Hollister was an interesting place to work while in high school. For those of you not familiar with the store, it's a popular clothing brand at the malls, they target mostly 14-24 year olds. I met a lot of cute girls (a ridiculous amount; stories will follow) and bought a lot of clothes, I don't keep in touch with many of the people I met, but one memory will last forever.
Conner and I became good friends while working at HCo, spending time together and drinking together, We were living it up in the winter of 2005! One particular memory comes to mind. Our assistant manager bought us a case of Coors light and 2 six packs of Smirnoff ice, naturally Conner and I were going to rage! We decided to take a couple girls out to a movie, they were working till closing so we had some time to burn. We started drinking right away. We drove to Taco Bell; where we almost jumped the curb and ran into the store upon parking! Oops! When ordering the guy behind the counter asked us if we had been drinking, which we told him yes. (lying is bad) He responded by saying he was a recovering alcoholic while we came back with the fact that we were just starting! We turned around to see Djay from work! Hurdling over the line dividers and flower boxes we made sure to say hello.
From Taco Bell we went to Borders, because... well... why not? We called our managers and invited them out with us. Imagine our heartbreak when none of them wanted to join us. But, our girls were still coming to the movie. We bought tickets for "Fun with Dick and Jane." Got our seats and that's when shit went south. Literally, both of the girls got on their knees and started blowing us, we looked at each other with a confused look of awesomeness on our faces. It was fantastic.
Just kidding, Conner started throwing up. We spent the whole night in the bathroom, the date was a complete disaster. That night didn't turn out well for us. But that was okay, the future would always be there. We woke up the next morning and had to open the store. 7am on Christmas Eve, drinking the night before and now we had to work. How did we start the day? With our favorite manager, Faye! She will never admit to doing it with us (Faye and I remain in touch as she is now the catering manager at one of my favorite spots) but three beers came in that morning and three beers were shotgunned simultaneously. If you have to work on holidays, I suggest starting them this way.
Conner and I had many more fun days including rolling out to Beaverton where he worked at a hookah shop, several nights included girls, smoking and drinking. Conner died in September of 2009 in a car accident. I found out while I was at work in the Tacoma area. I broke down then and there. I remember calling him and talking to his answering machine. My boss let me off early on the day of his funeral, I drove to Portland for the service, and left from the funeral back to work. I continued to call Conner's cell phone for about a year.
I don't know why God took Conner, but he did. You can't change the past, but you can change the future. Sometimes what God does doesn't make sense, which can make us question his intentions or even his existence. Would God really take such a life changing young man from us. I know that in the hard times, I look to Conner for help, and he always pulls through. Few people are left in my life that knew Conner, but I cherish the ones that are. It's unfortunate that Conner can't be directly involved in our lives anymore but the people that knew him share something that no one else can, a love that can't be recreated. I'll always miss you Conner, but I'll always remember the times we shared!
Life is precious and to fragile to be wasted. Choose your friends wisely and let them know what they mean to you. Try your hardest to keep those that mean the world to you in your world, and live without regrets.
