Old Friends

You find all kinds of interesting things when you start going through your drawers, shelves and closets.

For example, I just found about a whole truckload of road maps. I acquired these road maps several years ago, when I found out that as a AAA member I was entitled to 25 free AAA publications. I decided to spend mine on maps - since most of the state road maps cover 2 states, I figured I'd get all 50.

I think back then I thought the maps would come in handy when I took the wild, liberating, reckless cross-country road trip of my dreams. I never did make it across the country; I went about halfway with Jon M and Shua P, but we decided to turn around once we hit Arkansas.

Now, the maps just sit on my floor. They don't direct anyone. I'm trying to think of a good way to put them to use. I thought it would be cool if I used them as wallpaper, creating one huge map of the US. However, the 2-state maps have one state on each side, so that won't work. Let me know if you have any suggestions. Apparently, the comment thing on this blog is broken, so email me (yolevins@gmail).

Here's some other stuff I found:

OLD PHOTOS
Many such photos display the younger versions of people I know. Eventually, I will scan many of them and post them on this blog.

LARGE GOGGLES FROM CHEM LAB
These reminded me that I want to bring my power tools back to school, so that I can carpent during my free time.

A CHESS PIECE CARVED OUT OF SOAP
Back in high school, after seeing "The Shawshank Redemption" for the first time, I decided to carve myself a chess set out of something. I picked soap. However, I quickly found that people who aren't in prison have better things to do than carve chess sets. So I stopped after one pawn. Who knows? Maybe one day I'll get thrown in the slammer and will be able to pick up where I left off...

A PACKAGE OF TISSUES
Why, you wonder, would I keep such a thing for so long? Well, these tissues were given to me by my piano teacher - possibly 7 or 8 years ago by now. They have music notes printed on them. Needless to say, I have never wanted to use them, for fear of wasting them, and don't plan on ever using them. But I will take them with me until the day I die.

THE PLAYBILL FROM MY SCHOOL PLAY
Senior year, WHHS put on "A Few Good Men", and I played the role of PFC William T. Santiago. In a way, he's the star of the play, since he's the subject of the whole plot. In another way, he's not the star, since he is killed in the opening scene and has only 2 lines. In fact, I was only asked to join 2 weeks before production. But I had a great time. I memorized those lines, and recited them with passion. I shaved my head and wore army fatigues. I got beat up on stage by a freshman half my size who shoved a sock in my mouth. Good times.

A COLLECTION OF MY WRITING FROM SECOND AND FIFTH GRADE
I'm particularly excited about this. It's kind of a mystery to me why this stuff stuck around rather than get thrown out. However, now that I have it I might as well show it off. I think maybe I'll include one piece in each of my blog posts. I'll let you readers guess whether I wrote it in fifth grade or second. Here's the first one:

The Cat

One day a cat came by
and sat on a hat
His friend came and asked
to play ball with a bat
He said "all right" and they
played ball with a bat