The Last day

I remember my family always saying, " James, we could lock you in a closet for hours and you could entertain yourself couldnt you?"  I took this as a complete compliment as im sure it was intended.  I wielded my imagination with a knowing smirk, that at any moment i could simply disappear into some other dimension where  power rangers were close allies and where i was some combination of captain america with a pan lid, robin hood with a wire clothes hanger, or a ninja turtle using one of moms seemingly endless supply of colored bandanas.  i played with action figures and legoes and play mobiles building giant communities out of all of the pieces i had.  The most important game i played though was what friends and I came to call "Man".  Playing Man simply meant that you became some sort of hero, some loose cannon cop witha propensity for mischeif or an impossibly brave superhero with a sixth sense for injustice.  We would play for hours and hours, sometimes our charachters would morph, we would take turns being stronger than eachother, some times we would even team up against the invisible enemy, in fact most of the time we did that, that way we could both be heroes at the same time.  You had to do a lot less compromising with your buddy when you were on the same team ( no no no i hit you with my fist and its made of metal so you have to be hurt).  I played with action figures and the like and i played Man for longer than most, into 7th and 8th grade.  I didnt tell anyone, for obvious reasons, and so was forced underground.  At the age of 12 or 13 most boys have moved out of that stage and into another one and so i was left to play man on my own accord.  Playing on my own offered unique advantages, i could do anything and did not have to consult a soul, nobody could say my charachter was too powerfull and most importantly the dialogue could go on in my head, this is important for playing man while "underground" if anyone were to ask why im swinging a stick around i could just say i stepped in a bees nest or something and then run away, which would be an acceptable response to a bee attack and coincidentally exactly what i would want to do if cought playing Man.  It was early on in 8th grade when i walked out into my back yard, i had not played Man in some time because i had been hanging out with real people more.  I stumbled upon a stick that was one of a kind it looked like some sort of awesome.  I made a decision in my mind that day, that moment, that this would be the last time, this would be the last day that i would allow myself to play man.  Just then a flleet of zepplins came accross the sky while grappling hooks simultaneously were hurled over the roof of my house.  the trees were shaking with movement and i was surrounded.....by ninjas.  All i had to protect myself was this awesome stick, i gripped my weapon and made this smirk, that smirk i talked about but very quickly that smirk turned into the kind of smirk you see in cheesy action movies, that kind of smirk thats like, "oh you ninjas are in deep shit, you dont even know".  They came at me from every angle and i layed them all out. at one point i through my awesome stick at a ninja,after a particularly impressive combo move, so as to incapacitate him but was then quickly surrounded by the remaing ninjas. They could sense my weekness without the awesome stick and pounced.  i looked like a dried up worm covered by fire ants, and then all of a suddent i realized a power of mine i hadnt been using, you guessed it, super strength!  I burst into the air and so did the ninjas flying off of me like water droplets off a dog shaking.  The last 30 seconds of the battle happened in slow motion as the ninjas perrished blow by devestating blow.  I broke one ninja over my knee so that there was only one remaining.  I looked him in the eye and said, "im gonna let you live, go tell your cronies im done"  that ninjas scampered away soiled but greatful.  i looked around the yard at the fallen army and slowly walked back into the house being careful not to step on a ninja star (thats the worst!) walked the stairs into a new chapter of my life. I walked into accompsha.

the plane to boston

I was on a plane ride to Boston two years ago when I stumbled upon just a really fun but sad string of thoughts.  When i sat down in my designated seat I was pleasently suprised to see that a one year old was sitting in front of me in his own seat no less.  I dont travel on planes near enough to be pissed off about a baby in close proximity, most especially sense, more than likely, me and my brother would irratate scores more people than a crying baby with a poopy diaper could ever dream of.  So i am sitting down, i put my ipod in and no sooner do i start listening to sigur ros does a small blonde head begin to creep ever so slowley over the head of the chair in front of me.  I only saw a flash of his eyes, blue like mine, before he shot back into his seat.  I smiled to myself knowing that i was in for a stirring game of peekaboo.  Moments later, i was looking out the window at the tar-mac waiting for take off, and a blurry blonde object snuck into my peripheral vision, my periph, only this time he peered around the side of his chair, almost falling out of his seat.  I tried to slowly sit back so as not to startle him and maybe shoot him a funny face but as soon as a moved he shot back into his seat again like a tube worm.  This game went on for some time, like 30 minutes, before he was comfortable enough to just stare at me.  I sat in my chair not sure what to do or how to react but this little blonde hair blue eyed one year old child stared me down, his chest proped on his arm rest and his head sideways from around his seat he stared at me smiling with his mouth and his eyes, literally a string of drool connected his face to the floor and he stared at me, sometimes laughing in short bursts but just stared at me.  all i could think of was why cant i do this to other people.  this kids mom was asleep with her ipod in, which is what you are supposed to do on a plane instead of interact with those around you while you soar impposibly through the sky traveling at over 300 miles per hour at thousands of feet elevation!  so me and this kid are in a dead locked gaze and i am wondering what would happen if we allowed eachother, as adults, to just give in to those very innocent urges to just stare at someone because they are interesting to you or just smile stupidly at someone.  I mean what if i turned around and did that to the people behind me what would they do, or worse what if i propped my head on that kids armrest in front of me and just smiled at him, imagine his mothers horror when she woke to see my face just inches from her child and me smiling and drooling like an idiot.  i realize we dont live in a perfect world and i understand to some extent why i cant interact with people the way this kid did and will do until he becomes self conscious and begins to worry about how people view him, but i wish we did live in that world.

accompsha to you all