Another One Defects to the Single Side

For those of you who know her, you may have already heard the news, but here it is again in case you haven't: Kathryn Allen is getting married. Yes, strike another one off the population sign for Single City. She's engaged to her boyfriend (does this make him an ex-boyfriend, and now just fiance?), Jake. Now normally I bitch and complain when a friend announces their engagement, but in this case I actually care. I'm actually happy for someone. This isn't like most other times when friends announce their engagement and I pretend I'm happy for them.

Kathryn was the first person I met when I moved to New Mexico. I was a sophomore; she was a freshman. We met in Mr. Mulholland's drama class. It was there she tried selling me a Sig Sauer 9 mil. I was shocked, of course. She was trying to sell a gun at school?! Well, of course I reacted the way anybody would. I laughed. After all, that's not a gun. The HK Mark 23 .45 caliber pistol I carried around was a real gun. What she had was a toy in comparison. She sold me half a kilo of pure heroin, though.

I've really got to give it to Kathryn; she always had a seemingly endless supply of heroin. Where did it all come from? She always kept at least three half-kilo blocks in her locker, and then sold at lunch or between classes.

On another note, this is my first holiday season in a candy factory. It's pretty wild. Wake up, make candy and sort mac nuts. Then it's off to the gym before it closes because I've lost track of time and it's already getting late. Get back, load 100 or so pounds of chocolate into the melter in anticipation of making chocolate covered something in the morning. It all becomes a blur.

Here's something new: I no longer like semi-sweet chocolate. It's now on the same level as Ritz crackers. Ritz crackers are okay. I'll eat a Ritz cracker if I'm really hungry and that's all there is, but I won't actively seek them out. I don't say, "Oh, a Ritz cracker. What a treat!" No, it's just a Ritz cracker. Who cares? And that's how I feel about semi-sweet chocolate.