As some of you may know, my best friend, Chris, recently started a blog on WordPress after years of me telling him he should. Clearly, I’m not very persuasive. This post will be about me telling you about him and trying to persuade you to follow his blog. It should go well.
FOLLOW HIS BLOG BY CLICKING HERE.
Before I get into the whole song and slow dance, it needs to be said that Chris always calls me by my full name. He never calls me just “Paul”. It’s always my first and last name.
But because I don’t use my last name on WordPress, he has to call me just “Paul” here. The first comment he sent me, where he only used my first name, felt so weird for the both of us.
Also, we disagree on what colour my hair is.
Moving on!
Chris and I grew up with a forest between us. That’s not a metaphor or a euphemism, it’s geography. We went to the same elementary school, but were never in the same class until Grade 6. The system tried to keep us apart. Some would say they built a forest between us.
In Grade 6, I’d go over to his house almost once a week after school to play video games and eat pizza. His mom was always so nice to me. Hi Julia! (She reads my blog). His dog, well, he sneezed on me. He’s still my favourite dog, though.
Despite not being in the same class until Grade 6, we had the same friends and played with interacted with each other at recess. I crossed out “played with” in that last sentence because Chris is probably snickering like an 8-year-old at it. As am I.
I remember one recess, distinctly, while we were in Grade 5. We were sitting on the steps of one of the portables (an outdoor classroom) and all of a sudden found ourselves talking about hockey. The bell rang and Chris said to me, “Wow, we have so much in common but never really talked before.”
And that is the moment I consider the start of us being best friends. We were in Grade 5.
However, a few years ago I realized that Chris thinks we became best friends in Grade 4. Sure, we were probably friends back then, but I didn’t think we were that close. Did I send mixed signals, I don’t know!
So, he thinks we became friends in 2000, I say 2001. We’ll never agree.
When we entered high school, Grade 9 was a lost year. Our schedules didn’t line up and we never really saw each other. Plus, texting wasn’t really a thing and neither was social media.
In Grade 10, we found our groove again and MSN became the main method of communication. MSN remained in our lives until it stopped being a thing when we were both in university.
That was a hard day for our friendship because we had no clue how else we would talk to each other. We finally made our way over to Facebook messages, but it wasn’t quite the same.
And for all of you yelling, “JUST TEXT EACH OTHER!” I hear you. But texts between us back then were extremely awkward and just weird. There was no flow or anything. It’s almost as if neither of us wanted to text the other.
Within the last year, we finally found our texting groove with each other, though it comes in spurts. We’ll text back and forth for a solid 15 minutes and then a reply will go unanswered for the next five hours, or two days. It’s just the way we are.
We don’t see each other that often anymore but when we do, it’s normally at a Pizza Hut lunch buffet or on a baseball diamond where we try to hit as many baseballs over the fence as possible. It’s fun. It’s also a reminder that we’re old.
Chris is the only person from elementary school who I still stay in contact with. He’s one of the few from high school who I still talk to, as well. We went to different universities, which in a way, brought us closer together.
There were an endless amount of late night chats on MSN while both of us should have been doing an assignment. We talked about everything. Absolutely everything. I think we all need a friend like that.
We’re very much alike, but also different. Hockey brought us together and our ability to laugh at the silliest things has kept us together.
We have never had the same taste in music until recently. He had been telling me about The Gaslight Anthem for years, but it wasn’t until I discovered them on my own that I became attached to them and their lead singer, Brian Fallon.
Chris thought I was kidding when I told him I liked their music. Other than that, we bond over the song, Runaround Sue. Then again, who doesn’t?
I remember a field trip in Grade 6. They took us to a comedy club. At one point, they told us to pick a partner and create a story with them. I would say one word, Chris would say the next, and so on until a story was made.
Our story was about constipated cats and we couldn’t stop laughing about it. I still can’t stop laughing about it. Constipated cats!
Chris has met some of my closest university friends and despite advertising himself as an awkward individual, I’d say he did pretty well! Except for the time we went skating and his toe went numb for a few hours. We laugh about it now. Or at least I do.
Here is a description of Chris in his own words:
My name is Christopher Mc Geown. My last name has a space because my dad filled out my birth certificate wrong. I was born and raised in Richmond Hill, my parents are divorced. I was a shy kid growing up. When I was in grade one we had small journals, my teacher would tell me to stop writing in them and play with the other children. I filled out about 2 dozen. I have always loved writing. It was in elementary school I met my best friend Paul, grade 4 to be exact.
When I grew up, I went to University thinking I wanted to be a writer. I applied for English programs, but when I started I quickly realized I would be buried by books. I didn’t like the idea of rushing through books, of reading becoming a chore—so after a year I switched into psychology because I liked helping people.
So I lost literature for a while.
I studied psychology, graduated to a job market barren for Psychology majors, panicked and took a one year post-grad course to become a Financial Planner. I ended up dropping this with a month left to go because I realized on life focused on money was not the life for me.
Recently, I started working various jobs, settling on maintenance. I started volunteering at a Distress Line. I began writing again and have completed 75% of a novel, hoping to have it done by early 2017. I applied and got accepted to do a Masters in January 2017. I continue reading and loving writing and poetry. I love humour and try to find it in everything even though sometimes my poetry may be a bit darker.
I am currently obsessed with Game of Thrones (on season 6, no spoilers). I am neither a cat or dog person (I am a both person), and I love talking to random people on the internet, talk to me, add me, whatever you like. Many talented writers here on WordPress!
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So, that’s Chris! Go follow his blog! Tell him I sent you! If you like me, you’ll like him. He likes tacos, chocolate milk, and sushi, so for all of you who give me a hard time about that, he’s you’re new favourite blogger. I won’t miss any of you.
You went to a comedy club for a field trip?! That sounds incredible and weird. I wish I had gone to your school. One too many trips to the Boston Science Museum.
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Yeah we went to Second City to watch a performance then they tried to train us to be funny. I guess it worked?
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Clearly it did! The most I got out of the science museum was screaming, “Expelliarmus!” while touching the lightning ball.
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You were such a cool kid, weren’t you?
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Psht, I was the coolest. My mom said so.
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Nice pitch…I bought it and even hit that here thing that lead me to Chris’s page.
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Excellent! I knew I could be persuasive.
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Hi Paul! I remember you as the the most polite kid EVER! I love reading your blog, they always make me smile. Thanks for remembering me!
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Thank you!
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Awesome intro! I’ll take a look
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Thank you!
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Reblogged this on Short Poems and Other Nonsense and commented:
My best friend and I were discussing how I suck at writing/talking about myself–so here is my about me P2 Courtesy of Paul:D!
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OMG look at fetus Paul! And I’m so jealous! The only place my school took us for a field trip was a ratty old museum that was supposed to be haunted. Ugh.
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Haha. We had our share of boring field trips too. This was one of the good ones.
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Aw. I followed Chris!
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Good! Send him some comments. He loves pizza.
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He’d think I were stalking him.
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Lol fine. You could just blame me for sending you.
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Oooh okay. Let’s do it and embarrass myself. 😂💃
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That’s the spirit!
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I don’t like sushi either, the thought of it disgusts me.
Also, a friendly reminder, I beat Chris. That is all.
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Ah we finally agree on something food related, but I still think you’re getting letter #14.
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Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!
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Whaaaaaaaat? Paul’s blog featuring Chris?? Deep breaths, Barb, take deep breaths. I will definitely check out Chris’ blog…..I can tell from what he wrote on your blog that I will love it. Hmmmm…..maybe it will have to be Chris’ blog featuring Barb. The 3 of us will have to get our heads together. Warn him I don’t use “u.”
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Haha Paul’s blog ft. Chris, who ever saw that one coming? If the three of us put our heads together, two of them will be putting a “u” in their words. Only a matter of time before you join us!
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I don’t think I’ll join u with that, but zed could happen. I think that is so cool, but I’d never remember to use it.
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Zed is such a fun ruiner if you think about it. Throws of the whole rhyming sequence that is the end of the alphabet. Zee rhymes with V. Zed just throws it off. Very Canadian of it.
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Sneaky. And also totally ruins the children’s song we teach our kids to learn the alphabet.
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I turned out fine! I think.
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I said it ruins the SONG we teach, not the KIDS we teach. Actually, now that I’ve sang it to myself 3 times (this is getting ridiculous) it zoundz ok.
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Oops, maybe I didn’t turn out fine after all haha
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I just looked at my oh and realized that OF COURSE this whole thread of conversation is on your blog and not mine haha. But then again, we were talking about Chris. Whose blog I’m trying to commandeer.
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I told him, in person, how nice you are and that he should become friends with you. So don’t blow this!
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Ha! And I just re-read my comment to you and “I just looked at my oh” Even I can’t figure that out and I wrote it! Blog? Don’t worry, I’ll be good. Thank you for the compliment. Don’t tell him I’m crazy. I prefer eccentric.
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Haha I don’t know what you meant either but I’ll leave it unedited.
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And I hope he gets some visitors from myblog, too.
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He hit 100 views for the first time after my blog post on him and was overwhelmed. No pressure!
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He’s an excellent writer. And seems very nice too.
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Hello! New follower to your blog here (&, yes, to Chris’s blog too!). I had to comment on this post simply because you mentioned constipated cats… & I have a funny story about that, about which no one cares.
Still, I wanted to say “hello.”
Hello!
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Hi Ariel! Who knew that “constipated cats” could be a conversation starter!? I just tried clicking to your blog but it says it was deleted? If you changed the URL I think I know how to fix it. Head to your Reader and click on your profile picture in the top right corner of the screen. From there, click on “Account Settings” on the left. Then, fill in your Web Address to whatever your new URL is. Hope that works!
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Oh my gosh… constipated cats may have been one of the best conversation starters in my (short) WordPress existence!! Chris made the exact same point about my blog being deleted, & you’re 100% correct – I deleted my original WP account, which I created a looooong time ago & never used, when I started WordPressing (it’s not a word, but I’m making it one!) regularly. But I didn’t know how to fix it.
If I could trouble you to check & see if your suggested fix worked, I would be forever in your debt. Just be forewarned that I’m broke, so being in your debt is essentially worthless. But I’ll be grateful!
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Yes! It works!
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Thank you so much for your help! You now officially rock! 😀
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You’re welcome! Happy to help!
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HIII CHRIS!
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Chris isn’t here can I take a message?
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I’ll leave a message at the BEEP
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BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP
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Hi Paul I was calling to talk to Chris. Please tell him hi for me. Thanks. Beep!
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Please hold. *Elevator music*
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HIIII MEGHAN
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*booping Chris’ nose*
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I don’t have 3 way calling Jess….
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Ouch, man.
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