Stories of Summer

Summer is glorious beyond all gloriousness.
And I’ve never enjoyed it so much.
In the past, I’ve always just kind of stayed at home and vegged all summer, but not this year. This year is going to be so awesome.
Sort of.
Well, the day after school got out, I got a chance to bring Nerd Football back, and we had a good 12 ppl show up to play. We played for about 2 hrs, and I must say, that was probably some of the best Nerd Football we’ve ever played. No rain, no injuries(Willie *ahem*), reasonable teams, and pretty good weather. It was great.
Dad came back last week, which is pretty cool. All the family’s back, feels like home again.
In a span of 4 days, we managed to have 3 parties over at Evan’s house. Interesting time I got to spend over there… lots of fun over there, hanging out with that entire family, lots of PS2, and a nice game of Hold ‘Em. Got to spend quite a bit of time talking with Julie(aren’t you proud you got special mention again?), which was interesting to say the least. Wait, Tom moment: got a poker story.
So I was playing with Thor, Kenny, and Julian, and Julian got wiped pretty soon, with Kenny and me in pretty bad condition. Kenny makes a bad call for going all-in on Thor’s straight, but I backed off and scampered away with somewhere around a dollar left(Thor was, as I estimate, somewhere around 10). Fold, fold, fold, blah blah blah, yet with mebbe 3-4 good hands of the 15-20 he dealt, I managed to claim a sizable amount, and eventually a majority of the chips. But ya. Okay, Tom does a betta job, but whatever.
Been hanging out with Kosine for the past couple days, quite an interesting guy for a complete loser.
Went over to Willie’s yesterday with Aditya and Albie, and we went swimming. Wow.
I can honestly say I’ve never had a better time playing Monkey-in-the-Middle and Marco Polo.
From successfully tricking Willie to swim a lap in a “race” that we made back ahead by far when he “didn’t even see you guys(us)”, to sacrificial victims for Marco Polo, it was hilarious.
New Marchers started yesterday, and honestly, I floundered.
I thought I would have done a better job, but I didn’t quite seem to be able to find the confidence to present myself as a knowledgable DI. That is definitely going to get better(thought I did a better job today, for sure).
The tuba section seems pretty dry right now. Of the 4 kids, one can’t shut up(in a bad way, of course), and the other 3 won’t talk. As such, they’re very fishy(honest question to ‘neone: was/am I that bad?). I think that once summer band comes around and I can stick them in with the rest of the section, they’ll come around. I did.
Marching has definitely been a fun experience. As usual, marching is as exhilarating, in that weird band geek sort of way, and it’s been interesting being a DI. I’ve gotten so used to looking up to great leaders of upperclassmen, like, like… like Daniel Cangany and K.C. White and Chris Westbrook and Arash Tehrani that I really feel like I’m getting more respect. =)
But really, it’s pretty cool, because I can actually make a difference, and ppl watch me and expect me to teach them and lead them. Pretty spiffy stuff. Extremely awkward though, and definitely different. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing Matt Soerens in a leadership position…

STORYTIME!!!
Well, luck is fickle, but I just seem to always grab it at the right time.
“Well, that’s one bridge that I’ve crossed while burning,” Jake Rawlins muttered. “How you doing, Dixon?”
“Oh, you know, not so bad, just the usual, murder attempts, torture, etc. Hey, you mind undoing these bindings?” I casually requested of him.
“Oh, ya, sure,” he responded, putting his gun back in his holster, sweeping a couple blond locks back, then working on the rope behind me.
Within a minute, he had undone all of it, and we immediately began to plan.
“So, when you got me in here, did you have a plan for getting me out?”(‘neone catch the quote? Comment the source) I asked, rubbing my wrists, then checking to see what equipment they had stripped from me.
“Well, I know the guards on this hallway are knocked out from some ‘special’ whiskey I gave them, though past that, I don’t think there are any major obstacles. What are you doing down here, anyways?” he inquired. So he was bluffing before…
“A Mrs. Betty Belle came to my door, looking for some cover when she was killed in my office. Went down to Pops, and he pointed me in this direction,” I explained.
A ghastly look came over Rawlins when I turned to look, and his eyes widened. Apparently something was wrong.
“Did, did, did, you… say Betty Belle?” he repeated, blinking hard as though to rid it of his mind.
“Uh, yeah, didjya know her?”
Color seemed to return to his face as he eased slightly, wiping his sweat with a hankerchief.
“We need to break into Captain’s office. Now.” He held his voice carefully, making sure to enunciate every word precisely.
“Why is that?” I asked him, wondering why it was so neccesary to take such a big risk.
“Because there’s no way she could be dead in your office if she’s locked in the Captain’s.”