The hilarity didn’t stop this past weekend when my lifelong friends since high school showed up on my porch. Bachelor party? “Behave!” said Charla.

She need not have worried. What we did more than anything is that we laughed so hard and so often that my stomach ached. We laughed so much by the backyard firepit at 11pm that an anonymous neighbor rang the doorbell and ran off before I could open it.

Driving home from the the airport, I listened to one of the boys talk about bringing his kids to Washington, DC and looking at the National Archives, where the original documents that witnessed the birth of our country are displayed for posterity.

“And the documents are so big,” said another, “for the treasure map on the back!” Laughter. I laughed so hard that I slowed my car down because I couldn’t see the cars in front of me through the tears in my eyes.

With three decades behind us since we first met, there is history. Between us there have been divorces, lost jobs, funerals, missed opportunities, unfortunate turns of life, and among all those moments there have been priceless experiences, successes, kids, friends, trips, new homes and new careers.

One who had remarried said, “I got a second chance.” That sentence rang in our heads. Just a few years ago I never thought I would see a day like this. Charla recently reminded me of her first birthday after we met, when I wrote her a letter and posted it to her a minute after midnight on her birthday:

…you’ve given me the gift of endless laughter, shit-funny humor that comes from pretty much every waking moment; and I have the feeling of really, truly being supported and backed up, so much so that I can’t wait for the next time that I can show you and say, “I have your back, too”.

The stories continued all weekend long. Bailey sat on the couch amid five grown men, wagging his tail and looking from one to the other.