Nothing Else Matters - Metallica Tattoo

This entry will cover a period of about a year or two and my experience getting my leg sleeve Metallica tattoo. I have been a fan of music my entire for as long as I can remember, but Metallica was the first real band that caught my attention and sucked me in to heavy metal and opened the doors to all the other facets of music I enjoy. The tattoo is really more about how this music turned me on to so much other music and opened those doors. I am not, by any means the biggest Metallica fan out there, and probably will never be. I have friends that know more about the band and their music than I ever will. Anyways, I had already been tattooed once before, my Hope symbol on my right forearm, and I wanted to do something Metallica themed on my leg. I chose my leg, because I could hide it if I wanted to. and I hate the way my legs look anyways so whats' the big deal if I covered one up. So one day at college, Lindsey and I were bored and went to get tattoos. She got a star, and I decided to get "Nothing Else Matters" going down the outside of my right calf. Nothing Else Matters is my favorite Metallica song, and decided to pay tribute with it.

It took a few more months, for me to decide what I was going to do with the rest of my leg, and who I was going to get to do the work. After a lot of thinking, I settled on the first 5 album covers (Kill 'Em All, Ride The Lightning, Master of Puppets, ...And Justice For All & The Black Album) and went to a local tattoo studio near the university to meet my artist. I explained to him that I wanted a part of all of the covers incorporated, and after that it was up to him, I was down for anything he presented. A few weeks later I went back for my first session, not really knowing what to expect, since I had only every gotten small things tattooed before.

This is after the 1st session.

I had could only pay for about 3 hours worth of work every 2 or 3 months so it took some time before it really started coming together. I was a poor college student, working a part time job and had other bills to pay. Plus he was a really good artist which meant he had a really full schedule so it would have taken a while anyways.

This is after the 2nd session.

The pain was tollerable, and I would do it again if I could afford it. Life gets in the way sometimes though. The only times that it became really hard to sit was after we would take breaks. He would work for like 2 hours or so, then take a break. Ususally I would go to the bath room or walk around to get feeling back in my body, but after I would sit back down  the pain was so intense I couldn't wait for him to finish for the day.
Certain areas of my leg hurt more, the fatty upper part of my calf was the absolute worst, but I survived.

 This is after the 3rd session.

After we would finish for the day, I would always go to McDonald's and load up on food and go home and take some Advils for the pain and just crash. I didn't realize it at first, but my artist explained to me that it was because my body was going into shock from all of the pain it had been in.

This is after the 1st Color session. 

After a year and a half of getting inked, we were a few sessions away from completing the work, when I told him that in mid-May I was moving to Florida and we needed to finish this thing as soon as possible. So after some schedule re-arranging we cut a session out and I sat my for my last time the day before we left to move to Florida for 6 hours straight. This was the longest I had ever sat for and I thought I was going to die when I got back to the house. I got my food and took my meds and slept for a while before we finished packing.

This is after my final, 6 hr. session.

I haven't gotten any work done on it since, but would like to. Like I said though, life gets in the way sometimes and there are other more important things in my life now.

Heading South - 2007

In the spring of 2007, my last semester at Toledo, I was faced with the reality that I would be graduating college soon and would have to get a job and enter into the real world. I know that I did, but I don't remember it, but I looked for work in Ohio and didn't really find anything. Lindsey and I had talked a few times about wanting to live down south, in the Carolina's or Georgia so I started looking down there. I found a company in North Carolina and emailed them my resume and while searching their website, I found out they had a sister company in Florida, so I applied there as well. I got a call back from both companies and had phone interviews within a week of each other. About a week after that I got a call back from Florida and they wanted me to talk over the reality of moving to half way around the country at such a young age with my family, and wanted to schedule a time to fly me down for an interview. Florida was definitely not on the top of our list of places to live for a few reasons. Lindsey didn't like the idea that we would be living in a state that was frequented by hurricanes. Neither of us were looking forward to the extreme heat, and I don't think either of us could have ever predicted how hot it would actually be. And finally, the fact that we would be living in a totally new place all by ourselves, 1,500 miles from either of our parents, friends and family.

Well, after talking it over with everyone and realizing that this could be the opportunity of a lifetime to work with such a reputable construction company we decided if the interview went well, and the offer was right, we would be heading south. But first I had to survive my first big-time real world interview.

They set me up with a very early flight from Toledo to Cleveland, then Cleveland to Orlando. Going into it, I was more nervous about the flight down than the actual interview itself. I had only ever flown once, to Orlando, with the family when I was 12, and I figured if they wanted to spend that much money on me, I must have a pretty good shot at it. So I sucked it up and got on the plane(s) and arrived in warm, kind of sunny Orlando, Florida. I went through the whole interview process, meeting with HR people, Division Mangers and other young engineers, and the day was winding down for me to catch a cab back to the airport for my 6 o'clock flight. Well, I didn't know this at the time, but the HR representative was quite talkative and we sat there talking and talking until 3 p.m. when she finally called for my cab. Now in Orlando if there was no traffic, it would only take about 30 minutes to get from the office to the airport, but that's in a perfect situation. By the time my cab arrived it was almost 4 p.m. and it took well over an hour to get to the airport. My cab driver was taking every short cut he could to get me there so I wouldn't miss my flight. Luckily I didn't have anything but a briefcase with me so I ran to security, and ran to the gate. I was the last one on the plane, 5 more minutes and I would have been stuck in Florida. Well I made it home, not even caring about the flights back because it had been such a long day.

About a week later I got an email with an offer letter, and all the other information about becoming a new Construction Engineer at Hubbard Construction Company. After many talks with Lindsey, my parents, her mom, and everyone else, we decided that after graduation we would be heading south to the Sunshine State.

Graduation came and went, I will go into that school year a little more in another entry. Hubbard had given me a moving allowance, so Lindsey and I bought some plane tickets and rented a car to go down and try and look for an apartment and relax 2 days after graduation. We found a few places online and set up appointments to view them, nothing was really catching our eye, but everything that we were looking at was kind of old and not in the best of areas. We found this one apartment complex just driving around and really liked it, and in a move of stupidity we signed up to move in without even doing any research on the place. Once we got back to Ohio, I was checking it out online and began reading horrible things from previous tenants. Luckily we were able to cancel the check we wrote them, and get out of the lease. We ended up going with a nice quite 2 bedroom apartment in Maitland, Florida, just north of Orlando.

Leaving was kind of a bittersweet moment for me. It was hard because all my life I was no more than an hour's drive from my parents and family. Now we would be a 3 hour flight, 18 hour drive, and knowing that we would only be seeing each other a few times a year. But it was also very exciting because it was a new adventure that Lindsey and I were taking on together. Lindsey's mom had been living in Dallas, Texas for about a year or so so there wasn't much of a physical good-bye there, but I know it was rough on my parents and the rest of our families when we left.

Well the day had finally come, the truck was loaded to the brim, and we set off from good ole' Amherst around 11 a.m. We needed help moving down and ended up having our friends David and Emily drive down with us and spend a few days before flying them back to Ohio. Our plan was to drive into North Carolina and stop for the night, then finish up the drive the next day. That didn't happen. Because our truck was loaded, and we were towing Lindsey's car behind it so we were limited to about 60 miles per hour. On top of that, it started raining in Charleston, West Virginia and it was starting to get dark, in the mountains, in the rain. I had driven most of the day because, I am kind of a control freak when it comes to driving. I can't relax when someone else is driving, especially when we were hauling everything we owned. We finally stopped that night, just across the Virginia state line, around midnight. My nerves were completely shot and I was exhausted. Luckily the next day was a beautiful day for driving and the roads got flatter and straighter so I felt a little better about David driving the truck.

This is me nervously driving the truck through the mountains into North Carolina.

After an extremely long day driving, we finally made it into Florida, only 3 hours left until we made it to Orlando. One thing I really hated about Florida was how long it took to get anywhere. We were on the home stretch, however one last problem stood in front of us. Neither of us wrote down the directions to the apartment. We only had directions to Maitland, not the apartment. Fortunately for us, I was able to find it from memory. Unfortunately for Lindsey and Emily, they had driven ahead of us and got of the the highway to try and get to the apartment and get ready for us, but Lindsey got off at the wrong exit and ended up arriving at the apartment about 40 minutes after we did. David and I already had half of the truck unloaded by the time the girls got there.

David, Me, Lindsey & Emily outside our apartment.

After we got somewhat settled in the new place over the next day, we decided to head out to Daytona Beach to hang out for the day before David and Emily went back to Ohio. We got some sun, played some Frisbee for David, and enjoyed the little bit of time we had left with the only friends we had near us. We got up the next morning, took David and Emily to the airport, Lindsey and I went and returned the moving truck and came back to our apartment. I remember that morning being a little sad, depressed even, because it was then that it finally hit me that we were on our own now and it was up to us to go out and meet some new people and places. All my life before that I had my parents or Lindsey or other friends to be my guide, now it was up to me.

Emily, David, Lindsey & Me at  the Daytona Beach Pier.

Lindsey Marie Maines

My first memories of when I met the love of my life date back to my junior year in High School. We actually met the year before, her freshman year my sophomore year, during marching band. My earliest memory, kind of funny, probably not the sweetest one, was on my 16th birthday. I remember she called me to wish me a happy birthday and I had no idea who I was talking to on the phone for a good 30 seconds. I think I had to ask, and even when she said "It's Lindsey", I said "Lindsey who". Romantic I know. But I did end up inviting her to my birthday party later that week. We had our first and only class, outside of band, Chemistry, together the fall semester of my junior year. The class size was uneven and I remember sitting by myself in the back of the room behind Lindsey and her friend Emily. When we had labs in the class, I got to partner up with them. As the class went on, our friendship grew.

It wasn't until around Valentine’s Day, 2001, that I found out, from Emily, that Lindsey liked me. I just so happened that Emily told me during band, and after during lunch, student council was selling flowers for Valentine’s Day. I bought one and gave to to Lindsey and asked her if she wanted to go and see a movie the following weekend. Our first date was on February 17, 2001. It was a Saturday night, and she was staying at her Dad's house that weekend. I remember her giving me his address, and driving over to the house, except that when I arrived on the street, all of the houses in the cul-de-sac didn't have their porch lights on and it was dark out. So here I am pulling in and out of just about every house on the street using my headlights to check the house numbers. It was probably 6 or 7 houses before I noticed that Lindsey had come outside and she what I was doing. After I finally found the house, we headed out to the movie theater in Sheffield Village to see Hannibal. Unfortunately, the theater was packed, and we both decided we didn't want to deal with the huge crowd, and went back to her Dad's to watch a movie instead. We watched The Silence of the Lambs, and part of Road Trip. It got late and I went home, hopeful to see her again soon. I remember I had to work the next day and while at work. I heard through one of the customers, that NASCAR great Dale Earnhardt Sr. had died on the last lap of the Daytona 500. I think hearing that news was the only thing other than Lindsey that ran through my mind all day. After work, I went back over to see her and we finished watching the rest of Road Trip. After the movie, I asked her to be my girlfriend, and we officially began dating.

We spent the next month spending every second we could together at school and every weekend she was over her dad's. Unfortunately, she broke up with me just before our one month anniversary and her 16th birthday. I was bummed, but not totally heartbroken. I guess my subconscious knew she would be back someday. The rest of my junior year we saw each other in passing and while in band. That summer while making my rounds at graduation parties I began hanging out with my ex-girlfriend, also named Linze, whom I had dated the previous winter. Lindsey had also gotten back together with her ex-boyfriend as well.

Once marching band started back up, Lindsey and I found ourselves in similar situations. We both had significant others that were older than us and going away to college in the Fall. We started hanging out during practices and the attraction that started the previous Spring began to redevelop. All of our friends knew we were going to start dating again, most of them, I think even thought we were dating during band camp. We went everywhere together, and were pretty much inseparable. However we still had to end things with our current college girlfriend/boyfriend, and that really didn't happen until well after school had started and it was almost October.

I say October because our anniversary of our first date is October 4, 2001. I still argue with her to this day and probably will forever, that this is just a day that she pulled out of the sky as our anniversary. I say this for a few reasons. If you look back at a calendar for this day, I believe it was a Tuesday. There is no way we went out on a date on a weeknight, because her mom never really let us see each other on school nights, at least when we first started dating. Also, I have a very good memory, thus I am writing these memories down for you all to read. I remember the most random things, dates, events from our relationship so far and I have no recollection of this first date. Either way, October 4, 2001 is our "1st Date" anniversary.

This is a start so far. I will post this and add more later. There is a lot of story to tell…

2003-2004 - Freshman Year at University of Toledo

After high school I didn’t know what I wanted to go to college for, and since Lindsey still had a year left of high school anyways, I did what my parents wanted me to do and went to Lorain County Community College for a year. After Lindsey got accepted to UT I applied and also got accepted, at the time Toledo was pretty easy for just about anyone to get into. Granted my grades from college and high school weren’t bad, but I was not a 3.5 GPA student like she was.
In August of 2003 I packed what I could and loaded it into Mom and Dad’s mini-van with Mom, Dad, my sister Rachel and my friend Ben. Lindsey had already moved in to her dorm a week early because of a special program for certain business students. I was assigned to the Academic House at the University and my roommate was a guy named Sean whom I had never met before that first day. I remember pulling onto the campus that day and it being very busy with all of the new students and their families moving into all of the various dorms. After we parked, we were assisted by some older students that helped us move all of my junk up into my new 12’ x 10’ room that I got to share with my first roommate ever.

After getting all of my stuff sort of unpacked, Lindsey came over, still a little bit hung-over from the night before, and joined us for lunch in the student union. After lunch we took a quick tour of the campus and said our good-byes to my parents. I went back to my room to finish unpacking and Lindz and I would meet up later after all of the new student activities. This is where I made my first contact with Sean. Since we had only spoken through email and Instant Messenger I had no idea what to expect. He was a surfer looking guy from southwest Ohio and was very laid back and easy going. Little did I know at the time it was the weed that made him that way. Sean was a pretty good roommate, we got along great, and his only problem was he was a slob. We quickly determined that the best way to solve this problem was for each of us to keep our messes on our own sides of the room and there wouldn’t be any problems.

I think it was that night or maybe the 2nd night there that Lindsey took me out with some of her new friends she met in her business week. This was the first time that I my first beer. I know mom, you thought I would have lasted longer than a day, but I didn’t. Sorry. See I had never before had an interest to drink alcohol. Only a few of my friends in high school did, and it wasn’t very often at that. Also my dad’s side of the family has had their fair share of alcoholics and I was always told it was wrong. But now that I was at college I figured what the hell, I might as well try it! I remember the experience very well, Lindsey and the guys there were playing a card game called Kings and they were drinking Bud Light. I joined into the game and when it came time for me to take my first drink, I almost spit it back out, I jokingly asked if they had anything that tasted better and they said as a freshman I wasn’t going to get anything that was better than Bud Light. How true of a statement that was, because after we finished the game we all went to a huge house party at one of the fraternities off campus house. This is where I met the Beta’s for the first time. Over the year we went to a few more parties at their house, which was about one strong wind from collapsing in on itself. And in our 3rd year there, they got lost their fraternity charter and were disbanded, a few weeks later someone set that house on fire and it burned almost to the ground.

Dorm life was a totally new experience for me, but it is something I believe that everyone should go through at least once in their life. You get to meet all kinds of people from all over the place, and usually you will walk away with some pretty good stories to tell. For instance, we had a guy on our floor that had the same surfer look to him that Sean had but was way uglier. Everyone called him Smoke-Dog for some reason; I can only imagine it was because he smoked weed and cigarettes like it was going out of style. One night on the first weekend before classes even started, he got so drunk that when he came back to the dorm he opened the door to the garbage room instead of his dorm room and proceeded to climb into a trash can and pass out. He was found about an hour later by dorm security and the next day everyone on the floor had a meeting about not parting too hard just because we were at college now.

Sean was known for not looking the door to our dorm room when he came back at night and then leaving again. I woke up many times to Smoke-Dog tapping me and waking me up asking if I knew where Sean or his cigarettes were. It was terrifying. Later in the year, Smoke-Dog’s roommates were told by his mother that they could shave off his scraggly hair one night after he passed out because his hair was gross. So later that night, they followed her orders and shaved about half of Smoke-Dogs head after he passed out. I did not find out about this until the next morning when I went to take my shower and I saw another guy on the hall walking a teary eyed Smoke into the bathroom to finish the job. Once again later that afternoon we had another hall meeting about not shaving other people’s heads even though their own parents instructed them too.

That fall at UT was probably the hardest and emotionally draining 4 months of my life. Everything started off great, classes weren’t that hard, I had made casual acquaintances on my hall floor, and Lindsey and I were 90 miles away from our parents. After we both got settled into our routines, one of Lindsey’s roommates, Casey, invited Lindsey to join her at one of the sororities rush events. This is what got Lindsey involved with the Alpha Chi Omega chapter at UT. With her being involved in a sorority I figured it would be good for me to get involved with a fraternity and meet some other guys. I knew a little bit about the frats on campus because one of my childhood neighbors, Scott was in Kappa Delta Rho, and had showed me around a few times because he wanted me to join them. I decided along with Sean to rush Phi Kappa Psi, little did I know what I was in for.

The rush events were really cool, there was food, card games, video games and just hanging out with the other brothers. After rush week Sean and I along with about 8 other guys were asked to pledge Phi Psi. For the initiation to pledge we all had to wear shirts and ties and were huddled into a small room in the basement and had to wear our ties as blindfolds while the other brothers got the ceremony together on the first floor. This was not the first time we had to do this. After the ceremony they threw us a big party on the second floor, where there was a bunch of beer and it was a good time.

We had like 8 or 10 weeks of pledging before we could officially become members, and during this time we had to learn all about the fraternity, the brothers and do whatever they said. Most of it wasn’t that bad, we almost always had to do something embarrassing after we interviewed one of the brothers. I think the worst I had to do was clean a brother’s room and go ask a sorority for dish soap so I could wash a brother’s dishes. The worst parts came on Sunday’s when we had our chapter meeting and afterwards our pledge meeting. This always involved a test of some sort about the brothers and the fraternity’s history, and it never failed t hat one of us screwed something up. Because of this, we had to do all different kinds of exercises while they yelled at us. One time, later in the pledge process following the meeting we were immediately locked in the small room with our neck tie blindfolds and had to listen to some bible hour on the radio and could not move or speak to each other. Then after what seemed like an eternity, all of the brothers came downstairs into the basement and grabbed each of us one by one and pulled us out into the middle of them where they shoved a strobe light at us, and as we struggled to see what was going on around us proceeded to shout questions at us that each one of us messed up big time. After we all screwed up that test so bad, they locked us back in the tiny room with the bible hour radio channel for a little while longer.

Around this time we began preparing for Homecoming weekend and started assembling our float for the parade. At one of the parties for homecoming was the first time I was introduced to the Beer Bong. Before I was introduced to this hose with a funnel on it, I had only drunk beer out of a can or cup. Turns out I am pretty good at chugging beers from a beer bong. The actual day of Homecoming began the Friday night before for us pledges. We were supposed to stay up all night and go down and paint the school’s spirit rock with our frat’s colors. Unfortunately for us we stayed up all night to go down there and didn’t realize that ever other fraternity was trying to accomplish the same goal. When we got there, there was another fraternity camped out around the rock and would not let us paint over their colors. So we went back to our dorm rooms to try and catch some sleep before the day started. We had to be back at the frat house early in the morning to clean before the alumni arrived for the parade and football game. Dead tired we cleaned the house and soon thereafter started drinking with the other brothers before the parade. After lunch, the parade started and because the float was only so big, we pledges had to walk the entire parade route which was at least 2 miles. After almost dying from the parade we went back to the house to cookout and tailgate before the football game. Before going to the game I was asked by one of the brothers to chug this drink he had made that he called a Creamsicle, it was orange soda and vanilla vodka. That gave me a good buzz going to the game were I quickly lost it after running into Lindsey. I hadn’t seen her in a day or so because of the Greek activities and I wanted to hang out with her that night at a party, but because her sorority was paired with another frat for Homecoming she went to their party instead. I was super pissed off and ended up leaving the football game early and going back to my dorm.

A few weeks after Homecoming was her sororities date night, this is kind of like a formal party for the sisters and their dates. Their theme for the night was a costume party since it was being held the weekend of Halloween. Lindsey and I decided to go as Fred and Wilma Flintstone and since we weren’t old enough to drink at the event, we had one of her sisters buy us alcohol before the party. I was still pretty new to alcohol so I had her buy me a bottle of Jack Daniels Whiskey; I think Lindsey got a bottle of Orange flavored rum. Since I was so inexperienced to drinking I started taking shot after shot of Jack, chasing it down with Coke, and before I realized it, I had drunk over half the bottle. I didn’t initially remember everything that happened next, but I have been told that on our walk over to her sorority house I walked into a few trees. After getting into the house I blacked out and woke up puking into a trash can surrounded by a 100 different people I didn’t know. Then out of nowhere my roommate Sean and a few of the Phi Psi brothers appeared and took me back to our house to pass out. Lindsey woke me up early that morning and I had no recollection of the last few hours. Keep in mind while this was all going on, I was wearing a Fred Flintstone costume. Lindsey got in big trouble from her sorority, my fraternity brothers laughed at me and I had a hangover for 2 days. I still to this day have a hard time drinking whiskey.

I think I stayed in the fraternity another week or so. At that point it was getting really emotionally difficult for me to stay in, and part of me is glad that I got out when I did. I was also a different person back then as well, I was a lot more shy and reserved than I am today and had a hard time letting loose, and speaking my mind in public. The tasks that we the brothers were having us do was getting more and more ridiculous and all the issues that Lindsey and I were having didn’t help. I remember one day I just walked out the frat house and back to my dorm and told myself “I quit”. Later that night one of the brothers who I was pretty tight with called me and I explained my situation to him and told him I was out and that I was sorry I had wasted there time.

A few years later I ran into a few of the brothers I actually liked at a bar one night and we got to talking about things back when I was in it. Apparently I came through at the worst time possible and that none of the other pledges ended up staying with the frat for longer than a semester. They also said that they really wished I had stayed with them and that I would have been good as a brother. I had a few drinks with them as we talked more and eventually parted ways. I still think about what would have happened if I would have stuck it out and stayed, but I know in my heart, that things would be totally different, and I know that Lindsey and I might not have made it past those first few years.

In the weeks following Halloween things started to go downhill for Lindsey and I. She came over one morning after her classes and said that she thought we should take a break from our relationship for a while because she needed to work some stuff out on her own for a while but that she would come back to me. This completely crushed me because the only real friend I had at UT was Lindsey and now she didn’t want me around. I immediately called my friend Ben and had him come and pick me up so I could get away for the weekend back in Amherst. This was very scary to me because that I always knew that Lindsey and I were supposed to be together and now we weren’t. It didn’t help matters that my friend Matt, who I knew from band in high school and had hung out with a few times that first semester, had told me about him and his high school girlfriend that took a break their first year at UT and never got back together.

I surprised my parents that day when I came home so unexpectedly but they were there to support me and keep me strong for the weekend. I don’t think I have ever been so sad in my life to this point. I remember telling myself that it would be best to not call or email her because talking to her would just make it hurt more than it already did, and if she didn’t come back like she said she would I could move on a little easier. I still ended up talking to her a few times a week for the time that we were apart, but it was still hard. Mom and Dad took me back to school that Sunday and I remember after they left feeling so alone. Even though I tried my hardest, I thought about not being with her, and all these different situations of what I did wrong or what she wanted ran through my head all day and night.

As Thanksgiving approached I was glad to go home and get away for a few days. This was also the weekend that I got my first tattoo. I had always wanted one but never knew what to get or were. So after the whole Lindsey situation I decided on getting the Chinese symbol for Hope on my right forearm. I chose Hope because of one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite movies, The Shawshank Redemption. The quote is “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” I can’t remember why I chose my forearm for my first tattoo since it is a very noticeable location, but I think it was because I wanted to it to be different and not like everyone else. At the time, most guys got their first tattoos on the back of their necks or around their bicep.

After Thanksgiving break I headed back to school to prepare for finals and the end of the semester. I don’t remember exactly when Lindsey and I got back together, but it was sometime in early December. She called me up one night and wanted to come over to my dorm and talk. We talked about what we wanted from our relationship and how the college lifestyle would work around that and decided to continue where we left off before we split.

Finals were quickly approaching and so was a nice long Christmas break. I remember studying for my tests in our floor’s lounge and watching the snow start falling outside over the campus. I ended up having finals all the way through Friday of finals week, which meant that I would be one of the last students in the dorm before break. See, after you were finished with your finals you were free to leave for winter break. My roommate Sean had finals early in the week and so did Lindsey so they both were gone by Wednesday night of that week. It was weird having everything so quiet in the dorm, and I recall being quite bored trying to pass the time until Friday morning. My last test was for a really easy class so there wasn’t too much studying required. I got up that morning, took my test, and went back to the dorm to finish packing before Dad came to get me. As it started snowing on the drive back to Amherst, I remember feeling relieved that I had completed my first semester away from home.

The spring semester seemed to go a little smoother than the fall semester did. I still didn't know what I wanted to study, so I was still taking core classes. They were boring and I don't really remember much about them or even what I took. All I know is that I passed them and moved on to take other meaningleess classes. Socially, there was usually something to do, we would go out to eat, or just hangout around Lindsey's dorm trying to not get caught drinking by the Resident Advisors. We got busted once, while me and Maria(one of Lindz's roomates were playing a lame version flipcup. Not even being loud, or causing any kind of trouble, but the RA that was making their security rounds for the night heard something coming from the room and decided to investigate. We peeped throuh the peephole, and saw who it was and immediately hid the beer and tried to play it cool. Unfortunately the RA didn't believe us and searched the room, found the empty beer cans and half drank case of beer and wrote, Lindsey, Maria and I up. There really was no punishment, I had to talk to my dorms Graduate Assistant(they ran the individual dorms) and I just stuck to my original story that I was just visiting Lindsey and that the beer was from a party that their older roomate had a few nights before. Lindsey and Maria had to attend a dorm sponsered event and ended up getting free food and drinks, non-alcoholic of course.

Spring semester went by, as I said earlier, with less memorable events. I remember as the year was coming to an end, dreading having to clean up our room, and moving out. Sean and I were never the cleanest guys, and we had to move every single piece of furniture out into the hallway a few days before we could really tackle the task of cleaning the room. I remember after we got it all put back together, and still having 2 or 3 days left, praying that Sean didn't mess it up so we would have to re-clean it all again. I do remember that after our finals, we stuck around for another day or so to pack up and hangout one last time before we all moved out. That last night we were there was the series finale of Lindsey's favorite show Friends. So we had to watch the 2 hour special on the history of the show, and then the final episode, and of course, Lindsey cried when it ended. I didn't because even though it was a good show, it wasn't a life ending event and there were plenty of other things on TV. After the show ended, Lindsey's other roomate, Michelle, who we found out in those last few weeks was actually a distant cousin, had her boyfriend at the time go get us some beer for one last time. We drank it, woke up the next morning and my parents arrived with the family van and grandpa's truck to help move Lindsey and I out. We loaded everything up and drove away. Ready for summer and a few months away from all the drama of Toledo. Still looking forward to going back a little older and a little wiser from the experience.

Summer 2003 - Last Summer of Freedom

When I hear songs from The Ataris album “So, Long Astoria, it takes me back to the summer of 2003 after my first year of community college. That was probably one of the best summers of my life, and I wish I could go back to those times often. It was so great because I had no real worries or responsibilities that summer. I was finally old enough in my parent’s eyes to stay out as late as I wanted and pretty much come and go as I pleased.


That summer I had quit my job as the manager of Magic Pan Pizza, a local shop in Amherst, Ohio to go and paint houses with my best friend Ben. His dad had done house painting for years in Amherst and built up quite a reputation, but before the summer started his dad was promoted to the Chief of the Fire Department and passed the painting business on to Ben. I was pretty awesome working for Ben. We would start work at 7 a.m. and work until around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. I seem to remember we painted a lot of houses for old ladies, and everything we painted was pink. We made pretty good money for a couple of 18 year olds. But now that I look back on it we could have worked a little harder and we would have made a lot more. I still got my bills paid though and was able to take Lindsey out whenever.

Usually after we would finish painting we would go and hang out at Ben’s house and hang out in the pool or play video games with our other friends, David and Dave. We played Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Grand Theft Auto III and GTA Vice City for hours at a time just rotating players and surfing the internet. We also drank Coca-Cola by the truckload that summer, and I wouldn’t be lying if we went through a case a day. Luckily Ben’s mom loved us all and kept more than enough on hand.

After hours of seclusion in Ben’s house, we would set off to cruise around town. We always ended up at Dunkin Donuts to hang out with all of the other car guys in town. Lindsey always made fun of us, but we would stay there sometimes until 2 or 3 in the morning before going home. If nothing was going on at Dunkin, we would just go and drive around and bullshit about life for a while until we felt like going home. We would always take Ben’s car, a 1992 Eagle Talon TSI, when it was running, or his mom’s Mercury Topaz, and we would just drive anywhere. Most of the time it was out in the country, Oberlin and Wellington areas because we could go fast and be stupid. We also always took Bens cars because his dad was the Fire Chief, we never got pulled over around town.

We did all sorts of dumb things that summer, it’s a miracle that no one got hurt or ended up in jail for something. One day we found an old pellet handgun, so we got the great idea that we should take Ben’s dad’s Red Rider BB Gun (like the one from A Christmas Story) and have a shootout inside of Ben’s house. This lasted until we all ran out of BB’s and no one was hurt, everyone walked away with both eyes and there wasn’t one broken window in the house. But that didn’t matter to Bens’ parents who were quite mad because there were BB’s all over the house that the cats could swallow, and that the Red Rider was Ben’s dads from his childhood. We also did some stupid things in our cars like drive way to fast in the country and trying to hit hills so fast that we would catch air in the car or Dave’s truck. One time, I remember we were in Dave’s truck and had Ben in the bed while we went over these hills at about 90 mph, and then Ben drove and Dave got in the bed of the truck to see what it felt like. We only did it once because after that we realized that if something went wrong at least one person would die. I think it was a few weeks later that Dave got pulled over going way to fast with Ben in the back. Luckily the state trooper didn’t have his radar on when he caught us and just gave Dave a warning. It didn’t hurt that he was also the same officer that handled the accident that Ben and Dave got in about a year earlier.

On Wednesday nights we would almost always be headed out to Norwalk to go watch the drag races at Norwalk Raceway Park. There were a few occasions that we all took our own crappy cars out there and raced them, but mostly we just hung out and watched. This was also one of my favorite nights because 1. I love cars and racing, and 2. Lindsey usually got come out with us. Her mom usually didn’t like her going out on week nights or ever really. I loved getting out there and being around all of the sights and smells of the raceway. I remember on time we were going out to the track with one of our other friends, and he didn’t have the $10 to get in so before we got there we pulled over and he got in the trunk of my car so we could sneak him in. Ben and I continued on to the gate to pay, and as we were waiting in line to get in, we started messing with the guy in the trunk by turning up my stereo which had (2) 12 inch subwoofers in the trunk, and he started banging on the trunk to get us to stop, but there was nothing he could do about it. We finally turned it down and got him to calm down as we approached the gate so we didn’t get busted and kicked out.

One particular Wednesday night, Ben or I will never forget. Ben had to get a hair cut before we left for the track and I as usual, was starving. So as he got his hair cut, I went to Burger King to get some food before we headed out to the track. We at the food on the 45 minute ride out to the track, and about 10 minutes before we got to the track, my stomach started making funny noises. And before I knew it, I really had to go to the bathroom, like bad. Unfortunately for me, there was no immediate place to go, and even though we were so close to the track, I needed to stop now. I spotted a row of trees in a field coming up on the side of the road, and told Ben that we need to stop because I had to go to the bathroom. He immediately thought I was joking and began laughing histerically. So I pulled over ran out of the car,and jumped the guardrail on the side of the road. As I began running through the field, at full speed, I could feel my stomach not wanting to wait any longer for me to find a place to squat down. And at that very moment, I stepped in a tractor rut that was hidden by all of the tall grass, my leg stopped moving because it was in the hole, but the rest of my body keep going and I twisted my knee around. As my body spun through the air, Ben laughing in the background, and the intense pain coming from my leg, by bowels decided that now was a good time to release, and I crapped my pants there in the field. One minute Ben saw me running, and the next I was gone, laying in pain in the tall field grass. I yelled for him to come and help me because I was in such great pain. I told him to grab my workout clothes from the back seat and the University of Toledo class catolog so that I could clean myself up. I attempted to stand up and almost fell over because my knee seemed to be bending the wrong way. After hobbling over to the tree line I was originally trying to get to, I managed to change my pants, and clean my self up as much as I could. I somehow made it back to my car where Ben, a friend I am forever in debt too for all his help in this situation, was still laughing his head off. He drove me back to Amherst Hosptial and called my parents and Lindsey for me and we all sat in the waiting room laughing about my unfortunate situation. Now I had orginially thought that I had broke my leg/knee cap, turns out I only severly twisted it and needed to stay off of it for a week or so. After a few days in bed and only moving around the upstairs of my parents house, I tried to go out and see Lindsey that Saturday night and missed a step going down the stairs and re-twisted my knee. It still bothers me sometimes to this day.

That summer was also the first time Ben and I had a shared birthday party. See Ben was born on June 24, 1984, and I was born on June 27, 1984, and since we were such good friends it only made sense we had a party together. I remember it being a pool party at Ben’s house and all of our friends were there. I also remember that Ben’s mom got us an Ice Cream Cake from Dairy Queen, and we ate that thing for about a week. This was also the time that we realized that one of Ben’s cats, Kitty, really liked Ice Cream Cake. It was the weirdest thing.

Right after our birthdays was the Fourth of July, and what do a couple of 19 year old kids to with their summer money in the boring Ohio summer? Well, go to Sandusky and buy fireworks of course. I remember going and buying these ones that were really cheap, like 5 for $6, and they were definitely worth the money. To light them you had to stick them on a piece of wood with a nail in it and they would sit on nail. After you lit it, it would spin around for a few seconds and then shoot up in the sky about 50 feet and explode with colors and make a loud bang. Well when we went to the store initially we only bought one box because we didn’t know what they did, but after we found out we went back the next day and bought about $50 worth of these things. They were cool for a while, but eventually we got bored with just lighting them off by themselves. So we decided that we would find something to strap to it see what happens. Well what we ended up finding was one of those poofy haired troll dolls that Ben had from a long time ago. So we tape this doll to the little rocket and took it into his back yard along with a video camera. I was taping as Ben lit it, Dave watched from behind a picnic table and Ben’s mom watched from the back patio laughing at our dumbasses. Needless to say, the launch didn’t go as planned. We didn’t account for the weight of the troll on the rocket and when it started to spin, the board it was on tipped over and shot right at us. I got the spinning part on tape, but when it turned over and shot at me I started running and all you could see was the ground and me and Ben cursing to get out of the way and Ben’s mom laughing hysterically at us. Unfortunately the video didn’t turn out that well due to the technology at the time or else I am pretty sure we could have won some money from America’s Funniest Home Videos. After that incident we had like 10 – 20 of these things left over, and we ended up driving around one night lighting them and throwing them out of the car or putting them in people’s mailboxes to see what they would do.

This was also the summer that Ben’s girlfriend at the time was working at Hastee Tastee, the local ice cream hangout in downtown Amherst. We would go up there all the time to see her. It was a little ridiculous how much time we spent there just so he could talk to her in between the orders she was taking. I love Ben, but that was probably one of the worst parts of the summer because while they were all googely eyed over each other, I was there by myself bored out of my mind.

Lindsey worked a lot that summer. Since she had just graduated high school and was getting ready to go off to Toledo for college she was trying to save money. With work and her mom hardly ever letting her out the house, we didn’t get to see each other as often as I would have liked. That summer she also spent 2 weeks in Spain and Paris with a group from school. Although she worked more than I did and her mom watched her like a hawk, we did get to spend a lot of time together. We would hang out at my parent’s house and watch movies or go swimming over Ben’s. We spent as much time together that summer as we could and let our love for each other keep growing.

2003 was also the summer of the massive blackout that knocked out all electrical power around most of the states surrounding the Great Lakes. I remember it well, I took a nap that afternoon and when I woke up nothing worked, lights, fans, T.V.’s, nothing. This was not really that unusual at first because sometimes when it would get very hot outside the power grid would overload and shut down from all of the air conditioners and fans running. But after an hour or so of nothing coming back on we started to get worried, and after checking the radio we heard that it was a blackout. I immediately called Lindsey at work to make sure that when she left she drove carefully. I then called Ben to see what he was doing and he said he was on his way over to pick me up and that we had a mission. Turns out that Ben’s dad, Wayne, needed us to go around and see if we could get as much gasoline as possible for his fish tanks. See Wayne had a side business breeding fish and had about 50 fish tanks in their basement, and if he couldn’t keep his generator running while the power was out he was going to lose money if the fish died. The problem was he couldn’t go to any gas stations for gas because the pumps ran off electricity and since the power was out he needed another solution. So Ben and I went around and got gas for his generator from my parents, Lindsey’s mom, and my grandparents since they were out of town we took all we could. My mom was worried about us driving around in the blackout because of the idiot drivers that don’t realize that when the power is out and the traffic lights don’t work, the intersection becomes a 4 way stop. After driving around getting gas we went back out on the town as usual for a summer night, except this time everything was black. It was really weird not seeing any lights on anywhere. I think the power was out for probably 8 to 10 hours that day. It didn’t come back on until later at night when we were hanging out at Dave’s house.

A few weeks after my knee incident, my summer was quickly coming to an end. I had to stop painting with Ben, and pack up my room to go away to Toledo.

2001-2002 – Senior Year high school

Going into the summer of 2001, starting my final year of high school was probably the one of the most exciting times of my life. I had finally gained some confidence and opened up more. I wasn’t as shy and reserved as I had always been. I had spent all summer hanging out with my friends and Linze before she left for college. We had dated in the fall of my junior year, and had broken up just before Christmas of 2000.

Linze and I had reconnected after school ended and met up a few times at different graduation parties. I never really saw the relationship going anywhere after the summer ended. She was going away to Ashland University and I was starting my senior year, and I had a few other girls I was interested in once school started. After band had started that July, we still hung out when we could between our work schedules and band practice. When band camp started though, I started hanging out with another Lindsey more and more. I had dated this Lindsey earlier that spring and we remained friends through band and through the summer but my focus was on the other Linze at the time. I think Lindsey and I had a connection in band because we were both in similar situations. We were both dating people that had just graduated high school and we about to leave for college. The possibility of attempting long distance relationships were both in our futures, and we both didn’t know if that’s what we wanted.

As band camp ended and school began, Lindsey and I were spending more and more time together, so much so that our friends could already see that we were quickly becoming more that just friends. The problem, at the time, was that we were both, technically still with our other significant others (both of whom had left for school). It was only a matter of weeks before both relationships had ended and we could date exclusively.

During all of this between the two Lindsey/Lindz’s, school had started and life went on as normal. My classes were keeping me busy with work and band thrown in the mix. My day at school was great, I started every morning that fall semester with Astronomy class. This class was great for two reasons: 1. It was an easy class, not a lot of homework or hard tests, and it was an interesting class with an awesome teacher. 2. I was taking the class with a few of my really good friends. After Astronomy class, I had Algebra 2, which at the time I hated because it was a math class. Band and lunch followed Algebra, both of which were great because Band was life at the time and all of my friends were there. I finished my day out with Senior English, which was the hardest class I took that semester, but wasn’t too bad because of the teacher and the other students in the class.

School started at the end of August, and just as we were getting back into the routine of classes, work and band, September 11, 2001 arrived. The day started off as any other day would. Lindsey and I hanging out by the lockers outside of my Astronomy class waiting for the bell to ring. That day’s lesson in Astronomy was about Sun Spots, and we went outside with a special telescope to look at the sun to look for these Sun Spots. I remember specifically as we were looking up in the sky, someone pointing out a plane that, at the time, seemed to be making an unusual turning maneuver. At the time this time, we all brushed it off as nothing. We didn’t find out about what was happening in New York or Washington D.C. until the next period. For some reason that memory sticks out in my mind, that plane we saw that morning could have very well been the plane that turned around over the Cleveland, Ohio area and eventually was brought down in the fields of Western Pennsylvania. We went back into the school and changed classes and about 10 minutes into the Algebra lesson, the Assistant Principal came on over the loudspeaker and made everyone aware of the unfolding events and wanted all teachers to stop their lessons and turn on the TV’s in the room. At the time, I remember being in shock at what we saw, but still not knowing what was going on and not taking it as seriously as we should have. We didn’t have any lessons in class for the rest of the day except for English. Our teacher said when we went to class that we had seen enough for the day and went on with her lesson as planned. Later that week she had changed her mind and rather than have a lesson that Friday we all sat in a big circle and discussed how we felt about the situation and how it would affect our lives. Band practice was canceled and everyone was sent home at after school. I remember in the days after, no one really knowing what was happening to our country and how to grasp what had just happened.
Nothing like 9/11 had ever happened in my lifetime, or my parent’s lifetime for that matter. The last major attack of the country on U.S soil was Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and that was over 50 years ago. We as a nation had so much access to what was happening; we were able to witness the events as they unfolded rather than reading about it in a news paper or hearing it on the radio. In the weeks following the attack, American Flags were flown everywhere and all kinds of patriotic songs hit the airwaves, and playing the National Anthem at football games on Friday nights took on a whole new meaning. I know that when the attack happened, it didn’t really hit home to me what had happened. All the lives that were taken, the fact that two of the tallest buildings in the world were just taken down by commercial airliners didn’t really get to me. It was the one year anniversary of the attacks when it really hit me, and really hit me hard. I remember sitting in front of the TV watching the History & Discovery Channel programs on the attacks and just being so moved at what I was seeing. It was like I was seeing it for the first time, even though I had seen the very same footage one year earlier.
After the 9/11, Lindsey and I started to really build our relationship. She was having a hard time dealing with everything that was going on in the news, at the time there were all kinds of threats dealing with Anthrax being mailed to random people, and all kinds of other rumors with concerning terrorist attacks. I remember her telling me that I was one of the few people that she trusted and that meant a lot to me at the time. By then end of September, early October we had began seriously dating, she has always said that our Anniversary of when we started dating was October 4, 2001. I don’t know if this was the official date, but she has always said it was so I went along with it.
As the school year progressed, the end of the football season was quickly approaching and that meant that marching band would be ending as well. This year, was by far, the best year of band yet. My friends and I were all seniors, we had a new, young band director and it seemed like every football game or band show we played we nailed the routines and music perfectly. Every year, at the last game, the band seniors were allowed to pick their own music and help with designing the routine. This year though, we went all out and asked if we could do things a little different than years past. We wanted to pick our own music, design the routines and dress in Halloween costumes since that final football game was the day before Halloween. The band director loved the idea and we chose to use music from ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. After a month’s worth of practice and marching, the show went off just as planned. It was decided that we had to march the pre-game show with our regular uniforms on and instead of going back to our seats we would go back into the school and change out of our uniforms and into our costumes. Then we waited behind the stadium until right before half-time to come back out on the field so the audience wouldn’t know what was going on. The audience was blown away by the show and all of the theatrics that went on. It was the perfect end to one of the best times of my life. Even though it was officially the last game of the season, the football team made it to the playoffs that year, but I missed that final game because I had my wisdom teeth removed a few days before. I wish I could have been there for that last game, even if I wouldn’t have played, but my parents wouldn’t let me go.
After marching band ended, concert band season began and we all had to do tryouts for it, just like we did every year. I remember practicing especially hard this year because it was my last year to try and make the Wind Ensemble (the top tier band). I had always considered myself to be a pretty decent trumpet player, I had a good range and could read music pretty well, but like my social life, when it came to playing by myself in public or for the director I would tense up and get nervous. All throughout high school I had never had a great tryout experience; my nerves got the best of me every time. This year was different though, I was more confident and know the tryout piece well. When the time came for the announcement of who got into what band I waited patiently as the names of were read. Unfortunately my name was not called for the Wind Ensemble, but it was called for the 1st Chair 1st Trumpet in the Symphonic Band (the middle tier) band. At first I was very upset with the director and how could he not put me in Wind Ensemble, especially since there were a few players that made it in, that were not as strong of players as me. However, after a days thought about the situation, I realized that our director felt that he needed a strong player at the top of the symphonic band. I also didn’t mind it because he sat me next to one of my best friends, Josh, and Lindsey was two seats down from that. By making me 1st chair, the director also made sure that in all three concerts that year he gave me solo’s in at least one song per concert. I dreaded it at the time, but looking back on it he helped me with my confidence by being able to stand up and play with a band backing me in front of 1000 or so people.
As Fall semester ended and Spring semester began, I had to make the decision on what I wanted to do after high school. At the time it wasn’t a hard one since I knew that Lindsey had one year left of high school and because I didn’t know what I wanted to do at college, I decided to go to Lorain County Community College for a year. I did this for a couple of reasons: 1. I wanted to wait for Lindsey to finish school to see where the relationship was at that point. 2. I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life. 3. Community college was a cheap and easy way to get a few classes out of the way and it let me stay at home and work and see Lindsey.

Knowing that I was going to LCCC in the fall, I had set up my final semester in school to be a very easy one. Looking back on it I should have taken more classes and pushed myself so that college classes wouldn’t be as hard. My day started off with Psychology, which was awesome because it was a piece of cake class and my two best friends, David and Ben were in the class with me. 2nd period was a study hall in Senior Lounge that I also shared with David and Ben. Study hall was followed by a combination of Band, Study Hall and Lunch. This was supposed to be followed by a Finance class that I elected to take because it was easy, but after one day in there and seeing all of the other slackers in the class, I decided to drop it for Drama. I had never done any plays or been a member of the Drama club throughout school, even though both of my parents participated in it. I decided on Drama because it was once again an easy class, and I had a whole bunch of friends taking the class that were I knew from Band, including one of my best friends David B. That semester ended up being one of the best times I have ever had in school. There was very minimal work and I was practically hanging out with my best friends all day.

Winter turned to Spring and as it usually does in Ohio, and everywhere else, everything started coming back to life. The cold weather and clouds were gone, and the sun and warm weather were slowly starting to arrive, and before we knew it, Senior Prom was right around the corner. I of course didn't have a hard time finding a date since I was with Lindsey. We decided to go in a group with a bunch of my friends from band and their dates. I really don't have a whole lot to say about the dance for two main reasons:; 1. I don't dance. Well let me put it this way, I will dance if I have enough alcohol in me, but back then I didn't drink so therefore I didn't dance. 2. Prom was super expensive and after going it really wasn't worth the price. I think I had more fun after Prom when we all went back to my parents house and had a mini-After Prom party. Stayed up almost all night watching movies, playing games and just hanging out. The next morning we all got back together and went to Hinkley State Park to go hiking and have a cookout. It was a pretty fun day, we hiked some trails for a while, had a cookout, which I will never forget because me and my friend Jake attempted to start the charcoal grill with bug spray and got yelled at by Adam for being idiots and not knowing how to start a fire. We then went to go canoeing on the lake and Lindsey and I decided to stay behind to relax and get away from the group because they were kind of driving us crazy. And finally to finish the day off, Adam and my other friend David had to break into the canoe shop to get their drivers license's back because the people who ran the canoe service took them to hold them as a deposit on the canoes, and decided to leave and go on break while everyone was out canoeing.

Throughout my Senior Year, I worked at one of the local pizza shops in Amherst call Magic Pan Pizza. I started working there in May of 2001. At the time the only people I knew that worked there was my friend Ben, who at the time I hardly knew, and a few other girls from church. As time went on though, I got to know everyone else there, and most of them were pretty cool people. We were all younger, and knew that this job wasn't going to be forever so none of us really took it too seriously. We used to do all kinds of stupid things there, its a miracle we didn't burn that place down. Although one Friday night, the manager at the time, Paul, almost killed us all when he forgot to turn on the oven's ventilation fan. None of us realized it all night until it was almost closing time when we all started getting headaches. See, because the fan wasn't on, all of the exhaust fumes from the oven were circulating inside the building rather than venting outside, giving us all Carbon Monoxide poisoning. Thank god we all were ok. Paul didn't last at Magic Pan much after that and was fired after he got a bunch of DUI's and busted for drugs. I worked there through the summer after I graduated and took a manager's position, Paul's position actually, and was one of three managers at the shop throughout my first year in college.

As the last semester of school sped by my days consisted of school, work and trying to spend as much time with Lindsey as I could. Her mom was very protective of her and she could only come over and hang out at certain times and wasn't allowed to do as much as I was. Most of the time we had to wait until it was the weekend and she went to her dad's house. He was more relaxed on her curfew and when we could hang out. We were young and in love and couldn't see enough of eachother. I knew from the begining that she was the one for me. She understood me, I felt comfortable around her, and she brought out the best in me. She still does as a matter of fact. But as the last week of school approached she was unsure about what would happen to us. We both didn't want our relationship to end, but she knew what it was like dating someone older that wan't in high school anymore. I remember on my last day of school, going to leave after my last final and saying goodbye to her. You would have thought that I was saying goodbye forever, she wouldnt let go of me in the hallway. I told her that we would be alright and make it through whatever obstacle came our way, and that I wouldn't let anything happen to what we had togther. And as I write this today, we have made it through some really hard patches, and are still standing stong, side by side.

Now as finals ended, my friends and I were riding high, and thought we were kings of it all. Because we had such an easy schedule and we were all in the same classes, and we were allowed to leave after our finals were done, we just went back to mine or Ben's house and hung out for the rest of the day. We had cookouts, and played kickball in the street like we were little kids again. We went to graduation rehersal that Friday morning and went through all the things we would be doing for real that coming Sunday. And before you knew it, graduation day was here. It was a hot sunny day in early June of 2002. Our graduation ceremony was at the Lorain Palace Theater because the school gym wasn't big enough to hold all of the people. I think it was even hotter up on stage then it was outside, and we all couldn't wait for it to be over. Speeches were read, some people were sad, some were happy. I think, at the time, I was more happy to be done with school that being sad about it. It really didn't hit me until a few months later that I would never be going back and that I actually missed it. I had some of the best times of my life that last year of school and wish I would have been more outgoing and not so shy though my first few years there. It was a great time in my life and I will never forget it.

1984-89 - House In Lorain

I grew up in a family owned house on North Ridge Road in Lorain Ohio. The house sat on what was once my mothers family's land. I lived in the house with my parents on the first floor, and the second floor was rented out to other people or families. As you entered the house from the side door, you went into the dining room, which as I remember, had a multi-color blue rug. Off the left of the dining room was a small kitchen and eating area and the door to the back yard. The living room was located off the right side of the dining room. Through the living room you could take an immediate right down stairs into the basement, a right into my room, or straight into my parents room or out to the front porch. At this time, I can't remember where exactly the bathrooms were, I think there was one next to the stairs to the basement. Out front there was a covered front porch and what seemed to be, to me, the biggest pine tree ever. There was a large back yard with an old barn all the way in the back. Next to the barn was a small garden that had grapes. I remember the grapes specifically beacuse I know I got stung a few times by bee's while picking them. Just past the grape vines was what we always thought was an electric fence. I don't know if it was really electrified, or if that was just something my mom told me to keep me away from the pair of Doberman Pinschers. As you can imagine, I was not allowed to go near that fence.
Because we also had such a large yard I always had all kinds of pets. We had an outside female cat named Scott. It seemed like every other month Scott was pregnant again and we had to find homes for another litter of her kittens. One time I got to keep two of the kittens. We named them Butterscotch and Socks. Unfortunatly Butterscotch was hit by a car on the street in front of the house, and Socks was accidently run over in our driveway by our renter. We eventually got rid of that cat after she had one too many litters for my mom to handle. I also remember we had a male terrier dog named Ashley. I don't remember too much about that dog except that he died one night after a really bad thunderstorm. He was left outside and got scared and tangled himself up in his chain. We were trapped because of the storm at my Grandma Cotton's house and couldn't get home to him in time. My last dog in that house was a Black Lab I named Princess. We had for a few years until we moved to our new house and we had to get rid of her because she was an outside dog and barked too much for our new neighbors.