Can You Go Home Again? Well, I've been home for 24 hours now. "What?" you are asking
yourself. "Were you gone?" Yup, I was. It was an eventful five
days for me, in which I returned to my former haunt. Was it to visit old
friends? Or search for things lost? Who really cares. It got me out of
the basement for a few days. It all started on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
. . . My mother was taking me into Edmonton. I was going to meet up with one
of my old buddies from the Camrose area, and I was going to head down for
a few days and just chill. As always, I was going to meet them at Comic
King, the only comic store in West Edmonton Mall. As always, I was early
(even though my watch said I was five minutes late). So, I browsed through
the comic books. I browsed through the neighboring stores. I browsed through
the mall-within-the-mall. (Yes, to the uninitiated, West Edmonton Mall
is so big it contains a smaller mall, called the Galaxyland Marketplace).
By now, I was a good twenty minutes late, so that meant my friend was going
to be there. I returned to Comic King and yup, he was there. Oh, and let
me say this: I'm changing names to protect the innocent (although innocent
is such a relative term). There was my friend, whom we'll call Chuck. Chuck had brought his best
friend and landlord, whom we'll call BigGuy, and his girlfriend, whom we'll
call Didi. They were browsing through the comics, acting like they had
been waiting for a long time. I walked up to them and we all hugged in
that way that we do. Pleasantries were exchanged, and it wasn't long until
we were back to browsing through the comic books. I decided to head over
to the action figures. Oh, if only I had more money! Thanks to the surge
in action figure collecting, comic book stores are starting to get a lot
of exclusive stuff. Man, I want one of those new Lara Croft figures! Anyway,
when you are in a comic book store with three comic-loving geeks, you tend
to be there for a while. But, soon everyone had bought the latest X-Men
and it was time to move on. Now, we hit the mall! I wish I had grown up
in a city. I would have been a perfect mallrat. First, to HMV. Much to my disappointment, they still did not have the
Batman Beyond soundtrack. I must get that! And I did what I
always do when I'm in HMV: drool over the DVD titles and wish for more
money. I did get the single for Look At Me by Geri Halliwell. That
song sure grew on me over the summer. From here, it was the quest for beads.
Seems that Didi (the only one of us still in university) needed beads for
some group she was in. So we searched for beads. We eventually found a
store that sold them after the bead store didn't have what she was looking
for. Since we were all a bunch of movie-loving geeks, we decided to see
a movie. Three theaters in West Edmonton Mall. Theater one: "Oh, I've
already seen that and it sucks." "Is that all? Not really much
there." Theater two: "Universal Soldier 2? That can wait
until video." Theater three: "Am I the only one who wants to
see Wild Wild West?" "YES!!" So, we didn't see a
movie. Time to pile into the car and go home! But, we couldn't. Didi still
needed more beads, and knew of a better bead store on Edmonton's world-famous
Whyte Avenue. (Oh, but I can't forget to mention that one of the highlights
of the WestEd trip was getting mauled by an old friend, who just happens
to work there now.) Well, sadly, we got to Whyte Avenue too late, and the bead store was
closed. But, Didi needed string to put the beads on, and she could think
of nothing better than hemp twine. So, it was off to the nothing-but-hemp-products
store, which just happens to be Edmonton's #1 supporter of the legalization
of marijuana. This is not the place for my views on the legalization of
marijuana, but let's just say I was a little on edge the whole time I was
there. That, and the store smelled funny. The whole time I was there I
just kept wanting fresh air. But, not wanting to offend my friends, I kept
my mouth shut and browsed. I'm sure I looked like some kind of narc. But
hey, that's me. We soon left, but that store seemed to have given Chuck
the munchies, and we went by IGA, where he treated everyone to doughnuts.
And I just couldn't turn down a good ol' chocolate covered boston cream.
From here, I finally got to go to a place I've been told about my whole
life. I've already mentioned that we are a group of comic book geeks, and
Warp One Comics was just a hop, skip and a jump away. For the uninitiated,
Warp One Comics is the largest comic book store in the City of Edmonton.
They even have a section devoted to anime, and that goes under the name
of Anime 1/2. I entered the door, and gazed upon the promised land. Vintage
movie posters. Incredibly cool and rare action figures. Collectors cards.
Anime 1/2. T-shirts. Life sized cut-outs of Princess Leia in the Gold Bikini
and Seven of Nine. And comic books. Lots of comic books. Heaven! I immediatly
started flipping through the movie posters. Soon, the clerk was handing
me a paper towel and saying "Forgive me for being anal." Turns
out my hands were still covered in chocolate from the donuts. I thanked
the man and cleaned my hands. Fortunatly, none got on the posters. I ventured
further into the store. Chuck desperately wanted to see my reaction to
the life-sized Princess Leia in the Gold Bikini, to see my reaction. I
was a little underwhelmed, as I already have the action figure, which has
the bonus of being in 3-D. I drooled over the book Batman Animated.
The complete guide to the Batman cartoon, featuring some of the
show's best artwork. I ventured upstairs, where I met more action figures
than I could shake a stick at. I peered into Anime 1/2, where I was greeted
with all manner of mechs and pokemon. Sheer bliss. BigGuy was over in the
collectors cards, where he was picking up a deck of Pokemon cards. Didi
ventured into the underground comics section. Chuck was looking through
back issues of X-Men. And I was wishing I had more money. I told
BigGuy that I could drown of coolness in here. So happy. When we finally
left, I vowed to return one day with a fistful of dollars. So many cool
things. And now, the drive to Kingman! See, Chuck and BigGuy live just outside of Camrose in the tiny town
of Kingman. The drive was uneventful. We got there, and promptly figured
out how to spend the evening. BigGuy and I started playing the new video
game he got, called Deer Avenger. You are a deer, hunting hunters.
It rocked. Chuck and Didi did whatever it was that boyfriend and girlfriend
do. It was a slow evening. It ended the way all my Saturdays end: watching
Saturday Night Live. A classic show! And then, it was to bed, where
I learned that Chuck has quite a comfy sofa. Sunday was quite uneventful. See, I hate hanging out with a person and
their lover. They spend all their time getting all kissy-face, and you
are left to amuse yourself. You know, you have to wonder what they were
doing when it results in her sleeping until 3pm. I'm sure Chuck would have
slept until 3 too, but he comes from a good church-going family, and had
to go to church at 11am. So, most of the day was just me and BigGuy. We
watched John Carpenter's Vampires and Kull the Conquerer,
two examples of classic cinema. That evening, we fired up the N64, and
played countless hours of Star Wars Rouge Squadron, Super Smash
Bros., and GoldenEye. Soon, BigGuy was in bed (he's one of those
early-to-bed, early-to-rise kinds of people) and Chuck had to take Didi
back to campus. I amused myself with Chuck's vast collection of old Jem
cartoons. That is one classic show from the 80's. I soon got tired of waiting
for Chuck and went to bed. Monday morning, I discovered BigGuy's dark secret: he gets up at 6:30
am not because he has to go to work, but because that's when Rocky and
Bullwinkle is on. In reality, he doesn't have to be out the door until
8. I should know. Even though I was sleeping on the couch, he would come
into the living room, and crank up the volume on the TV as he made himself
breakfast. Most of the time, I would fall back asleep after 10 minutes.
Then, I would crawl off the couch at a more reasonable hour, like 10 am,
get my morning glass of milk, and watch TV until Chuck woke up. When Chuck got up around 11, he said that this was like day one. Now
that BigGuy and Didi were gone, it was just him and me, like we were planning
from the beginning. So, what were we to do? Well, first order of business
was food. It was almost lunch time. As I said to Chuck, one of the great
things about living on your own was that if you wanted to, you could have
cookies for lunch! So, we had cookies for lunch. And I have never had a
more satisfying meal. Then, more N64. About this time, Chuck thought it
was time to show me the thriving population of Kingman! Population: 75
(if I remember correctly). What a quaint little town. A little anecdote
with every stop. I was shown the gravel pad that used to be Chuck's school.
The field that was the home to many schoolyard games. The house with a
gargoyle on it. The town's two churches. The skating rink, where we just
had to do a lap walking around the tops of the boards. The post office.
Yup, Kingman is a nice little town. With nice people. Almost like the town
of Springfield in the G.I. Joe comics. And we all know the
dark secret of Springfield. But I'm sure Kingman has no dark secret. Positive.
So, we spent the afternoon talking, playing on the computer, and just
plain screwing around. Then, as the supper hour was drawing near, I finally
spoke up and said what I wanted to do: I wanted to head on down to Camrose
and say hi to some people. So, we did. Got there just as the cafeteria
opened, and I ran into everyone I wanted to see as they were heading off
to the cafeteria. The (remaining) gang hasn't changed a bit. As I dined
with them in the cafeteria, it was just like old times. Same old conversations.
Same old meals. I was home. It was during this meal that I was approached by this year's radio station
manager. Seems that he wants to have a top DJ award at the station, and
wanted to name it after me. Of course, I said yes. I was honored! I was
touched! Then, reality set in. No matter how many good things a station
manager does, none of them carry on to the next year. So, I'm sure that
this award will no longer be given out after April 2000. But, for the time
being, I congratulate all future winners of the Scarecrow Top DJ Award!
Now it was time to do some good old fashioned hanging out. Chuck wanted
to go hang out with Didi, so it was just me and the old gang! And, as always,
we ended up in a floor lounge, watching TV. You know, those great buddy
shows of Friends and Frasier. When 8 rolled around, it was
time for a good old fashioned Sev-Run! This is the Augustana slang term
for "7-11 Run." The tradition is you gather a good size of your
friends (4 tends to be the average), and head on down to 7-11, for a Slurpee
and some other form of sweet treat. If you are doing an assignment or studying
for a test, then the Slurpee is usually replaced with a bottle of Jolt
Cola. And I missed the Sev-Run! Sure, it sounds like a simple act, but
the comraderie! The sharing of tasteless jokes and anecdotes about professors!
And, there is nothing like a Slurpee. Ah, yes. I miss it. I just miss too
much of it. Then, an evening of more hanging out! One of my buddies had the brand
new game Star Trek: Starfleet Command that he wanted to show me.
Great game! Then, someone had to take some movies back to the video store,
meaning a nice, hour long walk. Like the Sev-Run, only longer. We got back
to the dorm just in time for Ally McBeal. I am the only one in my
gang who enjoys that show, and no matter how many times I try to inaugurate
them to it, they just don't get it. As the show came to a close, Chuck
came by, and it was time to go back to his place. So, I said my good-byes,
and promised to come back down when my friend with the DVD player gets
The Matrix. And it was back to Chuck's place. On the drive back
to Chuck's place (and into the wee hours of the morning) we had one of
those deep, meaningful conversations about life, love, fears, and the like.
You know. One of those conversations. Good stuff. Next morning. This would be Tuesday for those of you keeping track.
It was getting to the time where Chuck and I were running out of things
to do. So, we played video games, read comic books, and began working on
our magazine. Yes, we got this idea to do our own magazine! It's going
to be called Toonage, and be all about the world of animation! Even
though we are all at our respective homes now, we are still planning it.
If it takes off, we'd be set for life. So, wish us luck! That was the day.
For the evening, it was back to Augustana. We wanted to catch the first
meeting of the Anime Club, and just watch some cool anime. And there I
picked up another task for myself. Seems one of the new members has put
in a request for Beast Wars the Second, the Beast Wars anime.
Of course, they came to me, the resident TransFan of the gang. I said I
had no idea how to get my hands on it, but I'd keep my eyes open. And my
eyes, they are open. But, when we were done with the anime, I did something
I wanted to do: head on up to the radio station and check out my old haunt!
There weren't many changes. A new CD player. One that can hold 20 CD's,
so we no longer have to re-broadcast another radio station! There were
two freshman DJ's up there, and they both had a lot of attitude. The usual
"We're gonna change this station! We're gonna be famous!" attitude
that DJ's tend to have in the early months. If the trend holds, they'll
be bored with it come December. And then there was that one: "Gimme
your name so I can report you!" He needs to work on his people skills.
But, they were having fun up there, and that should always be the #1 mandate
of the station! Then, I just wandered around campus a little more. Very little has changed.
I hope they never remove my bench under the tree. That is just a perfect
bench. Soon I met up with Chuck, and it was time to go. After he spent
20 minutes saying good-bye to Didi, that is. I was feeling hungry, so we
stopped by McDonald's on the way out of town. I just had a craving for
a McChicken Sandwich. And, back to Kingman! Wednesday, and time to go home. Chuck and I headed off to the city,
where I was to meet up with Mom. But, first I was going to drag Chuck to
see The Iron Giant. It seems I always have to drag Chuck to good
movies. It's the only way I got him to see Blade. But, he agreed
with me in that The Iron Giant is one of the best animated
movies ever, so go see it! Then, just more chilling at the mall until my
Mom showed up. Chuck and I hugged each other good-bye, and then it was
off to home for me! And that concluded my return to Camrose! So, can you go home again? I'm still not sure. Part of me thinks I haven't really left yet. But, for the time being, it is yes. And now, my hopes are renewed that soon I will get out this basement, and be free once again! But sadly, freedom now means getting a job. But, free I will be again! Someday. . . . |