Every year, Cousin James would fly in and join our annual ski trip for as much time as he could, often taking a bunk bed or a couch for a long weekend. Most of us have probably only spent a month total with James but to be honest it feels like a lot more.
Alex: “He was one of those dudes that you just kind of fall in with, like, you feel like you have history even though you don’t. And he remembered a lot really well. Like he’d ask you about people you talked about a year ago, that he’s never met.”
Kelcy: “I feel like we’re a pretty tight knit group and I can imagine that it’s intimidating to come into. You don’t know everyone. You don’t know all the inside jokes. You don’t have the history with everybody. But I think he was just like, ‘well I’m going to be here so I’m going to get to know these people’”
Jay: “I liked that Cousin James was very open and down for anything. There’s a lot of weird shit going on and he was always ready to just jump right into it.”
More than just keeping up with our chaotic crew, James introduced so much spontaneity and openness to our group that he managed to bring us all closer together.
Jenna: “The first year of our trip, James saw me giving Alex a haircut and was like, “Huh, I need one, too.” And just popped in line. I was like, okay, all right. So I gave him a haircut. I knew him for a week at that point.”
Mitch: “He brings a sense of authenticity without caring about what other people are going to think. So, he’s going to tell us that he flew a girl to Charlotte to break up with her. He’s going to tell us that he was partying with a girl on New Year’s Eve, made out with her, and then broke up with her a few hours later. I feel like we benefited so much from that and it was just a pleasure to be around.”
Ahh the Charleston break up. This story brought the house down. We asked James to cook a meal and he jumped in cooking an incredible soup that was literally just hot cheese. He had gotten the recipe from his ex-girlfriend. Over hot cheese soup dinner he told us about the breakup.
He told us that things weren’t really working out so he decided to take her on a weekend trip to Charleston. And while out at dinner, he broke up with her. And she said “No. We’re not breaking up”. So he said “Oh. Okay”. And they kept dating. 6 months later he broke up with her again. And that time it stuck.
Kelcy: “I’ve never laughed so hard. The whole table was laughing and he just took it in stride like, ‘oh, yeah, okay, maybe that wasn’t the best.’”
Alex: “He was like, ‘I’m the bad guy in this story, but it was a funny date night memory’ It was the worst date I’ve ever heard.’”
When it came to the skiing itself, James was a beginner with zero fear.
Alex: “I just remember our first year out here, being in like black moguls with both of us having no idea how to ski them. We stopped every 100 yards talking like, ‘are we going to get hurt?’”
Mitch: “We’d be going down something a bit challenging and he’d have his skis crossed, going way too fast. But he was always down.“
On top of the laughter and positivity he brought to our group, James was also just incredibly helpful. When Drew and I were living together in Seattle, I came home one day to find our garage transformed. James was staying with us and Drew had mentioned offhand that we needed to clean our garage and while we were both at work he had taken on this task and crushed it, organizing our stuff by hobby and season.
James was a great guy and he made this trip better. We’re really sad he’s not here this year.
