WOW. What a great, great time.
Big thanks to Brian Leigh for putting this on and being an amazing host. It was really impressive how much effort he put into the barbeque. Lots and lots of good food. 
Jackie was wonderful as always. She's such a sweetheart.
Mike Park was awesome and so were the people he brought along. Hiro from Japan was hilarious all night long. His little notebook is amazing. He's learning lots of slang that'd make your grandma blush. "Oh! Hook me up, hook me up!!" We were admiring one of the bound copies he's completed. Very impressive.
It was also wicked cool how Mike and company wanted to walk all over Syracuse. Whoa, we walked from Brian's place near the Westcott, around the SU campus, along Marshall Street, into downtown and Armory Square. Best stop there was Sound Garden, which had just closed, but Eric (Panda) of STP came out and talked to Mike, which was awesome (even if it was a lot of shoptalk, lol). Then we stopped at the Jerry Rescue Monument in Clinton Square (one of my fave spots to show visitors) and ended up at Coffee Pavilion, where we camped for awhile. Then we walked straight back, while Mike and I had a very indepth discussion about the state of American ska and where it's going.
I especially like how Mike Park really wants to find a new, young version of The Specials. Said he'd sign a band like that in a heartbeat, if only he could find one. There's more to it than that, but hopefully you get the general idea. I got a lot out of our discussion. It was really cool to talk for awhile to his grrlfriend too, because she's very perceptive as well.
It's 3am and I finally left Brian's house. A great, great time. 
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I just need to keep all the pictures I have of him on my computer. That way if I ever miss him I can look at them and be like 'oh sigh, my benny, i miss you so much.'