Old School

In recent weeks I've gotten in touch with some old junior high school friends, and even some elementary school friends.  it always amazes me to think about this and actually remember things that went on back then.

Finding and chatting with some elementary school friends a rush of memories came back, from the time I pushed someone into the closet during a firedrill, to the time I got in trouble for kicking a tree on the sidwalk.  Memories like that and especially remembering friends and even grade school crushes are always fun.  

Aside from those "good" memories, we also have those other times in our school lives that we wish to forget but somehow can't!  Who knows, maybe they traumatize us too much?  

Being that junior high school isn't as far back as elementary school, it's easier to remember details.  A few days ago I reconnected with a friend from junior high and we talked about things that had happened back then, I guess me having the memory that I have, I remember things to great detail and keep them in my head for just such an occasion.  

I can go on and on about all these wonderful memories and also about the not so wonderful times too, but what this is going to be about those "crushes" that we have as kids, and yes we were kids at that age even though at the time we didn't see that.  

Having a crush at that age is awesome, but at the same time it's so scary!  You're at that age in junior high school, well at least I was, where you haven't "dated" or had a girlfriend/boyfriend yet, and if you did, it was something that didn't have much substance.  

So onto one of my junior high crushes ... there was a Filipina girl that I thought was pretty, but I don't think I told anyone since I didn't trust that it would stay secret.  This was a friend of my cousin that I had a crush on.  At this age, being the guy who I was, I didn't try to talk to her or anything, I was shyer than I am now!  You gotta give some credit to my cousin who did try to play cupid and tried to "hook us up."  

I remember the lunch room being segregated with the boys and girls not being able to sit together.  There I was with all my friends, trying to be "cool" and my cousin comes over and calls me over to their table.  This was definitely uncharted waters for me, talking a walk to the girls side of the lunch room and being out in the open like this without any of your friends around.  It's still plain as day for me where I stood there at the end of the lunch table as my cousin takes a seat leaving me standing all by myself.  It felt as if all eyes were on me and I knew that all the girls at her table were looking at me.  There would have been a difference if these girls at her table weren't in all of my classes and were just girls that I pass in the hall from time to time, but these were the girls that I had class with, so I see them for those seven to eight hours a day!  

This felt and seems like a Wonder Year episode as I'm typing this.  

My cousin introduced me to her friend, it was the girl who I had a crush on and apparently she had a crush on me too.  Yeah I was quite the hot stud back then in my prime, but that time has since passed.  As we were introduced, a sudden feeling of deer syndrome came over me.  I stood there, no words were said, I just remember her face as she looked at me and smiled as we were being introduced.  Unfamiliar territory with no protection ... I did the only reasonable thing when you're introduced to someone who likes you in the middle of the female section of the lunch room.  

I walked back to my table where my friends were.  

There I was seeking comfort in the "guy bonding" but apparently everyone was watching and knew what happened, or at least saw me walking away.  So that was the topic of discussion for the next thirty minutes.  I can't remember what I was saying, but I can only imagine me talking to my friends and painting a picture of me not being interested in the girl, instead of me acting like a deer in headlights.  

Ahhh the wonderful memories of grade school.  There are many more to come as with these chats about the old school brings a flood of things remembered back into my brain.  From the time I bit a girls arm for touching my pencil, to the poop in my pants, the list goes on and on and might be listed here for your enjoyment.

If anyone out there is reading this and is in grad school, do yourself a favor and learn from my mistakes.  Should something like this happen to you, don't just walk away and don't stand there as if the headlights of a car were coming right at you ... but maybe you can try and muster up the courage to say a simple "hi."

+ mon

Don't Force the Square Piece into the Circle

One of my pet peeves on the subway is when there is room for just one more person in the seat, and a person who knows they take up more than one spot on the train tries to get in!  I'm not making fun of people who are large or overweight, heck I'm overweight and large myself!  All I'm saying is that people need to have some common courtesy where they don't try to squeeze into a space they can't, it's the same with a parking spot!

Boarding the L train at the last stop, I get a seat right away and there's still a lot of room on the train.  As we pck up more people on the trip, the train fills up and this cute little italian lady ends up sitting next to me, she was pretty nice too as she chit chatted with me for a little while until we both ended up falling asleep.  Nice way to end the day and just waited to get home to chillax.

As italian lady and I slept on the subway side by side, but not too close, out of nowhere we were both awakened as I was crushed on the bars and italian lady (let's call her Bella) started to forge into my right side.  I barely had enough room to turn my head to see what was going on, at first it was the feeling of when the train suddenly moves from a dead stop and everyone moves towards the back of the train from the momentum shift ... but then I was able to peak over Bella's head and see this huge mass of a man that had somehow calculated himself to be smaller than reality and pushed that square piece into the hole of a circle!

He was massive, I should have asked for Bella's real name because being that close to someone, it's only right that you know their name, and even moreso take her out to dinner first!  She smelled like dove shampoo btw, for those of you who were wondering.  With each breathe massive man took, it's as if there was less room for Bella and I, there wasn't even any room for me to get up out of my seat to offer whatever room I was taking up to her. 

Bella was in a better position and she popped herself up and got out of the seat.  With that there was the deep breathes we took as we separated our bodies, only a few more minutes of that and we wouldn't have been able to leave each others side for the rest of our lives - I wasn't goign to complain!

No goodbyes from Bella or myself, as I'm sure we were both just glad to be able to breathe.  But massive man was just chillin' as if there was no issue whatsoever.  He even fell asleep on the train ... and well this following picture is his picture.  There are no camera tricks, he was actually that large and took up that much space!

After the train cleared out and Bella left.  I saw that there was bout a foot and a half of space that was available.  So I just really don't know how this guy miscalculated his own mass.  Anyhow, this ordeal left me scared ... I have bar marks on the left side of my body and missing Bella!

+ mon