Day 133: My Cousin Troy

[This article is shortened for television time constraints.]

Growing up, I didn’t have brothers. I’m not sure why I wanted a brother so much. Probably because I had so many sisters. But it didn’t matter because my cousin Troy lived just on the other side of town.

He’s only a year younger than I am, which doesn’t mean anything now. But when we were growing up, a year was a lot. We were competitive in almost everything. Being a year older than him, I thought of him as my little brother. I always wanted to impress him and hopefully teach him things. I don’t know if I did, but I know he taught me a lot.

Troy always knew way more about music and movies than I did. He still does. Troy introduced me to Pink Floyd. One day, he tried to get me to watch the movie version of The Wall, but I was too ignorant and stubborn to listen. I thought a movie with intermittent music that I was unfamiliar with would be boring. How wrong I was.

As we grew up, he has taught me and exposed me to so much more. The list would go on and on, so far that your thumb would fall off from scrolling. We have done a lot together, including living with each other for a year. Those were good times.

And then several years back, he moved to New York. I was bummed, but we were all doing our own thing at that time. The distance didn’t bother me too much. We talked on the phone a lot over the years. I was always excited when his name would pop up on my phone on a Friday night. I’d be chilling at home on Mackinac Island and he would be on a walk through NYC. Worlds apart, but we never grew apart.

As good relationships go, the contact ebbs and flows. Sometimes it’s a lot and sometimes it's a trickle. Maybe it’s a guy thing, but no matter how long we went without talking it always seemed like it was yesterday. We could pick up where we left off, chat for an hour, and happily go on with our lives.

Fast forwarding a f-ton, he is now married to the perfect woman, still living in New York, and we see each other and chat as much as we can. If you are an avid reader of this blog, you may notice that we still have our fun, jabbing at each other while giving a cheap shout out for our writing pieces. (GO CHECK OUT BASEBALL FOR DINNER)

We both have our struggles with writing as any writers do. Whether it be just producing or writing about something that we care about and can be proud of. Recently, I wrote a blog about how I accidently skipped a day of writing (kind of) because I was hanging out with a friend. Troy responded by expressing his frustrations when he wouldn’t write for weeks. What Troy doesn’t know (I think) is that I have been jealous of his writing ability for years.

I studied creative writing in college, and what they don’t really tell high schoolers and young people about college is that it isn’t a magical wand that automatically makes you better at whatever the piece of paper says you can do. You still have to practice and apply yourself, especially with any sort of art. I thought that by having a degree that I was going to be inspired to change all of my daily habits and start writing books. Sure, I have had my crack at a few books, but none of them are published. I wrote and quit. Wrote and quit. Troy just writes.

What I love so much about Troy’s writing is that it is honest. It is raw and hilarious. I don’t think there is a single person (including stand up comedians) that have made me laugh more than Troy. I’m usually in tears. That has been going on for years. Since we have lived with each other (2008ish) he has been writing for Baseball For Dinner. He is the only contributor now, which basically makes it his page. For a long time he wrote long articles about every football game. Here’s one from 2014. And he also writes his Friday Thoughts. I think the first one was from 2013.

Writers write. And that is what Troy has been doing for a better part of a decade. He has been writing (almost) every week (if not more) for all of those years. I did my writing in private, while he was completely out there for the world to see. He didn’t give a damn what people thought of his thoughts. He just wrote them down and said, “Here. Eat it.” (I just made that up, but I could hear him saying that.) I kept telling him that with all his sports knowledge that he should apply to a sports magazine or tv channel. He ended up marrying a person that works for a sports channel, so there ya go.

I never had a brother growing up. But being a brother doesn’t mean you have to share blood (even though we do). Troy and I are brothers. We still argue, we still laugh, we still have the same weird senses of humor that only a small amount of people in the world can tolerate.

I am writing this because I want him to know that he is the reason that this blog exists. He has inspired me for years, and it took that long for me to build up the courage to put myself out there like he does. You're reading this and the rest of these essays/poems/rants/stories/etc because of Troy. Without him, I wouldn't be the person I am today. So, if you are holding a Budweiser or a Wild Turkey, raise it up for T-Roy, TeeCoZee, my cousin. He’s the coolest cat around. (Note: He has a love/hate realationship with all cats.)

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Author's Note #1: The above photo was take in 2006 as a dress rehearsal for a music video I was creating.

Author's Note #2: I miss that pumpkin suit.

Author's Note #3: Is Jones Soda still a thing?

Author's Note #4: I swear I will watch Brazil again.