St. Patrick’s Day adventure
So Saturday Rei and I had been planning to drink all day and rampage green upon the city of Dayton. We had candy gold coins to slip into the pockets of strangers, we had water bottles filled with vodka and juice, and I put green color in my hair.
The first trouble was that both Greencoat and I had slept in.
Thus presented with a late start we missed the kegs ‘N egss going on in yellow springs. Total bummer. We did however get to eat traditional Irish breakfast at Murry’s here in Dayton. I had corn beef ‘n hash or something like that and it was really good. We all drank coffee over beer for there would be plenty of time for that later. There were some old men sitting at the bar counter who made some comments at me and Rei upon walking in the door. I assume more of this was directed at her than me. She was wearing a pair of black short shorts over black net panty hose with heels. She had a low cut top and pretty curly red brown hair. I wore a green knit top over a white tank top with my Buzz Lightyear hoodie. Under that I had my tight blue jeans with the knee high converse boots as I can’t handle the cold. My hair was green and pulled into two lopsided pig tails which made for a bizarre high school comic book look.
Shortly after food I realized I had left the gold coins at home. Those chocolate gold coins we had to search and search for. I spent $5 on a decent sized box and bought them special for the occasion.
Rei and Greencoat hit a store as I drove home and grabbed the box of candy.
Back at the house Rei assembled her water bottle of poison. Greencoat still recovering from the recent head injury did not want to go… so it was just us two girls stepping out this chilly St. Patrick’s afternoon.
We parked further back than the usual lot. Out near the train track it’s an unfamiliar corner of graffiti and trash. (I’d been given two shots back in the kitchen before we even left the house so I had a start before the start.) I took several swigs from my water bottle of death, then we stepped out of the car.
It was around 3 or 4 I believe. It was cold and basically everybody was at Dublin Pub. That was where I wanted to go but this had been Rei’s idea and she said no to the D-pub.
The sky was overcast into a gloomy dark gray. The wind was a bitter breath down the back of your neck. I should have sensed this foreboding but instead I imagined this was what the weather must be like in Europe this week. The parking lot was full of pot holes and broken bottles. Oh Dayton Ohio my home sweet home.
Out on the street it’s cleaner and more familiar. Rei senses a letdown for the night. “Nobody’s out,” she complains. Determined to have some sort of St. Patrick’s Day outing we decided to hang out at Trolley Stop for a few hours until more people appear.
The bar is sprinkled with customers like zits on a teenager and as time passes more appear. I get an Irish coffee while she gets one of her beer snob beers. Then we sit at a table toward the back. Suddenly it becomes painfully obvious that neither of us is socially outgoing enough to make new friends on our own and both of us had expected the other to invite people. She sits there playing on the internet on her kindle fire as I drink my alcoholic coffee trying to think of conversation. Part of me was looking forward to hanging out with Rei for this holiday. It had been a really long time since just the two of us hung out together. There we sat in silence and I could tell she was getting irritated.
We both began texting friends to come and hang out. I may have been on my second Irish coffee by the time people started to show up. In about an hour and a half we went from the two sisters to at least eight people total. They appeared one by one. One of those I had texted was the first to arrive on the scene. Thank goodness for D-Heim. He was cool and bought us drinks. We talked about books and mutual friends as the others joined us one by one.
Boone had been with his work buddies at a bar nearby. I wanted to go show up at their bar and surprise him. I’d only been planning to drop by and say hi but instead they all showed up and joined our table for a few rounds. Boone sat next to me but he was officially here with the work guys so his attention was mostly focused on the other side of the table. It was like an invisible line that separated the two halves. D-Heim Fortney and myself ended up holding our own corner of conversation as Rei crossed the border into the business guy’s turf. She knew all of them anyway.
I got a decent buzz going as the bar got more and more crowded. I ran into some guy I see regularly around school and remembered working with him at La Rosa’s years ago. We laughed at how he got fired for being caught smoking pot in his car while on the clock. I went ahead upstairs, after I came out of the bathroom some guy stopped me and introduced himself. He’d been playing pool and seen me in passing. I shook his hand but my hands were still wet as they’d just been washed. I laughed and said “At least I’m clean!” before drunkenly prancing back down the stairs.
I got back to the table just in time to watch some Irish dancing girls perform. The all had tightly curled hair and matching outfits. They did river dancing in sync and then took turns one by one for a solo bit. Some of them were fairly young but they were all really good.
It had seemed like my first St. Patrick’s day experience was going well. We all left the bar and from there split into two groups. Boone and two of the business boys when off to their favorite bar while the rest of us were able to get into Tumbleweed Connection without cover charge thanks to the bearded guys connection. We lost Forney somewhere up the stairs. The band was ok but it was really cool to be watching them from above.
D-Heim bought me another drink and then he bought us all jello shots. The jello shots at Tumbleweed Connection come in what looks like an injection needle. I thought this was so awesome I shoved three in my purse. All was fun all was awesome.
After a while the bearded guy disappeared too. Suddenly it was Rei talking to cousin guy and me talking to D-Heim. Both of us girls being in relationships this could mean trouble. I knew I could trust D-Heim but we didn’t know anything about this cousin guy. Rei got increasingly intoxicated while D-Heim and I grew more and more concerned.
Somehow plans were made to meet up with the business boys at Southern Bell. We walked over there or maybe D-Heim drove? I was fairly plastered at this point.
In Southern Bell I met one for Boone’s most important business friends for the first time. Unfortunately I was so drunk I made a horrible impression. Perhaps it was resentment for not having met him yet but I instantly accused him of hating me then told him I like his jacket. (Which I did, it was a cool jacket. That guy has style whatever he may think of me.)
I played darts and I remember I kept hitting 20. I remember looking down at my converse shoes and realizing I was having trouble maintaining balance. I was so drunk I could hardly stand. I remember going with Boone and the business boys to eat smoking BBQ. I remember sitting there eating in complete silence as they talked. The important one dissed the chips with an air of superiority. Well yeah their chips aren’t that great but it made me feel defensive. They had to wait on me as I ate every last chip from my basket.
Silently I walked out into the cold night. I was a little steadier on my feet at this point but not too much better. The other business boys went off in one direction while Boone led me in the other.
“We’re going back to my place,” he said.
It was this being told and lack of input that really set me off. Suddenly I was yelling and feeling so so angry. All of the bottled up resentment and issues I hadn’t been mature enough to talk about came pouring out of my mouth like a terrible unstoppable avalanche of shit. I said some mean things and he said mean things. He threw his cup of water against a wall and I slapped him across the face so hard his glasses flew off into the street. I mocked him rudely and obnoxiously. I called Rei.
“Are you ok?! Are you ok?!” I demanded at her. She said she was but I insisted on going back to the bar anyway. Boone came with me back to Southern Bell. He did a better job of looking calm than I did. After he left I was drunk and feeling shitty about everything. I cried in the bath room. I curled up in the fetal position sitting on the floor of the bathroom stall. Other girls went in and out of there but luckily nobody I knew. I sat there on the cold tile floor for at least ten minutes.
Everything changes. I keep thinking about when I had worked at the factory. Things seemed simpler then.
Back at the table they try to comfort me by telling me that Macaulay Culkin-looking guy was a jerk. But really I knew that for the most part this had been my bad. I didn’t touch another drop of alcohol the entire night. D-Heim had a pizza delivered to the bar and I ate a piece as I sobered up.
Collins texted me sometime after all that which is funny because I’d texted him back then we were at Trolly Stop at 4pm. He only took over seven hours to get back to me. I welcomed him to come meet us and bam there he was.
Rei and D-Heim are part of what I consider the Kettering Kids. Most of them had graduated in 2003 and are around the age of 28. Collins is part of the J-Rabbit, Angel/Motorcycle group which I consider my Huber Crew. Most of that group graduated in 2006 and are about 25 years old. Due to Rei and Swanky not getting along these two crews never directly interact. Collins showing up was bizarre for me and shockingly he got along well with everyone. Rei liked him and D-Heim even invited him back to his house with us afterword. This mixing of my two worlds gives me hope that someday my two social circles can learn to get along. We could all be friends and have the biggest most awesome parties ever!
Back at D-Heims house Rei told me to wash the tear smeared makeup off my face and actually gave me the good advice of “People will only make you feel bad if you let them.” I appreciated that and it did make me feel a little better. We had some good conversations as the hours passed well into the early morning. Cousin became more and more obnoxious. He said to me “You’re not a natural green.” Which was funny but mostly we laughed at how idiotic he was. He said some rude stuff to D-Heim which raised the tension in the room to highly uncomfortable.
The drunken fool had no way to get home so D-Heim was forced to give him a ride. Collins went ahead home as D-Heim had to drop the rest of us off. The drunken asshole cousin decided to be a smart-ass so he said some rude stuff as he climbed out of the car and then refused to close the door. He flipped us off as I leaned back and closed that door myself. None of us cared enough to yell anything back at him.
I drove home from Rei and Greencoats house as I was quite sober by 4:30 in the morning. Upon waking up Sunday morning I had to face the realization that I had severally fucked up with Boone. Rei had to get some shit for allowing that moronic douche bag to flirt with her all night. Poor Greencoat had to get a ride to his car in that back Oregon District parking lot only to find out that somebody had broken his car window to steal his expensive ipod.
I don’t think I’ll call that a successful St. Patrick ’s Day but at least I can say it was eventful?
Btw I randomly handed out gold candy coins and left some as tip at two different bars. Several were eaten by means of getting dipped into my coffee to get warm soft and melty which is awesome and by far the best way to eat chocolate.