Goodbye Toby

Toby Jones died last week. It was the first time that someone outside of my family died that I knew reasonably well. Toby was truly a character. He was really funny, eccentric and very nice. The first time I got to know him was in Middle School, in Mr. Harriman's class. He actually had the audacity to ask Mr. Harriman if that smell permeating the pod area was pot smoke. It was so funny because we were in 8th grade and that was a big deal. I have a shitload of pictures from the 8th grade dance with Toby and Eric...and those resurfaced when I fell in love with Eric.

Also, Toby and I and Drew had Ecology together with Mr. Umbarger, which was a really fucked up class. Mr. Umbarger was kind of a blunt, old pervert, and he was the first real teacher who cussed. Cussing in those days consisted of "Ass" and "Son of a Bitch," not "Fucking fuck fuck" and "Smegma". Anyway, that class was fucking hilarius. We had it with the jocks and I remember Colt Sanchez saying "The mountains of Florida." Also, I remember Toby molesting Drew's legs.

Toby was really funny and very weird. He had a dark side, but for the most part he didn't have a mean bone in his body. The last time I saw him was over Spring Break at Alice in Wonderland. He told me that he was a lift operator in Telluride and I was like "We should get baked." He gave me his number....

Bittersweet. He had an enlarged heart and so it was only a matter of time. It really sucks that everyone was like intitially "O.D." or whatever. Obviously Toby lived life to the fullest, and at leas the got to spend the last time in his life in the beautiful mountains.

I'm going to his funeral tomorrow, and I know I am going to ball.

Om Tare Tu Tare Tura So ha