I came home for Christmas, but my family was still vacationing somewhere. So that I wouldn't be lonely, my Grandpa Shew moved in to our house with me. One day I needed to go to the store to pick up some groceries and other items. I got in my car out in our driveway, and, having just spent the last 2 and a half months in England, tried to hug the left side of the driveway to get out. However, our driveway was T-shaped (with the stem parallel to the road and me starting out at the end of the cap furthest from the road), so by hugging the left I just pulled into another stall. Finally I figured out the trick to getting out of the driveway, and I did just that. I got to the highway just fine, as there were no other cars on the 1 1/2 miles of country road. But when I got to the highway, I was majorly confused, as it was a 4 lane highway (2 lanes each direction), yet there were four big semi trucks coming straight at me. This violated the laws of what I considered to be good traffic conduct, and it scared me badly. However, they were still a good mile away when I saw that the two coming at me were just crossing lanes to enter an offramp (which still doesn't make sense in the real world...)

I got to the store (I don't know what store it is--there is no store in Auburn anything like it) and met some people I knew in the parking lot. As we went in the door, we passed a poster sale out front which featured a huge Wolverine poster (note: today infront of the Bookshop there was a poster sale, and the big display had a huge Wolverine poster on it) and right inside was a standup cardboard cut out of the Silver Surfer. I thought he was part of the poster sale disply, but he was actually a store display. I went through and picked out my essentials, and I also picked up one of those rotating comic book displays with the comics still in it.

I got home and sat down on my bed. My room was obviously my room to me in the dream, but I don't recognize it when I think about it now. One difference between it and my room at home is that this one was on the ground floor instead of the basement. But no big deal. I sat on my bed looking over my receipt when I saw that I had been charged $53.75 (yes, I remember the exact price) for the comic book display. I was enraged, and grabbed the display and the receipt and headed back to the stoor. I got in a big argument, and said "I don't care how you do it where you're from--where I'm from, I take this rack home for free and then choose which book I want and THEN bring the rack back and pay for the book I chose." Part of the reason that I was so mad was because this was a procedure developed by the store owners--if people took the whole rack home, they wouldn't clog up the store by crouching down and sorting through all the comics. This way was easier for everyone. But he didn't see it that way.

My family came home finally, but almost as soon as they walked in the door they said "Quick, get dressed--we're going to miss graduation!" I didn't have time to think about what they said--I was getting dressed and that was that. We packed into the car and headed for the high school. I started to walk into the gym, and my dad grabbed my arm and goes "Not in there!" He led us all upstairs to the row of lockers between the office and the math department without making a sound. Then he opened a locker very quietly...and started scratching insults and profanities into the paint. I was like "Dad...uh...what are you doing?" and he said "The Class of 97 is the most worthless class to ever pass through this high school. Unfortunately, they've never done anything to warrant significant punishment. You can't punish someone for being a dead end loser who drags down society. These are the senior lockers, and they're all unlocked because next week they will be cleaned--scratch them up good, and that's evidence against the students! We can get them!!" I was shocked to hear this from my dad, but I agreed with him for the most part (if you are from Auburn's class of 97 and you're thinking "I thought I was Neal's friend!" you probably still are--that's why I said I agreed with him for the MOST part instead of TOTALLY) so I got out some scissors and got to work.

When we were done we got back in the van and headed to "the store" to get some food. We were going to have a big meal to celebrate my homecoming. We went to that same store, but this time the poster sale was gone, and instead of a cardboard Silver Surfer, there was a cardboard Adam Ant! I had my parents take my picture standing next to him. He was uncharacteristically tall though. I started to wonder if maybe this was just the waiter from Inn Harms Way (or whatever that seafood restaurant in Lincoln's Haymarket is called), who happens to look a bit like a 6'5" Adam Ant.

We picked up various insignificant foods amongst the five of us, and all ended up in the freezer at the same time. This wasn't like a typical grocer's freezer--it was like we were in a cave underground that had sliding glass doors with frozen food on the other side. When we were in there, we realized that my mom had stocked up on these pale white sausages, when none of us even liked them. My dad asked me what I liked, and I just remember pointing at something he was holding and saying "Not that!"

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