Friday, May 13, 2005

Reunion Weekend

How do you know you're getting older? By realizing it's time for your 10 year college reunion. Oh boy! Seems like my parents are going to reunions all the time, but they're supposed to... they're old! Me, I'm not old. So aside from the standard H.S. reunion, that word shouldn't be in my vocabulary yet. I guess it's really no big deal, since the only folks I know that are attending any reunion functions live locally. What fun is that? I want to see the folks I haven't seen in 10 years, not the ones I can see every time I hit any social scene.


The Job


I would love to talk about my company, but I won't. I don't want to get fired. There have been some workers fired this week. Some, just for receiving an e-mail. How do you get fired for what someone else sends you? Some got verbal reprimands. I'll just keep my mouth shut.


Reminiscing


For whatever reason, I was thinking back to a cruise I went on back in 1997. They had a DJ that's familiar with music from all over the world... except the latest US hits. Whatever since that makes, since the ship left out of L.A. We did circles in the ocean so it took 2 days to travel 150 miles to Ensenada, Mexico. Being the adventurous one that I was, I decided to enter the dance contest.
I entered because the international DJ started playing music I heard of before, Like Salt & Pepa's Push It, and other old school favorites. I was the fouth person, and the first black to compete. Why did this MF start playing some techno music when I got on the dance floor? Mind you, at this time, the only time I ever heard techno music is when the Chicago folks got their chance to dominate the dance floor while everyone took a break to enjoy some drinks. And the rare occasion I went to a club in Buckhead (This was back when black folks were not allowed to have any clubs up there). So my point is, I have NEVER danced to techno.
So here I am. 50 folks in ship's dance club staring at me. Camera's turn on that's being broadcast into every room on the ship. Boom-Boom-Boom-Boom-Boom Is that my heartbeat? No, it's this damn music that I don't know how to dance too. Well, I can't disappoint my race by letting the other contestants out dance me, so I thought back to how those crazy Chicago folks danced at the club, and did my best to imitate them. Needless to say, I didn't win the contest. I didn't know that they were going to rebroadcast my moment of embarassment every 3 hours for the rest of the trip. My friends got quite a laugh seeing me make an ass of myself. My boy told me, "Jez, you looked like you were doing aroebics!" I still don't like Techno.
Another memory of that trip, someone put a date-rape drug in a girl's drink. She was travelling with my group, but did her own thing when she met a guy she was attracted to. It was no secret what happened, or who did it. But since we were in international waters, the U.S. laws didn't apply. The ship's police could not enter the suspect's room without their permission. He was selling drugs while on the ship, so he kept the police (and us folks that wanted to break his neck) out of his room for 2 hours, while he flushed all of his drugs away. So there was no evidence of any crime. The ship had to do a U-turn to drop the girl off at a Mexican hospital, then left her there while the ship returned to L.A. One of her friends stayed with her. Crazy.

Like I said, I was just reminiscing. Back to reality...

5 Comments:

At 6:39 PM, Blogger desertrose said...

YES! I saw Primetime last night! I was partly doing something else, but i was in awe watching it, and of course i thought of you the whole time, only becuase i know where you are employed, crazy stuff!

 
At 9:41 PM, Blogger Don Tate II said...

Now, I didn't see Primetime. I'm in a newsroom myself durning that hour, but now you got a brotha dying to know where you work! Clue #2?

I entered a dance contest once and made a fool of myself only because I can't dance. But you couldn't tell my girlfriend at the time who thought Devas could do no wrong. Well, I did and she didn't bother asking me to dance no more.

 
At 4:38 PM, Blogger Jez Chill said...

Don Tate: You don't need any more clues!

Coley: I plead the 5th.

Proactiff: House music. The ski life is sweet! Looks like I will add Switzerland to my ski trip for '06.

 
At 8:51 AM, Blogger AMES said...

Horrific and people think I'm odd for not drinking a drink I took my eyes off of for any length of time.

My 10 year college reunion is almost upon me but I still keep in touch with my colllege friends. Most were from surrounding areas and most are still nearby. I won't be attending, if there is an event.

 
At 11:50 PM, Blogger Rainmayun said...

I don't work for that company, so I can say whatever I want. Any fool who gets fired for even sending an email has a strong case they can make in civil court for wrongful termination, as its technologically trivial to forge email senders, so nobody could prove with any certainty that a particular person sent an email. And this fool got fired for RECEIVING an email? If that fool was I, I'd have my retirement money in hand very very soon.

 

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