Scared

My son just turned 9. He sometimes relates his apprehensions to going back to his bedroom after dark alone because he's afraid of what he can't see. That reminds me of when I was little. Alone in my bedroom at night, if I thought I saw a shadow in the dark or heard a strange sound, I would freeze. My logic: if I played dead, the boogieman would leave me alone.

Meeting My Wife

I remember the first time I met my wife. July 5, 2004. I had a new laptop and was installing the various applications and programs. After installing Yahoo! Messenger, I dropped into a chat room to check things out. Scanning through the chat room members, I noticed a name, missnicegirl21. I sent her a simple "hi" message and she replied. We made small talk only. She was 21 and from the Philippines. Said she was at an internet cafe and couldn't stay long and asked if we could email each other. I didn't give it much thought since I was more than twice her age but thought, "hey, it's a new friend from half way around the world". We exchanged email addresses and that was pretty much it. About 15 minutes of chat. Little did I know that the few emails we exchanged in the next 4 months would lead to almost daily chats and about a year and a half later, would be my first trip overseas to visit her.

Fresh Donuts

I remember waking up at 5:00 in the morning when I was 8 years old and riding my bike half way across town to get my bundle of newspapers to deliver on my paper route. I picked the newspapers up at the Super Value grocery store across the street from a bus stop. The bus stop was the only thing opened that early in the morning in this small town. Every morning while loading my bicycle baskets up with newspapers, I could smell the intensely strong aroma of fresh baked donuts in the air. I would save my profits every week just to stop in and buy a fresh donut every morning. I will never forget that smell of fresh donuts in the early morning air. To this day, whenever I smell fresh donuts, it takes me back to those days.

Bicycles in those days had one single speed and to put on the brakes, you pedaled backwards enough to engage the axle brake. There were no hand brakes or multi-speed bikes. And the tires were fat and treaded- not skinny tires or knobby tires like nowadays. And the cool guys would turn their handle bars around facing the front so they looked like the horns of a bull.

My earliest recollection

My earliest recollection in life when I was 3 years old. I remember being in the basement of our home on my 3rd birthday and grandpa (my mom's dad) trying to show me how to hold my fingers to show that I was 3 years old. That's all I remember of that.