We played our last show of the tour in Traverse City, MI on 11/22. Brian made fun of me because I pronounced it "tra-VERSE," like any reasonable person would. It's actually pronounced "TRA-vers." Shame on me. If you ever want to win money on a bet for how to pronounce the name of a town, bet on Regina, Saskatchewan. Your opponent will undoubtedly say "Ra-JEE-na," like any reasonable person would. You will say, "No, actually it rhymes with 'vagina.'" Then you will pocket your winnings and be on your merry way.
Chicago seems like a swell place and served to be another stop on the "Seeing Friends Who I Haven't Seen In A Long Time Who Are Indeed Still Awesome" tour. High fives all around.
After driving back to the folks' home in Sanford, NC, I've had some time to sleep, eat, and do weird things like pay bills and keep up with my fantasy football team.
It's also given me time to clean out my room.
I got a little misty-eyed when I found a banner that my 5th grade class had made for me in Mare Island, CA. ("In" Mare Island? "On" Mare Island? Goodness.) I left elementary school there in the middle of the year when my family had to move back to northern Virginia. It was a 4th/5th/6th grade combination class, so I had been with the same kids and teacher for a year and a half. The kids (and presumably Mrs. Goldwyn) had made a large banner that said, "Adios Ricardo! Buena Suerte From Room 1." I have no idea why it was written in Spanish. All the students had signed it.
There were some real gems on there -- "Have Fun In WASHINGTO". "Have Fun A Washington!" and my favorite, "Gee I guess I'll miss you (NOT...)"
The last one came from my still-close-friend Matt Williams. Who, coincidentally, I will be spending this weekend with as we go see the Army/Navy football game in Philadelphia. I think I will have to ask him why he made the curious choice of an ellipsis to end the barb.
Then I looked in the corner of the banner and saw three small letters. At first, I thought the letters were a crossover from another piece of art that had been made on the neighboring sheets of printer paper. Then I looked closer.
Someone had written, "Die" on my going away banner in 5th grade. Just "Die". No name-calling, exclamation point, or even an ellipsis.
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and was curious to know who had done such a thing. After some gritty investigative work, I discovered the perpetrator to be none other than Mike Labougan. Or Laboogan. He and Jeff Jaro were the only two kids to sign the poster with green ink, and Jeff Jaro was probably the nicest kid in the class. Another damning piece of evidence, albeit anecdotal, was a time in school when Mike had dropped his chewing gum on the playground, picked it up again and put it back into his mouth, encrusted with all kinds of disgusting dirt and pebbles. Mike laughed and said, "Mmmmmm. Rocks and minerals."
Since Mike was completely insane, was a pretty good friend of mine, and ate shit-covered chewing gum, I won't take the "Die" too seriously. But maybe my hindsight upon my 5th grade popularity is warped.
After I write this, I will travel to Facebook on a search for Mike Laboogan. I wonder where he is, and if he still eats disgusting things off the ground. Hopefully I will find him on Facebook. I will try to befriend him. He won't remember me, probably because I didn't do disgustingly memorable things. I certainly won't write "Die" on his wall.
