Where to begin?

I've been struggling this week with getting my thoughts together on what Jody meant to me.

Apologies in advance for the long and rambling post...

Jody and I met in the mid 90s through mutual friends. He ran the soundboard for their band, City Hall Fred. We hit it off pretty quickly as we shared a similar sense of humor. There were many late nights at his place above Bistro America in Batavia...cocktails, food, Madden, Mr. Show marathons (he had every episode recorded on VHS off of HBO and made his own "boxed sets" one Christmas to give to friends)...but most of all there was the music. The music was always LOUD. It was a good thing he lived above a bar. Steely Dan, Radiohead, James Brown, Grateful Dead, Beastie Boys...and on and on.

In addition to running sound for the band, Jody would DJ at parties and bars (and parties at bars) and soon he woukd invite me to join him at gigs. We combined our massive CD collections (yes kids, no laptops or iPods were involved) and would have a blast just playing tunes and entertaining ourselves (the people seemed to enjoy it too, which was a bonus. He somehow was given the moniker "DJ Jazzy Jody" (I think one of the bars needed to put a name on a promotional banner and that was the best that someone could come up with under short notice) and while it was definitely his show he'd have me fill in the gaps when he struggled to find the next song to play (or if he needed a pee break). There were no pre-planned playlists, we'd just grab discs and play stuff on the fly. It was almost a game of one upmanship..."What can you play coming out of this song that will flow?"

At some point in 2000 Jody moved down to the city with Andrew to a tiny apartment around the corner from the Empty Bottle. The late nights continued. I was pretty much "the guy sleeping on the couch" 2 or 3 weekends out of every month as I still lived out in the burbs. We'd explore the bars & restaurants in the area, catch some live music, ballgames...generally living a care free life as one woukd expect from a bunch of guys in their 20s.

I remember when the Cubs had their first game after 9/11 we decided that day to go, total spur of the moment. It was a night game and we made it to Wrigley about 90 minutes before first pitch. Scalpers (again this was the "olden days" with paper tickets only) were asking crazy money for seats.

Jody says "follow me" and we walked up to those Day Of Game ticket booths out in front under the marquee. The lines were fairly short but he took a minute to peer into each booth's windows from the side and see who was working as he "had a guy". Sure enough he had intel on which person had the good tickets we ended up scoring seats that one of the players wasn't using...2nd row behind the screen, right next to the visitors dugout and on deck circle. Face value (maybe $50 at that time?). Boom. Girardi gave a pregame speech about 9/11, Sosa ran out to right field with a little flag...it all happened right in front of us. I'm sure you can find clips on YouTube.

Eventually Jody and Andy decided to upgrade their living arrangements (their landlord was difficult to put it mildly...Andy can tell those stories) and brought me in as a 3rd roommate in a sweet 2 story apartment up on Washtenaw in Logan Square. Jody took the lower level and quickly made it into the media room....a big ol' (for the time) Sony tube TV, surround sound, the infamous computer hard drive hooked in to the DirecTV box that gave us every channel known to mankind and a new & extremely tidy couch and chairs from Crate & Barrel. He also decided to ditch the plastic CD racks and beer cases and commissioned my dad to build him a huge 6 foot by 8 (or 10?) foot CD rack which I believe he still has today. Had. Damnit.

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Jody was definitely the dad of tbe house. He was starting to get out of the restaurant biz and on a more grown up path career wise. Now I will say he was not the easiest guy to live with at times, but then again Andy and I definitely weren't always model roommates either. Jody would leave us these reminder notes about bills that were due or dishes in the sink. Little things that were bugging him. Clutter drove him nuts. I thought we kept the common areas pretty tidy, but he just had higher standards. When we did go on a cleaning frenzy our paper towel usage was a big thing with Jody. "Come on guys, this is wasteful. Think of the environment".

In spite of the occasional and typical roommate conflicts (which I should stress were really few and far between) we all still had so many great times together on Washtenaw. Football Sundays on the couches, BBQs, Halloween parties, late nights after the bars. We became regulars at Quenchers down the street (still can't believe that place is now a pediatrician's clinic. WTF). Life was good.... and then it went from good to "11" for Jody when he and Sally met.

It was obvious they were a great match from the beginning...the way he would talk about her, he'd just light up. Pretty soon he was moving on from Washtenaw and in with Sally. Some would say it was the "end of an era" but again Jody was on a different path from us, professionally and now relationship wise...ready for the next chapter. The dude was "all growns up". We just knew they were perfect for each other. As I told Avery the other night, "I kinda handed your dad off to your mom".

I met my future wife Kirstin around the time the Jody and Sally were getting serious. Roughly a year after they got married I also moved out of Washtenaw and in to an apartment with her in Bucktown.

Another baseball interlude...this is probably where I should reveal/confess that I am a White Sox fan.. When they went on their run in the summer of 2005 Jody and I talked or texted about almost every day. Cub fan aside Jody is (was...damnit again) a true baseball geek, and I say that with love. He was dialed in to what was happening and was genuinely excited for me. When the playoffs rolled around I was able to get tickets to Game 1 of the LDS against Boston (the day game where they blew them out). My brother was being responsible and couldn't skip out of work; somehow my mom already had tickets of her own. So of course the next person on my list was Jody. Without hesitation he was in.

About two innings into the game Jody was coming up the aisle with a couple of beers when he started waving at someone sitting about 6 or 7 rows behind us (as best as one can wave while clutching and trying not to spill 2 overpriced Miller Lites). He finally go their attention and smiled but the game was back in progress so he quickly shuffles down our row and sat down.

"Your mom is sitting right up there!"

I turned around and there's my mom and her friend waving at us. I called her on the phone (no easy feat with her technological limitations) and she said "I thought I saw Jody earlier when he went to get the beers but wondered why a Cubs fan would be here!" followed by "How did we end up in the same section?"

As the years have gone by Jody and I both started our families, started new jobs (a few times) and drifted apart a bit. We kept in touch via phone or email but didn't get together quite as often as either of us would have liked. It happens to many of us. The thing was, when we did try to make plans Jody's calendar was always jam packed! I've joked that he didn't need Facebook to build a social network or reconnect with people because he was already so connected with tons of folks.

With our busy lives with our families and kids and their extracurriculars there was a gap of a few years where Jody and I didn't see each other. It was so great to get together for his 50th last fall and meet so many of his Berchmans friends and various co-workers who I had only heard about over the years.

Then this past August we were finally able to have a night of music together at the Bob Inn with our pal Dave Buban. Our friend Pete Huels (aka"Dj Coffin Banger") was spinning tunes. Jody and I had spent many nights at the Bob with Pete since he and Sally moved in to their home (as many of you know the bar is conveniently located around the corner). That night in August was like old times. Great music, Captain and Cokes, the tamale guy showed up, and we just sat in the back corner swapping stories and catching up. We talked a lot about our kids and it goes without saying he was extremely proud of his family.

It males me sad to think that was our "last call". Had I known I would've hugged him a little longer and told him what a great friend he's been to me.