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• SomeGuy

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Birthday
• 1983-08-05
Gender
• Male
Location
• Vancouver, BC
Member Since
• 2003-08-02
Occupation
• Writer; Part-Time Hero
Real Name
• James

Personal

Achievements
• Visiting eight different myO friends in person thus far
Anime Fan Since
• Winter 2001
Favorite Anime
• Neon Genesis Evangelion, .hack//SIGN, Naruto, Bleach, Beck, Peacemaker Kurogane, Ranma 1/2 (the guilty pleasure)
Goals
• Visit the myO friends I've missed thus far; complete a cosplay from 300
Hobbies
• Writing, Gaming, Kung Fu, Movies, Acting somewhat strange in general
Talents
• Can recognise most quotes from almost any movie/show on first listen; Can recite the entire 12 days of Christmas by memory




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Thursday, January 1, 2004

   4th Street and 8th Avenue . . . . .
It was about 11:30pm last night. I was STILL in my house, STILL in front of the computer, NOT doing anything for New Year's.

Crap.

So, I don't know what compelled me to do this, but I set my MSN to away, changed my name to "SomeGuy: Out For a Walk - Not Exactly Sure Where", put on my jacket and boots, and went for a walk around my town. Again, I have no idea what compelled me to do this.

I had just cut through a slushie and extremely empty Safeway parking lot at about 15 minutes to 2004 when I figured that walking through slush and half-shovelled walks. So, I jumped over one last thing of snow and started walking up the road . . . literally, on the road.

Now, 8th ave for me is a relatively major road, spanning the entire city and connecting train stations, schools, and the uptown area . . . and it was almost completely deserted. Now and then a car or taxi would drive by (a lot of taxis, actually) and I'd shift to the other side of the yellow line . . . but yeah, walking on a major road, surrounded by quiet, quiet street . . . . . kinda neat, I must say . . .

I could hear the odd firework off in the distance at about 5-10 minutes to 2004. That was about it, though. No voices. Pretty much the only sound I could hear was the dripping of melting snow from the tree branches dropping onto the street and sidewalks. I looked into some windows as I walked; most were dark, indicating that no one was home . . . others had their front doors open with people just laughing on their porches . . . . . it was about here where I started to wonder where I would be when midnight hit . . . . . .

During a long stretch of road, I walked past someone who had just made a hasty (and rather terrible) parking job on the side of the street. Effectively, it wasn't even straight, the front corner of her car was sticking out into the road . . . but she didn't care! She got out, ran across the street, and into a waiting house . . . just goes to show ya, I guess . . . I looked at my watch; it was 11:59. I looked at my cel phone; it was 11:59 . . .

Just as I reached 4th street about 5-6 blocks or so away from where I live, I heard some pots being banged, a harmonica, some faint cheering, and a plethora of fireworks off in the background. Looking around, I could see some of them, though the sky was still pretty cloudy. It was then where I could hear the big foghorns from the waterfront blasting. Now, I'm still quite a ways away from the river where I am, and I could hear this!

So yes, it was at 4th St. and 8th Ave. when I witnessed the new year.


Ya know, I realise this was probably a pretty sad way to spend New Year's. Being alone, walking down a quiet street, just humming or whistling to myself (which just reminded me that I have to memorize more song lyrics) . . . but hey, I'm sure it's still less pathetic than sitting alone in a basement in front of a computer, right? And yes, my parents were home and I could have spent New Year's sitting on the carpet of the living room staring at the television . . . but ya know, my parents were just sitting together on the couch (my mother was actually asleep when I left), and well . . . I figured it'd be best to leave them to themselves.

I suppose it could be worse. I mean, during my walk I passed buses and taxis driving by; I went past a gas station where the guy had a single monitor on which was for security reasons; about 2-3 minutes after midnight, I saw another gas station attendant at a busy corner station shovelling snow around the pumps . . . in fact, he was the first person I vocally said "Happy New Year" to! So yeah, ya know, some people probably had it worse than I did - I mean, I'm sure we all got the same amount of thinking done, but ya know . . .

And believe me, I got a LOT of thinking done . . . which scares me (myself being left to myself leads to scary thoughts, ya know). Eheh . . . . . but yeah, while I was uptown, I went to a bank machine, got some cash . . . and headed back home. It was about a quarter after 12, and suddenly my quiet main road wasn't quite so quiet anymore . . . that was all it took for life to return to normal . . . . .

So yeah, walking alone outside on New Year's Eve? Not so bad. I mean, if I can help it I'll NEVER do it again for as LONG as I live . . . but ya know . . . . .
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