Discovering Something New

Despite what my friends say, I am really not a person entirely set in my ways. Yes, it’s true, during the television season I have my shows that I watch and I like to be home and sitting in front of my television to watch those shows. I also like to have my Saturdays for doing my grocery shopping. Trust me, if you knew what a hassle it was for me to get my food, due to food allergies, then you would understand why it takes an entire day to get my food.

I have also never been a guy who understood the idea of going out and partying and staying out until all hours in the middle of the week. To me, work is hard. I enjoy my work, but it still takes a lot of effort to do the work that I do. I prefer to be as clear-headed as possible. This isn’t always possible. Sometimes I am tired and bleary-eyed, but I still think that has to be a better place to be than hung over.

I do enjoy trying new thing though. Thankfully, I have a brother who has become Mr. Daring as he has gotten older, and I have someone there to introduce me to new things. Let me explain about my brother, though.

When I was a kid my brother was always the attractive one. Whenever we went on a family vacation, it was my brother who got all of the attention from the attractive (and not attractive) waitresses. In fact, women in general just fawned all over him. He was always the “cute” one. There I was, only a few years older, sitting right across from the guy, but I got no love at all.

My brother was a very picky eater when he was younger. I distinctly remember a time when all he would eat for breakfast was toast. He would then only eat the middles of the toast triangles and leave a stack of piled-up crusts on his plate. He also has always been a big fan of corn and could be known to eat almost an entire bowl of the stuff all by himself.

Somewhere along the way things changed. Suddenly my brother was going on roller coasters, a first for our nuclear family. He started visiting places like Belize and Costa Rica and riding on “zip lines” high above the trees, just as suddenly. He began eating foods that only people who are stranded on desert islands should really be eating, or perhaps Green Berets.

Well, he finally introduced me to some of that food over the past weekend. I finally got taken to a Japanese restaurant and ate fresh sushi. I had eaten rolls of various types that I had bought from a grocery store before. This was my first experience with actual freshly cut and served sushi.

We played it safe, of course. Just in case I discovered that sushi was on par with eating elephant dung, I ordered from the restaurant’s cooked-food menu and got a salmon teriyaki. My brother ordered a sample platter of the sushi stuff. Of course, when it arrived I ended up eating more of my brother’s food than anything on my own plate. I ended up taking at least half of my salmon home with me.

It turns out eating fresh, uncooked tuna is unlike eating anything else. If you have been put off of the idea of eating sushi because the idea of eating raw fish repulses you, let me tell you, you are wrong. The fish has flavors you cannot even imagine when it isn’t cooked and dunked in sauces. It isn’t slimy. It doesn’t even have a fishy taste. It was one of the finest meals I have ever had and I can’t wait to find a sushi place closer to home.

At the same time my brother also introduced me to a new game. The game is Bocce. This is a game that my brother has played with his in-laws because these are people who have traveled and lived all over the world so they play games like that. If you have never played this game before, again, you are missing something.

When it comes to sports, essentially, I suck. I suck at all of them. I played one season of little league baseball and it was such a miserable experience I never went back. I played one season on a bowling league but, halfway through the season, most of my team stopped showing up. Thus ended much of my attempts to play any kind of organized sport from here on out.

I have always been better at fringe sports. The greatest moment in sports for me was during summer school gym class in high school. I used to take it summer school because I hated the regular-year gym teacher and, generally hated gym class. So, for half of a day for about three weeks in the summer you could fulfill your gym class requirement for the year and take something you really cared about. Half of the class was usually playing one kind of sport and then the other half was something else. One year we played badminton.

I was teamed up with my pal Wolfgang. We beat EVERYONE. It was fantastic. We were unstoppable It was the finest moment in sports for me and no one would ever care about it and we didn’t even get a trophy.

Turns out I am pretty good at Bocce as well. I am not very good with those All-American sports like baseball or football or whatever. I couldn’t play hockey if you held a gun to my head. The only problem with fringe sports like Bocce, bowling, badminton or “Baggo” is that they aren’t organized, don’t get covered even on ESPN2 and they aren’t played in the Olympics of any season. So, the great moments in my sport life continue to go unnoticed.

That’s why I brag about them here, of course.

Bryan W. Alaspa’s novel Dust is available in print and eBook format at his website www.bryanalaspa.com and www.amazon.com. He also has two short stories available for purchase at www.amazon.com.