Party like it’s 1999.

On December 31, 1999, with 30 minutes left in the millennium, I found myself frantically crazy-gluing my glasses.  They had broken moments earlier when I had been hit by a newspaper ball held together with masking tape.  My $700 Sarah Palin frameless/rimless glasses had been purchased a year earlier for $35 at a Taiwan night market.  The glue-job worked as advertised, and within minutes I rejoined the dodgeball game in my backyard/courtyard.  Down to their last player, my team had suffered badly in my absence.  My return, however, turned the raging tide.  With unstoppable force I triumphantly picked off six opposing players to win the game, ending perhaps the greatest night of my life.  Indeed I have lived a full life.

One year later, I stood by my window, surveying the historic battlefield.  I could not help but notice that there were two teenage girls in my backyard/courtyard smoking a fat J.  One of the two girls, Sarah, I recognized as a student in my Math class.  The next day in class, Sarah announced in a whisper, “Mr. Neill, I peeeeeeeed on your lawn”.  So there’s that.