My story starts in Texas in 1995 where as a 15 year old I begged my sister to buy me the double album (she did). I spent the next month memorizing every lyric, every guitar riff and every drum beat. November 1995 we went camping as we always did and that’s where I met my first Girlfriend. We bonded over the new album as she too was a fan. I liked her so much.  I remember sitting around a campfire, on a chilly Texas night, singing “In the Arms of Sleep” under my breath. Wishing for her to be mine in the same way Billy wrote in the song. I would hear “Galapagos” and imagine carving her name in a old Texas Live Oak tree. We ended up dating for year. Most of that year was lived with MCIS as the soundtrack. She was my first gf, my first kiss, my first heartbreak. We were supposed to see the Pumpkins live together in the spring, but the concert was postponed until November. I attended the concert November 30, 1996 Frank Irwin Center in Austin, Texas with friends, but without her. Little did I know a few weeks later it would become known she had been cheating on me. Hearts were broken, teenage love was shattered. But I’ll always remember MCIS. I’ll remember as a 15 year old hearing Thirty Three, and thinking that age was so far off. Now as a 40 year old, I just look back and smile. Good and bad memories, with MCIS playing in the background.