doyle...

this is my friend doyle.  we worked together at my last job.  he passed away this weekend (motorcycle accident.)  he leaves behind 2 children.  he was only 31.

we worked together for about a year, on the same project.  when the project was getting ready to go live, our PM got the team together in a conference room, for 2 weeks.  i was horrified to have to leave my nice cubicle for 2 weeks holed up with a bunch of crazy developers.

but then something funny happened.  our little team really bonded.  we had fun in that stuffy conference room.  and our project went live without a hitch.

i sat next to doyle for those 2 weeks.  i watched him consume giant protein bars & bottles of "muscle milk".  he was working out and obsessed with protein intake and muscle mass.  i liked to call his drink "man milk" and it made us laugh.

he also once had me convinced that the reason chik-fil-a sandwiches were so good was that they slaughtered the birds right on the premise.  he he he...

he did a really great impression of me.  of course it was highly embarrassing, but it was so funny, and true.  he'd start off talking very fast about some idea i had, and slowly wind down.  "hey, why don't we... um... oh...wait.... never mind... sigh...."  

he talked a lot about his kids.  he sold girl scout cookies for his daughter and strong-armed all of us into buying boxes of them.  i didn't even like cookies and he sold me 4 boxes, just by his charm & brute force.

when i left the job, he said some nice things to me.  he refused to get on facebook, but talked about dropping those cookies off at my house.

of course he never did.  and now i'll never get those stupid cookies i didn't want (or the chance to see my friend who made me laugh.)

(jersey shore doyle)