Old Habits Die Hard

I took a trip down Memory Lane tonight. Caleb drove the Mustang, and we took the night out. Mom and Dad had gone to a cookout, and Squirt and I were going to order pizza. Well, prices changed our minds, and on a spur-of-the-moment, Caleb and I decided to go to Mr Gattis. We walk in, and it's a blast from the past. We had a few good moments of catching up while watching Jimmy Neutron and SpongeBob SquarePants (which we BOTH agreed wasted our time). Caleb wanted to hit up the arcade before we left, so I followed the familiar sounds of the token-devouring time wasted. Almost nothing had changed in the 5 years it had been since I played there. The company had added 2 machines in that time, and had kept all the old ones. Caleb and I found every one we used to play. They replaced 'Area 51' with 'Deer Hunter' but I think that was it. We walked around the little kids and tired parents, just kinda watching the whole scene for about 10 min or so. Caleb played the hunter game, and we cracked up over the graphics. We played 2 competitive games of air hockey, 1-1. We played the free, continuous round of "Dump the Ump" and I handed off our tickets to the kids that were standing closest. Out of pure curiosity, I checked the bank to see if it still held my tickets. The computer still had me on file, and still had all 3200 of my tickets still stored up. Lord above, some things don't change. Caleb got a 400 ticket Frisbee out of his stash of 2798 I think it was. I told two different parents that their kids could have whatever they wanted on me, but they declined. Caleb and I laughed over how many hours and years and birthday parties we spent here. Nothing had changed. The decor was still the same, the games were still the same, even the PRIZES were still the same!!! It felt really good to hang out with my brother in a place where we grew up. Everyone has places where hundreds of memories are stored. Gattiland has mine. Caleb and I walked outside with the Frisbee when we couldn't stand the smell of pizza any longer. I put my purse in the car, and we stood in the empty parking lot of the Plaza and threw the cheap-butt Frisbee around. First time that thing came in contact with the ground, it broke off a 4 inch chunk. So the game quickly became to see who could break off the biggest piece. The game didn't last long, and came to a grand finale when Caleb spiked the 2/3 of the Frisbee that was left on the ground and it shattered into a lot of pieces. We picked it up (it's hard plastic and would damage a car) and chucked it into the trash can. Factored out in time spent earning the tickets multiplied by our wages now, that Frisbee cost $30. And was destroyed in one minute. I realized that Caleb is subtly reminding me of how much fun we have/had as kids/brother and sister. He keeps asking me "when are you moving out?" as if he forgets. Aww, I think my brother will miss me. Maybe just my laptop, but I'm welcome to dream.