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| | Been a while since I made a list... I m not ambitious enough to follow bp s route and promise one a week for fear of producing shoddy lists just to meet promised deadlines (<cough>favorite food<cough>). So today is my City Slickers inspired list of best and worst days in my life.
I m gonna start off with the worst, since there are some pretty depressing entries there and I d rather have you finish on a high note.
Top Five Worst Days:
5. First Sex (February-ish 1990) First time I had sex was a nightmare. There s an awful lot of build up to your first sexual encounter and for me everything just went disasterously awry. The day started with a failed attempt to play hookie debacle. After much scheming, we managed to make it to the girlfriend s stinky white trash parent s house. The act it self involved lots of nervousness, awkwardness, fumbling and embarrassment. To this day I m not sure if I actually achieved any penis-vagina contact at all. On top of all of this I didn t even really like her... Ug. Bad day.
4. Quitting Football (October 1997) By my sophomore year in college I was starting to hate football. I was still pretty good (and had lettered as a freshmen) but the deadly combination of Physics labs and football (plus the several campus work study jobs I held, plus trying to be the man of the house back home) had completely broken me down. I knew I had to quit. The problem was that football helped define me. I was a hometown football hero (no one ever noticed my grades or art awards... you only get accolades for being all-county Guard). I felt like I was letting so many people down. It was gut-wrenching. Sobbing, I tried to express this to Coach Streeter. He was very understanding, but it didn t make it any easier. All that day I was filled with self-loathing and regret. By the end of the week it felt like a huge weight had been lifted and not even a modicum of regret ever returned.
3. First Day of G-tira (October-ish 1983) Our school district had a gifted program for those of us who had done particularly well on standardized testing. It was called G-tira (Gifted and Talented in Rural America... how clever) and students would go once every two weeks... something akin to the class in that Simpson s first season episode. Problem was it was held at the high school. So I had to get up an hour earlier and take the High School bus. As an extremely introverted 3rd grader I was terrified of that prospect. To further set me off kilter there was a black out that first morning. Eventually I sat petrified on the HS bus and then got lost trying to find the G-tira room (too scared to ask for help). I had worked myself into such a nervous frenzy I vomited up my breakfast and started crying. Fortunately a teen neighbor girl who knew who I was hauled me to the nurse. Eventually I made it to the class, and failed to make any friends in my horrible state (some things never change... I still can t make small talk with strangers). By the end of the day, things started to get better but then I was unable to find my bus home, running frantically from bus to bus trying to identify the bus driver... from an 8 year old s perspective, that was an absolute nightmare day.
2. Day before Grandfather s Death (February 1997) I always remembered my grandfather as a powerful man. He worked on the railroad for 30+ years... driving spikes and carrying railroad ties for eight hours a day. He had shoulders like a god. He was a hard drinking man s man, and never visited the hospital or a doctor. Cancer runs heavy in that side of the family and he was stricken pretty bad with it after he retired. Yet he defiantly never went for treatment. I think he pretty much knew what the diagnosis would be and he had no desire to spend his final days in a hospital with doctor s probing his ass (he had colon cancer). He was content to lay bed-ridden in the house he had built and go quietly into the night. Eventually he got so bad that my mom and grandmother drug him, unwillingly, to the hospital. It was far too late for any meaningful treatment, and soon after he arrived there he slipped into a coma. I found out later that day and bullied my way in to see him well after visitor s hours. He was not much more than a gaunt skeleton lying lifeless in a dark room. His mouth was gaping open, with a machine assisting his breathing. It was truly heartbreaking to see him like that, dying in the place he least wanted to be. I sat beside him for a long time, said my goodbyes and left. It was more relief than anything that I felt when my mom called the next day to tell me he had died.
1. Father s Death (June 1996) This was the obvious number one. My dad s chronic asthma had been in high gear in the months leading up to his death and there was talk about putting him on disability until he got better (over the years he experienced many peaks and troughs). We knew his disease would wear on his body and probably cut his life short, but never thought that could come so soon (he was 37). It was days before graduation and I had left that morning to help out with the middle school track and field day as part of our 'Senior Community Service Day.' When I returned the house was empty and I knew something was terribly wrong. My grandmother showed up with the worst news possible. The rest of the day is something of a blur. A maelstrom dire emotions. An hour or so later my brother got home from their half day of school. Breaking the news to him was probably the hardest thing I ve had to do.
Damn. What a dour read so far. I really didn t mean to depress anyone. Enough of the bad stuff. Let s move on to the good...
Top Five Best Days:
5. Pennsic XXX (July 2001)I believe it was the third day of Pennsic. I was really getting caught up in the excitement and majesty of the entire event. We fought in a giant field battle that morning. Several thousand fighters crashing into one another again and again. The din of battle was absolutely intoxicating! An incredible rush. That evening was a wonderful Luper Pennsic meal (I think it was Greek night... my favorite!). That night I attended an irish wake and drank very heavily. By time I stumbled back to camp I was pretty drunk (probably only the third or fourth time ever that I ve been really drunk). At that point Barktooth kept offering me 30+ year old Chivas... I was too enebriated to refuse. For an hour or so I hung out by Corwin. He would call to any camp passersby and I d try to get them to admire my ass. It was an uproarious time. After some cuddling with Klugh (something he still denies) Molly (and I think some one else) tended to me as puked off the nearby bridge. What a day!
4. Sports Award Banquet (May 1992) This was our annual high school awards event. My senior year I cleaned house. I won like four or five awards for Track and Football including top male athlete. It was a good night and I was one of the main centers of attention. I didn t think all that much of it, as I was well aware that I was merely a medium sized fish in the proverbial small pond. However, my family was there and my dad was beaming with pride. Knowing how proud my dad had been that night became especially meaningful as Bad Day #1 would take place a couple short weeks later. (damn, sorry to sneak another depressing entry in with the goods...)
3. GamesDay 2000 (June 2000)I ve had countless wonderful days spent hanging out at the Guild with all my great Guild friends but one truly stands out. Games Day 2000. I ve been going to this Games Workshop premiere event nearly every year since 97 and they are always fun. But 2000 was the best. We had a good time hanging out at the convention, checking out all the new cool GW toys. Afterwards we made our annual trek to Phillips for much crab gorging. This was the first time I had seen the truly awe-inspiring event that is Rob eating crabs. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel. The Days Inn had double booked our room so we ended up getting a free suite upgrade. So we all were hanging out in this huge room deciding our next move. Rob and I started building a fort. From there we decided we would do battle and split into sides (I think sides were determined basically by who was sitting on which side of the room at the time). It was Rob, Tubby and I vs. Rich, Shane, Ryan, Moser and Vinny. We each had time to set up fortifications. We removed the pictures from the walls, turned the beds and cots on their side and piled pillows and cushions high as makeshift battlements. We made several runs to the ice machine and filled every container we had full of ice. A monumental ice battle ensued. For probably an hour there were coordinated long range attacks, assaults and maneuvers. I use the lid to our ice bucket as a buckler to deflect away countless missiles. As the ice supply dwindled things devolved into deadly hand-to-hand combat (as Rob gave the "over the top, boys!" cry). Once we all collapsed from exhaustion (and our wounds) we took account of the scene. Several people were bloodied, the room was destroyed, the carpet was soaked, and we had had the time of our friggin lives!
2. Rome (June 2001) My trip to Italy was wondrous on numerous fronts. And there were many good days. However the first full day spent in Rome edged out the others (even the storied Venice day). It was a gorgeous day spent admiring the incredible ruins. I was walking on air already, completely enamored with the idea of interacting with architecture thousands of years old. Outside St. Peter s Basilica I first met Kristyn. We had an immediate rapport, drawn together by our shared mocking of the pope. We continued to chat as we passed through the papacy. The Cistine Chapel was amazing. It was breathtaking as you stand there in a state of total wonderment, tears filling your eyes. Inside St. Peter s I ditched the tour group and wondered about still awe-struck. I waited in line to see the exhumed body of Blessed Pope John XXIII, and got completely lost from the group... later having to run through St Peter s square to catch up with them. It s not every day that you get to: tour the ruins of a 3000 year old culture, view a dead pope, meet your future wife, and see the Cistine Chapel. Now that was a good day.
1. My Wedding Day (July 2003) Another #1 no-brainer. What a perfect day. Started with golf with Chris, Chad and grm (which ended with the mother of all thunderstorms... very cool). Then the wedding. In my wildest dreams I couldn t have imagined a better ceremony. It was so beautiful. Our minister was amazing. And of course Kristyn was stunningly beautiful... as I ve said before a true vision. Seeing all my friends in one place was fantastic. It was just a whirlwind-of-joy kinda night. Even the dirty stinking jew DJ playing the Electric Slide couldn t ruin it. Of course the best part was being forever bonded to the woman of my dreams. See... a nice sappy ending.
Well, hope you made it this far. Damn long entry. But a pretty good list if you ask me. Hope everyone enjoyed.
-bampf |
| 11/21/2003 3:01:31 PM | Good list, but go easy on me. At first I thought the food thing was a cop out but the more I think about it the more I like it. Besides, now people will know what to feed me when I leech off them for free meals.
Got more comments than anything else of late.
-bp | | 7/12/2007 8:57:55 AM A great read!!! | Mongo,
I have to admit, you do have a great way with words in your Blog. I feel all the emotions you were trying to convey, again great read!!
P.S. - I'm still lost in some of your nerd-ish comments and sayings from certain movies or crazy assed cartoons you so-call adults watch.
- Sum | | 10/10/2009 12:23:18 PM Hi People | Hi People
How are you doing? |
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