Con-Giordial Greetings!

It's that time of year, again. Presents, food, family and friends gathering... You guessed it! It's Giordi's birthday!

I met Giordi when he was 16. I was in college, and he was hanging out with college nerds. At the college. At the time, I remember being jealous because his hair was longer than mine.

I'm not sure how he entered my social circle at the time. It basically consisted of my roommate and a bunch of people from the college who didn't want to go home to their parents' houses. We would all hang out together and do nerd stuff. One day, Giordi, whom I had already met, showed up at my apartment and was smoothly integrated into the group.

Later, when he started college, he was about the only other student there who could understand what I was talking about, and that just helped us bond more completely.

My first IT job after college, I worked with him upgrading the computers for Lyondell, a large company with no real product but a lot of toxic waste. I was fired because my roommate stole from the company, and Giordi was fired because he knew me. Joy.

Later, we worked together at a small company that totally didn't appreciate either of us. At Giordi's suggestion, we formed a religious group. It grew and grew and grew. Then it died for no reason.

Later, when Giordi's first child was born, we were sitting around, and he was holding his son. He looked at me and said, "I finally figured out the meaning of life. It's this, right here." I still cry remembering the look on his face.

For the past five years or so, I've been living in Giordi's house as a renter. He and his wife have been there through my medical emergencies, when my fiancé left me, when Data died at the end of that Star Trek movie, when my hamster died, when I nearly lost my job to anti-feminists, and during my divorce.

He's always been honest and straightforward. He's helped me out a lot. He was in the emergency room with me when I went into shock from a burst appendix, and he came to bring me gas when I ran out in the midle of nowhere. He's my legal adviser and has power of attourney when I'm not able to function.

He's like a brother to me, but in a good way. I'll never be able to repay everything he's done for me. So instead of trying, I'm writing about him here.

Happy Birthday, Giordi!