i had green hair.
not only did i have green hair, but it was in these sloppy spikes that looked great when i left the house but always seemed to settle weird as the day progressed.
the place was (and always will be) called the Irvine Meadows. It shared a parking lot with Wild Rivers, the water park.
we arrived in an old chrysler that my girlfriend drove that i belive used to belong to her grandmother or someone who couldnt hear anymore because all the audio alerts were about thirty times louder than the needed to be.
we took the tickets to the symphony on a whim because even though i was a turd, i still enjoyed classical music.
It was Tchaikovsky night and the finale was going to be the 1812 overture complete with cannons and fireworks. i loved the 1812 overture... maybe because of tom and jerry, maybe because of the simpsons(episode "bart the daredevil" in season 2), or maybe because i was a nerd on the academic decathlon also.
i had never been to the symphony before because i was brown and didnt have season tickets of course. when we walked in i was surprised that white people were not only not searched, but they were allowed to bring picnic baskets with wine and cheese -- and they did.
i dont remember where we sat or if it was cloudy or clear outside, but i do remember an amazing cello player, and of course the overture. all of it. i remember sitting there in awe of the sound these people were making. i felt tingles down my back as the familiar melodies of the overture came and went like women that you never forget just by their scent.
i was a kid in the toy store after hours!
i remember the cannons (this being before i could no longer stand loud noises in public) blasting their defense and fireworks shooting into the night. that beautiful night.
i remember being so alive after it all ended that i took my love by the hand and we raced back to the car with those last minutes of the overture still fresh in my mind. i ran beside her through the masses of old people and laughed until i couldnt laugh anymore.
i'd like to say that i won the race to the car but i'd be a liar.
she beat me.
...and i dont really remember what happened after we got to the car or after, but i always remember Tchaikovsky night at the Irvine Meadows when i was in high school.
Fourteen years later i was studying for a test for college when i heard the old familiar melodies arise from my television (thats how i listen to classical music when i study now). i was instantly back in high school wearing my blue hoodie with the self-made thumb holes and pins all over it, riding in the passenger side of that old chrysler.
in that instant i knew what i would be writing my "ode" to in Communications class, i knew i had to listen to that composition again, and again.
i didn't have the time to download it before i left for school so i pulled it up on my phone and played it through my car stereo. as i drove i was once again alive with my old familiar friend that i hadn't seen in so long. i drove like homer simpson did in that episode i mentioned, i smiled in my car and when i got to school i did great on my test.
...later i thought.
fourteen years ago i was listening to this live in the open air without a care in the world, holding hands with a girl i cared for, trying my hardest to not go to school. now i'm on the presidents honor roll trying my hardest to get into a medical program so i can get a career going here before i get too old for comfort. everything worries me. my health is terrible. i have few friends. and i hardly play music at all.
however...
That night it was 1812...and i was immortal.
