Significant life events. . . and catching a Shiny pokemon

There are instants of my life that etched onto my memory like a brand on cattle. That time I was hospitalized with Dengue fever and couldn't breathe (I distinctly remember a doctor standing over me, sticking his gloved fingers in my mouth. Even the rubbery taste is still in my memory). When I stepped into an American airport for the first time (lots of whooshing cars and horns). When I first vomited a "hot dog" from a NY hot dog stand (severe disappointment there). The first time I passed through the Holland Tunnel (it looked so shiny!). When I saw the Twin Towers fall from my seventh grade class window (it was during English period, and I didn't realize the significance of what I was seeing. I wasn't even scared).

And then there's the time I caught a Shiny Cacturne:

The one on the right

It was the summer of my eighteenth birthday. I was at Rutgers New Brunswick for a summer program that must have had to do with EOF, towards the end of it. I'm gonna say it was early afternoon, though the mercilessly bright sun could've as easily been from later in the day. I had just finished taking a summer preparatory class for pre-calculus, and I was a little bummed that I'd gotten an 87 (actual numerical grades on individual tests still meant something to me back then).

So I walk outside the dorm room next to Frelinghuysen Hall, which has classrooms in the lower floors (don't remember the name of the actual dorm, but I lived at Frelinghuysen during my second year at Rutgers, with I roommate I rarely saw or spoke to). The actual architectural details escape. Maybe it wasn't a dorm.

Anyway, I know next to nothing about EV points at this point, so I'm trying to get some random Pokemon to level sixty (probably Charizard). And I'm at the area with all the Cacturnes in the game that must have been a remake of the originals. There's a constant sandstorm in the area. And instead of the regular Cacturne, I get a brownish-burgundy one! I almost killed it in one hit before I realized it was different.

I threw my single master ball at it, which, looking back on it, was probably a waste. I called my friend immediately to brag. Couldn't text because I had one of those flip phones from. . . I forgot the company that made them. It was magenta. Then I probably called my brother. At the time, shiny Cacture was an omen of my good fortune, and I had to share it with anyone who might slightly care.

Sadly, I've long since lost the cartridge that held this all-important life Pokemon. Which is my long-winded way to say: I'm playing Pokemon again!

Hoenn Confirmed!