124) College Memories (Sophomore Year)

My Sophomore year of college was easily the worst year of my life.  Due to extenuating circumstances I moved from Waco to Houston in order to attend the University of Houston and live with my mom in a house in The Heights (not the hip part, but the run down part).  Following is a list of memories I have from that year:

• No Code came out that year and I listened to it everyday through a discman that plugged into my cassette player in my car.
• Growing my hair out.  I did not cut it at all and it eventually grew past my shoulders.  Made me look more Hispanic/Native American.
• I bought my first ever car - a practical, white Nissan Stanza for $5,300.
• Playing basketball in the mud outside in our backyard.  Not sure how or why we had a goal, but I played every evening before dinner.
• For dinner mom and I ate churches chicken at least 3 times a week.  The biscuits rocked.  One night Dugat and I drove to Churches to pick up food when we witnessed a cop chasing a young kid down the street.  As the cop entered our headlight beam, he completely wiped out in the middle of the street.  Dugat and I were not sure if we actually saw this, or if it was some flashback experience from an episode of COPS my mom made us watch.
• Running in Herman Park.  
• For New Years Eve, Shelley drove me and Dugat around town looking for cool bars to visit.  Dugat and I spent a good deal of the evening screaming at cars on the freeway.  When I got home, my mom had to deal with me and I woke up the next morning with my shoes still on and blood all over my clothes from wiping out a couple of times.  Not good!
• Eating lunch on the U of H campus and the squirrels would walk right up to me and wait for food.  I was bad and would make an extra sandwich to share with them.  I usually sat at a picnic table off to the side with 6-7 squirrels standing all around me.  One time there was a fat one sleeping in the middle of the sidewalk and all us students simply stepped over him on our way to class.  
• Drinking Crown Royal every night.  Even today, Crown Royal reminds me of sitting on the Harvard Street Porch with a cigarette and a glass of whiskey.
• Every morning I woke up to freshly brewed coffee.  The coffee maker did not work right and caused a terrible puddle on the kitchen counter.  I drank 2 cups each morning while watching Garfield and Friends before going to school or work...
• I worked for C-Air-s Mechanical.  2nd worst job of my life.  They hated me because I was in college and they did nothing to make me feel welcome there.  
• During the summer I worked for TX-Dot.  You would think this would have been the worst job of my life, but it wasn't.  While the work was utterly terrible, the experience was fun in a weird way.  And I hope to never forget the greatness that is Thomas Moss, Johnson, and Ned's forehead.
• During my first semester at U of H I got the courage up to ask a girl out and was happy when she said yes.  I picked her up at her house to discover that she had cut all of her hair off.  The pixie-style cut looked more like a dude haircut than a cute girl haircut.  The date was going fine until she wanted to meet a group of her "older" friends at a club that would not let in a 19 year old.  
• Taking Reverend Bob's writing class with Dylan.  Reverend Bob liked my writing and that was the only A I got the entire year.
• Dugat coming over to watch Talk Radio, Caroline in the City, Friends and Seinfeld.
• Possum living in the attic.  You could hear it scurrying around.  I hated it, but my mom thought it was funny.  
• Chris visited one weekend and brought with him from Waco a bottle of rum.  He, Tarik and Shuard (sp?) went to a frat party in Austin where they stumbled upon boxes of liquor.  They stole as much as they could carry, getting away with a couple of cases of rum and 1 case of melon liquor.  It was this weekend that I decided I was going back to Baylor no matter what the cost.  One of the best decisions of my life!
• Getting two flat tires on one drive home.  The girl I was visiting lived in Pasadena, which was a long drive.  I was stranded at 2a on the side of an unfamiliar road and was too intoxicated (as evidenced by the two flat tires) to do anything about it.  I sat on the curb wondering how angry mom was going to be for receiving a phone call to pick me up in Pasadena.  Instead, a Mexican dude in an El Camino stopped and asked me if I needed a ride.  I told him I lived 45 minutes away.  He was fine with it.  He took me home and I gave him all the money I had for gas.  Moments like that give me hope for humanity...