sleeved Steelers shirt, Michigan yellow sweat shorts, and green Army socks stretched up to his knees to see how cheaply he could score some plastic dishes. It was mortifying. But I went along bc as horrific as his outfit was, it was even more histerical to see the looks on everyone's faces as we passed by. That's what I mean by his frusterating qualities also being what made him so great. I am still haunted by those shorts. In fact here they are, in a teeny tiny picture from when we went deep see halibut fishing:
Through Russell's passing, I gained a name for my son, a sister named Stephanie, and an extra set of grandparents for Little. We are lucky to have had Russell for those 2 short years. In that amount of time, he was able to weasel his way into our hearts ant cling on for dear life like a tick on the end of a sprinting dog's tail.
And now, seeing as how it's the 5 year anniversary of that fateful day, I feel the need to share your true spirit with the world. So here it is, Pants Off Dance Off.
You're welcome.
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