Another Victim

I got an email yesterday from a college pal of mine that I’ve managed to keep in contact with. He and I have been buddies since 1988 – which is a long time (and scary that we’ve known each other 16 years). Anyway, he and I don’t chat often, but it’s always fun when we do.

His nickname is Cakes. He never got called by his real name in school, unless it was a professor or someone who didn’t know him well. Those of us who hung out with him never called him by his real name. He also had more than one nickname courtesy of some other friends of ours. Huevon was popular for at least the first year of our friendship. Oscar came up with that one. Oscar was from Bolivia and when he arrived at our school he spoke no English. He watched tv and slowly learned though but his accent was thick. And he was nuts. He and another guy we called Jones were absolutely insane in their antics, and when combined with Huevon the three of them kept me laughing 100% of the time. Then after a while Huevon became Cakes and stayed with that name for a number of years.

Then he started making the sounds of a chicken all the time – whenever he’d call, he’d start off the conversation with a quick “Pa-keep!” Then it would show up in emails as the signoff.

I told you they weren’t quite right in the head.

Anyway, so imagine my surprise when I get an email and then a call yesterday from Cakes saying that he and Wifey quite possibly might be moving to New York City in the next few months for an 18-month stint. How awesome would THAT be? I’ve never met Wifey (they got married about two years ago), but it would be awesome to hang out with Cakes again, even if it’s just every once in a while (they’d obviously be invited to our poker nights if they moved here).