Two of the things that I admire most about Ray is his ability to relate to people quickly and his skill at staying in contact with close friends.  While it’s always something I’ve known, it was brought to light even more this past weekend when a huge group of friends got together to celebrate at a friend’s Calder Cup party.

 

Every year, each member of the team that wins the Calder Cup (the AHL championship award) gets to spend 24 hours with the Cup.  (This is similar to what occurs when a team wins the Stanley Cup.)  The player can do whatever activity they choose to do (within reason), and we’re lucky enough to have friends that want to hang out with their closet family and friends to celebrate such monumental events in their lives.  Plus, we get to drink out of the Cup – which I truthfully/sadly didn’t enjoy as much as I thought I would (see below.)

 

This year, our very close friend Vince Loverde won as captain of the Manchester Monarchs.  We celebrated back in Chicago where he’s from during the Air & Water Show weekend celebration.  While we had a great time with the whole crew together, but what stood out to me most was seeing the hockey guys from college back together to celebrate the success of another team member.  The guys in the first picture span six different graduation years, but all get along as if they’ve known each other for decades (which some of them have.)  That, and they have awesome significant others – your’s truly and Amanda (pictured with Vince and I below), who has become a close friend since the day Ray and I met a few years back.

 

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

How do you best stay in touch with friends?

Create a great life!