The Best Day of My Life
Honestly I did not think the best day of my life, so far, I must add, would take place in Show Low, Arizona, but it did. It was Saturday November 15, 2008. Now Aca-Dec-ers will recognize this as the day of the Round Valley skirmish. Drama kids will recognize this as closing night of The Outsiders. For those of us who are both, we will fondly remember this day as a really frickin’ long one. From waking up at 4:30 AM Saturday to finally going to bed at 2:00 AM Sunday, the day was, needless to say, extensively long.
I’ll start my story at the most logical place, the beginning. In the beginning there was little light and little time to get ready. Ben pulled into my driveway just as I was finishing piecing together my “business attire”. Black shirt, black pants, black shoes, Cadillac. Well, no Cadillac, but the rest applies, with the addition of a silver tie. I thought I looked rather snazzy. We left my house listening to Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged album and headed for Cassidi’s. We reached the sweet, warm relief of her fireplace and waited for her to come down. As we waited we marveled at the mansion she called a house and admired the art that adorned the living area.
Next, Ben hit the bank and we headed for Kim’s house. We picked her up quickly and headed for school, where we found a bus waiting for us. As I said then, “I feel like royalty; having an entire bus waiting for us.”
And so the bus ride began. It wasn’t a very long one, but angst and worry about the competition stretched it out. I tried to play it as cool as possible, but as it was my first competition, I was actually more nervous than I let on.
So, Competition; I did rather badly over all, not having touched Bless Me Ultima, or Music or Art, I did poorly on those tests. Econ went alright, so did Social Science. My essay did okay too. Getting second in Varsity Super Quiz was a bit of a surprise, I did well, but I didn’t think I’d medal. Then Math; as many of you know that one really pissed me off. We started the test about ten minutes before we had to go do Speech and Interview. Because everyone else didn’t even bother to try on the test I was the only one who complained afterwards, but who could blame me!?! I thought math would be my one medal! As my speech says, there’s no point to dwell upon the past, so I’ll stop complaining. Speaking of Speech and Interview for that matter, Impromptu went well for me, not so much the Prepared. I thought I did okay on interview, but did worse than expected.
Skipping over our trip to Safeway for lunch, that brings us to Super Quiz. I cannot express how proud and ecstatic I felt after Super Quiz. Our team was amazing and I could not have been happier to be apart of it. We started off strong by nailing our first five questions, yes I know you’ll all think that I’m patting my self on the back, but really my initial success was just the launch off point for the entire team to do well. Tying for second with St. Johns was a superb achievement.
I’d like to officially congratulate everyone who medaled at skirmish and officially announce my loathing of Blue Ridge for taking 75% of the awards. Kayla thinks that means I have school spirit; really I just have my pride. And Ben, the look on your face when you got third in Art was priceless.
The excitement during the bus ride home was tangible, though as we neared town the mental drain started to take its toll. I think we had like an hour to kill before call for closing night, and as usual I hung out with Ben and Kim, my best friends here in Show Low. Then it was time for the last performance of one of the worst plays I’ve ever worked on, as an experience I mean, not quality wise. Strike was…interesting. As usual the vast majority of the cast stood around doing nothing and ended up leaving early. Eventually Ben, Kim and I left for the cast party at Cassidi’s. When we got there I wandered around talking to the few people I liked, claiming ownership of Kyle’s left nipple, and signing the shirts. That’s about the time Kara and I started talking. I had the feeling that we had become friends somewhere during that night, more specifically during that night’s performance. I had kept her laughing all night, at one point she was on the floor because she was laughing so hard.
Anyway, we were talking when Cassidi mention something about upstairs and almost everyone head up there. There was talk about a flirting game, it sounded rather childish to me, so eventually Kim brought me back downstairs to enjoy some Roque Delight. That was pretty awesome and I never thought one could use Mr. Willard's name and the word “delight” in the same sentence and not be sarcastic, but by George I was wrong. A little time later we had to go; damn Ben’s dad. That’s when the day finished in a high note.
As I turned to leave I took one last glimpse over my shoulder and noticed the girl that I had developed a rather soft spot for over the past couple of weeks beckoning me over with her forefinger. We exchanged some brief words, none of which held any importance to me; I was lost in her eyes. Then she startled me. She wrapped her arms around me tightly and we embraced. The moment stretched into eternity in my mind. All thought was erased. For all I cared it could have been just me and her in each others arms forever. We let each other go. Thought and motor functions returned to me and I left.
It may or may not have meant anything to her, but to this wounded soul, it meant that I was still capable of having a normal relationship with a girl; that I don’t always fuck it up somehow or someway. She may have just been being nice to me, but the fact that within a few weeks we’d gone from brief acquaintances to friends, a friend that she feels comfortable enough to show even the lowest manner of intimacy with, tells me that I’m doing something right.
If you knew me better, any of you, you might understand why this is such a big deal for me. Maybe I’ll tell that story another time, but for now, I’ll just enjoy the feeling of not being a fuck-up.
I looked at my kingdom
I was finally there
To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air
