April Fools Day/First Crush

I have never been a fan of this day for many, many years. I especially dread having to go to work on this day. Luckily this year I made it through unscathed, but my dislike of this day most likely stems from the first April Fools Day that I can remember.

I was in grade four at the time. During most of this particular school year, I was in a tight group of friends with three other guys: two of us in grade four, two in grade five. One of the grade five guys was...let's call him AC. This requires a bit more back story before I get to the April Fools story.

For some reason that particular year, grade four and five students had the same classes (don't ask me why, I have no idea to this day). When I first saw AC, I had an instant crush on him. I was ten years old at the time (too bad I didn't get the whole gay thing until over a decade later, but I digress). He was "dating" this girl at the time who I didn't like. It wasn't a jealousy thing, she just wasn't a nice person from my perspective. I called her some name and she threatened to tell AC, which she did. Then he threatened me, but for some reason I wasn't really scared that he would do anything (which he didn't BTW). Time went on and whatever animosity he had towards me faded away to the point that we became great friends for the rest of that year. The crush kinda went dormant, but I was still attached to him in some way. Now, back to the main story.

Later that year, I was in the hallway. AC came up to me and said he needed to tell me something. He told me that he was moving to another city. When a kid hears that one of their best mates is moving far away, the reaction is never good...neither was mine. I was standing there trying to hold back the tears and just when they were about to overflow, he said "April Fools!!!" I was dumbfounded. I was speechless. I was hurt. All I could think to do was turn around and walk away before he could see that I was crying. He probably saw the tears anyway.

While I don't remember particularly liking April Fools Day before that point, I definitely didn't like it after, nor do I play April Fools jokes on others (I swear that I DO have a sense of humour though).

Gravity Rides Everything

When I was in high grade school, I had a physics teacher named Mr. Templeton. He was such an awesome teacher that I had him in grades 11 and 12 (physics then AP physics...even though I didn't need either of those classes). I loved the classes and the teacher, but all these years later, I don't remember much of the material. I remember that Force =Mass*Acceleration and that's about it.

There is, however, something I remember him telling us. I remember him saying that there were two points in a year where it is possible to balance an egg on-end without assistance from anything. It has something to do with the way gravity works. Those to points are the Summer and Winter Solstice (I don't know what the plural of that word is). I tried it the first time after he said that and managed to do it. For some reason I forgot about this for years...until this week. So earlier today, the Winter Solstice, I decided to give it a try and about 3 minutes later...

Now, if only I could parlay this into some money making venture.

The Unwashed Masses

I live in a college town and school started here today. We all know what this means: tons of wide-eyed and clueless freshmen. Last week was when they were moving into the dorms. To some degree I was out pretty much every night that week. I have to say it was pretty funny seeing battalions of them going from one apartment complex to another in search of some source of alcohol or a party.I think I can honestly say I wasn't like that as a freshman. First semester, I wasn't really a partier. Second semester I was pledging a fraternity so I knew where the party was and from whom I could get "supplies." I lucked out.

I stopped in 7-11 Saturday night and on my way out, some guy asked me if I wanted to earn a quick ten bucks. I know that sounds really dirty, but that's not where this story is going. My assumption was that this underage guy wanted me to get some booze for his mates and I told him I was in a hurry to meet some people (which wasn't a lie actually). Of course there was also the possibility that he was working for the cops and I could have been busted for "aiding the delinquency of a minor" or something like that, but I didn't think about that until after the fact. 

I also heard a story from someone I work with. She was looking for her keys in her car for a while (it was dark) and she was being hassled by a person or two who were hoping she would give them or ride or something like that. I have to say that was pretty stupid since she could have been a serial killer for all they knew. 

One last story. I was walking home when someone I knew drove by me. I was almost home so I just kept walking even though he offered to drive me the rest of the way (I had pretty eaten badly anyway so I needed the cardio). As he kept driving down the hill, a bunch of kids decided that would be a good time to cross the street and the idiots almost got hit and it would have been their own fault.

Granted that in these stories it may not have been all freshmen, but the likelihood is that many of them were. Upperclassmen don't act like this (at least not nearly as much).

*eyeroll* These kids have so much to learn (and I'm talking about out of the classroom).

P.S. I probably would have made a "fresh-meat" joke in there somewhere, but I feel old enough to where that just creepy.

Cross-Current: Friends Like These

When I was in grade seven during middle school, this girl and I were really close friends. We were constantly talking during classes we had together and roaming the halls of the school. There was this phenomenon going around the school where two people would share a notebook, write personal messages in it during class, pass it back to their "notebook partner" between classes and they would write back. She and I were notebook partners. It kept middle school bearable (I hated pretty much everything else about middle school). Given how close we were, I was gutted when I found out she would be going to a different school during grade eight. That separation was the bad news. The good news ended up being that the separation would be short lived when we ended up going to school together again for high school.. Those four years were really great, and this friendship was part of that greatness. 

Heritage High School

Those four years, as high school tends to be in hindsight, were also fleeting. After high school as was the case with so many people I knew from those days, even the ones I went to university with, she and I lost touch with each other. These were the days before FaceBook, Twitter, and MySpace. Hell, most people still did not have cell phones yet, so keeping tabs on friends across the miles (everyone going to disparate colleges, joining the military and so forth) was not particularly feasible. Besides seeing people during breaks, most of the months were spent buried in books.

HHS's flag in Iraq (we are everywhere)

And so the years marched forward. College came and went. Friends got married. Some had children. Some moved hundreds of miles away. A few joined the armed forces. We all went farther down our diverging paths in life.

Some years after I had started a FaceBook account (I was a little late to the party on that one), I received a friend request from an unfamiliar name. I looked at the profile and found out that it was her, who I had not seen since we graduated from high school. The name was different because she had gotten married (she also had two or three kids). I was excited that she had looked me up, but that feeling did not last. As I was looking through her profile, I noticed that she had joined some FaceBook groups that were anti-gay (the likes of the so-called National Organization for Marriage, though I do not recall off-hand the exact groups she had joined). I had been on the verge of accepting her friend request. However, after seeing these groups affiliations I ended up ignoring the request instead. I didn't make a pointed decision to do so. It was more that I am not particularly interested in being friends who would have me be a second-class citizen under the law. To be fair, she didn't/doesn't know that I'm gay. Still, I can not consider such a person a friend.

This story may seem a bit out of the blue. There is actually a reason that it was on my mind. Many times, I have heard politicians who have very anti-gay voting records and have made very anti-gay statements say "I have gay friends." I always find this statement strange. Of course there is no doubt in my mind that this is said so that they will not appear to be bigots, but I think that they fail in doing so every time. The latest anti-gay politician to say they have gay friends is the loathsome Rick Santorum.

If you have "friends" against whom you have voted in terms of rights and personal freedoms, how can you  call yourself their friend? How can they consider you a friend? I believe that friends see themselves as equals. Friends want the best for each other. Friends do NOT under any circumstances discriminate against one another or vote against each others rights.