How I almost died
Hmm. Oddly enough, every other major life event (well, really OLD one) has been hashed to bits in this little memorandum of mediocrity, but not my sole brush with the world beyond.
Well, it wasn't so much a brush with the beyond as a brush with a light standard.
But let me start... From the Beginning.
Kingston in 1994 was a hellhole.
Okay, not quite. I don't think they'd even started to import squeegee kids yet. It was a year of indecision and loss, of... Actually, that's all bullshit too. A few months out of Carl Eton, and I was pretty much unemployable. I was spoiled by the A&P when I was in high school.
That place, put simply, rocked for a teenager. Good pay, 3 shifts a week, occasional 8 hours on weekends (and you could go down to Paul Bunyan's at the other end of the mall for fries n' gravy with ketchup on your lunch break). Seriously, the pay rate there was so good I've had maybe two jobs in my life that beat it on a per hour basis.
Sure, it didn't quite make up for being a brown teenager in white rice Napanee, but c'est la vie.
So being unemployed for most of the year of 93/94 was a bummer. There was a period on the reservation, which ended poorly, and another period at a gas station, ditto. There was also Puppy Patrol, which was fun, and will be expanded on later.
So, in January, I was looking forward to Redcon (the second last one, if memory serves me right). One of the local gamer guys, a mildly devious fellow named Dave, was teaching me to play Magic. Man, I shoulda stuck with it. I coulda been a contender.
Anyway, I was about to start The Werewolf Game, which was a lot of fun. We started with about 15 players (I had NO idea what I was getting into) and whittled it down to about five. Whittled by apathy, mostly.
Anyway, at the time, I was hopping onto a BBS called New Dimensions. A cute little item from the pre-internet age, it was essentially a retarded local ISP, without the I. There were bulletin boards, chat servers, and a few games, as well as e-memos (it would be wrong to call them e-mail). It was quite fun. Made a few acquaintances there, one or two I could confirm are not dead.
Anyway, one cold wintry Friday night, I was heading over to Good Buddies Mike & Alison's for Vampire. Of course, it turned out Vampire got cancelled that night.
Eh, no big shock. As a strappin' single guy, I could skip the occasional RPG without losing sleep. So, I hopped on over to AJ's Hanger to kibitz with some buds. It was Clarke (Laird & master of ClarkeMcMurray.com),his scary SHARP girlfriend, KC (a charming lady), and Dick. Ah, Dick. Never was a name more appropriate. What, indeed, a dick.
Anyway, there was kibitzing, and someone had the genius idea of going to Ganonoque for Karaoke. Right about there, Yr. Humble Bitter Guy should have said something to the effect of "fuck that noise, bizatch! You see the snow out there?"
Because, you know, it was snowing.
But, no. Clarke & I were going to wait for our nachos to come, and then join the happy crew in Ganonaque. We had the nachos boxed, and took off.
I shouldn't have trusted those Nachos. Truly, they were the nachos
Well, it wasn't so much a brush with the beyond as a brush with a light standard.
But let me start... From the Beginning.
Kingston in 1994 was a hellhole.
Okay, not quite. I don't think they'd even started to import squeegee kids yet. It was a year of indecision and loss, of... Actually, that's all bullshit too. A few months out of Carl Eton, and I was pretty much unemployable. I was spoiled by the A&P when I was in high school.
That place, put simply, rocked for a teenager. Good pay, 3 shifts a week, occasional 8 hours on weekends (and you could go down to Paul Bunyan's at the other end of the mall for fries n' gravy with ketchup on your lunch break). Seriously, the pay rate there was so good I've had maybe two jobs in my life that beat it on a per hour basis.
Sure, it didn't quite make up for being a brown teenager in white rice Napanee, but c'est la vie.
So being unemployed for most of the year of 93/94 was a bummer. There was a period on the reservation, which ended poorly, and another period at a gas station, ditto. There was also Puppy Patrol, which was fun, and will be expanded on later.
So, in January, I was looking forward to Redcon (the second last one, if memory serves me right). One of the local gamer guys, a mildly devious fellow named Dave, was teaching me to play Magic. Man, I shoulda stuck with it. I coulda been a contender.
Anyway, I was about to start The Werewolf Game, which was a lot of fun. We started with about 15 players (I had NO idea what I was getting into) and whittled it down to about five. Whittled by apathy, mostly.
Anyway, at the time, I was hopping onto a BBS called New Dimensions. A cute little item from the pre-internet age, it was essentially a retarded local ISP, without the I. There were bulletin boards, chat servers, and a few games, as well as e-memos (it would be wrong to call them e-mail). It was quite fun. Made a few acquaintances there, one or two I could confirm are not dead.
Anyway, one cold wintry Friday night, I was heading over to Good Buddies Mike & Alison's for Vampire. Of course, it turned out Vampire got cancelled that night.
Eh, no big shock. As a strappin' single guy, I could skip the occasional RPG without losing sleep. So, I hopped on over to AJ's Hanger to kibitz with some buds. It was Clarke (Laird & master of ClarkeMcMurray.com),his scary SHARP girlfriend, KC (a charming lady), and Dick. Ah, Dick. Never was a name more appropriate. What, indeed, a dick.
Anyway, there was kibitzing, and someone had the genius idea of going to Ganonoque for Karaoke. Right about there, Yr. Humble Bitter Guy should have said something to the effect of "fuck that noise, bizatch! You see the snow out there?"
Because, you know, it was snowing.
But, no. Clarke & I were going to wait for our nachos to come, and then join the happy crew in Ganonaque. We had the nachos boxed, and took off.
I shouldn't have trusted those Nachos. Truly, they were the nachos