This is awkward. We’re right now watching old home movies, and the videocassette begins with my circumcision. If I must say so myself, my genitals have aged nicely.
Now, where was I…
Oh, right. This morning I woke up and drove downtown, where I met my cousins Becky, Ramzy and baby Hisham, and my mother and sister at the farmer’s market in City Park. We meandered for a few minutes, eating fresh foods and glancing at local artists’ wares. My sister, Ramzy and I decided we were going to tour the Magic Hat Brewery down the road, while Becky and mom took the baby shopping for a snow suit and a Halloween costume.
Magic Hat was a very simple tour, not very informative, but they offered endless free samples of eight or nine different brews. We hung around there for a while after the tour getting buzzed, then the whole group reconvened in the parking lot. Everyone else drove out to see the foliage for the afternoon, and I went back downtown to hang out and recapture some of the glory that was freshman year of college, at places like Pure Pop, Downtown Discs, the bagel place, Ken’s pizza and the pub. I loved watching the guy with the 3’x4′ wood-backed poster of an aborted fetus getting scolded by locals for a) carrying a graphic depiction of a fetus for all to see, and b) smoking cigarettes, thus setting a bad example for the children. Oh, and there’s a big American Apparel store off Church Street now. I guess the town is becoming a bit more gentrified these days.
After a brief stop, I drove to the UVM campus, parked behind my old dorm and spent twenty or thirty minutes mulling around Central campus. Things haven’t changed much. ‘Ills still looks the same. The kids there still look the same, even if it’s a new class of burgeoning drug addicts. Way to go, kids.
Back at the cousins’ apartment, we watched the baseball game for a while, until right now, where the television currently shows me at the age of four, sitting on a couch with cousin Debbie in Galena, IL. Ramzy is cooking up some red meat and potatoes. We’ll probably go somewhere to watch the Mets game afterward. Tomorrow morning will be a local breakfast and then, probably, the road.
