twenty-something

Patrick is
a 28yo in Boston

90s-SOMETHING | 1994

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I'm back in Vermont -- and so is 90s-Something! Holler!

1994 (Age 13/14)
<< Continued from 1993

An 8th Grade career test reveals that I will be a pharmacist. Then I am caught tasting some PH paper is chemistry class.

It's a gay, gay, gay, gay year. On the last day of 8th Grade, classmate Ryan Adair grabs me in the stairwell and plants a nice, big, juicy wet one right on my lips, in front of plenty of people. It's just for show, for laughs, but still -- it's my first gay kiss.

I get my very own CD player. My first CDs? The Flintstones soundtrack and Ace of Base's "The Sign." I enjoy Elton John's Lion King soundtrack a little too much...

I spend the summer working at my dad's comic shop with a group of geeks -- one of which has a nice girlfriend, but my mother still thinks he's something called "bisexual." We read comics, quote Ace Ventura and Alec Baldwin's The Shadow, and go to Riverside amusement park. It is great fun.

Comedy Central comes to Claremont's cable system. I am immediately smitten with Kids in the Hall and Mystery Science Theater 3000. I still am.

Move #4 of the 90s: At 13, I threaten to "divorce" my parents if they won't let me return to Rutland for high school. I get my way and move in with my grandmother late that summer.

I watch the premiere of Friends with my grandmother. When Phoebe says, "I would love to help do dishes -- but I don't want to," I am an instant fan.

That September, I have my first sexual experience with another boy. It's the school bully, also 14, and he forces me to let him suck me off at his house after school. It does not end well... leading to Move #5 -- back to NH, with my parents, tail between my legs.

I discover Sarah McLachlan's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. Without exaggeration (only melodrama), it saves and changes my life.

That October, I spot a new kid in my gym class just weeks after my return to NH. I am struck my the "familiarity" of this Adam and quickly become obsessed with becoming his "best friend." I concoct a story in my head that he is really my long-lost brother (don't ask, please) and eventually interview him for a Civics class project. We do not become close in 1994, but years later, I would realize that he was the first love of my life.

Thanks to Adam, I start listening to cool music -- like Green Day, Dave Matthews Band, Stone Temple Pilots, Bush, and Live. It is fucking good stuff.

My Songs of '94:
"God" by Tori Amos
"Down With Disease" by Phish
"Secret" by Madonna
"I Alone" by Live
"Hold On" by Sarah McLachlan

Comments

Feb
21

Mon

That was a delightful read! Thanks!

Posted by Richard on 02/21/05 at 12:23 PM

Feb
22

Tue

Ah...first half of senior year of high school. All of those fond (or not) memories come flooding back. I've got some of the uglies graduation pics ever taken somewhere, and I'm even sporting a sweet Billy Ray Cyrus mullet. Yay for me! This was also the year my mom accused me of having a drug problem because I spent money like crazy. No drugs, but I had one hell of a tape/CD collection.

Posted by Rick on 02/22/05 at 12:08 AM

Feb
22

Tue

That was a great list!

Tanya
http://afropuffs.net

Posted by Anonymous on 02/22/05 at 7:28 AM

Mar
25

Fri

Maybe it's our proximity in age, or just things common to young gay men, but as I go back and read through Twenty-Something archives, it's more than a little scary.Fumbling changed my life in 1996 - and saved it in 1997.Hey, I'm in Utah. We're always a year or two behind with these things!

Posted by Nick on 03/25/05 at 6:20 PM

90s-SOMETHING | 1994

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