My C-Tran Story

 

There comes a time in my life when I finally graduated from high school and got to do C-Tran for the next two years. Before that, I got to meet Sally Martin when I got a part-time job at Westlake Hardward. It was exhausting and a little stressful, but at least I had a lot of fun with it though. And Sally was really happy to see me and it was really nice to meet her too. My favorite part of my job here at Westlake was when I got to water plants on spring and summer seasons, it was fun. Okay? Although sometimes I get stressed out with her, she and I can always take a joke and laugh it out with her. You know something, Sally is such a nice gal with her country music she likes listening to. One time I heard a Dixie Chicks song “Not Ready To Make Nice” once, it was on ringtone on her phone and it was really upbeat in a country pop way. Nice!

The first time I met her was when I first worked at Westlake and it was during the summer season. Thank you Sally for helping me out on my job and teaching me how to be independent. That was very nice of you. Hey, say hi to my friends for me.

Now let’s cut to the chase and talk about my 1st year there.

After the summer season, it was the first year that I started C-Tran during the fall located here at 324 S California St.

I first met Jenny Rovel Jones, along with Mistie Copal-Thomas and all the kids went there.

There were some kids that I knew from school. Matthew Rogers, Dominique Tucker, Drew White, Carl, and a couple others to name a few. One of my friends like Matthew Rogers used to go to Cordley School with me, and the best part of the story is that he also joined Best Buddies with me. Cool huh! The other people I first made are Eric Fitzmorris and Cody Calp. Those people sure were really nice to meet me for the very first time. We learned a lot of how to be independent, getting to know each other, we hung out and talked, gone out to eat, touring around places all over downtown, learned how to save money for vacation, went to the grocery store to get some food every week, made some lunch, and we had a lot of fun together. Drew White was okay, but Dominique was really happy to see me once again. Now where did I go to get to C-Tran in the morning you asked? Lucky me, I took the bus there. And most times, I rode my bike there. It was during the fall and winter season, following the spring season until the summer season arrived. My first year of C-Tran was a bit interesting but yet again an incredibly wonderful experience. I remember when I got the music to play while I was making myself some lunch there. Eric and I were having a blast with the music.

I also remember that time when he and I got together to create some music videos for the year’s film festival. I wanted to enter the song “Soular Eclipse” in the film festival’s entry, but Eric said that this video needed a bit more green screen effects. So I did “Alive Inside” instead, and Eric got to have is face painted in green for the chroma key effects to put it all together. After I edited all the footage, I put the whole thing on a blank DVD for everyone to see. Everybody really loved it, even my dad. The funny part on that was when I put the mouth and animated it on Raphael’s angels masterpiece.

Now on to my second year there. And this time on that new location.

That second year at C-Tran was next to Holcom Recreation Center at 2509 Lawrence Ave.  That was when I started the next year there. We also had some new people there. Cody Belles was there, Colleen was there, so does Matthew Cannon, Jeremiah Sharp, and finally I first met Speed Mack. I first got to meet Craig Brunton, along with the others. Colleen was okay though, even if she sometimes freaks out for no reason. But at least she and I were a little aware of what was wrong. So I probably should've avoided that. But at least she's doing alright.

Cody Belles is extremely funny whenever I hear him say something silly. Like this one time when we stopped at a parking lot at Applebee’s, he was like “Which Cody?”, and that really cracked me up. Especially when he was saying “I’m With Stupid”. 

Now Jeremiah Sharp is like a good kid with a little attention.

I remember when he was listening to DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince and plenty of others. Like this one other time he listened to some music from Weird Al Yankovic such as this song “Lasagna” parodied originally from the song ‘La Bamba’ by Los Lobos and I had no idea why he was listening to that song. I think it was from an episode from The Weird Al Show long time ago. They say it was gonna be a full-length music video but it turned out it was only for the show, and it was featured on one of his albums. I think it's this one.

Jeremiah can be cool, but he can also be kind and be a riot when he’s funny.

Carl’s funny too because he just likes to take a joke. Now there’s as always this friend that I first met while on my C-Tran year. I’ll never forget the time I first met Speed Mack. It was that second year and the first time I met him. I remember when we got together and we listened to Jenny’s cover of Life For Rent and he remixed it with some freestyle rapping on that tape. Now get this, and trust me you will love this one. We also did an experimental demo version of “My Band” by D12. I played the notes straight out of the 1966 song “96 Tears” while Speed Mack and the rest did the rapping of the song. In case you didn’t know, the song was released in 2004.

You can never imagine how much fun we had with this song! That outro interlude of the song ‘My Salsa’ was absolutely hi-larious!

My times going there were wonderful and everyone was really friendly. It was kinda like having our own camp here at school. The first location was inside a house here which was close to downtown Lawrence though, if you know what I mean.

Do you also wanna know if you can remember the pictures one of you took during the C-Tran tour around town? Well you will now. So here’s some photos that you might remember.

When I look at those pictures from back then during my C-Tran years, it make me wonder as I reminisce about the fun times we've shared.

There was also that time when we went to Dave & Buster's for lunch and to play video games before the end of the C-Tran semester. It was a lot of fun going there since the first time I went there with my "best buddy". I think it was the time I went there with Stephanie, I’m not sure yet. I’ll know for sure.

But in the meantime, this is where the Dave & Buster’s is. It’s in Legends Outlets Kansas City though and they have over a thousand locations here in the U.S.

The arcade looks like this.

Have I ever told you about the time I went back there for a special C-Tran reunion? I’ll never forget those times there. We had fun there during the reunion and relived those past years there. We played some music, enjoyed some food, soda, and snacks, whacked a piñata, and we watched the March Madness highlights on TV. Jill and I were the DJs in charge of the music, and I even danced to the music too.

WOW! That was a really great time there. And when the summer season came, I officially graduated from C-Tran, the two years were complete, and I’m officially independent. In fact, I think we all can remember that song from a hip-hop artist I’ve listened to on my iPod a long time ago.

I think it was the song that spelled “I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T” by Webbie.

Taken from the album, Savage Life 2.

It sounded like this. Let me get this straight.

“I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T! Do you know what that mean?

I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T! Do you know what that mean?

She got her own house

She got her own car

Two jobs work hard a bad broad.”

That song was titled “Independent” and it was based on the lyrics by him.

Now get this! On special nights, we got together with Jenny and the others in our group to go see a movie at Hollywood Theaters. We saw Alvin and the Chipmunks, we saw Night At The Museum, and we saw Igor. That was really fun! And after the movie, we went to Old Chicago to get some dinner. On our way, we listened to some good music on my iPod. I even used the cassette cape with a USB plug on it so we don’t have to rewind it or fast forward to the good parts. All you needed is a cassette with a plug and an iPod. You know, that reminded me on something. We were voting on whoever gets to listen to some music on the radio or on my iPod for various reasons. And sometimes when we listen to songs on the radio, we let someone do that. We even listened to music mixes on CDs though. It was hard for me to get over my silliness especially when I wanted to listen to Duran Duran on the radio. Then when the song “Rio” was on after a few days, I was relieved and feel a lot better.

Jenny and Mistie, this one’s for you! Thanks for the good times at C-Tran together.

I can also remember that time when we all got to spend the evening here on the fields where we enjoyed some music from Eric Fitzmorris, tried some brain shaped gelatin, and roasted some marshmallows to have ourselves some s’mores. Man, what a night to remember. He even sang some songs from his album, told some funny jokes, and we hung out and talked together. It’s like when we wanted to go camping together. If I were to go camping along with Jenny Rovel Jones as one of our camp counselors, we would do some fun activities. Oh, and speaking of activities, we once went to Blue Apron to cook some meals. Just like in cooking reality shows. I’ll also remember that time when Eric let me hear the second edition of “Soular Eclipse” on MySpace. This time, the version had the chorus sung by Jill Fitzmorris. A huge shout out to you, Eric. And here’s to you Jill! Word up!

If it’s like the ones with Gordon Ramsey or Julia Child, it was be like in a cooking show on Fox or on PBS. Even like in the ones found on the Discovery Channel and Food Network.

So… Bon appetite!

Two years ago, we participated in the job Olympics at Johnson County Community College in 2009 and 2010.

That’s two years in a row!

I learned how to bag groceries, did a performance, etc. Good thing I won 5th place though. I would also like to thank everyone at C-Tran for our trip to Johnson County Community College. Everyone was here with me. We did that the first and second year of C-Tran, and it was also the time we all got our picture taken at the end.

During the first graduation of the first C-Tran, we watched a slideshow. And you know I heard on the speakers? It was a cover version of Jesus Jones’s hit song “Right Here, Right Now”, this time in the key of C. It was awesome! Then on the last day of C-Tran in the start of the summer, we all got together and got some lunch there, played some laser tag, and we played some games there at a place we all went too. That one had a picture of Joe Montana who once played for the Kansas City Chiefs on the walls while we were talking and ordering food. This is what I call sports!

The second graduation of C-Tran was really really cool when we went to Dave & Buster’s. I think. But I already told about that though. I will also hope that someday I will come back there, and who knows maybe I win bigger prizes though.

Now in the beginning of my first year at C-Tran while summer's still going in the middle of August, we all got together and went to the indoor aquatic center and got to go for a swim there. We all really enjoyed just like I do in the summertime.

Anyway those two years have been really great because I was lucky enough to actually meet some good people who were actually nice to me and the fact that they helped me out with my problems. Jenny and Mistie were really wonderful these past two years. And so do those other two guys Eric and Cody. The second year was also that time I met Craig Brunton. He’s extremely funny and hilarious just like Cody Belles and Carl. I hope that someday I’ll get in touch with him on Facebook. My friend Craig, here’s to you for all the laughs and memories we shared during my second year.

Matthew Cannon is a really nice guy that I know from C-Tran on my second year. He’s currently doing movie madness on Facebook though. I remember that time in C-Tran he and I along with Jeremiah, Speed Mack, Eric, and Cody did a homemade sketch show called So!Curious. Doing the script the whole time was hard work, but at least everyone at C-Tran loved it and they knew that it was really funny. So maybe when I’m finally back in Lawrence, maybe Matthew and I will hang out together and watch some movies together. We can even do a little party trivia night with him. I’m thinking since I was a pro at You Don’t Know Jack, he and I can do a little Jackbox Party Game Night here at his house. If only I can find his location to his house. I’ll remember sometime in the future cause we gotta hang out more often.

So rock on Matthew! Hope I can someday see you soon. And I also hope that you can be part of my new vlog series though. Awho knows, maybe we can also do some funny sketches too. Fingers crossed!🤞 Hey Matthew, I’m giving this shout out to you!

Cody Calp is one of the people I know from C-Tran these two years. And I gotta tell you right now, he’s really cool and good looking too. The way I met him reminds me of good times together, even the time when we all joined in for some lunch here at Spangles. And I know why, because it just tastes better. I hope that someday he and I and Eric will also hang out together for a special time. Although we haven’t seen each other in a while, but I’ll always get in touch with him. Always. Hey Cody, this one’s for you dude.

Also during my second year at C-Tran, I met Speed Mack for the very first time because he’s looking forward to being a hip-hop artist and a member of Lawrence’s Finest Rap Group with his friends. I’ll never forget the time I visited him while I was in Lawrence Kansas for vacation. It was really nice of him to see me once again, and I hope that I’ll finally be back someday in the future when I get the chance to hang out with him once again.

Word to you, Speed Mack!

And this shout out and dedication goes out to my other friends that I know. Matthew Rogers, Cody Belles, and Carl. Here’s to all of you, you rock! You guys are the best people I’ve met after my time in high school. Hope everything’s well and I’d hope to see you again soon.

In conclusion, it was the best two years I've spend here at C-Tran. The first year in 324 S California St., and my second year in Holcom Park. I just would like to say thank you so very much for showing me out to take care of myself, to live independently, cook food, all that other stuff I learned how to do. It was very very very nice of you to help me with that. Thanks for everything you helped me with and hopefully I'll get to visit you guys real soon. And one other thing before I sign off from this story, I’ll always be on your side no matter what.

And that is all for this story. If you like this blog entry, let me know on the comments below. Have a great day folks, and I'll see you guys next time. Later!