2004-10-01
ANOTHER BRIEF AND RANDOM SET OF 10 MEMORIES THAT MAKE ME SMILE NO MATTER WHAT KIND OF MOOD I'M IN.* Getting extraordinarily wasted with Voss, Decker, Andy and Bruce. Someone put on Jimmy Eat World's "Clarity" and we lay on the floor and listened to the entire album without saying a single word.
* Waking up on Saturday mornings at my dad's house before anybody else when I was a little kid. An hour or so after I awoke, Dad would rise and amble into the living room, hand in boxers, scratching the everloving crap out of his balls. He would then proceed to chase my brother and I around the house as we ran in hysteria from his "balls hand."
* Sally Ellyson, Hem's lead singer, smiling at me during the band's concert at the Troubador in LA, August, 2003. Front row seats = priceless.
* Waking up with Ripple and Jake every morning at 7:10 AM during the summer of 2002 at Ingersoll Scout Reservation, and ruthlessly berating the disasterously unfunny DJ on the lite rock station before we were even coherent enough to grasp the English language.
* Grandad's impression of my generation. Lots of attitude and the word, "SHE-YIT!"
* Racing up "Hollywood Hill" in East Peoria during the middle of the night to spell the name of our high school drama teacher in an impressive array of white garbage bags for all of Peoria to see.
* Skipping rocks on the Current River with Decker and talking about life. (Isn't it funny that that son of a bitch has made it onto this list twice? But the funny thing is, just because our friendship ended badly doesn't mean that good memories should inherently be sullied. And we had a lot of good memories.)
* Drunkenly singing the Pirate Song at Dayvo's house with all of my old camp staff buddies.
* Accepting four speech and debate national championships in a single night. If I'm ever going to have a day in my life that I'm more proud of, it's likely going involve an altar and a bride.
* Me, my '92 Oldsmobile Cutlass, and every square inch between St. Louis, MO and Los Angeles, CA.
Life is good. Okay? Accept it. You're fine. Yes, you. You're fine.
-Andy