Goodnight, Awakening

A couple of months back, my dear friend Jon White sidled up to me at a favorite burrito joint and casually said, "Hey, I'd love to design a website for you if you'd ever be interested in something like that".
I probably went a bit pale as I considered the import of his words.  I'm sure  I swayed in my seat as the blood stopped flowing to my head.
Having Jon offer to design and build a website for you would be roughly analogous to the the Pope asking to pray for you, or Johnny Cash offering to sing at your birthday party, or Phyllis Tickle writing an unrequested endorsement of your unpublished manuscript.  Jon is a stone-cold professional, a creative genius, a mind-blowingly fast keyboard operator, and a flattering muse.  Moreover, the code he creates is inspiring to any writer, since he staunchly refuses to waste a single keystroke.  I didn't exactly feel like I was in need of a website, but if Jon thought I should have one, then I was going to run straight home and grab the domain (though he helped me with that, too).
I was breathing the rarefied air of good fortune, and I knew it.  So when I sat down with him in my kitchen for a meeting in which he actually asked me for my thoughts on the website, my mouth went dry.  When he took visual and verbal notes in his sketchbook, I started to stutter.  But when he let me know that he'd had an inspiring design concept in mind all along, I realized that I was poised on a launching pad like a Saturn V rocket.
Having someone who knows you and truly likes you design a custom web interface for you is at once humbling and deeply affirming.  And when that someone is the brilliant and passionate and talented Jon White, it might just change your life.  I'm ever grateful.

*    *    *    *    *   *  

Rest assured, everything here is already over there, and is slowly being properly tagged: MikeStavlund.com