Kevin's Watch

I want to add:

I have the most awesome two friends for thirty years now. However I lost contact with them around 2007. I accidently met them again ten years later and it was like we only parted the day before. Our lives have taken different courses. They are still the crazy mofos they were in the eighties, but I have become somewhat mundane. Our friendship, however, is closer than ever.

Meeting them again after ten years and keeping close contact is one of the highest points in my life.

There are so many to list... (sigh)
But I will throw in a few, in no order:

Meeting Henry Winkler (The Fonz) when working in a renaissance festival

Watching several meteor showers

Exploring (then little unknown) caves in Florida

Camping with several friends for 5 days while tripping

Seeing Pink Floyd - twice

Seeing Van Halen before they were known

Seeing Lynyrd Skynyrd 2 days before the plane crash

Getting married and becoming a step-father to 3 kids

Owning a 1967 Pontiac GTO (briefly)

High School years (had a blast)

The 1970's

Riding a train from Florida to Chicago


Much more than I can think of for now...

Interesting...hard to narrow them down to just a few, even leaving out the birth of my daughter and various sexual adventures, but here goes:

1. Watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon

2. First time I ever took LSD on Christmas Eve when I was 17

3. Playing my first ever gig with a band on a small stage where Pink Floyd played in 1967

4. Becoming the main DJ at a nightclub that I used to go to

5. Riding at speed on the back of a female friend's motorcycle for 25 miles in the middle of the night with a helmet made from a cardboard box and duct tape to get to where I was working the next day

6. Completing a half marathon in less than 8 minute miles

7. Getting my first tattoo

8. Skydiving from 15,000ft on new years eve 1999

9. Getting my eyesight corrected with laser surgery

10. Having 3 separate bachelor parties in 3 different cities before getting married

11. Becoming a US citizen

Where are you from originally, michaelm?

aliantha wrote:Where are you from originally, michaelm?

I was born and grew up in the south of England, but in my 30s moved to Western Australia for a while, then after a brief time back in the UK I moved to the US (from NH to NC then to SC).

A well-traveled fellow. At least you're going in the right direction, weather-wise.

To some extent yes, but I think the Australian weather is preferable to the Carolinas - there's a lot less humidity and a lot less rain.

I do miss the snow in NH though...(having grown up with it being a rarity)

Michael, what was your first tattoo of? And, welcome and stuff.

michaelm wrote:To some extent yes, but I think the Australian weather is preferable to the Carolinas - there's a lot less humidity and a lot less rain.

I do miss the snow in NH though...(having grown up with it being a rarity)

I lived in NH and my parents still do. Snow is fun until the shovels come out.

Yes - Welcome michaelm. Interesting set of high points including [as did mine] a mind-bending halucigenatory experience. That shouldn't be encouraged in any way - but acid was a real head-banger for sure! Dangerous stuff; a bit like eating 'fugu'.

This exercise is quite an interesting one - and harder than you would think. To distill out the things that you would not have missed for the world makes you examine your life that little bit more - hopefully to good effect.

@Ananda: my first one was two Kanji symbols for 'live' and 'today'. Not sure why, I just walked into a tattoo shop and got them done (on the side of my right calf).

@rdhopeca: I shoveled snow while I was there and really didn't mind. It's only really driveways and sidewalk you have to do as the city (Nashua) clears everything else.

@peter: Yes, it's not an endorsement of any sort on my part, it's just part of my life experience. I did acid before I did other hallucinogens, and as it happens it was very potent acid, so it was way more mind bending than anything else I ever did.

Welcome to the Watch michaelm.

I have to admit that your screen name confuses the hell out of me, as I am also a Michael M. I have an identity crisis every time I see you post, and wondering if the other personality is taking over again, and I have to try to remember if I have any blank spots in my memory.

I know, there are so many people with my name, especially in the US.

While I was growing up (in the UK) it wasn't so common, but there seem to be many more Michaels around me since I moved here.

michaelm wrote:I know, there are so many people with my name, especially in the US.

While I was growing up (in the UK) it wasn't so common, but there seem to be many more Michaels around me since I moved here.

Well, you'll always be m-m to me [as you were in my first reply to something you posted.
m-m cuz we already have [or had] an MM.

Vraith wrote:Well, you'll always be m-m to me

Sorry about the stutter.

Yep, I used to be called into the principal's office all the time for a person who had the same name as me, but used his middle name Scott to be referred to. He would always be caught smoking on school grounds, and this was before I ever touched a cigarette. The first time was very confusing, but after a while, it was "yeah, you want Scott."

But this is just a matter of a simple questioning of my sanity.

I did say we'd have to start numbering you guys.

Vraith, thanks a lot for mentioning MatrixMan. Now I miss him all over again. I wonder if he'll ever come back...

aliantha wrote:I did say we'd have to start numbering you guys.

It will be like "The Prisoner"

(Please don't make me number two though - something just doesn't sound right about saying "I am number two"...)

Yes, but who is number one?

An acid-head and a musician and, it goes without saying considering your presence, a reader. Oh you'll fit in just fine.

--A