  Sunday, July 25th 2004 What A Way To Go...Of Course. 1:41 PM So let me tell you how I finished out my last Saturday night as an official New Brunswick resident. It was about midnight and I was sitting alone in my room talking to Matt on the computer about the 9/11 Commission Report. He asked if I was reading the whole book, I said yes because "I have no life and it's 567 pages of time filler. " I think he knew I wasn't joking. I hadn't eaten since noon and I was starting to get hungry so I decide I'm going to run out and get a sandwich from Wawa.
I forgot to bring a fresh change of clothes so to go out I had to actually get "dressed up". Which essentially for me is a button down shirt and slacks...all black of course because I like to look like I'm about to knock over a convenience store. I get in the Cadillac, which isn't really mine of course, and head out for a sandwich. So of course I cruise around New Brunswick for awhile hoping to run into someone I know, and of course that doesn't happen but as I head out Somerset towards Wawa I pass a cop in a speed trap. I'm not speeding though so I'm not worried. &nbsp;I head into Wawa, get my chicken sandwich and some chocolate milk and head out to go back to one of my final miserable nights in a place I love.
As I pass the cop car going in the opposite direction, his lights go on, of course. Shit. Now look, I wasn't doing anything wrong. I wasn't in a good mood. This was about to turn into a very bad night for both me and this bonehead who was pulling me over. &nbsp;5-0 gets out of the car and saunters up to the window of the Caddy and this is the exchange, nearly verbatim, which takes place.
Officer: License and registration? Palomba: No problem officer. (At this point I remember this isn't my car and I don't know where the registration is. I dutifully hand over my license which he glances at then shines a light in my face. ) Bacon: So where are you headed tonight Chris? (As if he friggin' knows me) Palomba: Nowhere in particular sir.
Pig: Second time I've seen you drive by in the last five minutes. &nbsp;(Is that a crime? ) Palomba: Yes sir. Dipshit: So where are you coming from? Palomba: Wawa. Dumbass: Where?
Palomba: Wawa. Prick: What? Palomba: (slowly as if talking to a moron) W-A-W-A (So now the guy thinks I'm making fun of him, which, well let's face it...I am. But he started it. ) Dullard: Do you have a problem? (You have no idea...) Palomba: No officer, but I don't understand why you pulled me over.
Officer Hard-on: I'm just doing my job... Palomba: And I'm just out getting a sandwich. Captain Obvious: At one in the morning? Palomba: Look at me pal, do I look like this if the first sandwich I've had at one in the morning? Duh: Excuse me? Palomba: Look, I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm bored and I'm having a real shitty night. All I want to do is go back to my fucking apartment, eat my fucking chicken sandwich and drink my fucking chocolate milk in peace.
Is that too much to ask? I wasn't doing anything wrong, so why the hell are you bothering me? (So now I figure I'm absolutely done for. I've pushed my luck with cops before and gotten away with it, but this time I may have gone a little too far. I wasn't yelling, but I sure as hell wasn't whispering. I figure I've got about five seconds before he asks me to step out of the car and about a minute before I'm sitting in the backseat of the cop car.
) Officer: Alright. With that the guy looks at my license one more time, shines the light in my eyes, and tosses my license in through the open window. He gets in the car, shuts his lights off, and pulls away. I sit there laughing my ass off for the next five minutes or so. I go home to my cold empty boring apartment, eat my chicken sandwich, drink my chocolate milk and lay in bed staring at the ceiling for the next four hours trying to get to sleep. Of course...
Entry posted by urlLink King Zero note [ urlLink Add ] www urlLink E-Mail this entry Saturday, July 24th 2004 A Long Time Ago, In A Far Away Place 11:34 PM I helped Crago move out of the Woods today, tomorrow it's my turn. It will be the official end of my time here in New Brunswick, although I hope to find a reason to spend as much time here as I can from now on. I doubt that will happen. It all got me thinking though, about the people I've gotten to know in the past five years, and ultimately the people I've gotten to know throughout my life. In grade school I had three good friends: Corey, Guy, and Nick. I knew Nick first, and he's the only one I've seen in the past ten years.
He's always been a good friend, but since I still see him...I'm not going to talk about him right now. Corey and Guy were different. Corey was at least six inches taller than me, and I was always taller than everyone else. He was a soft spoken almost shy sort of guy who never had a bad thing to say about anyone. Everybody liked him, but he just didn't seem to belong in a place like North Haledon. He moved to Pennsylvania the summer after fourth grade, I'm sure he was very happy there.
I never saw him again. Guy and I were best friends. We did just about everything together, his brothers were friends with my brother, his mother was friends with my mother. We spent pretty much every afternoon at either my house or his house. He was always cooler than me, I was always the fat dorky friend. It didn't make a difference to Guy though, we just got along.
Halfway through sixth grade his family upped and moved to California. He came back once or twice and we hung out for a little while. Then I heard that he'd come back for a weekend and not called me. He'd hung out with some other folks, but hadn't even called me. I didn't hold it against him, but I also never heard from him again. The guys I hung out with in high school are all still around in one way or another.
We rarely see each other, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me, but it's something I accept. Sometimes we get two or three of us together to hang out. We see each other at weddings, or run into each other in a bar somewhere, but it's not the same. I understand though, we had a good run. You can tell a lot about your relationship with someone by the way you say goodbye. When I left Marist I shook my roommate's hand, said good luck and was gone.
He was a great guy, but neither one of us pretended like we'd gotten along particularly well, or like we'd ever planned on seeing each other again. About two months before graduation I ran into a guy I'd been in a bunch of classes with. When we parted ways he said "good luck", I asked "with what? " and he replied, "with the rest of your life. " We both knew that barring an extraordinary coincidence we'd never see each other again. I didn't even go to say goodbye to the SCRU folks, I just wasn't up for it.
It's not that I will particularly miss all of them, it's just I wasn't looking forward to saying goodbye to any of them. It was different with WRSU. I owe those guys so much. It even looked for awhile like I was actually friends with all of them (hell, maybe I was). Saying goodbye there was not easy. But we all also said goodbye with the idea that we would see each other again...or they all did.
I knew how it was going to go. It couldn't be any other way. Maybe some day I'll tell that story. So when I pack up and move out of the Birchwoods...it's the end of another one. This becomes another one of those places I passed through on the way to somewhere I may never get to. Entry posted by urlLink King Zero note [ urlLink Add ] www urlLink E-Mail this entry 
