I'm in the process of packing Chrys's belongings for storage. I've developed 3-box-method of packing... In box #3 I put items that have little or no emotional value that I will eventually, some day, donate to Goodwill (such as khaki pants, general topic books, etc.) Box #2 are items that have some emotional value but I need to store due to sheer volume (such as shirts I remember Chrys wearing, some of the many "Calculus Euphoria" books, etc.) and Box #1 are items that may have extreme emotional value and I plan to sit down and go through more methodically within the next few weeks (Box #1 also is where I put items that I want to pass on to some of Chrys's closest friends)...
I later decided that it is "emotionally safe" for me to immediately discard some items such as socks, towels, white t-shirts, and "things you can buy at a grocery store"... So now it's the 3 box, 1 trash bag method of packing...
As I was packing up Chrys's closet, in the back corner of the top shelf, I discovered an old, beat up shoe box... Inside the shoebox there were a dozen-or-so pairs of dirty old black socks. As I threw out the socks into the trash bag, I started to see a splash of color mixed in with all the black fabric... I reached in and pulled out a crumpled up ball of a shirt... When I shook it open and turned it inside out, I discovered that I had come upon the holy grail of shirts... Yes... I found the black Megadeth tank top t-shirt. Wow. I've seen the pictures, heard the stories, now I've seen it in person... It was a sight to behold...
Kent was keeping me company for a while, as I packed (so I have a witness that can verify this next true story)... In addition to Chrys's multiple, identical Pleon Yacht club T-Shirts, we found that Chrys had a knack for a certain type of tie - of the red and blue diagonal stripe variety (the official tie of Princeton Tower Club)... Now, I had known that he had a love of this tie, because he had at least 4 of these near-identical ties on his tie rack already (and every time we ever dressed up for an event or nice dinner, he would wear, what I initially thought, was the same tie)...
However, as I was packing up his closet shelf, we discovered that Chrys's closet was a veritable clown car of unworn neckties. Box after box of tissue paper wrapped, price tag adorned ties were mixed throughout the stack of clothes on Chrys's top shelf. And no less than 6 of these new ties had red/blue diagonal stripes (totaling 10 near-identical ties)... We also discovered that Chrys had 3 identical ties in each of the following types: Yellow/Blue diagonal stripe, red with blue dot/decoration, and red with blue paisley.
Finally, I discovered in the breast pocket of his light colored suit, a yellow piece of folded paper... It was a program from Easter, 1998 from the Noe Valley Presbyterian Church... Chrys told me the story how he Jay and Lisa S, decided, after a hard night of drinking, that it would be nice to attend an Easter service the next morning, they searched for a search in the yellow pages and picked a church... They showed up thinking they would blend in with the crowd... Upon arrival, Chrys was horrified to see that the congregation was too small to "blend" into, and everyone sat in a circle...
Midway through the service, the pastor split a loaf of bread and handed it to two people next to each other at one side of the circle. The two people were to rip off a piece of bread and pass it to the person next to them... It didn't take long before Chrys Jay and Lisa realized that they were on the exact opposite end of the circle, and one of them would end up with two loaves of bread, with no one left to pass them to... Much like a game of quarters, someone was going to end up with all the cups...
Chrys told me that when the bread arrived near their side of the circle, they were all ripping and passing the bread as fast as possible in order to avoid ending up with two loaves... Chrys said that he was laughing hysterically and was so embarrassed -- but was having the time of his life...
Chrys told this Easter story a number of times, and he laughed hysterically each and every time he shared the details of the bread passing... (FYI, Lisa and Jay have shared additional details of this wonderful story, and Lisa is digging up some pictures from that day - I will include the whole story in the "memories of Wurm" section of this website shortly)...
Yesterday was an emotionally draining day of packing, and finding this Easter program made me vividly remember Chrys's laugh -- it made my day.
