| The Trials And Tribulations of Johnny |
| This is my history. a very detailed indebt history. VERY DETAILED. So honestly this page is self-absorbed but what do you expect. im writing about myself. I believe im gonna approach this page in baby steps. Meaning im not gonna write it all at once. If you check this page every couple of days, there may just be something NEW!! So basically im writing all about my history, talking about experiences, people i've met, just general stuff. One may think of this as a journal that would be written by me in my past. Get it? I hope so, cuz i really don't get what I said myself. hehehe. umm, so, here we go. |
| Disclaimer!!! - If you are reading this and are from my past or present, you are forwarned that all events and people are seen from my perspective. I call it as I remember it (im biased). If what I speak of happens to be completely false, then well, I apoligize ahead of time. |
| When - June 4, 1984. Place - Cape Cod Hospital, Hyannis MA. I am born, the butterfly emerges from the cacoon. I see the light of day. [insert all other poetic birth jargon here] I am born to 2 wonderful parents. Lisa and John (yes Im a junior) are my parent. At the time of my birth, Im not sure what my parent's jobs were. I guess my mother was a waitress at the time. She most likely waitressed at Mitchell's Steak House, which is a restaurant on the Cape that basically most of my mother's side has worked at, at one point or another. In fact, i even think some of my father's side has worked there. (im gonna be going on A LOT of tangents on this page. so you are warned). My father might have been working at a hotel. In the future, my parents have had a large variety of jobs. Well, mostly my dad. Mother has pretty much sticked to waitressing. Anyway im born. Now of course im not sure what happens during this period because my memory of when I wore diapers is very limited. Name one person who can fully describe a day when they were one, i'll pay you $1000. I really will. Between the ages of like 0 an 5, me and my family moved around a couple times. We lived in Portland Me, for a year or so. And i think we lived in Connecticut. Again, i was a wee little thing so, cant describe anything there. Oh, a year after my birth, on June 28, 1985, my mother gave birth to my sis, Maegan. As you see, her name is spelled a little differenty than other girls with her name. This has been a constant annoyance in her life, when people spell her name wrong.(espescially when i do it). It's not Megan, or Meagan......its Maegan. Ae, not ea. I think it's the original celtic way of spelling it. who cares i say, but my parents are weird like that. Me and MAEgan have been natural enemies since as far as I remember. And im not the aggressor. Sure we get along sometimes but not always. And this goes back. Waaaaay back. It all started on our jointed birthaday party when I turned 2 and she turned 1. You see i had gotten a brand new plastic piano. It was bright blue, and when i banged the keys with my stubby little hands, i made beautiful music. But [cue Jaws music] soon came my little sis. Overcome with jealousy, she fiercely crawled over to me. now she was a big baby.When she came to me, she threw herself upon myself (as i was enjoying my new piano, might I add) and slapped me repeatively across my head. Then with her sharpened claws, she slashed the poor little hands that were playing the piano. Having stunned me, she pushed me aside with her abnormal strength. As im lying on the floor, crying, she moves to the piano. And starts to bang very hardly on the keys. she laughed and laughed and laughed. She had stolen my new piano and now acted as if it was given to her. And from then on, when ever I hear baby laughter, I hear evil. That was a true story. If you ever recieve a blue plastic baby piano, then gaurd it with your life. For there may be a vicious little devil lurking in the shadows, ready to rip your eyes out for it. How do I know this is true? because the whole incident was caught on tape. And to this day, my sis says she has no regrets. See how evil she is. <sigh> I'm now skipping to the start of Kindergarden. All stuff before this (besides the piano incicent) is really sketchy and probably not worth mentioning. Ah, Skunknet Road. This is where i lived most of my elementary life. I had four main friends in this period of my life (kindergarden to end of 3rd grade). They were: Matt Burke, Katie Finn, Jeremy Acker, and Paul Koen. I probably shouldn't put full names but they'll never read this. Matt Burke. He was the best friend. I sort of remember how I met him. this is really sketchy, now. I think he was a new student to the school, maybe 1st grade, and I was assigned to be his buddy for the day to show him the ropes. Anyway it turned out that he lived down the street from me. so from then on, we were really good friends. Eventually (end of 2nd grade?) he moved across town, but friendship was still intact. Matt was cool. So was his mom. She taught me phone etiquette. lol. I still use it to this day. I think I've slept over his house maybe 50 times. Katie Finn. I remember her being cool. My sister will argue that she was more her friend then mine, but I say she was both our friend. She lived a couple houses down. She wasn't really friends with my other friends (which has happened several times in my life, friends not liking my other friends. weird) Anyway. Cool chick. But I moved (talk bout later) and when I moved back, she had moved to Orlando, FL. Lucky duck. Well ive never seen her since. Hmmm, I should do an internet search or something. hmmmmm. Jeremy Acker. He was best friend #2. he lived like two houses down to, other side of house though. It's really weird though, cauz it's hard for me to describe him now, b/c I still sorta know him. well a little. I think I remember him as sorta quiet, very sarcastic. tall and lanky. darn, im hurting my head trying to remember him back then. really. Oh, I did hang out with his brother too. Now he's like a huge football player in college. now that's even weirder. wow, im depressed now. why cant I remember. well I guess its easier to remember the others cuz i havent seen them for a great while but i saw him like a week ago. We definately are not as close, thats for sure. Ok. MOVING ON. Paul Koen. He lived two houses away from jeremy. He was pretty strong fo a little kid. I think he did like karate or something. I remember him always getting a new color belt. I slept over his house a couple times. I remember that there was a cage full of stuffed animals in his basement. it was a big cage too. (I have such a weird memory) He was pretty goofy, though. But I think he's had it rough. I heard that his dad comitted suicide. Its kind a weird to imagine cuz i remember his dad as a really happy and funny guy. One time he took me and paul sledding. we went down a really big hill and we would all lay on the sled at the same time, his dad on the bottom and we would lie on top on him. hehe, i heard later that we had broken one of his ribs from the sledding. So sad. Anyway life at that time was sweet. Video games, Ninja Turtles, ghostbusters, X-men (the orginal, none of the "x-men in high school " crap). when we acted like x-men,I always played as cyclops and i think jeremy was nightcrawler, matt was gambit, and paul was either beast or wolverine.That is when I was obsessed with baseball. I was in all the leagues and such and collected baseball cards. not so much now though. must a been a phase. I guess i came to the realiuzation that i really suck at the game and there was a reason I was put in the outfeild. They lied..... they always told me that the outfeild was the most important. maybe in pro leagues, but not when your a kid. now one ever hit the ball that far. liers!. Although actually one time I did get the game ball. It was pretty funny though. I wasn't expecting the ball to come my way (I was sitting) but there was a fly ball and down it came. and instead of catching it with my glove, i tried to catch it with my other hard. I remember a lot of pain. But the coach said I "successfully stopped the ball." All that happened is that i got hit by the ball. School was pretty good. K was Mrs. Evans, 1 - Mrs. Bridgewood, 2 - mrs (Dr. now i think) Peters, and 3 - ummmm....crap. i forgot the name of my 3rd grade teacher. lol. Evans was pretty stern. I have a very selected memory of the class now. I remember playing blocks when she told us about the gulf war, coming out of the bathroom with my belt unbucled and she yelling at me to fix it, and making applesauce. Oh and the only time i ever got in trouble in elementary chool happened here. All I did was make a mark on someone elses paper and she set me to the time out chair. Iswear, ever since then I've been the angel child to teachers and I still am today. Mrs. Evans whipped me into shape. I don't remember 1st grade at all. i guess it was a blur. i do remember that Mrs Bridgewood didnt teach at my school the next year and it was rumoured that she worked the pump at a gas station. I swear. Dr. Peter's. Hmmm, I remember being a suck up to her. the teacher's pet. That was when I was introduced to extra credit. Anyway, that was the year of my worst stage experience ever, and it was my first.Throughout 2nd grade, part of the curiculum was learning about different countries and such. At the end of the year, we then had a play where each student was dressed as a different country, and we perfomed dances and other weird thing miming (cuz that had to do with France, I guess) well, it was very traumatic. I was Ireland. And I was dressed like a leperuachan (sp?).Anyway, that not the funny thing. We all go on stage individually and say what country we are and our name. I go last for some reason. I go up, I stutter Ireland, and...... I stood there for an enternity because I had forgotton my on name. My Teacher had to yell it out to me. And the whaole audience laughed. If that happened to me now, I'd think it would be hilarious, but when your a 2nd grader, it's deadly. And then later on, was in the "Mime" portion of the show and I was supposed to be a tight rope walker. I'd go back and forth on an imaginary rope, doing a funny little imaginary stunt each time. Except I looked like and idiot. Mainly b/c I went across once, acting as though I was riding a bike across the tight rope, and it looked like I was doing a bad impression of a crane or an osrtich. Worse, the last one, I went across the rope backwards with my eyes closed, and went diagonally across the stage instead from left to right, where the imaginary rope was. If that was really tightrope walking, I would have been DEAD! Needless to say, I'm really bad with names and I'm not a Mime. 3rd grade. Hey, I remembered the teacher's name. Mrs. Thom..... I think. Anyway the only really cool thing about third grade was that Matt, Paul, Jeremy and I were all in the same class. Nothing else seems really memorable. I remember learning cursive, which is a skill I never use, at all. and don't say that my signature is in cursive, cuz it's just skribble. Oh, and we learned muliplying and dividing. fun stuff. And that is the end of elementary school. It was a cool time. huh, I just remember that every halloween, at school, they would hold a parade and every student was in their costumes walking around. I was a ninja turtle. The red one, Rapheal.dude they need to bring ninja turtles back. down with pokemon and digimon and any other -mons that pop up. Man, power rangers is better than that crap, and power rangers got really stupid. the only reason I watched PR when I was younger was I later found out my aunt went to high school with the pink ranger. the pink ranger (amy jo johnson) got to big for the show and left. It went all downhill after that. Then the pink ranger went to college on Felicity, which was weird at first and then was fine. But than the pink ranger got too big for that show and left for a starring role in a lame VH1 movie. hehe, serves her right. And where is she now? hell if I know. I think she was pretty cold to my aunt though. lol, wow, that was a fun tangent. hmmmm where was I. Ok, now I'm at the next transition of my life. Moving. in the summer of '93, my dad got a job to be a manager of a really big chain restaurant down in the South. Crackel Barrel. It's mostly a breakfast restaurant.and half of it is a gift shop. The restaurant is like at everyexit in the south. They make good blackberry pancakes though. But I remember going there for thanksgiving dinner, because it was probably free, and it sucked. My dad soon quit after that. One plus is that we got a but load of those triangle chinese checkers thingies with the golf pins. you know what im talking about if you ever had been there. those games were really addicted. Oh and i always got those Mad Lib books in the gift shop. I miss those. Im gonna go get one next time im in a book store. hmmmm. Anyway, I moved to Tennessee. This section might be a bit more detailed cuz It a little more in my memory. On the day I moved I remember trying to say goodbye to Katie, but my dad dragged me away and I never got to say bye. I never got to see her again.....sniffle......sniffle..... Anyway, I did say goodbye to my other friends and I did see them all again. In fact I became pen pals with Matt. and I remember getting a christmas card from jeremy. I didn't hear much from Paul though. Oh I just remembered that Matt and Jeremy did a joint letter once. I wonder what happened to all the letters?? Okay, I'll call the next 3 years as the..... as the.... um I'll be unoriginal and call them the Tennessee years. Anyway, me and my family drove with a big U-Haul to Mount Julliet, Tn. It was the next county over from Nashville, "the country musice capital in the world." pleh. people say that they hate country music. well, they never have anything to back up those statemenst. You see, I do. I've lived in Country Music-ville. I've gone to a country club and saw line dancing.My school bus driver only played country music. Hell, there was actually a line dancing unit in my gym class down there. Can you scoot, boot, and boogy? I can! I EARNED the right to HATE country music. Can you say the same? So we move into our new house which was so-so. Nothing special. There were mice in the house though. One thing with Tennesse that is different from up here in New England is that there are ditches along the side of all the roads, b/c I guess it rains a lot there. instead of there being drain pipes, there are ditches. My parents didn't know this and upon arriving to the house, my mom drove right into the ditch and got stuck. Thats how we met my next door neighbors. they came over and dragged us out. School there was a little scary, well actually terrifying. For one thing, school starts like at 6 in the morning. I remember waiting for the bus and it would still be pitch dark out side. But I had a long bus route so maybe it wasn't 6am, but it was still friggin early. One thing the school there (Gladeville Elementary, Mascot- an alligator, grades spent there- 4 and half of 5th grade) believed in corporate punishment. In other words, if you got in trouble they would take a holey paddle to your ass. Thats another reason, I'm probably always been a perfect angel in school. I'm afraid I'll get paddled. Man that school was still stuck in the 20's or something. Okay, Teachers. In fourth grade, I had the worst teacher in the world. And Im not saying this cuz I hated her, its a documented fact. You see, she was crazy. For one thing she was really young, early 20's, probably 21. Therefore, no training. Secondly, the only reason she had gotton the job was b/c her "Daddy" had a high position in the Tennessee political arena, and it was probably good PR for his sweet daughter to be a sweet little teacher. But she wasn't sweet. She was a nut. Exhibit A- From time to time she would bring her pet ferrets to school and unleash them on the kids. All the students would form a circle and the ferrets would run around and BITE US!! Now I know Ferrets can be good pets. My friend has ferrets and they are cool. but my friend doesn't bring them to school to attack the students. (although she would probably want too.) I swear, the critters had to be rabid. Exhibit B - SHE FRIGGIN HIT A KID. slapped him right across the face. and it hurt him too.The kid's parent's took him out of the school b/c of that. Heh, it would have been cooler if I had more exhibits. oh well. So do you know what the school system did with her. Noooo, they didn't fire her. Of course not, this is Tennesse I'm talking about. They dont have normal standards. No, instead they decided it was best fit to make her the GUIDANCE COUNSELOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. ok, where or what or WHO is she gonna guide?? SCARY. K, I dont really remember my first 5th grade teacher cuz I only spent half the year with her and then I moved. I do know that her name was Mrs Mercer and that she taught me to play the recorder. and we watched many movies. besides that its a blank. K, friends. In tennesse I developed this tendencey to become the "side kick" of some really popular kid. For instance in nashville I lived next to a kid named Robby and I can imagine him being the quarterback at his high school.(actually he was a year older than me so he would me in college now) I basically remember him always flirting with girls and he tried intensely to teach me football. It seemed like it had become his mission in life to make sure i could play and understand the game, which i do now. sort of. Anyway I was like the kids second hand. There was also another kid I hung out with who was the "neighbor who got us out of the ditch"'s son. I forgot his name though. My house in Nashville was ok. there were mice but the area was ok. I actually lived across from a graveyard, which is the best place to play hide and go seek. We even played it on Halloween which was the coolest thing ever. The was an actual creek too and we went and hanged out there a couple of times. and there was a country store on the street, so this was a major southern experience. I was friggin Tom Sawer for that year. it was an experience. Um so in Febuary of 1995, i moved across the state to Knoxville, TN because my dad got transfered. This house was much better. it had a basketball hoop already set up and the place had a pool. Hell yeah. I wish I had that house up here. there were mice in this house too but that can be overlooked. And it was quite aways from the actual city but thats ok, the house still rocked. plus the kid across the street had a tennis court so i made sure to become friends with him, although the mother was jerk. she would only let the boys play with boys and girls play with girls, no mixing. Im sure she was a bigot. Doyle. My 5th major friend. Now he lived behind me in Knoxville. He was also popular like Robby and I became another side kick. But he was pretty much a goofball. For one, he pronounced his name wrong. his own name. he pronounced it Dowl. Okay, Doyle was a good guy, though. There was some intances where he was a jerk though. Like for intance there was this one time were I had won this big ol' prize: a gigantic stuffed tazmanian devil, as big a me at the time. Okay the story goes like this. I was in the school band and for fundraising each kid was given a catalog and there were supposed to sell people stuff from the catalog.Well I was determined to win. I went to EVER house in the whole neighbor hood, which was fairly big and got most everyone to buy something. Nowadays a kid cant go house to house and sell things cuz they'll get shot. But I was living in Tennesse, remember, home of Southern Hospitality. And that with a combination of very good salesmanship skilz that I had, was a combination that a southern homemaker couldn't resist. And I sold over 300 hundred dollars worth of CRAP.So I had won the life-size tazmanian devil. So I bring it home on the bus and ther is Doyle being a big ol'jerk to me. I dont remember why but he was. So he's saying that he want the stuffed animal and was trying to take it from me and stuff. We get off at the stop and he takes the devil and RIPS HIS FRIGGIN ARM OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. I was mortified. My brand new life-size stuffed Tazmanian Devil was now lying on the ground with a ripped off arm and little popcorn filling stuff was pouring out. my life size stuffed Tazmanian Devil had now become a barely able to be life size, anorexic, one armed Tazmanian Wimp. I was not happy at all. I brought what was left home in tears (I'll admit it. I was crying. It was traumatizing!! I'll be talking about in therapy probably.) Anyway as I was bring it home Doyle found it would be hilarious to run home really quick and then bring out his bb gun and terrorize me EVEN MORE BY SHOOTING AT ME!!!!! Picture this. A 12 year old kid running home sheilding himself with a barely able to be life size, anorexic, one armed Tazmanian Wimp from oncoming bb bullets, with a trail of popcorn stuffing falling behind me. I was in kid Vietnam. Well was I got home, mother sowed up the devil and it sorta looked ok, but I would never be able to look at it with joy ever again. stupid Doyle.... oh excuse me Dowl. hehe besides that and some other jerky instances Doyle was actually fun to be around. Good sense of humor.still a jerk but somehow I looked past that and he was my friend. That last line was sorta corny. Moving on. School in Knoxville was somewhat better that Nashville. The second half of 5th grade was somewhat of a blur. I dont even remember the teacher's name, except that it was a compound word. I do remember that she wore really bid glasses. thats it. I guess 5th grade wasn't a very productive year. Moving on to Sixth grade. Middle school. Sixth grade was actually pretty cool. For one thing, I was actually popular. Yes I John, was a cool popular kid.I didn't even play sports, which in tennessee, if you didn't play sports (especially football) you were deemed inferior. I even had a girlfriend for a short while. Rebecca. Looking back at pictures, she looked very old for her age. But she eventually dumped me for THE BEST EXCUSE FOR DUMPING SOMEONE IN THE WORLD. She said, and I quote, "I'm sorry John, but your just too short for me." ooooo. ouch. Anyway this was the 1st time I had many teachers. Dont worry, I'll spare you a description of each. One thing everyone would never let me forget down in Tennessee (and thank god) was that I was from the north. For instance many people actually would call me yank. I could have bounced back with inbred hillbilly..... but I was nice. They would always make fun of MY accent. (as if I had one. Well mabye I have a slight Boston accent but its barely noticable, if there at all. Im may say "cah" instead of car and say the word jerk alot. But come on. They had a 10 times worse accent then I did. so .... there.) My ENGLISH teacher couldn't even pronounce words. One day Im in some other class, like science and my english teacher, Ms. Henderson, comes in and asks if she could borrow me. So I follow her to her class, which she is conducting. Then in there she asks me to instruct HER in how to correctly pronounce Massachusetts. I stood there for friggin 10 minutes repeating Massachusetts while she continues to mispronounce the word. sigh. And on top of that I had to seriously control myself from laughing because she could not help from pronouncing said word as "Massachushits". double sigh. English teacher. Tennessee. nuff said. But beside for the occasional idiot teacher and stupid girlfriend, Carter Middle School was ok. I learned more in that grade, very surprisingly, than many years before. it was there where I learned sign language (although I sorta lost it. Im semi-able to do it. Sign languase, so I was told, is regional so if you come up to me and start to sign language, I may not get what you're saying) I did go on this cool field trip with the sign language club where we went to a deaf school and saw what it was like to live in a deaf community. I was pretty fun. Lets see, I also grew to love Egypt in this grade. Im not sure how, but I remember studying it in history. Ever since Egypt has been my number 1 travel ambition. Hey, I could see myself being an archeologist and studing Egyptian tombs and stuff. That would be incredible. I also started playing the trumpet in 6th grade. Overall 6th grade was a good year. Back to my dad's job. At this time, he worked at Longhorn's Steakhouse. (sorta like a southern Outback). What's cool was that occasionally he would bring me to work with him and I would help out. I did a lot of hosting and I even waited sometime. Mind you that I was like 11 or 12. Customers probably thought it was a hoot to be led to their table by a kid. But on the other hand it most likely broke some child labor laws and could have gotten my dad fired. But it was fun. plus I got loads of tips which is always a plus. Anyway after always being around restaurants when I was younger, I always thought I'd grow up to be a cook and own my own restaurant. But times change. Okay. BIG MOVE #3 Now this is the best move of all, because we moved back to Cape Cod. I was all, "yeah I get to be around all my friends again and such." The basic reason we left good ol' Tennessee was that we hated it there. we were waaaaay out of our element. They said "Y'all come back now, ya hear" and we were like "screw you." Okay, Tn isn't the worse state to live in.... I mean who would want to live in Alaska or Montana. What's there but a vast nothingness. (no offense to pple who live there) So back on Cape Cod we moved in with my grandmother, in Hyannis, MA. And this is where i reside today...... Ok. This was a weird time in my life. When I came back to the cape, I expected everything to be the same. And at first it was. First off, Katie wasn't there anymore cuz she moved to Florida. Also Paul wasn't in the picture anymore. I dont know why but he was off with another group now. Me and Matt (sorry.... Matt and I) were really good for the first year.We went back to doing sleep overs and hung out a lot. Nothing had really changed between us manly because we had kept in touch when I was down south and whenever I came up to visit during that time, we would visit. So thing were good for about a year. It wasn't until the .... summer of 97, i think, that we lost contact. Basically I put the blame on me. Ya see.... sometimes I over-analyze things. I saw that I was the one always calling him. So as a little expirement, i suppose, i wanted to see what you happen if i just didn't call, and left that up to him......... Well, lets say that he hasn't called yet..... I learned from this that I can be very paranoid sometimes. and that im an idiot. I haven't even seen Matt for a long time. and to tell ya the truth.. Im not really sure I want to. Mainly because of what happened between me and Jeremy..... (im very tempted to leave right now to leave suspense but...... im not cuz im in the mood to type more) K, techically absolutely nothing happened between me and Jeremy. Lets start when I came back. to be honest, at first (again with me over-analyzing and paranoia) I felt replaced. Before I moved to Tn, Jeremy and others were sort friends with a kid named Ryan. so when I came back, Ryan was now Jeremy's best friend and I felt like a third wheel around them. Now, looking back, I do realize that I was being very selfish and trivial. but thats the way I felt. So I distanced myself from them. another stupid meve on my behalf. Another thing that Im always paranoid of is that I crowd or smother someone. So im always purposesly distancing myself from people. prolly not good. The thing thats different between Matt and Jeremy is that I've seen Jeremy throughout high school. He friends with one of my friends. And plus, if I had gone to his school, we would have ended up in the same group of friends. But what I've seen of him as completely distorted any image I had of him during elementary and even Middle school. He's seems to be a very different person. Im not gonna go into how exactly cuz i really dont know him that well now. Grrrr. I've lost my train of thought.(oh and just to say, I hardly ever dwell on this type of stuff. Im only talking about this cuz its part of my history sort of. I dont have pictures of them stored somewhere and alway reminise about the past.this is a one time thing. Im sure they never think about me and honestly, i hardly think about them. but like I said this is part of my history and i get detailed. plus... im an over-analyzer... remember.) Ah, where was I. So that's why I don't really want to see Matt cuz he may distort the image I have of him now, like Jeremy did. yeah. MOVING ON.............. next up...."back to school....back to school....to tell the teacher. something something something" (billy madison. .. you know the song. you're uncool if you dont. HA........)............... Ok, 7th and 8th grade was weird, as it is for everyone. I kept myself pretty busy during this time and sorta became an over-achiever. First off, I group these two grades together b/c I had the same teachers both years and cuz both were pretty identical. People there. Alright really quick my teachers. Mr. Marvin was my home teacher for 7th and he was the science teacher. He was sort of a comedian and VERY into computer. after my class left he quit and worked on his computer aide company. He actually set up all the computers at my current school, a while ago.Plus he was the one who told me to go to Sturgis instead of the Town High School.... but that another story for later. My history teacher.. Mr.....ummm....damn. Well my History teacher was relatively new and also cool (i dont think I've ever had that really bad teacher...o wait.. I have...but thats later) Mr. History lives down my street. Mrs Roach was math. At the time I dont think I really liked her but looking back she was nice.. She did confiscate my voice recorder and I have yet to get it back. And she took it for all the wrong reasons. ggrrrr. I really needed that for reporting for the newspaper when doing my interviews.K, stupid me had taken it out in english, which was in the class next to her. We had a sub that day ....(Short mini fact... the sub had the same exact name as me.... all except the middle name. but we shared the first and last name. freaky. you would think that he would give me some slack, sharing the same name and all. but no, he was still mean to me like to everyone else. and was very old.) Anyway, the tape recorder was out for reasons i dont remember, and the hid next to me saw it and decided to play with it without my permission. Then the sub got mad at him and called Mrs Roach in to help, cuz the sub (a sorry excuse of a John...) couldn't handle anything himself. And Roach took the recorde from said kid. I protested it saying it was mine... she said I shouldn't of had it in the first place and i told her i needed it cuz i was a reporter but she still didnt care. I never got it back. On second hand I dont really like her anymore. grrrrr moving away from teachers, like I said, I kept myself busy, in clubs fo instance. I was in the school newspaper, and even an editior, i think at one point. The band, and the school's jazz band. I was in student council. and....... i think thats it.I was the secretary of student council on 8th grade..(this is starting to sound like a resume..) In 7th grade, I had to actually campaign in my homeroom to get a seat onto the student council. My slogan, "A vote for ME, is a vote for YOU!" I was a geek. But I won. Even after my opponent tried to bribe everyone with brownies. And i still won. HA. Like said before, I was voted secretary the 2nd year, and at that position, I was basically president cuz i ran the place.The prez, was Shauna O'brian (manhair!!!.......how i know that, i dont know. [you have to know her to know what i mean])(KNOW!!!.. i had to say that one more time for the heck of it, ya know?) ANYWAY.... Shanau basically had the title as prez. She may disagree, but she didn't have to serve drinks at dances, make sure pple did their announcement duties, and a bunch of other things, along with keeping notes on meetings and attendence. phew. She'd prolly disagree with me if she ever read this... but Id just say, look at the disclaimer... Instead of being friend with the pple I thought I would be when I came back, I made new ones. In 7th grade it was Jamie and Andre. Jamie was ummm.. i remember sarcasm for some reason. cool kid all around. Andre was well. Andre. He wasnt the smartest person I ever met but we was "tough with a kind heart" i guess. These 2 were basically outsiders i guess. I dont want to say anti-social but i guess they were. In 8th grade I became friends with 2 absolutely different guys. Mark and Eric would be what an outsider would call "nerd" They were smart. Mark especially. I felt very inferior to him. Eric was super quiet. yeah... Now, I haven't really heard anything from the 4. Well, actually I've sorta have heard from Jamie via the internet, but it was maybe 15 mins of small talk..... K. Now my favorite part... High school. This will definately be a million times more detailed...... Ok. First, let me say that I go to the most weirdest school in the World.Now. I am currently (2002) a senior at Sturgis Charter School in Hyannis, ma. Charter schools are very unique schools in that they don't fall under a town's superintendant and a town board, but it is still a PUBLIC school and recieves money from the state. Now the other public High School, Barnstable High, Hates the living crap out of us. They think that they should be recieving the same amount of money the state gives us but instaed they recieve less than us. Thats all Im gonna talk about the rivalry btw the 2 schools cuz I' say something mean and pple I know at the school will get really mad at me.... Over the years my school has gotten A LOT of bad press. Even a couple of weeks ago there was a letter to the newspaper that was not so good (although it was a tad true.) ON Sept. 98 I was the FIRST entering class of Sturgis Charter. about 160 students entered the school. Do you know how many of us are still around???? weellll only 52 will be graduating next month. The rest have moved on to other schools for many different reasons. Also of ALL the original teachers who taught the first year, only ONE is still teaching here. Mrs. Terenzi. really really cool woman. It's sort of weird when you outlast your teachers... FRESHMAN YEAR!!!!! Okay, when I First came to Sturgis, I came with Eric, as mentioned previously. But like 3 weeks later, he abandoned me and went to another school.I haven't seen him since. Mass Maratime. --------- Mass Maratime is a Navy College that we went to during the first week as sort of a orientation. It was...an experience. We stayed On a navy ship in really tight quarters. I had a kid named Dave King sleep above me and he poked me with his fluresent light bulb all night long. I played a lot of foosball and skipped some of the classed we were supposed to go to during the orientation. Something that Sturgis originally wantyed was to have some involvement with the ocean. Im not to sure how but they did. So each student, upon entering the school needed to take a swim test. ............. HAHAHAHA . No one has to do that anymore. in fact I think I was in the only class that took them. Sturgis has nothing to do with the "Ocean Life" now. We have a sextent as a symbol. thats about it. Sturgis doesn't even sponsor a crew team anymore. Okay. The puddle. This is a doozy and bit of controversy about its origins. (and let me reiterate that this is my opinion!!!) First off, the puddle is sorta a clique that was started at lunch in freshman year. The conroversy surrounds who was actually in it to begin with. This is what I think. when I joined this group, with eric, the pple who was in it was..... Me, Colleen B, Chelsea, Sam, Meridith, Myke, Stacy, Ashley(big EWWWW, I never liked this irl. I think she had facial hair. *shudders*) ummm, Reisa, Emily, Colleen C, Renee, a psycho girl i forgot the name of..... Shannon, and Gabe. I think thats it. Now these are the pple who ate lunch in the same spot everyday and who I always identified as the "original puddle" members. Now some think that there was a group of guys (who never ate with us) but was still part of the puddle. I disagree. thay may be part of it now, but I don't think they were in it in the begining. Now I never really wanted to be a part of this group. I thought there were weird to when I first met them and they weren't really pple I would of ever hung out with before. But I sorta got stuck with them and they grew on me. I did try on occasion to sit somewhere else and make other friends but I always ended up back at them. I think the main reason I was a tad turned of from them was they weren't at all popular and I wanted to be. (I was a stupid freshman. ALL freshman are stupid. It's in the guidebook. I look at the freshman now and hope that I wasn't as bad as they are.) Anyway I was coming off two years of Middle school that were a big "EH" and from 6th grade where I was super popular. I wanted to be popular again after two crappy years. But I saw that I I stuck with the "puddle" I knew that wouldn't happen. And it didn't. NOW, Im happy I stuck with them. And when it comes to poularity at Sturgis, basicallyit doesn't really exist cuz its now Senior year and there are 52 seniors. pretty much everyone is popular. ugh, moving on. If I had known all the drama Sturgis would have, I'm not sure I would of gone here. Every year there seems to be a "yearly crisis" Freshman year was the worst. The Founder of my school is Mr. Porteus. He was the head of our school board. Well he was also the head of all jackasses. He had promised everyone that all students would be leaving this school with IB (International Bachlauria (sp?) ) diploma. well we're not. He failed to realize that to join the program the school needs to be a 4 year school. Sturgis was a grade building school. In other words, doing year one there were only freshman, year2 freshmen and sophmores, year 4, 9th 10th + 11th, and this year there a re finally all grades (In all 4 years attendance I've always been the upperclassman. I can hardly remember having students in a grade above me. hehe, college is gonna be weird...) well. I'll expalin more of why freshman year was fun and full of drama... i need sleep now and my thoughts are becoming unreadable. ugh. night. okay, back.Drama. - Around Febuary of the first year, my math teacher, Mr. Dodds, quit. Im not sure of the reasons why or do I really care anymore, but he left nevertheless. So then A bunch of other teachers and the principal called for the Porteus and his wife to resign off of the board. The press got wind of this and our school got a lot of bad press. Soon enought the students got sick of having to hear about all the schools problems through the paper and demanded to be told al this and, we held the infamous walkout. (well actually only one person walked out but we did threten to and the teachers heard. It was still successfull cuz we ended having a assembly about the matter. well when it all was over, a bunch of teachers left, Porteus resigned, and our principal also left.This was only year one. Oh and I forgot all about the band. Well I still had desire to play the trumpet so I joined the smallest school band ever created. It was runned by this weird guy whose name I've forgotten. Anyway he was a jerk. This is because he also had a music business where he would tutor other people and he had an office out of town. But now that he was teaching at Sturgis, he wanted to move his officeds inside the actual school. Before we knew it he began construction inside the school and put up signs outside. Now people walking by our school wont know what it is and they were thinking that is was some kind of music place with the signs and such. Anyway the principla and teachers strongly hated this guy but they could do nothing because the music dude was friends with Porteus. But luckily, the Porteus smartened up and fired the guy. Okay. Best Friend: Chelsea Clarke.......... (aka Iggy) Well. She's gonna be reading this so it better be good..... Well we first met in freshman year and got to know each other very well during a Latin Festival at Brown University. Basically, ther,e we were set up and we ended up going out together for bout 3 months, or so. But we saw that we would be better friend then anything more, and we were very right. I'd sacrifice myself for her if she was in peril. Honestly she is the most sweetest and and most good-natured person I know. And yeah she is a wee bit corny sometimes and is way to obsessed over Moulin Rouge, but that really makes her all for the better. There are thousands of inside jokes we share and ee share the same type of humor sometimes. Y'know my cool list that I talk about all the time........... well she is the satndard that everyone else is compared to , when put onto the list. (okay all together now...... AWWWWWWWWWW) So after freshman year she decided that Sturgis wasn't right for her so she went to the really big public school. I told her when she left that we were prolly drift apart cuz that's what i was used to at that point. I'd make a friend one year and then the next year I would never talk to them for some reason.(and when I did it was all awkard and I HATE awkard moments. a lot.) . In fact there was never a reason, it just happened. (ex. Matt, Doyle,Jamie, Mark.....and the list goes on) It was normal to me at that point. And she being the cool standard she is.....sought to prove me wrong and she did. We are still to this very day best friends. In fact she just risked her life for me, today. So YEAH IGGY!!! Sophmore Year - With the new year there was the introduction of a new principle (Crellin) and his right hand woman (Orvis). Since Sophmore year the principal has had A LOT more power in the school. Freshman year the principal seemd like a teacher. Not anymore though.......... Alrighty. The next year at Sturgis was very different from the year before. For one, a third of the people who were there the year were gone. But in their place was now a new freshman class. Also a buttload of teachers also left and new ones came. And now my segway into April...... Miss Renner (hehe, she hates that) was my history teacher. Right off the bat I new that it was her first time teaching high school. They placed her class in the most saddest part of the building. hehe we were on the sidewalk basically. No joke. Originally the building the school is in was a furniture store and in the front of the builing there is a window display. So her class was in a glass room that people walking by would stare at us. I wish I could describe it better. Oh this may help. The name of the room is the "fishbowl." So April was stuck with this room until her normal room was done being built or something. we didn't move into the normal room until several months later. But back to April She is intensely cool and very opposed to "the man." Basically she was our advocate for a while to all the other teachers and to the "man" aka Crellin. Crellin like to run a tight ship and the opinions of the students don't really fit into his plans. He likes to be percieved as he is involved with the students though. He actually taught me in a class for a semester.....wait......except no. (I'll explain that later) But April and him bucked heads a lot I suppose and she was very honest about it with us, the students. All she really wanted was for the administration to treat the students with respect and let us make some decisions for ourselves. At least I think thats what she wanted. In the class April was pretty good. Sometimes she may not have had a good handle on some testy students. Class clowns were a weak spot to her cuz mostly she would laugh too and then order went out the window. But She taught the curriculm really well and ventured off into psychology, a very god plus. April only stayed at Sturgis for one year though, But I still see her cuz she is now my advisor at Big Brother/Big Sister, where she now works. And we talk through AIM once in a while. cool kid she is. Alright, the second big crisis happened in the spring of this year. This time it had more to do with finances then administration issue. I could go on about the financial woes but it'll bore you and I forgot most of the details anyway. But basically the school was extremely close to closing. I went to a board meeting and they were just about to literally close the school. But students and parents didn't want this to happen so we friggin raised the money, Like in the 200,000 range I think. not positive. So the school was saved. 2nd major crisis averted. for now.....MOHAHAHA. (actually it was). Alright, several weeks later writing this and that last parenthesis means nothing to me..... heh. Okay. Fist I want to adress something. I noticed that I've been talking a lot about school for a while. well. .... That's all I can think of. I mean Im sure I had a life outside of Sturgis but school took up so much time that well....I cant remember. ok. oooo I know brand new topic. well sorta kinda new. Drama! It did take place at school but I treat it differently. Freshman drama im not gonna even go into because it was well meaningless. Sophmore drama. It was led by Jane Hattamer. Back then she was very excentric and still is. She is very kind and always wants to hear your opinion, which is really good in a director. So basically we did a play called "Sorry, Wrong Number." It was about a invalid woman who learns about a murder over the phone, by accident, and tries to get pple to believe her. I was the rough new york cop who was more concerned with his food than her. It was an ok play. Amy, the lead, did very well. We did the play in the music room, which isn't all that big. The backstage was literally one foot from the curtain to the wall. all you could do is stand against the wall. it was pretty bad. The play itself though was went well. I think it was this year when i first went to New York City. There is a quote somewhere about how many New Yorkers weren't origionally from there but it isn't util their first visit their that they realize that they are a New Yorker at heart and were meant to live there. Well that is me. From the first moment I was there, I knew that was where I would be living someday. It's only a question of when. I love the fast paceness of the city and stuff.ugh, I cant describe it. So anywasy i went on a trip there with my cousin for about a week in Febuary. We Saw "Swing" on Broadway which was ok. I sorta wanted to see some acting but the dancing and singing wasn't terrible. oh and. ummm....... I was...... sorta.......on......hehehe.....TRL. There. Im not gonna go into that though. But we were also on the Today show, too. And we took a tour of the NBC studios and I was on the Dateline Set. It's actually pretty big. ooooo and I saw the Rosie Show set, which was extremely small. I didn't get to see the show though cuz she was in LA hosting the grammies. wow......I have the weirdest memory. So my aunts have the coolest house ever. The live on Long Island on the beach in a 4 story house. The architecture must have been high or something when he designed the house but it very ....um....hehe high. There are only two stories of living space but then there is a third floor inside that is sorta a sitting room. its very smaal but there is an oustide deck on the third flor that is fairly big. And then there are stairs outside on the 3rd floor deck that lead to the 4th floor, which all it is, is a lookout deck on top od that 3rd floor sitting room. I really need a picture to show you. just trust me that its cool. New Starting Here Ok, Best Friend: Renee. Well if sarcasm has a face, then it would look like Renee, I guess. I guess we really became friends in 11th grade. We fight all the friggin time but we always end up forgeting about.She is in love with cars and animals. Ford Broncos and ferrets. She thinks my parents hate her, when they're actually indifferent. She's Renee, what else is there to say? (hehe rhymage) Alright 11th grade. First off this is when I met Mrs. Wolk, or "Boet" as everyone calls her.She is incredibly sweet and good-natured. It was her first year teaching but being a published author, she knew what she was talking about. She's honestly the best teacher I had during high school. I credit her with my 116 out of 120 on my college reading placement exam. yea! And from the best teacher to the worst teacher. This was the year where I actually had Dr. Crellin as a teacher. He and Ms. Orvis, his right hand woman, taught a class together called, hehe, "The Nature of Knowing" ....... I'm sorry I have to compose myself for a sec........ ok. Basically this "Psychology" class was a joke. I hated it. and the only reason I took tis "elective" was b/c the year before I was told that it was mandatory. So I thought It would be better to take it sooner than later. Well I learned the next year that i didn't need that class. So I wasn'rt too happy. And in the actual class, half the time Crellin just stood by and tried to look smart while Orvis taught. Either that or they would bicker with eachother. It wasn't a very enjoyable class. It was all about nothing really. Nature of Knowing. lmao! to be cont........... |
| (scroll down to (new starting here) to get to the new stuff.) |