A Rogue HNT From Washington

i discovered this picture recently. unearthed is more like it. and this is not my normal start to an HNT. but i thought i had lost this picture a long time ago and it is one of my favorites from a high school long covered in the dust of history. this picture is of five soccer players for the Sanger High School varsity team. This is the only year in the history of the school (to this day) that a soccer team won the league championship (and did it undefeated). from the left is Mitch (my defensive wingman who actually scored a goal once from the 50 yard line), Sean (nasty midfielder with a penchant for being in front of the opposing goal in order to score the "garbage" goals and punched out an opposing player the year after i graduated), Matti (my Finnish exchange brother who had talent we'd never dreamed of and never hesitated to show it to us while laughing...i got a lot of free beer and pot from the other players for having him live at my house once we won the championship), Ed (um, he sat a lot waiting for the game to get out of reach before being put into the scrum), and me (short skinny fullback stopper whose favorite past-time was knocking people down for no better reason than they were closer to the ball than me and checking my hair to make sure it was winging out properly). but the true beauty of this picture is threefold. one: you can see we're all happy as can be. we're having so much fun succeeding and hanging. two: the innocence. three: the hat. what a hat. mitch finally did get sent home from school for the hat (like i did for a sex wax shirt, a hussong's cantina shirt and a sleeveless shirt that i had worn in the honor choir's year end public medley. and all of mine happened in one day). what a fucking hat. almost as good as my Campus Life football jersey with the number 69 on it. almost no one got it. um, Campus Life was the come to god social group at the time. most of us used it to meet chicks from other schools. school pregnancy could probably have been cut by 1/3 if that group had been banned.

let's move on, shall we?

also in this group of pictures i found was this little gem. now, most of you are used to seeing my ass or some other provocative piece of my physical ensemble, but i looked at this photo and realized that this is about as naked as half-nekkid can get. i mean, this is probably the most nekkid i can get. this is Dork personified. it was the sadie hawkins dance and the girl with the 200 i.q. asked me to go (no figuring there). i'm wearing tie pants for crying out loud. and, yes, the bow ties are real. and she did try to use the key on my pants later on. now, why did i go to a dance with a genius nerd? i don't know other than i was involved with all of the school groups (i.e. geniuses, jocks, greasers, gang members, geeks, losers and misfits). i was a renaissance man who didn't care who you were so long as we could hang and have fun. and this chick (we'll call her...sharon) was fun. until we got on the dance floor. i had never to this point been exposed to modern dance. at the time, i was rather embarassed by her technique. in hindsight, she was madonna in a cow town.
and we're moving on.
if you can't read it, it says "not afraid". it is a website created in response to the 9/11 attacks. my friend lecram came over, shot this and then "fixed" it on photoshop. this is the quintessential me living in the 'No. back yard, plants and flowers everywhere. a beer, a smoke, The Hat, the hair, and nothing but time. and fading beauty. i truly am the bette davis of the flabby, single heteros.

and i just love this negative of my favorite tattoo. and that's all i got to say about that. Happy HNT and go Rogue, you magnificent bastards!