Are the planets aligning this year something funky?
So this has been a weird year so far. I've been catching up / running into / meeting people I haven't seen in ages (decades.. ) Around April, I met up with Amy and Jay up in Seattle.. While working from home, I took a short break and saw a former co-worker at the local blockbuster (wasn't even sure it was him till he drove off in a Jeep he told me he owned... ) and a friend of mine, Bond, from middle school (20 years ago.. ) ended up messaging me on myspace because he found my profile. I met up with him this past weekend, because he now lives in San Diego.. Which is where I was at for Comic Con.
I went down to San Diego because of Comic-Con - For those of you who don't know, a HUGE ass convention that used to be just about comics, but now is pretty much one of the largest comic book conventions that runs the gamut of the entertainment industry - Pretty much on the west coast where things get kicked off in order to build a rabid nerd following in whatever project is generated. I woke up at 4am on Friday and hit the road at around 5. Ended up down there at around 9:30, and was able to secure parking. Spent the entire time in the convention hall this year -- The only pannels I really wanted to check out were the ones I figured would be too packed for me to get in (didn't want a repeat of the Kevin Smith panel from last year, where I waited 3 hours to get in, only to be turned away due to lack of space.) Ended up spending way more than I had wanted -- Picked up a couple cool shirts, picked up Graphic Novels for 'Transmetropolitan', 'Y The Last Man', '100 Bullets', 'Ex Machina', 'Poison Elves', a few pieces of artwork and other miscellaneous stuff--Oh, a copy of the movie 'Black Belt' and 'Chocolate'.. So yeah, had a good time, just my legs were killing me by the end of the day. After I left the Con at 7pm, I drove over to Bond's house.
I met Bond when I was living in Japan, going to ASIJ (The America School in Japan.. ). I knew him from 6th to 7th grade, before moving back to the states (first Alabama, then New Jersey.) He was one of the few people I was really close with when I was growing up those years, following the pattern where I would make a few really close friends wherever I went, instead of having a huge circle of friends like most other people. I found out in speaking with him, that one of my other close friends from Japan, Lafura Jackson had passed away eight years ago due to testicular cancer. Lafura was an incredibly talented guy.. He was very good at drawing and was fluent in speaking Japanese. A very standup guy.. I had a lot of respect for him. I found out that he went to the University of Santa Barbara (UCSB) towards the end of the 90's.. Which means, if I had known, I could have just driven up the coast and seen him. But I just never knew--The Internet isn't the same now as it was then.. You can't just go on Facebook or Myspace and just find someone you haven't seen in ages. It just makes me sad that I never really got the chance to get to know him again.
So I was able to hang out with Bond.. I met his wife and we hung out over the weekend. Ended up seeing a free movie screening of 'Sex Drive'.. a new teen comedy that's going to be coming out soon.. Seth Green has a small role as a Amish guy! Pretty damn funny. It was just nice to hang out with Bond and just connect. He even helped me install a trunk cover in my car, which I wasn't 100% sure was how to do, nor had the tools to do so.
It's just wierd that right now I'm meeting all these people up again that I haven't seen in ages. I'm going to be going to Vegas soon in order to attend a friend of mine's wedding from Rutgers. So i'm seeing a lot of older people from the past. It's a great thing which makes me real happy, but at the same time a little cautious.. Normally, I've always been one to question what the universe has in store for me when things seem to be going really well.. A bad habit I know. But this time, I'm going to just sit back and relax and enjoy the ride. I'm just going to try to keep a positive outlook on this, since it seems like when you look for negative things, negative things happen.. So, not going to do it this time!
It's been an interesting year so far.. Just want it to keep on going. Bring on the strangeness!
Oh yeah, and to those folks who are interested - I ended the 'facial hair' experiment. Once it got to the point where it was more trouble to keep a mustache / goatie trimmed, I shaved it all off. So I'm back to being my naked old self.
- Rob