BIRTHDAY TRIPLE PLAY
Happy 18th Birthday, Jake

Jake, a high school senior, is the tallest of my five nephews.
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Happy Birthday, Shannon

A good friend since we met in FCHS freshman year Gifted Math class, Shannon Moye, with his wife Robin and their three beautiful daughters, lives in Newburgh, Indiana.
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Happy Birthday, Vaughn

Vaughn Miller and I met about 12 years ago as our Indianapolis hospital companies underwent a merger process. We began as rivals who held the same position on our respective teams, but soon forged a friendly alliance as those teams and our companies united. We shared many after hour activities with our gang of friendly co-workers back then, and still keep tabs on each other years after I moved back to Louisville and his family moved to Arizona.

I was often struck by how much Vaughn and I had in common. The last time I saw him was during a business trip to Tucson. I flew out a day before my conference was to begin, and Vaughn was nice enough to drive from Glendale all the way to Tuscon to pick me up and show me the city, the highlight of our day perhaps being the "Tucson, Meet Yourself" festival.

Anyway, this was right before I got married. Back then, anytime I was about to fly away on a trip, I would listen to Billy Joel's 52nd Street in my car on the way to the airport. My reasoning being that if I were to die in a plane crash, at least I was able to listen to my favorite album one last time. Okay, so maybe this is yet another one of those quirks I should keep to myself....

So here's the freaky thing. I listened to 52nd Street as always on my way to the Louisville airport. Then I flew to Tuscon and waited for Vaughn to pick me up. Eventually he showed up, and the moment I got in his car, I noticed something bizarre. Not only was there a Billy Joel song eminating from his car stereo... it turned into one very familiar one right after another.... Vaughn, on his one volition, just happened to be playing that same Billy Joel album, 52nd Street! Folks, it's not like this was still a popular album that all the kids were listening to more than two decades after its release... and it's not like Vaughn and I ever discussed 52nd Street being my favorite album. He was listening to it because he genuinely liked it, with no regard to me at all.

That's what made me realize that Vaughn Miller is a pretty cool cat.