And so Saturday we went to the bar.
Oregon District, for those of us living in Dayton Ohio, is always the first choice.
We started at Tumbleweed Connection but spent most of the night at Trolly Stop. There were two bands playing both decent but I got too drunk to form any coherent critique of them.
Let me just say that Trolly Stop has the most fantastic bar. This booze station features a glass counter top with a little town underneath. Through that tiny town runs a little train track featuring little train, crossing signs and all. It’s super cute and the bar tenders are great.
We each had one drink at the bar then moved into the next room.
Our round little table had started with three but ended with ten. Friends and then friends of friends appeared before us. It was great for a minuet. We caught up on life and talk about mutual friends.
First there was J-Rabbit, Tyger and Me. Three ladies out for a kick-ass Saturday.
That crazy neighbor who destroyed my Parana plant painting appeared, and he was wearing a fancy hat again. He seemed less crazy but who’s to tell. He was being extremely friendly and started buying us drinks. He brought with him three other people.
One there was a girl I think I become drunk friends with at a party once. Seeing her again it was like someone familiar; like a school friend from first grade or perhaps the person who trained you on the first day at your first job.
She came with a boyfriend who I’ve definitely never met before. He had some cool tattoos but remained fairly quiet throughout the night.
Third to appear with crazy neighbor was a guy I apparently met once before. I really don’t remember him at all. He wore a poka-dot shirt. It was a nice collar small poka-dotted shirt (possibly with tie) Anyway he owned it and that is how I now chose to remember him. All previous meetings have since been erased from my memory.
Swanky sent out a few texts which lead to the appearance of two people who I hadn’t seen in years. People who live in Columbus so I’d had hopes to make good with them and make some future city friends. I won’t name them as of yet because I don’t know if these people will continue to speak with me after the events that followed.
Anyway the first of the Columbus two was this guy who many girls swooned over in high school. I used to joke about this time I saw him walk into McDonald’s slowly taking off his motorcycle helmet in slow motion to soft music playing and a light breeze wafting through his hair. I’ll admit that he was a good looking guy. He’s still decent but not quite the bombshell he used to be. My last memory of him was probably six years ago with a party at his house. He had been training to be a firefighter at the time so he had all this cool equipment. We took turns playing inside a bomb fire in the backyard. In hindsight that was probably a bad idea us all drinking and playing with flames but at the time it was awesome. The equipment kept us good anyway.
The other is a female friend who I’d known for years but fell out of touch with after she moved, had a baby and got married. She’s always been a fun outgoing type and we have kept in touch through Facebook. The last time I saw her might have been a Christmas party four years ago. Or possibly it was my goodbye party six years ago just before I moved to Orlando. I had been a virgin at the time so while my other friends got me moving out gifts such as ramen noodles and a laundry basket she got me a box of condoms. We partied together a decent amount between 2006 and 2008. It was at her New Years party in 2005 that I first got so drunk that I puked.
She’d brought her dad with her too. He seems cool but I can’t say that I talked to him.
We all got too drunk. The guys were buying us drinks so aside from cover we didn’t have to pay anything. These drinks came too fast and too strong. A group of us had made plans to share a cab ride home together. So it was supposed to be ok to get trashed.
I got sloshed enough to be drunk texting stupid shit to people. I probably said some off the wall stuff and apparently wandered away and had to be found again.
The real trouble was Tyger. She got black out drunk and completely lost her mind. It had seemed like she was fine and then suddenly she was running down the street of the Oregon District screaming and stumbling. She was nearly too drunk to stand up. Everyone wanted to go to club Mask so we walked there from Trolly Stop. Me Swanky and Tyger were the last to reach the club. Tyger was visibly about to pass out so they wouldn’t let us enter.
We were forced to go back to the car and go home. No dancing this Saturday night. Tyger decided to sit on a street corner and start screaming on the top of her lungs. That is how the cops found her. They gave her a ticket for public intoxication and she’s lucky thats all.
I went with Swanky to get the car. Upon returning to get Tyger we found her in the back of a cop car. Upon leaving she informed the police that she had a kitten at home. We know no other context to that conversation.
During the car ride home Tyger passed out and hit her head. She didn’t wake up until we arrived and pulled her out of the passenger seat. Then she passed out again in the bathroom sitting on the toilet with her pants down and the door wide open.
The following morning we all woke feeling the worst kind of shitty hangover. Tyger remembered absolutely nothing after that last shot of Tequilla. We had to inform her of the occurrences of the night. She literally face-palmed.
Tyger suspects that her last shot may have been spiked but the jury is still out on that.
After yet another weekend of way too drunkenness, embarrassing public displays and trouble with the cops Tyger and I have made a pact to do a mental detox. No booze, no nothing, for at least a month. Three months would be ideal but I’m trying to be realistic. Once back to drinking it shall be only beer in public. That’s the plan…
I spent my Sunday feeling like shit. I never changed my clothes, combed my hair or brushed my teeth. I continuously felt like I was going to throw up, but it never happened.
Boone had not been there that night nor did he approve. A few of those people from that night are now on my avoid list. Particularly the one Tyger suspects of drugging her.
So anyway Boone came and picked me up. He had a gift card for Olive Garden.
So there we were in that nice restaurant which is honestly upscale by my poor-ass standards. And I looked like a hot mess. I was wearing my fifty cent knit top with the holes in it over an old tank top with a stain. My jeans were ok and my feet were in my snow boots which are plastic and plaid with fake white fur trim. My hair was disheveled to the extent of hanging over my face. Think Bellatrix Le Strange but medium brown hair with blond highlights. My eye-makeup was smeared out from the corner like someone just started erasing a think scribble of pencil. My lips had lipstick remaining only at the edges which came off looking like a weird pink lip-liner. I also had a scratch on my chin from I-don’t-remember what.
As over priced as Olive Garden may be our server was fantastic and goddammit I do love their salad. I ate all the peppers from that salad while Boone got more croutons. I think we were even split for olives and onions. The soups were good and after two bowls I left that restaurant feeling ridiculously full.
It was a book-club Sunday so we all met up at a Starbucks by the mall. The book had been house of leaves. For the record February is a terribly short and busy month. Out of all six of us not a single person had finished the book. We all expressed much interest in finishing said book. I myself have gone on record as wanting to read the book three times. First as it is written and presented, secondly as the book the guy is reading and thirdly I want to read only that readers experience. Admittedly I hardly reached 100 pages so there may need to be a fourth and fifth reading for all I know.
“Let’s plan for this meeting a year from now!” I said. And I do mean it. Its too cool of a book. I will finish it and I will find a hard copy. House of leaves just isn’t meant for Kindle eReader.
“At least when we fail we all fail together,” I had said to my fellow club members. I had gone to that meeting in fear that the ending might be ruined for me but it turned out I got second farthest into the book out of everyone there.
We spent that meeting just hanging out and talking. We laughed and it was good. My sister apparently spent her Saturday watching Naked Boys Singing on Netflix as Captain Greencoat played Magic cards with his friends. We are all planning to meet up again next Thursday to see Neil Degrasse Tyson speak at Wright State University. I still can’t believe that’s going to be free.
The March book is Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood… I should start that soon.