happy new year

all of a sudden i feel like doogie howser

last night was a memorable new year's eve for me because it was quite possibly the tamest, most uneventful one in recent memory, but i'm going to write about it anyway.

i walked about a mile from my apartment to downtown colorado springs, co around 11pm last night with my camera to see if anything interesting was happening. most of my trip took me through dark streets, with houses completely black. past empty store fronts. past old eerily lit churches. i was spooked.

the odd thing is that there are so many cars parked out on the streets. most houses in this neighborhood don't have garages. so, it's easy to tell which houses should be occupied, but hardly any of them had lights on.

in recent weeks, zombies have been a recurring theme for me. i was reading "how to survive a zombie attack" in barnes and noble a few weeks ago. although it wouldn't be my first choice, apparently prisons and oil rigs make good shelters.

last week, i was playing a game with luis called "left 4 dead" where you're trying to get rescued. just today i was describing my night to roy and his comment was that it sounds like silent hill. lately, i've been reading hamlet. i guess hamlet's father is a ghost and not a zombie, but close enough... so, i spent most of my walk imagining how i would karate chop any zombies who thought they would spoil my new year. when i'd had enough of that, i started singing "leaving on a jet plane" out loud because there was nobody around to hear me.

well, after i walked for about twenty minutes, i finally made it to the edge of downtown and started to see street lights and some bars open. i walked another block and i saw people waiting in line outside clubs to get in. i saw people playing music on the sidewalk. it's the liveliest i've seen downtown here.

i walked down tejon st. until i started to see fewer bars and turned around to pick a place where i'd spend the last few minutes of 2008. a lot of the clubs were too full to get into. i walked back to the edge of downtown where i started and went into a bar called tony's. the place was so quiet. no wonder it was so easy to get in. i got a seat at the very edge of the bar, next to the game machine. i ordered a beer that was served to me in a tiny glass. i looked around to see that nobody had a pint glass. what kind of bar was this?

i had enough time for two drinks before the rebroadcasted ball drop from new york let us know it was the official beginning of 2009. i left after my second drink and took a different route home. it was still dark, but i didn't have to walk past so many empty store fronts and churches.

the streets were still desolate and i had already sang, so i had the idea to beatbox while i was walking home. i was so entertained that when i got home, i decided to record my beatboxing on my laptop. i spent the next hour messing with the recording and programming some beats.

...and that's how i spent the last moments of 2008 and the first moments of 2009.

this is the first post of my new project to blog throughout 2009. in a few short weeks, i'm going to be unemployed for the first time since i left high school. i hope i'll have plenty of things to write about this year.