But here's Part II to Upper Darby. Long overdue.

Part one was to establish my history. Part two was supposed to happen shortly after part one, but things got really busy.

A few months ago, I asked a few friends if they would go to a Beef and Beer benefit for someone I knew in Upper Darby that died suddenly. It was a guy I sort of grew up with. I went to youth group with him and his family and my family were friends. They both said okay. It was like $25 to get in, but they were cool to go.

So we went, and at the last moment I got totally freaked out. i was scared of seeing people I knew. I realized that I felt disconnected to Upper Darby in a way that was actually creating an embarrassment in attending this event. But I forced myself to go and so did they. And in the end, we had a great time -- to the point that we were among the last people there. To the point that we were dancing (by ourselves). to the point that we played cell phone photo wars for like 20 minutes.

As true as my original post is, it's only trues as a backdrop for what I'm about to say. It's because of THIS EVENT that I even wrote it. And if you get one thing from these posts, it's this:

FOR AS CLUNKY AS A TOWN IT WAS, THE PEOPLE IN UPPER DARBY ACCEPTED ME UNCONDITIONALLY. IT IS A PLACE FULL OF NON-JUDGEMENTAL, BASICALLY GOOD PEOPLE. IT SOMETHING I NEVER REALIZED BEFORE AND FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE, I CAN SAY THAT I'M PROUD TO HAVE BEEN RAISED THERE.