Is Dan Krokos Weird?

Dan Krokos is the author of the False Memory Series. After pumping gas for nine years to put himself through college, Dan Krokos, now twenty-six, dropped out to write full-time. He enjoys watching TV, playing MMORPGs, and drinking coffee. False Sight comes out in August 2013!

Hey Dan. Nice to have a male type person on the blog to talk about friends. So. Tell us, did you have a best friend in high school? If you did, are you still in touch?

Yes I did, and yes we are, and we’re still best friends.

Me: Cool.

Well, he still lives in Cleveland and I’m in New York often, so I miss hanging out all the time. Luckily we both play video games and can kind of hang out that way. 

Me: Online video games? For real. So cool and beyond my life. So did you ever have a big fight?

Oh yeah. Adam is afraid of the dark, even though he’s a fully grown man. One time he came home from work, and I turned off all the lights in the apartment. It was pitch black. He came into the apartment and was mad, and I hid in the dark for a little too long. He wouldn’t come inside. As I was going out to get him, he burst through the door, and thought I’d been hiding behind the door when really I was coming to tell him it was safe to come inside, and that there were no gremlins in sight.

 

He got really mad.

 

Another time before we were really friends, he pulled up to a gas pump on the wrong side three times in a row, like someone experiencing a mild stroke. I made the mistake of laughing.

 

Okay, that made me laugh out loud. Also, I find it awesome that he is afraid of the dark. Since he likes video games, you should get him this…. Pajama Sam

Okay, I’m done laughing, so where did you like to hang out?

Applebees and Denny’s, depending on what time it was. We would play video games, then decide it was time to eat all the food, so we’d rip it to Applebees for half off appetizers or Denny’s for eggs and hashbrowns and bacon/sausage. My mouth is watering right now. Whenever I go back to Cleveland we go to those restaurants as often as we can.

Mmm. My mouth is watering too. So what did you and your best friend most love to do?

You may be sensing a theme here: play video games. But before that, when we were in our teens, Adam had a Camaro he would race at the local track. It wasn’t street legal. We’d spend all day at the track eating dollar ice cream (it was seriously a pound of ice cream for a dollar) and generally hanging out and having the time of our lives. Those days were the best.

We also worked together for a short time at EB Games, which was awesome. Imagine working at a fun job with your best friend? You can’t do it.

Not anymore that’s for sure. I am sensing food and video game obsessions. So what did you love most about Adam?

That he was literally the only other person in the world as weird as I am. Stands true to this day.

Um. Let me introduce you to my big brother. And Geoff Herbach. Ha ha. So what did you learn from Adam?

How to talk to girls. How to be better at Warcraft. How to drive stick shift. How to swing a baseball bat.

I hope you didn’t talk to girls about Warcraft. Just saying.  I’d like to learn to drive a stick shift.  Adam? Adam? Never mind, Cleveland is far from Calgary. So. Are your relationships with friends different at this stage in your life? How?

 Yes and no. Depends on if I became friends with that person at a later stage in my life, and it depends on how weird they are. My relationships with my teen-era friends haven’t changed much at all. But I do have adult friends who I try not to be too weird around, or make weird noises, or say crude things.

 Oh, but you should, because that’s much more fun. There’s a teenage weirdo in most adults. Well. The fun ones anyhow! Thanks so much Dan. That was an awesome chat! Hope you and Adam are eating sausage at Denny’s soon!