Who Do I Think I Am??

This one's about the first time I wrote.

THE PROMPT: "Invalid Entry" 

Good evening everyone! Well, I'm not gonna be that guy to ruin the "shaking off of the somber tone" Brother Nature was referring to in his entry, suggesting you tell everyone about the first thing you've written, which, ironically, was titled Death and spoke of it through death's perspective. I think I was in 7th grade at the time, it was an assignment for English class, and it was the first time a teacher had ever praised me in that way. I may even have saved it, but I'm not looking for it at this ungodly hour.

That's not to say I didn't write when I was younger....even as far back as elementary school I was still authoring. I'd take a little notepad, draw tiny little pictures of trucks or dogs, and write a few words about them. Then I'd assemble them to look like a little book. Damn, looks like I was into publishing too!

But that's not the only thing I did. Around the same age, my dad gave us a ton of old football cards. I wanna say they were Topps cards from 1978. And what little kid knows better and treats these things with respect? Who were we to know someday they might have value? Certainly not us...they were mere toys to us! I'd pick random cards and make teams out of different players, and then line them up in position on the floor and pretend they were really playing a game. I'd move them around and immitate legendary play-by-play man John Madden, calling the action. Killed a lot of time this way.

But what always fascinated me more were the stats on the back, and these cards would have a fun little story on the back about the player...be it a crazy statline from a game, or a record, or something interesting personally referring to the player. I always read those with interest, as well as going to the library to read books about the NFL teams, their histories, and their greatest players.

This all inspired me. I'd sit at the dining room table with my crayons, I'd grab a looseleaf piece of paper, and I'd make my own giant-sized football cards of myself. Of course, I was almost always the QB for the Buffalo Bills, and I almost always wore #12...after my hero, Joe Ferguson (because QB was the most impotant position on the team, and this was before Hall Of Famer Jim Kelly signed with Buffalo in the mid-eighties). I'd draw an awesome picture of me in action, and on the back I'd list my stats for all the years I "played". I'd start my career off slow, maybe get traded or released and picked up elsewhere, but in the end, I'd wind up having All-Pro seasons as the Bills' QB. I did that a lot when I was younger. I loved adding up the stats and being the hero. Cuz that's what kids dream about.

To this day, I don't know what happened to my children's books or my oversized football cards. Sometimes I even made hockey cards where I was a Buffalo Sabre, or a baseball card where I was a New York Met. I'm sure they're somewhere, but not in my position. But I'm pretty positive that I still have that story I wrote in 7th grade about death. It's probably on the bookshelf right behind me. But I'm not interested in that, or all the essays I saved that I aced that were on books I'd never read. Well, I never read them 'til a lot later in life, that much I know.

MUSICAL BREAK!!

"Call it education, all those books I didn't read. They just sit there on the shelf lookin' much smarter than me."

Perfect song for a break, I'll say.

"All this dog and pony, we were still monkeys the whole time. We could not help from flingin' shit in our modern suits and ties." Stubborn beauty, well, very well then!

VITAL STATS:

Best night ever at work, and I did it short a person. I guess we've been short here and there most of the last few days. But we got the store looking nice, as well as being ready for truck, I got my work done and managed to complete a few things off our task list (which was full of things nobody's done since I last worked, which was Saturday), and I set my own personal record for the fastest close (while managing to have all the money balanced), getting us out by 10:08pm. Now watch...let's see what I fucked up when I go in on the bright at 8am tomorrow.

And with that, I'mma bid this place adieu for the time being, maybe see what the rest of you have said out there, and try and get some sleep. Peace, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!