The Sasquatch Journal

This is a sort of poetic justice, I mused while dancing on a stage and shouting the lyrics to the “Super Bowl Shuffle” in a small Chicago-loving bar in Santa Monica seconds after the Bears had just beat the heavily favored Saints to go to the Super Bowl. It was certainly a strange thought to have when you are wearing a #50 Mike Singletary jersey, a white headband, and aviator glasses, mouthing the words “I’m Samurai Mike and I stop ‘em cold…” while a drunk guy wearing a foam bear head grinds his butt on you and a girl pointing a camera in your face screams, “You’re the quarterback!” in delight…but nonetheless, that’s exactly what I was thinking.The '85 Bears are still the best (and most fun) team in sports history.

Of course, maybe it was just my inflated in-the-momentness of seeing my favorite team go this far after 21 years that led me to believe that the under-appreciated Bears being able to triumph and my having a large freelance piece published in a newspaper in the hometown of the Bears on the same day was a cosmic irony.

It’s not like I won the Pulitzer Prize in journalism for finding a secret stash of WMD’s in the Middle East or anything. Or since I’m in Los Angeles…no, I didn’t get an exclusive interview with Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’s baby. Still, it was a small triumph for me seeing my “A Final Farewell to Arcades” published as a full-page spread in the Chicago Sun-Times on Sunday.
I like what the Sun-Times did with the huge Pac-Man eating crudely drawn stick figures representing Mom and Dad. My mom (perhaps understandably so) was not amused.

Or at least it is considering my story.

I left central Illinois almost 10 years ago now to go to college at the University of Missouri for Journalism school. But despite the fact that I got A’s in my pre-Journalism classes, I’d been the editor for my CC newspaper, and that I’d won a high school journalism award, the Deans at the school of journalism denied me entry into the school because my GPA was less than .3 points from the minimum needed. . I petitioned and wrote long passionate essays pleading my case, but it didn’t matter. I was rejected. (Ironically, the school lowered the GPA standards a couple years later.)
OK, so this picture is more than a year old (Halloween '05). I have way too many pictures of myself in my Bears jersey.

So, feeling like a complete loser, I decided to change my major to something I simply felt I’d enjoy learning more about…History. And of course I always had to endure the questions… Why are you a history major? Want to be a teacher? Or you’re a writer, why aren’t you in the Journalism school? Then I would always sheepishly explain that I was still going to be a writer/journalist no matter what paper degree I had in my hands at the end of the four years. Some would nod their head in smile, others would give me the ‘Yeah, right, good luck buddy!” disbelieving look as if not getting in the school was a sign from God that I wasn’t cut out for the profession.

Out of college, I spent my first year and a half adrift in dead-end jobs as a substitute teacher or as a night shift box lifter at a textbook factory (where I wrote moribund poetry about how my soul was leaking from my body as I stood for 8 straight hours at a automated assembly line belt.) I finally got my first break at a weekly start-up newspaper in tiny Centralia, Missouri…which later failed less than a year later for reasons to ridiculous to explain here.

Since then, I’ve slowly made my way up the newspaper food chain (Mexico, Mo., to Jefferson City, Mo., now to West L.A.) with a few hitches along the way, namely joining another company that failed and being laid off, then being stuck in a fun, yet go-nowhere job as a video game tester for nearly six months.
The arcades article isn’t the first thing I’ve had published before, but to me it represents how far I’ve been able to go despite being rejected and pushed off-track so many times.

This wasn’t Tom Brady adding another ring to his cachet, my small triumph was more like the Bears - who none of the experts picked to win its first playoff game, much less be in the Super Bowl. Now, the Bears haven’t won the Super Bowl, just as this article isn’t necessarily the ultimate pinnacle of my career..but it’s nice sometimes just to reflect on how far you’ve come…and do the Super Bowl Shuffle in celebration.

Thanks, Chicago.



Side notes:
-I made a huge mistake in taking 12 hours of Russian in two semesters in college, it absolutely murdered my GPA, and the only thing I remember how to say in Russian is "Hello" formally. The Cold War never should have ended.

-As I ran on stage as time ran out in the game Sunday, about 20 others joined me to dance, including the aforementioned guy who asked "Hey man, can I grind on you?" In any other circumstances I would of laughed and possibly ran, but I figured I get asked by guys to grind about as much as the Bears go to the Super Bowl, so maybe it was fate.

-I swear I'm not gay.