On 11/11/11, Blake invited a few friends over to his house for a “one one one one one one party.” We were going to celebrate at “one one one one one one one one one one”(11/11/11 11:11pm), but everybody came around 7:00, so we had 4 hours to kill. I still don’t know how we fit so much fun into those hours but we did. We played outside in the crisp November weather in shorts and t-shirts, played upstairs in the playroom, and even snuck onto the roof once or twice.
Even though we were high schoolers, we broke out Blake’s bin of matchbox cars and raced them down the driveway, having as much fun as anyone could possibly have with matchbox cars. We would climb trees to hide from people, and we would just run around outside. Once we were sufficiently chilled, we went back upstairs to Blake’s toasty play room. There were pingpong games going on while others were playing dodgeball with a beach ball and foam frisbees. As the dodgeball game grew more intense, the pingpong was deserted and all joined in the game. As we played, the rules evolved, we eventually used just pingpong table as the court, two teams on either side of the table, throwing the frisbees and the beach ball at each other, both over and under the table. Epic catches and throws were born, frisbees flying and the ball floating, such an awesome game needed an equally awesome name, and thus “Disco Ball” was created.
The game was good clean fun, there was competition and intensity, but nobody was excluded, nobody was head and shoulders above the rest, and everybody enjoyed the game equally. Blake was the same way. He bought joy to others, included everybody, and everyone was equally gifted and skilled in his eyes. He was competitive and intense, but he always made sure that fun and joy came before the competition. Spontaneous fun would follow wherever he went, he would make exiting games with boring items, and his hilarity could not be contained.
Thank you Blake for being my friend, and giving me the gift of Disco Ball. I love you and I know you are having fun wherever you are.