3am vs. 6pm

Happy New Year everyone.

My normal New Year’s Day article is about reflection and lessons learned and some advice to y’all moving forward. Not this year! Nope I haven’t changed and thank God in heavens I still have my sarcastic outlook on life, however this year, the grand revelation is that I figured out the difference between the 6pm friends and the 3am friend — and which of my friends are which!

Let’s level the deck, the 6pm friends are like your sidekick for life’s happy hour. When the clock strikes 6, they’re ready to go and turn any mundane evening into a good one. You suggest a quiet dinner, and suddenly you’re doing ’80s ballads at karaoke. Emotional support? No no no no, they hand you a shot and tell you to “drink your feelings.” They are good people, but you are unlikely to call them once the party is over and everyone went home… which is generally before the clock strikes midnight.

Now the 3am friend; the person you call when the world’s gone mad, and you’re pretty sure the aliens have finally landed. They don’t just answer with a groggy “Hello, you know what f*&%ing time it is?”; it’s more like a “What the hell did you do now, do I need a gun, a shovel, and should I call more guys?” These are the friends who aren’t afraid of your insanity; in fact, they’re probably already halfway to your place locked and loaded with a shovel and a mask. They’re the friends who, when you say, “I need you,” respond with, “Are we fighting crime or just figuring out why they call it a “building” when it’s already built?!!!!”

People might go through their entire life and not have ONE 3am friend! I am blessed with 3… they know who they are and they are the ride-or-die companions who answer the call in the dead of night, ready to go, no questions asked. They are not the ones I see daily… it could go on weeks without so much as a phone call, but I know (as they know too), when the phone rings, it will be answered.

Oh, and by the way, if anyone asks you which type you think they are?… ah well, you already know the answer to that now, don’t you?

Well folks, with this Verbal Breakdown, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year; till the next one, keep it safe, keep it real, and keep it simple.

Ralph

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