My Friend Vicki

I knew there would come a day when I would find myself faced with a blank screen, with tons of things in my head, knowing I have to create a post fitting for a great friend.

If you have came across any of my posts, in which I refer to 'My Friend', over the years, there's a good chance I meant Vicki. 

Vicki left us on Saturday afternoon following a long battle with cancer. I'll get to that part later. For now, I want to write about the person and our friendship.

I've often tried to work out when Vicki and I first met. I know where, but cannot determine the exact year. My guesses are 2013 to 2014.  It isn't earlier, but it could be slightly later.

We'd hang out in a trivia room on a chat program I spend a fair bit of my time on. The room in question plays music and has a bot texting questions for the users to answer. Back then, I'd mute the music and fire up a podcast or radio station and listen to that as I played along and chatted with some of the roomies. Some, but not all, of the people in that room are there strictly to play the games so it is often difficult to strike up a rapport with them.

Vicki caught my attention because she had the New York Giants' logo on her profile. As an Indianapolis Colts fan (I was also rooting for the Broncos back then), I kind of had an interest in the Giants because their quarterback at the time - Eli Manning - is the brother of, and Vick I have to write it like this, the GOOOOOAAAT - Peyton Manning.

So, I suppose the Manning Brothers should be thanked for introducing me to Vicki.

We'd talk about football every now and again. Especially during the seasons. 

One day, I actually did have the music in the room playing. Carly Simon's You're So Vain came on.  Instead of naming the tune, I went the typical Taylor Smartass route and wrote 'I think this song is about me'.

Without hesitation, Vick replied ''Don't you, don't you?'

And it was at that moment I found my new chatroom sidekick - the person who could play along or be the straight person to my shenanigans.

We became firmer friends after that. Somewhere along the way, we exchanged emails and telephone numbers. I still have texts from Boxing Day 2017 when I sent a 'Yo' to test whether my network allowed me to send an SMS overseas. The reply was 'it worked....'

I then messaged at 1:18am on New Year's Day 2018 saying 'I'm texting you from the future!' and 'Happy New Yr lol'. I have to bring that one up because I spent the past few days looking through old Twitter messages. I had done the I'm in the future' thing this past New Year's Day as well. Which means one thing - there's a high chance Vick likely endured that line every single New Year. But she let me get away with it!

The 2020 lockdowns were possibly the time when our friendship strengthened. By then we had both ventured into a different trivia chatroom during my evenings and her late afternoons. It was a crap period for the entire world, but the group of players managed to pass the time okay each night.

It was around that time when I decided to create a database containing NFL scores. Vick played a part in its creation because she ordered a yearbook with some results from the 1990s in it. The seller wouldn't post it to the UK, so Vick bought it for me and then sent it across.

We used the database, and some other angles, for the past few years in an American football contest she played in each season. I'd send across the guesses for the results of every game each week and then she'd enter. We'd then follow our progress each weekend Then it would be back to the drawing board before Thursday.

I'd have 'Do Picks For Vick' as a weekly reminder on my phone, but - to be fair - I never needed it. Everything was done by both of us on time. 

I'm keeping that alert on my phone.

As for how successful we were? Well... that's another story. Although the picks did win once. It was a gift voucher for a local restaurant which sponsored the contest. I'd always state the case that ' Team X would have covered the spread if this were a point-spread contest and not a straight up one'.

It was all good fun, though.

Vick loved her football. As you can see. She was also a dab hand at NFL fantasy football. She was - without a doubt - better than me (that's not saying much).I thought it was cool that she played in the same league as her son and his friends.

HOLD UP!! As i am taking this trip down Memory Lane, I have to mention my NFL Fantasy exploits from the 2019 season. It always makes me laugh, and I think a spotlight on my friendship with Vicki has to have this added somewhere even if it's mainly about me.

I started off that season going 7-0. Vick then added something along the lines of 'wouldn't it be cool if you went undefeated?' 

Yes, you guessed it. I ended up 8-5 and narrowly made the playoffs!

Every single year after that, I would jest with Vick by reminding her 'remember that time you jinxed my team?!'

All in good fun. 

Winning a $1 bet against Vicki

Exchanging gifts on special occasions is something we'd like to do. We both had this theme where we'd only send stuff specific to our own countries, so I'd always find stuff from the UK that could be hard to find in the US and she'd do the same for stuff not generally available in the UK.

It introduced me to a lot of sweets and things I never had before. Do you remember years ago when I ran a bunch of posts ranking drink powders? Well, Vicki is credited with me getting into all that by sending me some. I then went overboard buying other brands from websites which sells imported US foods and drinks.

One year, I bought a cannister of Twiglets and asked Vick to try them in front of everyone. 

Christmases were fun with Vicki around. I enjoyed it when Vick would be with her family having a get together and we'd speak on the phone for a few minutes. I'd get passed along to say hello to everyone there including Vicki's daughter who has been wonderful to get to know over the past few years.

There's a good chance I may not have been so all-in on air frying as I am now had it not been for Vick talking highly about her experiences using hers. And she had a good one. Vick's looked like Metal Mickey's body, so obviously, I had to teach her about the TV robot from back in the day.

Speaking of TV - Vick loved her true crime programmes as well as a bunch of reality series. She was fascinated by some of the British programmes like the ones with the Radford Family and The Furys. 

As for pro wrestling - Vicki wasn't all-in on it, but she tolerated me going on about it a lot. She did, however, have time for The Miz because Vick loved watching his reality show.

We found ourselves watching a few of the big court stories live over the years. For example, the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard one. We also caught the Gwyneth Paltrow stuff. There was also a murder trial involving an ex-ballerina. 

In mid-2020, I received a  'have you got time to talk?' message from Vicki. She told me she had some bad news about her health and selflessly gave me an opportunity to move on as she embarked on what would be a tough fight.  If you look up and see all the things I've mentioned, it's pretty clear - looking at all the examples of things above that happened beyond 2020 - what my answer was.

On paper, I had the easiest job of everyone involved with the situation. All I had to do was try to be myself while Vick and her other family members were in the frontline.  I did my best to treat her as I had always done - my friend.

As I sit here now, I am very emotional but relieved. I had been feeling empty since I woke up on Saturday August 2nd with a weird sensation knowing I would never speak with Vick again. I had gone to sleep realising it had been the first time in over six years neither of us had heard from each other.

That day became a week. And then it ultimately turned into a lifetime of weeks when Vick passed away on Saturday afternoon. It seemed quite poignant she left as the Buffalo Bills and New York Giants - two teams Vick supported in her lifetime - were playing against each other.

Vick recently told me that her specialist called her a' rockstar' because of how much of a fight she had put up. Vicki informed me that two years is apparently the amount of time a person is expected to live after what happened to Vick happened. She beat that expectancy by two years and change. I made sure to tell her how much of a good job that was. I was proud of her beating those stats.

A few years ago, I came across a comedy routine in which the comic made a valid point. He ridiculed the idea of people using the term 'losing a battle with cancer' because, when the body dies, the cancer dies with it. He argued that the actual result should be a tie.

I have thought about that a lot lately. I have my own spin on that idea.

Anyone who goes up against cancer is always an underdog. So, Vick would have been given the points. Those who gambled on Vicki came out the winners. She covered the spread. 

She rocked it like a fighter and fought it like a rockstar. And vice versa. She was My Friend Vicki.