Entry Eighty-Three.
Friday, 2008.12.12, 1:38 AM CST.
Birthday.   Santa.  Doom.  Pistachios.  Memories.  Christmas.

Gee...  I thought I was going to start adding Journal entries more often.

Sorry about that.  I'll try to do better.

Well, I usually don't talk too much about my age.  I don't want to be seen as an "old guy," and most people who know me can attest to the fact that I can be a lot less mature than most guys my age.  Plus, I have a 20-month-old son, so I have no choice but to stay a bit younger than I should be.

Birthday.
However, I need to mention this:  Years and years ago, I had a personal event happen in which I basically came to the understanding that I would die at the age of 37.  Not a medical diagnosis or anything like that, just an odd feeling of personal intuitiion.  At the time, I didn't worry about it too much, since I was years and years away from being 37.

Last week, I turned 37 years old.  Here's hoping that my personal intuition was wrong.

Santa and Christmas.
Well, it's hard to believe that we are now less than 2 weeks away from Christmas Day, and like Christmas of last year, it's rather bittersweet.  This is X's second Christmas, and also my second Christmas without my mom.  So, yeah...  It's fun and painful at the same time.

Lanna and I took X to meet "Santa" out at Utica Square yesterday afternoon.  X was very pleasant, and we were told by "Santa" and "Mrs. Claus" that he was one of the best-mannered and happiest children they had seen so far this year.

Of course, X doesn't understand the concept of Santa Claus at all yet.  It's still a lot of fun for us, though, to get his picture taken with a "Santa" each Christmas.

Pistachios, Doom, and Memories.
Heading out to Utica Square brought back a lot of memories for me.  I hadn't been Christmas shopping at Utica Square for a long time; in fact, the last time I can remember doing so was 15 years ago, back in 1993.

1993.  The year that Depeche Mode released Songs of Faith + Devotion.  The year that I started using the Internet.

Back then, I was attending classes at Northeastern State University and dating a girl named Sarah.  I remember buying her way too much stuff for Christmas at the time, some of it at Utica Square.  I found out several months later that she was engaged to another man in other city while we were seeing each other.  No kidding.  That sucker actually ended up marrying her.  Heh heh.

Anyway, back in early December 1993, I had all four of my wisdom teeth extracted.  That was fun.  So, I was recovering from that, and I remember trying herbal teas for the first time.  I bought a variety pack of them from the on-campus mini-grocery and found myself to be a massive enthusiast.

I think that was also the month that I first tried pistachio nuts, quite possibly per the recommendation of the aforementioned Sarah.  If so, my near-addiction to pistachios was the only really good thing I remember getting from the relationship.

Pistachios soon became one of my absolute favourite snack foods.  To this day, I love roasted, salted pistachios.  If I'm ever trying to escape from a burning building and you want to make sure that i get cooked alive, throw me a bag of pistachios.  Odds are I'll have to sit down for a few minutes and have some of them.

(On the other hand, I despise the disgusting red pistachios that you find here and there - the ones that are covered in that repugnant, slimy red film.  Ew.)

So, I was hooked on pistachios and herbal teas.  I also found another addiction - one that devoured countless hours of my life.  Doom.  That's right - id Software's Doom, the groundbreaking first-person shooter in which the player fought off zombie space marines and various demons from hell.

The shareware version of Doom had just been released, and two of my friends who ran a Tahlequah-based bulletin board system (the now-defunct BBS "The Closet") gave me a copy of it on floppy disk.  I went back to my dorm room in Wilson Hall, installed it, and found a whole new reason not to study or do any homework.

I've been a fan of Doom, along with all of its sequels, ever since.  I hated the movie, though - it was a gigantic steaming pile of crap.  But, I digress.

All of these December 1993 memories (and plenty more), all triggered by a simple trip to a shopping complex.  I remember buying a stack of very nicely-priced vinyl records and CDs from the California-based remix company Pop Mix (aka Techno Pop).  I remember hearing Opus III's legendary dance track "It's A Fine Day" for the first time.  I remember getting together with my old mentor, DJ Dave, for lunch at  Tulsa's 41st + Memorial Burger King.

I even remember going to the NSU campus cake store in December 1993, since I had a sizable surplus of on-campus food credit points, and ordering a "Barney the Dinosaur" cake - only requesting that the cake feature a beaten, ragged, and bleeding Barney.  (Yes, I got my request, and it was both hilarious and delicious.)

Funny how certain memories stick, eh?

Good night!
Okay...  I need to crash.  By this point, it's about 2:51 in the morning.  I've been sitting here gulping down pistachios and chasing them down with Bigelow's Sweet Dreams herbal tea, which I have nicknamed Bigelow's Knock-Your-Ass-Out Tea.  So, I should be comfortably unconscious quite soon.

More later!  

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