Pittsburgh

Chris takes a lot of pride that he's on the top of my favorites list in my phone book. Maybe "pride" isn't the right word, but he definitely likes to hold that over Jessica's head (who is #2), and he takes even greater pleasure to see Bruce is #3. Honestly, Chris is at the top of my favorites because I typically communicate with Jessica via text and Bruce via google-chat more than I do via phone, but why should I steal his thunder?

Obviously Chris isn't so petty (I don't think so at least) that he seriously takes pride in being on the top of my call list. He just likes to play his part in this fake feud that he and Bruce are kind of, but not really involved in. It's been well established (in these writings even) that Chris and Bruce are my two best friends. They've never actually met each other and the fact that Bruce went to college in Pittsburgh (where Chris grew up) a year after I met Chris kind of makes things very coincidental.

I believe this feud started in college when Chris told me that living apart from my best friend for the past [15 years now and counting] should disqualify him from being my best friend. I wouldn't say that this upset Bruce or even really affected him, but it kind of started the quasi-feud which has culminated into some trash talking during some Halo games mostly.

All this absurdity ended about half a year ago, when Chris and I went to the hardware store to pickup an iron skillet so we could make some steaks. Bruce had previously raved to me about iron skillets and I had decided to finally take the plunge. On the way to the store, Chris asked me what brand of skillet I was thinking about buying and I quickly replied "Lodge" because that's the brand that Bruce had recommended to me. Chris agreed that Lodge was the brand that he would also recommend but he then accused Bruce of recommending Lodge because they were based out of Pittsburgh and that Bruce was trying to aid the local economy. I quickly shot down the accusation because Bruce was no longer in Pittsburgh and rarely had anything positive to say about it, but Chris was insistent about it and decided to use his Blackberry to prove that Lodge was based out of Pittsburgh. (Probably the most absurd part of the accusation was that if anyone was from Pittsburgh, it was Chris who had lived there for about 10 years.)

I waited in line, and paid for the skillet as Chris typed away. He finally found the Lodge web page and he looked defeated. Lodge was indeed based in Pittsburgh, but it was based in Pittsburgh, TN. Chris conceded and I think in a way the feud ended that day, but at least Chris can still claim he's #1 on my call list.