Tomorrow will be March, 5th and I know two significant things about that date.

John Belushi died on that day.

My best friend, Jeff Lacquement, was born on that day.

But on different years.

It’s a little eerie thinking about John’s death in the wake of everything that is currently happening with Charlie Sheen right now. Let’s hope Charlie’s end story doesn’t turn out to be another sad, Hollywood cautionary tale like John’s. The sad truth is, we will all have our own end story in one form or another but it’s just sad watching a public figure have so much and be so determined to run it into the ground much faster than anyone should.

That’s why I prefer, instead, to think about the celebration of life. And I can’t think of a better way to do that than by wishing the Godfather to my daughter a very Happy Birthday! Jeff and I have known each other since I was 14 and his family moved into my area from Italy where he dad was stationed. In both Capes & Babes books, I mention the fact that in some weird, alternate universe, we aren’t friends. We’re brothers.

That was true way back when we were both playing football in the streets in front of my grandmother’s house…
It was true when we stayed in line for 19 hours and slept on the Washington DC sidewalk just so we could get U2 tickets…
It was true when we’d take trips to Kings Dominion and had to stop every 1/2 hour to put water in my ’78 Chevet’s busted radiator…
It was true every summer we would go camping down in Roanoke Valley right before I had to go back to Radford University…

It was true then and it’s still true now.

So happy birthday, Jeff! Here’s hoping you have a great one!