My parents sent me this box of old stuff of mine that’s been sitting in their basement for God only knows how long. It’s my life and interests for the first eighteen years of my existence in microcosm. Some of it is truly amusing considering where my life’s gone. A copy of “MIrror Friend, Mirror Foe” by George Takei, whose wedding I attended. An issue of an old SF magazine called “If” with a cover by a pre-Elfquest Wendy (credited as “Wendi”) Pini, who drew the tattoo on my left arm. And–get this–an original 1969 New York Mets Yearbook.
PAD
• 
FIRST!
Now that THAT Net cliche is out of the way, was there anything in there you thought you lost forever?
It’s always cool when we get a look into our own pasts. At the pace that life moves past us, it’s easy to forget some of our own details.
Life is often like a box of chocolates…which… would have actually been pretty gross to find.
Mah momma always told me life was like a box of chocolates – expensive, fattening, and bad for your teeth.
I’ve always been partial to two variations:
.
“Life is like a date with Madonna…you never know what you’re gonna get.”
.
and, from the X-Files episode “Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man”–
.
“Life is like a box of chocolates. A cheap, thoughtless, perfunctory gift that nobody ever asks for. Unreturnable because all you get back is another box of chocolates. So you’re stuck with this undefinable whipped mint crap that you mindlessly wolf down when there’s nothing else left to eat. Sure, once in a while there’s a peanut butter cup or an English toffee. But they’re gone too fast and the taste is… fleeting. So, you end up with nothing but broken bits filled with hardened jelly and teeth-shattering nuts. And if you’re desperate enough to eat those, all you’ve got left is an empty box filled with useless brown paper wrappers.”
.
–Daryl
I once played a Malkavian in a Vampire: The Masquerade LARP who thought he was Forrest Gump. His take on it was:
.
“Unlife is like a box of chocolates. You leave it in the sun, it’s gonna melt.”
Ah, yes! “Mirror Friend, Mirror Foe” by George Takei! Wasn’t that the book he wrote with Robert Asprin? I think I still have that one. Wow! I remember Takei showing up at our local public library to promote the book in the late ’70s. Maybe ’79 or ’80. At any rate, he signed my copy of the book, which I cherished as nerdy high school student.
.
I got quite a kick out of the story because it felt like it was the solo Sulu adventure I’d always wished for. Sigh.
.
Thanks for the cool reminder. Now I’m going to go back and read that sucker!
My mom keeps freaking everything, so mine would be “My life in a whole bunch of boxes.”
I have that issue of IF! I was Elfquest crazy back in the 80’s and bought anything Wendy did. Just saw it the other day while going through some stuff.