About Me: The Hazy Years

After the military, I moved back to Texas. I stayed with my folks for a few months until I got my “civvy legs” back then moved to College Station. The next three years or so were spent in a bit of a haze. This is when I really started to explore myself. For those that know me as a solid, level headed chap that maintains a fairly conventional life, you may want to skip ahead a bit (I’m looking at you, Mom.)

All of my life, I have always maintained separate groups of friends. You might say I led multiple lives. I think this might be because I get bored easily. While in high school, during the day, I hung out with the nerds. My breaks would often be spent chatting with the science teacher or reading in the library. During the weekends, I would be found running the roads with the “bad kids” trying to buy beer and smoking. In the military, most of my friends broke down into two categories: redneck bikers and closet gays. Some weekends, I would ride my Harley with my redneck friends, the Texas Bunch, and get into fights. Other weekends, I would go down to “The Boom”, let gay men mistakenly buy me beer, discuss philosophy or art, and attend gallery showings.

During the hazy years, back in College Station, I continued to run with different packs. Interestingly, my packs were much more integrated during this time. College Station is a very conservative town so all of the “weirdos” seem to group together. Soon after arriving, I became involved with the SCA and Amtgard, medieval reenactment and live action role playing respectively. Through those groups, I met other people that like to do unconventional things. There is too much to cover about this period to do it in one post so here are the highlights:

• Drank a lot of beer and smoked a lot of weed
  
• Played a lot of role playing games
  
• Helped some friends start up an alternative coffeehouse
  
• Learned how to build leather armor and sew costumes
  
• Met my future wife and mother of my child who thought I was gay for the first year we knew each other. That is a long story I will tell someday.
  
• Made friends with people who I only knew as “Wolf”, “Wombat”, and “PBob”
  
• Lived in a two bedroom apartment with 7 other people and none of us were actually on the lease.
  
• A bunch of other stuff that is only vague memories now.
  

It was a glorious and illuminating time of my life. It is because of that time, and people I shared it with, I discovered that life is full of weird and wonderful things.