The return of the return of the Vazquez

Ms. Vazquez, one of my favorite teachers, has come back from Puerto Rico. While it's true that she came back for a visit before, she's apparently making this stay somewhat more permanent. I had gotten word that she was returning to teaching, this time at a middle school somewhere relatively nearby. And what better way to chat with your favorite teacher and her favorite students than to go out to dinner?

She invited the Five, which is Luke's term for the little clique we had going in European History class, which Ms. Vazquez encouraged us to join (and taught for a few months before she "retired" to Puerto Rico). The Five consist of me, Luke, Brian, Megan, and Michelle. Then there's TJ, who's like the "fifth Beatle" of the Five. He's the sixth Five...r. (Seriously, I always wanted to be in a group of friends that had its own name. Now the dream is a reality!)

Luke said to meet at the school (why? why?) at 5:30 yesterday, so I arrived promptly. The sight of the building, to which I will have to return starting Monday, nearly made me sick, but that's neither here nor there. After a few minutes of waiting with my dad, who drove me, Luke and TJ came into view. Apparently they had been waiting nearby, but we hadn't seen them. I got out of the car to talk to them, and Luke gave me a belated birthday gift. The three of us wondered where the others -- especially Ms. Vazquez, who came up with the idea -- were. Between the three of us there was one cell phone, and none of us had had the foresight to carry any numbers that might be important that night. What to do, what to do?

Finally, I decided to call my house, where my sister could go onto the computer and get Michelle's number for me. (An e-mail client's address book is a handy thing if and only if said e-mail client doesn't allow code to be executed without the user's permission.) Once she told me the number, I was able to call Michelle's house to ask her where the heck she was. Unfortunately, she wasn't home, but whoever answered the phone (her brother, I think) gave me the cell number of her boyfriend, Aaron, who was with Michelle at the time. Then when I called that number, I talked to Aaron, who said that he was with Michelle and Megan and that they were on their way. I asked Aaron to ask Michelle for Ms. Vazquez's number, which only Luke could call. Ms. Vazquez told him that she had been at the school at 5:30, which was clearly not when we were supposed to meet, and that she would be on her way once again. Whew.

Amid all this, Luke remembered that he hadn't been able to get in touch with Brian at all, and that he lived only a few blocks from the school. So we asked my dad, who was still there, to drive us to his house. Brian's mother said that he had been sleeping all day, so she woke him up and he was ready to go shortly. (Man, that would be crazy if that happened to me. Just sleeping all day would be crazy for me.) In a freaky but good coincidence, we, Ms. Vazquez, and Megan, Michelle, and Aaron all arrived at the school at about the same time. It was nice seeing Ms. Vazquez again. It was like she had never left. There were no hellos or other formalities. She was just her, and we were us.

We decided to go to Big Louie's, an Italian restaurant that's next to a certain bowling establishment. Being in two cars, we figured that one would lead the other. Ms. Vazquez didn't really know where she was driving us, and she kept asking if it was some place that she had just been to earlier in the evening. We arrived there soon and lo -- she said it was. How about that.

We got inside, and our waitress remembered Ms. Vazquez, if we needed proof that she was right. We got to talking about all sorts of things, including school, movies, and lots of other topics that I don't feel I need to share specifically. On the subject of colleges, Ms. Vazquez asked me which ones I was thinking about going to and, like many people, begged me to go out of this crummy state that no one likes.* Not to disappoint her, I told her I was thinking of going to Yale, which I guess is true. I told her about the Yale seminar I attended not so long ago. She suggested that I check out NYU, which she said was good, even though she didn't go there herself.

I didn't get pizza like everyone else because I had been eating a lot of leftover pizza over the past few days. I got pasta instead. I didn't eat much of it, so when we were getting ready to leave, I had it boxed. Ms. Vazquez paid for our food and only required that we throw in some money for a tip. Then she drove us back to Brian's house, where Luke promised that we would see a cool hamster. After saying goodbye to Ms. Vazquez, we checked out Brian's hamster, which I guess was fairly cool. Then everybody -- me, Luke, Michelle, Megan, Aaron, and TJ -- went into his small, small room and hung out. And that's how it went down.

Oh, there was one more thing. TJ realized that parking his car in the school parking lot was not a good idea. When we passed by on the way to Brian's house, he saw that they had locked the gates. So he called his parents to pick him up at the school. When my dad came to pick me up from Brian's house, I asked him if he could take TJ back to the school, and so we got there at the same time as TJ's parents, which was also freaky but good. And that's how it went down.

Marvel at Vincent Van Gogh's "The Starry Night"... in Lego bricks. The only colors used were black, white, yellow, red, green, and blue. The result looks very cool, and I bet that even though it's time-consuming, it's also simple enough to be fun. If I were to do something similar, what image would I use? Maybe something like this.

Or maybe something a little simpler. But seriously, if you stand far enough away, it really looks real. John Lennon's jacket even looks fluorescent yellow-green. Squinting might help also.

I've mentioned the Wilhelm scream, a stock sound effect used in dozens of popular films. Now, thanks to the miracle of YouTube (and possibly copyright infringement), here's a video compilation of the Wilhelm's appearances in movies new and old.

One year ago: "Instead of boring things like diseases, crossing rivers, etc., we want to throw in hazards such as uprisings, ninjas, and just about any other outrageous thing you could think of."
Two years ago: "No fine was charged."
Three years ago: "Yeah, it looked just plain icky on 1024x768. Luckily, all is well now."

*I don't think it's crummy, personally, although it is a bit boring. And it's true that nobody likes it here and that everybody wants to get out.