The other night on my one hour fifteen minute drive home (thank you, L.A.), I spoke at great lengths with my old/only high school friend, Mike Kasper for the first time in a couple of years. I have to admit, one of the strangest things you can do is jettison yourself back to your high school years. I mean, we picked up right where we left off, and our patter segued straight back to 1988. No, we didn't talk about how much Sun-In we sprayed in our hair or how fucking AWESOME the new Wham! album is, but the old pattern and cycle came running back to our conversation within minutes. During our talk, I became hyper-aware of my journey in life thus far since high school, simply because Mike lives in Naperville, a stone's throw from where we grew up, and is engaged to a girl we went to school with. Not that I'm living La Vida Loca here, but it's hard for me to retrace the steps that got me to where I am at this moment. Don't worry. A puff or 2 of the ganje and I'll talk your ear off reminscing.

So in 1982, I'd entered 7th grade, fully aware of being a dork. I was. And still am. Not one of the nerdy, anti-social, glasses perched on the tip of the nose kinda dork (they were a little cooler than I), but man, this was the 1st year I really felt as though I didn't fit in: Not smart enough for the brainiacs, not dumb enough for the burnouts, none too athletic but not a lard-ass...aaaah, preteenage life! *mwah!* Que bella!

I recall this years being the first time I smelled like B.O. and needed to wash my hair regularly. No zits yet (oh, they're coming!), but the voice was crackin' but swell. I auditioned for The Wizard of Oz and Mrs. Guiterrez took me aside to inform me that she wanted to cast me as The Scarecrow (huzzah! I might yet become popular!), but she also needed to cast 8th graders in the lead roles, so she was giving me the part of Mayor Munchkin (helllllloooo Dorktown).

Mom and Dad were maybe not officially divorced yet, but defintely were seperated, and we had zilch cashola. nada. Mom took to selling the Auquarius computer by Mattel (a whopping 4K of memory!), and I believe this was the year we all survived on $8,000. Government cheese and powdered milk? - you betya! But Mom never made us feel like we were as bad off as we actually were, how, I have no idea.