Zel-kun’s Words

Sophomore year began on a low note.  My grandmother had passed away, and my grandfather wasn’t far behind.  I had spent the summer drowning myself in console RPG’s, and didn’t take too kindly to reality reasserting itself.

When school began, I picked up The Gunslinger, the first book of the Dark Tower, an epic by Stephen King.  I ended up spending every free moment reading it, even in class.  This didn’t seem to detract from my grades, so I continued to read.  Now and again a teacher would ask me a question while my nose was buried in a book, and I’d be able to answer it.  After a few times, they stopped bothering me.

My lunch hour did not coincide with that of any of my lunch companions from the previous year, so I took to spending the lunch hour in the library, where I enjoyed the quiet a lot more than I ever enjoyed the long lines and the unhealthy food.

I didn’t have any friends my Sophomore year, but I also didn’t have any enemies.  I kept to myself, and the world kept to itself.  It was like a ceasefire agreement that I was perfectly happy about.  In early Fall, I finally cut ties with Jason.  After trying to throw me in a freezing pool on a 40 degree day to impress some girls, I decided that maybe it would be best that I threw him to the ground and left.  I never spoke to him again.

At some point during the year, I began writing.  I can’t really say what inspired me to pick up the pen, just that it felt like the right thing to do.  The work produced during this time is too horrible to mention.  I had the misfortune of finding a bit of it in my files when I was getting ready to move to Chicago, and had to throw it out.

Some writing is meant to never be read.

Also, at some point during this year, I was flipping through the channels, and stopped on the Sci-Fi channel, seeing a cartoon.  It was strangely animated, and full of violence and despair.  I had never seen anything like it.  When it was over, I did not know what I had seen, but knew I wanted to watch more like it.  And so, I was exposed to anime.

For awhile it was limited to catching an old anime movie at 2:00 in the morning on the Sci-Fi Channel.  It wasn’t until I met Craig that I really started to get into it.

But that’s a story for another chapter.

Yesterday was Halloween.  Halloween was always a fun time for me when I was a kid.  I used to start trick or treating as early as I could, and go as late as my parents would alllow.  We never trick or treated in our own neighborhood, though.  We weren’t in the richest part of town, and pennies and tootsie rolls were perhaps the best we could have hoped for.

Luckily, my mother was friends with a woman who lived in a wealthy suburb full of doctors and lawyers.  When one out of three houses is giving away full-size candy bars, you know you’ve hit the jackpot.  Even back then, I organized and rationed my candy.  I had a desk in my room, and I neatly stacked the candy bars in the top drawer, put the hard candies in the second drawer, and the chewy candies and gum in the third drawer.  I easily had enough to last me well into the next year.  By the time the next Halloween rolled around, I still had one or two Blow Pops sitting in that drawer.

Our costumes were never store-bought, they were always made up of objects found around the house.  We didn’t have a lot of money, but we did have a big family, and as consequence, could find what we needed for a costume idea.

One year, an old karate gi was my Karate Kid costume.  Another, a pair of overalls, tool belt, and hard hat were my construction worker.  An old smock, beret,  and palette made of cardboard made my artist costume.  In the end, maybe they weren’t the most creative costumes, but definitely looked better than the plastic superman and spiderman costumes out there.

I haven’t trick or treated since I was fourteen, and haven’t even SEEN a trick or treater in three years.  The suburbs have approved trick or treating hours, which end before I get home.  The city, as I found out last night, was much different.

I pulled off of the freeway at about 7:00pm, making pretty good time as most people left work early to take their children out.  And when I did, I was shocked to see the normally empty streets covered in costumed people.  They were everywhere.  When I finally parked, I had to wade through the crowds of children just to get to my apartment, then had to motion them aside so I could open the door.  I could hear them outside for several hours afterwards.

I think I mentioned it before, but the city seems much more alive than the suburbs, for better or worse.

We also managed to blow a fuse last night.  Zai was cooking dinner and had some green beans in the microwave, which proved to be a bit much for the circuit.  Apparently the entire apartment save for my study is on the same circuit.  So at least my computer stayed on.  The circuit box is in the basement, so only the store owner downstairs had the key.  We ended up eating what was cooked of our dinner by candlelight.

I could think of worse things to do.  And once the neighbors got back from taking their kids trick or treating, they flipped the circuit breakers and we had power again.

All in all, a pretty good evening.

Zel-kun out.