Blog . Eli Duke . Com

it seems it is that time of year again: where it’s AJ’s birthday and i’m nowhere near able to celebrate it with him. this goes all the way back to like 7th grade when AJ and i had lockers next to each other since no one on our team had a last name that began with ‘E’ (Duke – Foster). we were on the same team that year (the purple team?) and were stationed right out side of Ms. Sudano’s science room.

anyway, i had a habit of going on some sort of trip every summer: either with boy scouts or soccer or school or something that would get me out of noblesville for at least a couple weeks of early summer. and do you know what happens in early summer? it’s AJ’s birthday! he happens to be turning 23 this year, but i specifically remember missing most of his later teen birthdays.

i guess that you could say there was a positive side, and that was that i’d almost always bring him back something interesting from whatever place i was visiting at the time. i think the best example of one of these gifts was when i went to spain with the high school spanish club. we went to quite a few art museums on that trip and specifically saw some of Salvidor Dali’s work. i was lucky enough to snatch up a t-shirt printed with of one of Dali’s less famous works, but certainly more hilariously named works: The Great Masterbator. AJ absolutely loved it and wore it quite a bit.

unfortunately this year, i have no such gift. in it’s stead i hope that my sincere joy toward AJ simply surviving another year with suffice. Happy Birthday AJ.