The First Post and Karma

Well, after a lot of pressure from people I respect, I'm writing a personal blog. I finally decided it might be a good idea after I did one of those "25 Random Facts About Me" things on facebook. I really enjoyed that process. Now, since I rarely feel I have anything worth saying, I downloaded a list of topics to start myself off. Hopefully, I'll think of more interesting things down the line but this will work for now. Also, at this point, the blog is mostly for me to just have an outlet. If nobody reads it, that's fine.

Karma. I'm not sure I seriously believe in it or not, but I often like to think about the times I did something to bring bad karma on myself. Here are a few of the greatest hits:

1. Back during my senior year of high school, I was in a pre-calculus class with a few of my friends. In the spring time, we took a band trip to Seattle for about a week and were all responsible for having our homework completed upon our return. I'm usually pretty good at teaching myself things from a book when needed, so I didn't stress too much about the test we would have to take the day after the Seattle trip came to a close. My good friend, however, was in a completely different state of mind.

He was rather stressed out about the whole thing, so I told him that the issue he was having was actually quite easy and that I would meet him right before class to explain it all. The problem is that I ended up getting to class late because I was down at the school deli buying a bottle of Fruitopia (remember that stuff? It was awesome...better in glass than plastic but superior to all other juices in either form). When I finally got to class, my friend was, understandably, quite upset with me. The best part of the whole thing was when he whispered to get my attention during the test. When I finally turned around to tell him to shut up, he held up a page of his test on which he had drawn a huge question mark. I nearly pissed myself laughing at him. We now refer to this incident as "The Fruitopia Quiz".

2. In my freshman year of high school, a group of my friends made it a habit to prank call this other dude multiple times a day. They would sometimes call the house directly, but they preferred to do things through a third party. A few times they would call numbers on the ad channel and leave messages. It was a pretty brilliant plan because this other dude would get calls from people about limos, boats for sale, etc. and they couldn't trace the prank back to my friends. I guess the guys got a little desperate for instant gratification so they started calling the house via 1-800-COLLECT thinking that the third party would stop a trace. Apparently, they were right...

One afternoon, I, with another friend, made a 1-800-COLLECT call because we wanted to be in on the action. On that fateful day, our call was met with this response, "Good, now that we have you on our phone bill, we can prosecute you." Oh oh!

About a month later, I got a call from the people we had been pranking. I threw loyalty out the window, ratted out all the other guys and got off scott free because I had only done the one call. Friggin' sell-out.

3. Finally, in college I got a little involved with this girl that I knew from band. I was still living in the dorms at the time and our little "romance" didn't develop until finals week of spring semester while at a cabin in Wisconsin with a group of people. We hung out nearly every night during finals week and then I had to head north for the summer since they boot your ass out of the dorms as soon as your last test hits the turn-in pile. The girl and I decided to stay in contact and then pick things up in the fall.

I went home and worked my shitty summer job while acting in a few shows on the side (much cooler than testing concrete strength). During the shows, I met someone else and didn't say anything to the college girl because I thought news such as that would be better delivered in person. The problem is that when you're in your late teens and early twenties, other people just assume that your business is their business. This other meddling bastard outed me before I even had a CHANCE to do it myself. Let's just say that her reaction was anything but peaceful.

I could tell of more, but I think you get the picture. On a positive note, I learned from these experiences...the problem is that they may have been the wrong lessons.

If you come across this, I encourage you to comment with one of your own bad karma stories. They can be pretty fun to read!