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Somewhat Odd Moments....That Rocked!

You ever get a little depressed and think back to some silly moments in your life when you were happiest doing something completely out of the ordinary?  Of course we remember great meals with loved ones and trips we took.  Those are the memories we think about all the time.  I'm talking about the random moments that made a day, a week or possibly meant more than you know.  I have been thinking about those moments quite a bit lately.  Possibly out of depression or just out of the desire to remember those I've lost touch with.  Here are a few special ones.

I remember when I was in my early 20's and my girlfriend and I took this little girl out to lunch at Friendly's.  I had this little growth on the side of my nose and it was driving me crazy.  My girlfriend convinced me that nobody could even see it and I was being silly.  So we pick up the little girl and take her out.  She was maybe 2 1/2-3.  We're ordering food and having a good time and the little girl looks at me and had a quizzical look on her face.  She pointed and said in the cutest little baby voice "what dat on yaw nose?'  Needless to say, I wasn't happy and my girlfriend thought it was hilarious.

My brother was playing little league and the game before he got beaned in the back by one of the hardest throwers in the league.  He wanted to quit and was terrified of getting hit.  The next game the pitcher knew he was scared and threw the ball close to him.  My brother was about ten feet out of the batter's box when the second pitch crossed the plate.  The kids on the other team were laughing and my brother was white as a ghost.  He hadn't had a hit all season and it looked like this it was never going to happen and I questioned whether he'd play again.  He struck out swinging on a pitch that was over the plate and he was about six feet away.  His second at-bat he didn't want to get in there.  I told him to just hang in there and that he'd be OK.  The first pitch once again was inside and he bailed out.  The second was over the plate and he ran away.  I called him over and told him to just stand there and swing as hard as he could.  The next pitch was right over the plate and my brother smacked the ball off the outfield wall.  He probably should have had a double, but he was in such shock, that he didn't run when he first hit it.  As he stood on first, his teammates cheered and the pitcher on the other team stepped off the mound and walked over to first base and gave him a high five.  I was the proudest brother in the world.

Many of my great moments happened at Pierce Camp Birchmont in New Hampshire, but this one was odd and funny.  We had spent the afternoon at Old Orchard Beach and there was drinking and laying on the beach and my friend Liz (who was married) said, who wants to come bathing suit shopping with me.  Being she was one of the few females, nobody said they would.  I hated laying on the beach so I went.  As we shopped we made fun of some of the suits and started to pair them up with some of the younger counselors who would have worn them.  It ended up being one of the most unexpected great moments of the Summer and something we joked about years after.

One night while downing Mandarin Vodka and club sodas, my friend Eric and I started talking about great baseball teams that we felt were underrated.  We started talking about baseball lineups from the late 70's and early 80's and got hung up on the early Brewers team.  We couldn't think of the 3rd baseman.  We told the bartender we'd be right back and drove to his house and poured out a box of baseball cards.  We finally found one from 1981 - Larry Hisle.  We were so happy.  Years later I looked and found out that he only played a few games the year they were in the playoffs and played DH, but that night it answered our question.  We were thrilled.  Thirteen drinks later (and in less than three hours) we called it a night.

An ex-girlfriend took me to Boston for a weekend.  We stayed at a really nice hotel, we had tickets to the Red Sox, we hit some nice bars and places to eat and met up with a friend of mine while we were there.  The funniest was the trip up there.  She brought CDs for us to listen to and two stuck out because we listened to the entire CDs.  The one she brought for herself was Def Leppard's Hysteria.  For me, she brought Cher's Greatest Hits!


A friend of mine and I drove up to see a friend of ours (who we both had a past relationship with).  She had no idea we were coming, but we knew she hung out with her boyfriend where he worked.  So we somehow found out where it was and we stopped there.  He went in and asked for directions.  I watched and saw the look of horror as she sat there staring at him.  We drove away and went to where she lived.  She showed up about 10 minutes later.  Pretty funny at the time.  The fact we drove over an hour round trip for a practical joke seems silly now, but it was worth it.

While in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, we were partying it up and I decided I was going to go home early and save myself for the next day. I took one of the keys and headed back and crashed on one of the two queen beds in the room.  There were five of us, but one guy had volunteered to take the floor, so we were sharing the beds.  About an hour later, I woke up to take a piss and realized that someone else was in the bed.  I went to the bathroom and on the way out I realized that one of my friends had come back alone and got into the occupied bed.  I don't know why, but to this day it bothers me that he didn't automatically take the empty bed. 

I remember a lot of great little moments.  Sometimes it's these moments that keep me going when times are tough. Sometimes it's these moments that make times tough.  It can be hard thinking of better times, but the memories, despite what may have happened before or after, will always remain.  For all that happens in our lives, it's those little moments that mean so much.

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