This one time, at band camp...

I thought I wrote about this already, but I didn't see it. Pardon me if I missed it.

I took up the drums at school in 3rd or 4th grade. When I got to high school, I joined the marching band. I carried the biggest bass drum, because I was the biggest bass drummer. High school band was a rough adjustment for me, but most of my friends were in the band too, so we stuck together and that made it a little easier.

The first year we had band camp at the school, and the 3 years after that we went to summer camps in Pennsylvania. It was the usual teenage hormone knives sticking out of your leg roaming the grounds at 3am setting deodorant on fire littering bug juice gambling vandalism band camp experience. However, no one I knew did anything untoward with a flute.

The first couple of band camps for me were fine, but the last one before my senior year was problematic. I had developed some sort of pain in my side (I have forgotten which one) whenever I carried the bass drum, so much so that I had to play the drum from the sidelines. I think it may have also happened a few times in my junior year, because I remember being in my uniform and watching the halftime show from the stands. I went to a gastroenterologist and they did a bunch of tests, but they found nothing wrong. Still, the pain persisted and I stayed on the sidelines for awhile. I think it did finally go away that year and I rejoined the halftime show in the field, but I never did figure out what was wrong with me.

I have never had a recurrence of this pain since then, but I haven't had anything heavy strapped to myself for long periods of time either (save for my ample belly). I have come to the conclusion that it was psychosomatic. I thought maybe it was nerves, but I was also in a rock band at the time and had no problem singing and playing in front of people. It also could have been the fact that my girlfriend at the time was playing on the sidelines, and I was jealous then. Or it could have just been me vying for attention, I was 17 at the time after all. I think that I have grown out of the attention thing though, at this point in my life I would rather be anonymous to the general public. Hmm, maybe that's due to that pain I had back then. Whatever it is or was, I don't worry about it anymore, but it was a good topic to get through one more day of nablopomo.

Breaking The Law (Unintentionally)

I consider myself a law-abiding citizen. Not just federal law, but really rules of any kind, which I suppose is boring to some people. I don't really speed much anymore; my last speeding ticket was 10 years ago, but this decision grew out of my very first car accident 4 years ago, which wasn't my fault. I try my best to keep on the straight and narrow in everything I do. Having said that, I'm going to tell you about the time I broke into a Burger King.

My friend Jeff and I became obsessed with Pink Floyd while in high school, and we heard that tickets were going on sale for a Roger Waters solo show in Madison Square Garden. We decided that we would go and wait in line for tickets at midnight, figuring there would be a long line. We hit the Foodtown and bought lots of drinks and snacks to tide us over, then we headed to the late Cheap Thrills in New Brunswick, which was the closest place that was selling tickets to the show.

We got there around midnight, and there wasn't anyone there. There was a parking lot behind the store, so we parked there and waited for awhile in the car, thinking that we would go and get in line when someone else showed up. By 3 am, no one had come, and we needed to go to the bathroom. We got out of the car and started to walk up the street, and we saw a Burger King that was lit up. We assumed that it was open since all the lights were on. The fact that we didn't see anyone didn't bother us, since it was 3 in the morning.

Jeff grabbed the handles on both of the glass entrance doors and pulled them open. We went straight back to the bathroom and decided to get some food on our way out. We went to the counter and looked at the menu for a few minutes, waiting for someone to come and take our order. No one did, so we ended up leaving. On our way out, we noticed that one of the doors that we had opened had a deadbolt sticking out of it. Technically, the doors were locked, but the door without the deadbolt wasn't deadbolted to the ground, so that's why we were able to open them. When we realized that we had just walked into a closed and locked Burger King, we freaked out and tried to put the doors back, to no avail. We speed-walked back to the car, hoping that no one had seen us.

The smart thing to do, of course, would have been to leave, but the Roger Waters tickets were far too important, so we stayed in the parking lot. No one ever came by, so we thought we were in the clear. People started to appear around 7 and we got out of the car to get in line. At around 8, a police car that was riding by came to a halt right where we were standing. We were sure we were going to be arrested and tried to disappear into the sidewalk. The policeman only rolled down his window and asked what the line was for. Someone else answered and the policeman went about his business, much to our relief. After that, we never waited in line for tickets again.

I was reminded of this incident yesterday when I went to the ATM. The ATM at our bank is on the side of the building, and you can drive up to it. Unfortunately, there is usually a lot of glare on the screen, making it hard to see. I was trying to make a withdrawal, and somehow I managed to get to the DOS menu screen for the ATM! I once again freaked out, thinking that the bank was going to think I was trying to steal money from the ATM. Luckily I was able to see the last option on the menu, which was "8 Return." I pressed 8 and it went to a screen that said the ATM was not in service. I was about to pull away when it went back to the normal screen, and I was able to make my withdrawal. I am hopeful that this will be my last act as a criminal, because it's very stressful.