Story of my life Part 2

So lets see. 1991 Graduation, California…
The rest of 1991 I played. I got a job at Universal Studios in California. It was not for long, just one season, but it was fun to be an insider there. The only days I hated were Carnival days. Lol Something I still kinda cringe at when I go to any state fair. Bad flashbacks lol Besides that however it was really cool to be backlot, and being in the eating areas for employees and never know who was going to sit down around you. Lol Trust me when the Beatle Juice Rock and Roll review was taken down at Universal a few years ago I was practically bawling cause those guys were FANTASTIC to be around. You have no idea the unedited versions of their shows the staff saw. Lmao. Anyway, from there I got a job out in the desert working at a video rental shop. Yea one of those guys like from Jay and Silent Bob movies. Lol But we had our fun all the same; like getting the only 18yr old kid to help people in the adult movie section. Lol As I think on that now I would never have done it to him, but back then it didn’t seem we had the same kind of weirdoes we had today. Or at least we didn’t know about it. We would just get a kick out of seeing him coming out of the section totatlly red faced…
I was wanting to get back to college and had saved up some money to do so, but hardly enough for CSUN (Cal State university Northridge), so I opped for community college. First starting at Antelope Valley College for Cal State GERs (General Education Requirements). GERS were like an extension of highschool for me. I picked up almost right were I left off. General ed stuff, photography, computer science, and academic life in general. Lol I excelled in computer science and started testing security with the administrator of the mainframe system. As we found faults we reported them and closed up what we found. A nice little hacking club emerged from this activity. Using the powerful VAX mainframe system to bang around in anything we had a fancy to mess with. Back then it was powerful, but now its hardly even a the power of a high end calculator. I continued working at the video store at night but went to college during the day. And in the computer lap all my free time. I met a young women there that I really liked and was tutoring. But it was very hard to get close to her because. Well her father was essentially the undertaker of the town. And that was a bit intimidating. Considering he had access to a cremation oven. Lol needless to say I was quite the gentlemen with her. Deedee was gorgeous. Blond, brown eyes, a little short. And loved to dress up.. very stylish. She had a giggle that was infectious, and a smile that would make anyone happy. I tutored her in Computer Science, but never really got the opportunity to become more than a friend with her. She had a bit of a jerk for a boyfriend, and I often was the shoulder to cry on. The big brother role again… But Allas that friendship was not one to last as that class ended we never saw each other on campus after.
The next year Mom and I decided we would move in to a better area closer to the valley. Santa Clarita Just north of the Valley and east of Valencia where six flags magic mountain is. I was lucky to be able to transfer my credits over to College of the Canyons in Valencia and continued school there. Valencia however I played. And played heavy. With six flags right outside my campus it was like OMG screw school… I also was swimming a lot, and was taking care of the apartment complex swimming pool. Our apartment was literally right over the pool, very nice. I made arrangements with the apt complex office to let me stay down there late at night if we agreed to keep noise levels down. So that started the midnight Hot tub group. Lol Which was just funny to me because no one ever asked if we could before, but the maintenance people closed the pool cause no one was there to lock it up after. So that became me once I got permission. In return I made sure the area was clean and properly PH balanced and secured at night. It was something fun to do. And then they didn’t need to have one of the maintenance people cleaning the pool because I did it for them.
Another event in my life was Green Dragon BBS. Lol remember this was 1993, the internet was hardly a glimmer yet, and the best we had was the UUNET with Archie and Veronica search engines… Compuserve or AOL was the two big web dial up companies and they were both paid for access. Green Dragon BBS was a Bulletin Board System, that had forums for discussion threads, downloads sections for pictures and games, and the ever popular Chat room. And it was all free to use. Lol Saying that now feels like I was in the dark ages or something. But in a way we were. The GDBBS was one of the biggest and best in the Valley at the time, and I got a moderator position, which was really cool for a geek like me. Using my Programing knowledge from College was a large plus for all the multiplayer TEXT games we played online back then. Lol thus was born Ingram. A handle more people in the world know me as then my real name.
Ingram, the Norse god of peace and fertility. In ancient Viking it was Ing Raham which literally means defender of the warrior’s daughter or virtue. In all reality I was me. A lonely guy looking for friends online; something that now is not too uncommon, but back then, extremely absurd. A lot of people I talked to back then were into games like gamma world or bards tale, whatever. Mostly mid evil games and role playing. So we did that online. With all this my education was quickly becoming secondary importance in my life. Though I kept passing, my grades did slip a good bit. My game plan at the time was to graduate with my 2 year degree and move to CSUN to finish my 4 year and I would crack down then… that was the plan at least… I loved College of the Canyons. Turns out it’s a popular place to film as well, cause I have seen it through the years in any number of TV shows as a set. With its Hills and natural atriums. Its Olympic pool that I was in DAILY doing laps. And the fantastic Rooftops that were absolutely the BEST place to be at night to see the stars. Needless to say outside of late at night I was not at the apartment complex much. I was really active. I was also in the best shape I ever was in my life.
Lastly something I forgot to mention from my Highschool days. I had my piece of shit Toyota Corolla. Thing was, back in highschool I had a little something added to it, that made it not so much a piece of shit as it became a rocket on wheels. Well for me at least… I always had a helmet in the car and shoulder straps installed. Why? Well we added a blower to the engine. A little switch that popped the RPMs up to about 10,000 without blowing it to pieces, and in turn made the 150MPH gauge click like crazy at the bottom of the speedometer. Meaning it was going faster than it could measure. So while it looked like a total piece of shit car, it sounded like a Cessna engine and was faster than anyone would believe. Especially with the window spoilers pushed out for high speed stability. Basically.. To keep it on the ground. Anyway I digress. My last little piece of rebellion was car racing out in the Mohave Desert. I didn’t make much, but I did have fun. Others were there for the dollars I was there for something to do. Reckless? Oh yea. More than one time I was scared out of my mind I was going to blow myself up or something. Especially when we were playing around with Gasinol. Basically a propane gasoline mix in a pressurized fuel tank. Yea. Risky shit. But the dust cloud that sucker threw up behind it was unbelievable… you know the opening of the old Knight Rider going through the desert? Well that was done with a timelapse. I actually did it and the dust. AHHHHHH… anyways… so that was 1992 and 1993. Then came 1994. I was starting my last semester and would have only 3 credits to makeup over summer for my degree. I was trying to get it in extra classes added to my schedule but didn’t have much success at that cause the workload was pretty heavy with 19 credits that semester. Especially considering what happened in January. The Northridge quake.
January 17th around 4:30am 1994. The world came crashing down around us. The hwy 14 fell on top of the Interstate 5 freeway cutting everything north off from the valley for months and months. And even when restored it was an hours long detour that used to take just a few mins. Buildings collapsed all around, roads cracking and opening, fires, looting. Total bedlam. Phenomenal damage, No water, no power, no gas for cooking not much of anything but each other. I collected empty 10 gal water bottles and had them filled with pool water for use by our apt complex for cleaning or bathing , flushing tolets with at their apartments, cause we had no water to spare for that. Any sealed bottles we had were for drinking water; and pretty much we made sure everyone had some. Even those that didn’t get it regularly. Luckily we had all JUST got our drinking water delivered for January. There was no credit or checks allowed in this. It was all cash in hand. I knew that would happen so it was one of the first things I did the second the power was back 3 days later. Part of the problem that happened during this was everyone only had Credit cards no cash and could buy nothing. In the end a lot of people resorted to looting.
Earthquakes rattled everyone for some time after the main quake but eventually things were rebuilding. Power came back first. Then water. There were a lot of fires everyday. Either from looting or more damage from aftershocks. Life became pretty hard to have any regularity to it. I found myself torn between wanting to tough it out and rebuild, and going north with my mother back to Alaska. Truth was my mother played the guilt trip on me. So ultimately I agreed to go. She left first and I packed up the apartment and was going to come up after my semester was over. This was going to leave me 3 credits shy of a degree. Surely that would not be too bad to transfer… (More on that later)
By mid-March I was alone in California and packing everyday and sending stuff up to Alaska. My mother was living with her brother in Anchorage. My uncle Ron. While she looked for work and a place to live. I don’t remember exactly when it was May I think, but the movers came for the rest of the stuff and at last the apt was empty, except for me, a small bag of clothes and a portable TV. Having said my goodbyes on GDBBS long before all that stuff was taken. And said bye to most of my friends at the college and at the apt complex.
The day before I am to leave California I get a call from my mother saying are you ready, did you get a ride to the airport? Bla bla bla. Right. Then she says something that in my stupidity I COMPLETELY forgot about. My car. HOLY SHIT! WTH am I going to do with my car? I leave California in like 30 hours!!! SO I hang up from her and I go down to the Hottub for an all nighter thinking. Lol LUCKILY a friend and her daughter dropped by that night. She was getting her drivers license and was talking about getting a car with her mom. She didn’t care what it was she just wanted a car. BINGO!!! THANK YOU HOT TUB GODS!!! I mention I have to leave and that I will sign over the pinkslip to her for like $100. Her mom was really surprised. But she knew the car well because, most in the apt complex knew the car was fast. Lol And she knew I took care of it. But privately she asked me to disconnect the blower so she would not kill herself with it. Which I agreed and disconnected the switch. So that took care of that I signed over the car to her and gave her mom the keys. They took it for a ride and were happy with it. And hey I figured WTH it was never worth all that much anyway, except to me…
So off I was the next day to return to Alaska with a last trip out to LAX. I looked behind me as I take off looking down at all the area I had lived in that short period. Moving almost every year I was there, but having a lot of fun all over. I cried most of the way to Seattle. It just felt like I failed and was running home. I suppose in some ways I was. In others I wasn’t. I’ll tell you why next time. I think for now I have typed more than enough.
Part 3 will be my return to Alaska, My frustration with college credits, and a few events that changed my life. This is the really hard part I mentioned in part one for me. I kinda decided I would write about the easier stuff now. Lets just say the quake emotionally was nothing compared to the next few years.