From A to B, a brief synopsis. The College Years.

An old friend of mine recently(like 3 years ago) asked to me bullet point my life from high school to the present day. I put it off because... well, because that's what I do. But it seems like the longer I put if off, the more life I live, the more I have to bullet point... yadda yadda yadda. So, here goes. I probably won't link this so if you're not Dina and you see this it will most likely be because you just happened to be trolling my blog randomly and maybe you should get a job or something. Ok, here goes....

Fuck me, look at all that empty space.

Sigh... 

Ok. 

HIGH SCHOOL! 

note oversized green jacket to hide growing junk food belly

Graduated, with some drama. I was... well, they didn't call it expelled, or maybe they did. Whatever they called it, I was removed from school with 9 weeks left till graduation for smoking on school grounds. Which was absolute bullshit, as I was literally 10 feet from the edge of the property line, and well off what anyone would reasonably consider school grounds, but the Dean was an ex jock who had his sights on me for years so....

But you know this, because you were in LA the summer after senior year.

                                          Hat Dina is not amused.

Not only were you there, but YOU HAVE MY HIGH SCHOOL RING, NO? I just remembered this today. It's ok, you can keep it.  

So, ok. I left High School with a small scholarship to go act at Northwestern State University, which is a college(barely) in central LA. I went with Mike, my best friend from high school. 

Which was awesome! Until we had a massive falling out our first month into college, and didn't speak with each other for almost two years. Which was not awesome, and had the added downside of being extremely awkward, seeing as how we were enrolled in almost all the same classes. Also, because the falling out was entirely my fault, and extended to our entire social circle at home, going back there to visit my folks was like torture. No friends, and nothing around me but reminders of events that even now I'm uncomfortable thinking of.(*editor's note. I just made a chocolate peanut butter milkshake and it's delicious.) 

So, yeah. First year of college sucked. All my high school friends more or less hated me, and I pretty much agreed with them. This made making new friends somewhat difficult, as you can imagine, but I did eventually, and Mike and I sort of drifted apart. I started hanging out with a girl from Houston named Shea. She had a boyfriend in Houston, which was fine because I had a girlfriend in Mandeville. Until she cheated on me. So fuck her, I went with Shea. I don't remember what happened to her boyfriend, but... whatever.

Oh yeah, I also acquired facial hair more or less the second I left catholic school. It seemed to go well with the series of horrible fashion choices I made in college. Like this Doo-rag + vest combo I'm rocking here. I took some classes, had some sex, got extremely drunk on multiple occasions. I even acted enough to pick up a summer job at a small theater in central Kentucky, in a town called Horse Cave. 

So this is.... 93-94? Freshmen year starts confused, depressed, full of self loathing and utter aloneness. Ends a little more confident, with most of those feelings repressed deep down, a new group of friends, a girlfriend, and a road trip to Kentucky!

Kentucky was almost utterly forgettable. With the following exceptions. 

• I bought Counting Crows August and Everything After on the way up to Horse Cave, and it remains one of my favorite albums.*I'm listening to it now, and I can still smell Kentucky when I do. 
• I lived 10 miles away from Mammoth Cave National Park, and living on top of a giant network of caves never got not disturbing when you thought about it. 
• It's where I was when OJ killed those people. 
• Amish. Woah. 
• Living 10 miles away from a time zone change is also something you never quite got used to. 

Annnnnd we're back in Natchitoches. Which is where the college is, and also where they shot Steel Magnolias. If you've seen that movie, you've seen where I went to school. Second year was noteworthy for  several reasons. Primarily because it started me on what was to become my eventual career. See, everyone who had a theater scholarship was required to audition for EVERY show, or work in some technical capacity. The first show of my second year was A Chorus Line and because I was terrified of the dance auditions I decided to work in some technical capacity. I had no real qualifications, and since I spent all summer in Kentucky building scenery and hated it, I decided I would try lighting.

This became a pattern I'd repeat with every show for my remaining time there. 

I'd act in the straight plays

 and do lighting for all the musicals. 

With almost no exception. Except once, as a personal favor to a teacher. It left me looking like this

And then I went back to my original creed of NO MUSICALS. 

Trucking right along, still with Shea, still not talking to Mike, which is getting difficult, as Mike has fallen into hanging out with a couple of people who are Shea's best friends. Mike and I have tried very hard to not speak to each other but, after a large amount of vodka, we wind up having this huge heart to heart, we cry and hug it out, and wind up moving in with each other. Which takes us to another Summer. 

Summer after my second year. I decided to stay in Natchitoches, take some summer classes, and take part in the summer theater program there. This was also mostly forgettable, with the following exceptions. 

• Subway closes at a set time, not whenever you just don't feel like making sandwiches anymore. I was, of course, fired. 
• Learning Algebra through an extensive three week course it possible. Learning Spanish the same way... not so much. 
• Attempting to do both of the above, while being in two plays at once, while having mono.... is not possible. 
• Living next to a Wal-Mart in a town where the Wal-mart is the only thing open 24/7 is daaaaangerous. 

Summer ended, everyone came back, and we started our third year. Shea and I still together. Mike and I living together in an apartment off campus, and a group of us gradually coalescing into a pack that stays more or less together for the next decade.

I'm realizing now that most of my third year is a blur. I can pick out events, but I'm not entirely certain which year of college they fit into. So, some highlights. 

• dropping acid and having a conversation with my car. then "drunk" dialing my mother at 5am, still tripping. 
• playing chair toss at the pool in my apartment complex, competing to see how far into the pool we could throw a deck chair. 
• walking to Wal-Mart at 3am, drunk as shit, because we NEEDED a giant beach ball. 
• a fully functional Potato rocket launcher. 
• watching monday night wrestling in our apartment, an activity that routinely attracted upwards of a dozen people. 
• 6 grown men and women engaging in 8-10 hour dungeons and dragons sessions.
• my first, and last, foray into infidelity.  
• Spent a summer in Ohio, getting paid to play Cowboys and Indians. http://www.tecumsehdrama.com/

There's others, but the important stuff is there. I kept doing lots of Lighting work in theater, I got back on speaking terms with Mike, and the group in the picture above... Cory, Joanie, Mike, Shea, and I.... formed. Shea and I were together till the end of fourth year, when she graduated and I still had a year left. We split up rather then do the long distance thing, though when she came to visit we'd routinely wind up hooking up. Other then that, after being in a 4 year relationship I sowed some well deserved oats my 5th years. Had some fun, finished my classes, and split paths with Mike for the second time. 

    cleaning our apartment before moving out. 

He left for Bangor, Maine and I left for Daytona Beach, Florida, for a job as an electrician at a summer theater festival there. 

Next installment: JUST FIRE EVERYWHERE, How many Motel 6s can one man stay at, or Didn't I just leave you people?