Top ten things I loved about Dale

I just couldn't resist posting more thoughts about my friend Dale, since he's so much on my mind today.

The top ten things I loved about Dale:

10. He was curious.

9. He was playful.

8. He was humble.

7. He cracked himself up (and me, too).

6. He coined the term "mini-day" to describe that period of time when you wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep so you decide to do something productive before you go back to sleep for a few hours.

5. He stayed up all night with me, my mother, and my future husband waiting for my nephew to be born–and writing a song for the occasion.

4. He was excited to share his birthday with Mr. J (the big payoff for staying up all night at the hospital)!

3. He was one of the few people to visit me when I lived in New York.  That really meant a lot to me.

2. That when we visited NYC tourist attractions together, he brought along a friend's stuffed animal to photograph at each place because she was compiling such photographs of her stuffed animal for some reason.

1. Dale was someone I could talk to about anything, with no judgements. He was a good listener. He was a good friend.