Southern Times, Girls and Sports

Let’s see how many of you get boners off the first ten seconds:

Although in a sense I have a sucky job as student assistant basketball coach and a crybaby who works under me, any time that is spent around people that don’t ask me questions about the basketball team or better than yet, get on my nerves, is time well spent.

Case in point was Thursday evening when SGA, the organization I’m with at school, decided to hold a progressive dinner over in the area that I once stayed in until Memorial Day.

And true to the theme of the evening, the time I spent with my friends playing Guesstures, throwing around a football, and not worrying about the basketball team (wait, that’s never happened) was something that was enjoyable for me.

It was great to see the smiles on the residents’ faces, just eating good food (thank you, Ms. President) and sharing in the oil of good conversation and fellowship.

Thankfully, I’ll have some more times like these as the year progresses.

When we last left you in North Highland Park, the big news was that after a litany of Coke-drinking lectures, chicken tenders, Cardinal analogies, and God knows what else, I finally got that hot softball chick’s number.

Of course, in the three months after that, I’ve personally had to return home to help my family move out of the Springdale neighborhood I stayed in before moving to Midtown Memphis, had a much-talked about movie with my last name in it, and oh yeah, move from the peace and serenity of 2794 Madison to the chaos that will be in 2008-09 2776-2778 Madison.

With that being said, I’m happy that all of my pals are back, the real ones that is.

Let’s see if we can have a year like we had in 2007-08.

A long time ago, when I was filling out a survey on Facebook, I was asked about my favorite memory from my 23 years on this earth, which would be the summers of 1995, 1997, 2002, and 2006.

But if memory serves me correct, the summers from those four years I mentioned are memorable because well, there was a lot of adventures and unique people I met.

With this being less than a month before time runs out on what has been for the most part another great and quick summer vacation for me, I figured that I could take some time to think back at some of my favorite moments from summers gone by.

“The Cheesecake Chronicles”” (Last summer after being let go by the University of Memphis before the Fourth of July, I ended up working for a month with the Tennessee Cheesecake Company of Nashville, Tennessee as a demo guy in a Costco located on Winchester and Hacks Cross Road near the world headquarters of Federal Express. Best thing about it was the fact that there was a cute girl who worked at the Walgreens across the parking lot from the Costco.)

“Hey, Pumpkin!!!” (In the summers of 2004 and 2006 as well as the summer of 2007, when I worked at the University of Memphis, my friend Erica made it a habit of calling me “Pumpkin”, a nickname that I to this day have disdain for because I hardly wear orange. But as I think about it, a really hot girl calling you a nickname you hate with a passion is better than a 300-pound fullback saying it.)

“The Shot Heard ‘Round Whitehaven” (In 2002, while living in the Whitehaven section of Memphis, I hit a mighty blast of a home run that cleared everything and landed on the second floor of an apartment unit in left-center. The following day a Coke bottle was placed at where the ball landed and disappeared when the old court was demolished in 2004. The following year, I hit one even further, this time over one of the tall trees in left and onto a walkway.)

“Food Not Bombs” (During the two years I worked at Porter Leath, I volunteered on Saturday afternoons at Food Not Bombs during the summer. Apparently, towards the end of my stay at Porter-Leath, my boss had a problem with me doing that after seeing my picture in a story for the Memphis Flyer on them.)

“One Magicial, Cute, and Chocolately Summer” (In 132 years of baseball in Memphis, there was never any backstory anywhere in the category as the one I had with a very chocolate and cute girl during the summer of 2006. Of course, nothing major never happened between us, but it sure was something that no one down at the corner of South Third and Union will never forget, even if I used that experience to write a measley book.)

It seems just like yesterday when I first walked into the halls of Crichton College as a transfer student paying a visit days after Crichton won its first TransSouth championship in basketball.

And it seems just like yesterday when I sat in the Costco at the corner of Hacks Cross and Winchester talking to people about the wonderful dessert called cheesecake, only to be let go two weeks after starting classes in North Highland Park.

Thursday night marked the end of what had been an incredible first year for me as a student in North Highland Park as I took my last final, made one more wisecrack, and finally got my crush’s number.

There’s been times where I felt that the thought of being at a small school was scary, mainly because I had came from a school where there was 14,000 students and I could disappear into the shuffle easily without being noticed, a fear that almost led me to leave North Highland Park for the U of M a month ago.

But after talking to a few people and winning an election, I decided to stay the course and enjoy the benefits of hot chicks at a Christian school, beer, and God knows what.

Today as the final tests are taken, the final goodbyes are said, I would like to thank all of my friends and my haters (that means you, AT and Leavell) for making my first year in North Highland Park enjoyable.

There’s more to come from the area called North Highland Park.

Just stay tuned.