an ode to tradition

John and I, New Year's Eve, circa 2003? They all blur together...

My friend John and i have been tight since the end of high school when he would walk around in a mohawk and studded jacket, so cool. I was wearing ripped fishnet stockings, and had a mop of flaming red hair that would eventually transform into an emerald shade of green and begin to dread itself due to general mishandling and damage. He was actually a year ahead (which was for some reason a big divide back then) and hung out with the cool photo kids in the darkroom. All the cool juniors hung out there. My friends, a mix of mods and goths, hung out at the front flagpole, throwing black looks at the preppies and hiphop kids who passed by.

Senior year things sort of righted themselves, we all stopped having so much attitude (but kept our style) and John, having lost a year since doing an exchange program in Germany, came back and we all hung out. Cutting classes and piling into Jen's beat up used Volvo and hightailing it the Cafe Picaro in the Mission district became de rigeur. Listening to Sonic Youth and the Velvet Underground, we dreamed up when we all would go off to college and finally have a "real" life. We would see indie film screenings and punk rock shows at all ages clubs.

Since then, it's been a general tradition that John and I see each other over New Year's. The common email exchange the day of (or perhaps the day before) is: "Hey, I'm in town! Let's party!" He usually comes to town from wherever he's been since his family is still here and it's a Korean tradition to pay your respects to your elders on new year's day.

Life takes us away from seeing each other except for just about once a year, tonight. This year John's in Riverside and can't come up. I can't help but feel like our ten year tradition is not quite the same this year...sigh!

Here's to you, John! Dance and stay crazy for me over there :) Punks not dead, even when they're Comparative Lit University professors! We'll do next year...

Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE ELSE!!!!!!!! Let's toast!