My mom and I have always been really close. She's always been the friend that was always there. There were times when in middle school and junior high I didn't have a lot of friends. But my mom was always my friend. Always.
Just about this time when in imagination I was so great a warrior I had good use in real life for more strength as I was no longer taken to school by the nurse but instead had myself to protect my brother two years my junior.
In school I was pretty quiet. Kinda shy until my junior year. But at home I was a freak.
Most of the time I liked school and got good grades. In junior high though I hit a stumbling block with math - I used to come home and cry because of how frustrated I was! But after a few good teachers and a lot of perseverance I ended up loving math and even choosing it as a major when I got to college.
In high school a teacher once suggested that I be a math major in college. I thought 'Me? You've got to be joking!' I mean in junior high I used to come home and cry because I was so afraid of my math homework. Seriously I was terrified of math.
What was really funny is that as I got older all those guys who called me a sissy in junior high school wanted me to be their best friend because they wanted to meet all the girls that I knew in figure skating.
What's funny is that the idea of popularity - even the use of the word 'popular' - is something that had been mostly absent from my life since junior high. In fact the hallmark of life after junior high seemed to be the shedding of popularity as a central concern.
What I remember most about junior homecoming was my date getting sick afterwards. That kinda sucked. Then senior year someone got gum in her hair when we were dancing. She had to get one of the chaperones to take her to the office and cut up her hair. I felt really bad for her but it worked out fine.
On my best days such as when I was a junior in high school coming off a 42-point performance and near triple-double my dad was there to tell me I haven't arrived yet and bring me back to reality.
My mom and dad met at UCLA when he as a captain in the Air Force and she was in her junior year.
You can think of Hollywood as high school. TV actors are freshmen comedy actors are maybe juniors and dramatic actors - they're the cool seniors.
I never really loved school through junior high but then I started running track my freshman year and I was just like 'Wow this is cool!'
I don't think I really know just how cool Satan really was when I was in Junior High School. Now thanks to Marilyn Manson it's no longer a secret.
It wasn't a secret that I was gay. I'd come out to my parents during my junior year of high school on the day that I also wrecked the family car.
The anger that Uncle Junior has comes from my background. My father was the son of an Italian immigrant and I've seen the fire of the Italian temperament. It can be explosive sometimes in ways that are both funny and tragic.