back around this time of the year, when i was younger (a lot younger. seven or eight), i remember my mom used to pack me just a whole ripe tomato as a snack when i went to day camp at ucla. i'd eat it like how i'd eat a whole apple and i loved it, the sweetness of the juices as they exploded as i bit into each little cell of the fruit. i remember how the other kids always made fun of me for eating a tomato so unusually, escalating once to a kid taking the whole tomato out of my lunch and throwing it into the bushes while i was distracted with other campers and our cocaine-laced gameboys. i don't know why it suddenly reminded me of those times but i can't imagine that was a decade ago. i can't even grasp that i've been alive for more than a decade.