I’m just writing to inform you that I’ve moved this page to a different address.. I’m still playing with it and haven’t gotten all the kinks worked out, but I would like for you to join me over there…. I can be found at www.nicknotnikki.com

     I hope to see you soon…

    Peace and massive amount of love, Nick

    So, here’s the official post. I’ve been dealing with some health issues as well as looking for a second job, so I’ve gotta take a break. Hopefully, I’ll be back soon (with some answers), but in this sentence, “soon” is a relative term.

    I’ll catch you around…
    Peace out, Nick

    When that dude wrote ”it was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” I’m convinced he was talking about high school. High school seems like that unbearable time in your life where you’re trying to figure out everything. Life, boyfriends/girlfriends, colleges, the future. It’s like all of a sudden, we were in training to be adults when I wasn’t sure I was done being a teenager.

    High school wasn’t all bad though. Matter of fact, if you did it right, high school could’ve been like that movie “13 Going on 30.” My high school memories passed by in a blur, but there’s a few that I remember best..

   1. Band practice: Back before we knew what “Stomp the Yard” was, there was my band. Don’t get it mistaken, my band director picked the worst kind of music. There was NOTHING about our band that made you want to get out of the seats (except the drum cadences.. check that spelling please). However, I was a flaggette. We danced and twirled flags and we were the dopest things that band had. Except when it was windy. Few people knew how to control the flag when it was windy, you’d toss it in the air and that ish would slap you in the face. But there’s NO amount of dancing that could save the musical selection of “Toto” by Africa. I loved being a flaggette, and I still know how to work a pole.

   2. Lunch: My school sat behind a mall. This mall was very popular back then. The fact that this mall had a video arcade meant that I spent lunch playing Mortal Kombat and then going home. Yeah, you read that right, I didn’t go back to classes after lunch.

    3. Skipping: Once I figured out how close my house was to school (2 miles) I was hardly there. Of course, this was only done my senior year as I was still scared to do it in the 10th and 11th grade. I would go to lunch, then go home. Skipping and going to the beach was a classic move too. I skipped and went over my boyfriend’s house. I skipped and went to my friend’s pool. This caught up with me though and summer school soon became part of my repertoire.

    4. Football Games: Being that I was in the band, then football games were what we LIVED for. The day of a game, we would all just hang around after school walking up and down the empty hallways. We would go get chinese food (from the mall) and then all the football players and band people would eat. Give it an hour and you cold walk the halls and just see everyone sleeping in different corners. I don’t know why this memory has stayed with me, but it had. Actually going to the games were great. Singing on the busses, trying to gauge the cuteness of the guys from the other school based on which team we were playing. Listening to booty shake music on the way back home (after stopping off at Checkers, of course). I dated (if that’s what you can call it) a couple of football players and that was fun too.

   5. Choir: I don’t even think I can sing, but I was in the choir. The magic of it is, I don’t remember anything about what we sang. I DO remember talking wayy too much to Karolina (hello) and my music teacher slamming the piano and throwing his keys at people. He would get red in the face and spit would fly out of his mouth. The guy I wrote about in my First Love post was in the choir too. And yes LAWD, he could SANG! Years after we had broken up, I asked him if he could sing at my wedding. He said, “no.”

  I could say that I went to dances and such, but I didn’t. I didn’t do much in high school in ways of activities. I was busy failing all my math classes (and re-taking them) and working. I have a special fondness for a certail stairwell too, but that’s my business. I remember my Dickies and the Jansport bookbag that I carried everywhere. The year that a football player moved into my building and we became friends, until he told me he liked me and I had to fall back. Getting grounded right before Homecoming because I stayed out past curfew listening to “That’s All I Ask of You” in my homeboy’s car. Listening to Tribe Called Quest as my friend drove me home. To this day, he and I can look at each other and  say “Electric Relaxation” and we’ll both laugh.

     I don’t miss high school, then again I do. Maybe I’m feeling a certain way because this will be the year of my 15th high school reunion. I’m not going. I went to the 10th year one and I realized, I can only look at so many pictures of babies.

    What do you miss about high school? Do you even miss it at all? What’s your favorite memory?

    Go have at it…
   Peace and Love, Nick

   With that being said…

      It’s not a secret that I’ve been single for a while (since ’06 to be exact). The relationship that I had come out of was one in which marital counseling and court papers were involved, so we can deduce that it was not a light one. The idea of being single took some getting used to, but as I came to terms with it, I realized that being single is both a gift and a curse, today I’m going to discuss “The Gift.” You might notice that there’s a recurring theme in my points, but I realized while writing the outline that yes, there is a theme.

it even comes with a bow...

  1.”Eff yo feelins” - It seems a little selfish, but I love not having to worry about someone else’s feelings. This doesn’t go for friends and relatives and such. But when you’re in a relationship, it’s a different dynamic you’re working with. There’s a different set of emotions/ responsibilities at play. I realize that a lot of the way I feel now is a result of my last relationship which wore me out in every way and I realize that I’m still tired. I like that I don’t have to worry about someone else’s feelings. My movements are mine and if you don’t like it, you can suck an egg.

   2. “Yes, I’m going there”- This goes hand in hand with #1. I think all the single people can agree that not having to consult someone before deciding on what to do and when to do it is a big gift with being single. I don’t answer to anyone. And I know, we’re dealing with grown relationships now, you don’t always have to consult someone (if at all) but not having to worry about how my actions might make another person feel is a big plus. I don’t want to explain to you why I didn’t feel like hanging tonight. Yes, I want thai food for dinner, again. No, I don’t feel like talking. No, there’s no reason why I didn’t answer your phone call other than, I. didn’t. feel. like. talking. And if you don’t like that, you can suck a rotten egg.

  3. “Aren’t you in a funky mood?” – At the end of the day, I’m tired. I want to come home and decompress and release the day from me. When no one is home, my house is my haven. I don’t want to worry about what mood my partner is going to be in and then have to work on getting him out of his funky mood. I’m selective about who I choose to voluntarily spend my time with. And maybe it comes with my selfish phase, but I don’t want to deal with anyone’s funky mood to overthrow my good one. Maybe the fact that my mother does this all the time means that I have no energy for anyone else. But when I’m single, I’m the only person I’m dealing with and I can control my mood. Which is a great and wonderful thing.

   4. “I trust you, I mean, me” – I’d like to say that I trust people, but that’s not always the case. You see, when I’m single I have no problem trusting everyone in the relationship, because it’s just me. I don’t have to wonder about much, because there’s no one else in my equation.

   I can think of more, but I don’t want to say all the good things about being single. It’s not a secret that I’m a control freak. The way I see it, relationships are filled with variables. And the logic argument tells me that if I had a hard enough time learning math, which is filled with constants (1+1=2) then dealing with something that is filled with variables (feelings, moods, whose sun is in what house, weather) does not make me wanna jump in and go “WHEE!”

    That’s the way I see it this morning. But what do you think? What are the gifts that come with being single? Does it seem like the rantings of a freak that doesn’t want to lose control? I’m just wondering. 

   Peace and Love, Nick

   p.s. Do I sound bitter? I look a little jaded…

    Off the top, I can only think of few things better than a friday. Ice cream is one of them, and waxing nostalgia is another…

     It’s Nostalgic Fridays (in case you ain’t know)

       Having a job during the summer doesn’t seem like a good way to spend school-free days, but if you played it right, your summer job can bring home some bank, be fun, AND give you benefits. (discounts, free ish etc). My favorite summer job came to me the summer of ’96 right after I graduated high school. I worked at a movie theater. Actually, I had two jobs that summer (stereotypes, FTW!) but the movie theater was the one that rocked the best.

    Anyone that knows me knows that me and movies go together like peas and carrots, so this should come as no surprise. Free movies and ALL you can eat popcorn and soda was enough to make me wanna pay them to work there. If you add in the great people I met and thinking of creative ways to steal movie bites (chocolate covered ice cream) then it was a great summer. But there’s several things that come to mind when I think about my movie theater job (yes, I think about it often, I have a lot of time to daydream at my current job)

    1. Rollerblades- Going to lunch involved a drive to the McDonald’s on the other side of the plaza, but not everyone had a car. One day, my friend Windy (yes, that’s her name) got the bright idea that we would bring rollerblades to work and when it was time for lunch, we would get towed behind Mele’s car. I remember the terror as we hoped to not get pulled too fast. Skinned knees because someone tripped someone else. Sometimes not making it to McDonald’s because we ran out of time trying to get there (there was much trial and error)

   2. Independence Day:Independence Day was THE blockbuster movie that summer. We stayed after our shifts that night to catch the sold out midnight showing. Not ones to be told “no” and thinking “I work here dammit, I’m GONNA see this movie,” we all sat in the aisle. Passing free popcorn while screaming at aliens was on of the best moments that summer.

    3. After work, we’d get together and go to the beach. If you think of some of those movies that you see, where teenagers are on the beach splashing each other, then that is the scene. Sometimes we would sit and talk (we were so smart back then at 17-18 years old) Some would go swimming. Some would just run up and down. Going to the beach in work shirts splattered by popcorn oil doesn’t seem that great, but it is to me.

   4. While cleaning the theater one night, my friend said that he had a great idea. The movie was Scream, and he was going to hide under the movie screen, wait for the movie to start, and run up the aisle screaming at the fist death scene. It was the best joke ever pulled that year. And because the movie was filled with teens that loved that kind of stuff, no one got in trouble. I shed a little tear thinking about how great that joke came out.

  There’s more memories that I have but it’s Friday, so I’m gonna keep this short. Watching movies til 3 in the morning, finding money, sitting up in the projection room, discovering how great popcorn tasted when dipped in nacho cheese, the grand discovery of stadium seating. This is what that summer was about. When we felt grown up because we had a job, but could still feel like kids because we were having too much fun.

    It’s your turn. Is there a summer job that was your favorite? Did you even have one? I know not everyone sits back and thinks “wow, 15 years ago, I was doing…..” but it’s Friday, and I’m nostlagic, so I’m giving you license to do it here…

     Have a great weekend..
    Peace and Love, Nick

   p.s. oh, there’s a couple comments from last week that I wanted to respond to, but it might turn into a post. I don’t want you thinking I forgot about you.