October 7th 2012,
I sit on the floor of my bedroom with my laptop glowing before me. My butt hurts but I sit here on the carpet to be closer to Miku to keep her company. Miku who dashes across the room comes to an abrupt stop flipping her tailless butt in the air to come to a sideways stop. She pauses looking at me perhaps wanting my acknowledgment of how fast she can run, more likely she is trying to lure me into playing with her. Miku is a tiny kitten barely old enough to be eating solid food. She is less than a pound in weight about the size of my left hand plus half my right hand. She is white and gray. Did I mention she has no tail? I don’t know if it’s a genetic defect or something she inherited from her father cat.
Miku dashes across the room once again and now attacks my foot as I set about to document my past weekend for this blog. I wiggle my sock protected toes but she will get no more play action from me until this is done.
Friday morning I work on campus in the building 14 CIL computer lab. The most interesting thing to happen was a printer jam. The printer in this lab is built a bit differently than the ones in the library. The hot part that imprints the ink on the pages could easily burn you quite badly. Risk of injury via 3rd degree burns adds dramatic tension and excitement to any work shift.
After work I have classes and that day I had an exam in my afternoon Psychology. I think I did ok but not great.
Upon getting home I ran some errands, ate food, and played with Miku until nine. At nine o’clock Friday some of my friends were meeting up for my friend Judy’s Birthday. We started at South Park Tavern and I came a little too late for Pizza. South Park is small but inviting. There are booths or big tables if you don’t want to sit at the bar. There is a really cool outside area with a fire pit for when it’s cold. There is a pinball machine and a big chalk board anyone is welcome to draw on.
If you are a beer drinker, particularly the kind who likes weird and rare beers, then you will be thrilled with the beverage selection. If you like anything else you will be disappointed. They do not serve mixed drinks of any kind.
So at the bar we occupy two booths. We naturally divided between boys and girls with Rachel H floating in-between to sit on my whichever lap seems more inviting at that particular moment.
At some point I recognize a certain voice from behind at the boys table. It is my ex boyfriend from a year and a half ago. It was an extremely messy breakup and we have not seen each other since. I don’t think there are any hard feelings left but it was still very awkward. I don’t think either of us knew what to say or how to start, so neither of us did. It was a dance of avoided eye contact and near miss encounters. He is two years older than me and we both still hold each others longest relationship record. It was strange to me that he had the same hoodie and same haircut from the last time I saw him. I still own a few of the same jackets but really I have changed an immense amount in the last year and a half. I went from no piercings to 8, one tattoo to three, I’ve had four different jobs and 6-7 different hair colors and styles. I have always been the sort of person to mix it up though, I get bored easily as my reputation goes.
So we leave South Park in search of stronger drinks and a genuine change of scenery. We go to the Oregon district where one can bar hop with enough time to have a drink then sober up before driving home. It was raining quite badly but I had a big pink umbrella and a hood on my jacket as extra backup.
As I dash across the brick road and jump over a puddle I smile at the busy bars lining the street. I love the Oregon district. To me this is the heart of Dayton. We might not be a very big city but we still have some cool stuff if you know where to look and go with the right people.
We start at Hanks Hole in the Wall a bar that just opened last week if I’m not mistaken. None of us had been there before so it was due for an inspection.
Hanks Hole in the Wall is a narrow bar with a chilled atmosphere. The drinks are fairly priced, though not as strong as some prefer. The service was impressively quick for how busy they were. We found two round tables ignored for being extremely wobbly and took our chances with setting the drinks on them. There was a DJ in the back and he took requests but the dance area went ignored for the most part.
After an hour or so our restless souls demanded a new location so everyone paid their tabs and once again I dashed across that bumpy brick street. We walked into Blind bobs relieved there was not a band playing because nobody wanted to pay a cover charge.
This is where the drivers and non drivers free to drink became most apparent. It was fun either way and we all talked and chilled for some time before a game of Apples to Apples somehow got started.
The last call came too soon. I said some quick goodbyes before driving home to Miku and my warm dry bed.
Saturday I woke up to my cell phone alarm going off a bit too soon for my liking. I wanted to badly to hit snooze as I’m sure so did Miku who had been sleeping on my stomach. But alas I had to get up early to prepare for the class I was going to teach.
Rosewood is a community center in Kettering just down from The Greene. They offer a wide variety of art classes for both children and adults. They have dance, pottery, painting etc. My friend teaches photography and dark room there. I teach drawing anime and drawing comics for ages 9-15. Really I’m just a part of a running Saturday series but I have taught a four week drawing anime class there before.
There were six kids in the class and they were all genuinely interested in drawing which is good. The youngest girl there was particularly talented while the only boy and oldest of the group had asked the most questions many about perusing art as a career.
I probably had as much fun if not more fun than the kids and everybody seemed happy when they left. I mentioned the drawing comics class for next week to both the kids and one of the organizers in the office. He acknowledged there seemed to be some genuine interest and I let him know I’d be happy to teach the comics class anytime. I hope he picked up on the hint hint lets make it a regular class.
Upon finally getting home from the class I walked in surprised to find a full kitchen table. I had forgotten that it is the birthday of my dead uncle so my brother had made his favorite ( Chilli ) in the deceased mans honor. My grandmother who is in her 80’s was over sitting at the table alongside my brother and mother. It is rare indeed that people eat at the same table in my house. Ever since I reached adulthood and my sister moved out it only seems to happen on Holidays.
Now my uncle died before I was born but I had heard a lot about him and he sounded like a really cool guy, and the chilli smelled delicious, so I got a bowl and joined them. It was sort of strange to eat a meal at a table with my family but not bad by any means. After food I brought Miku out to meet my Grandma and she approved of the cute but hyper fuzz ball.
As the afternoon grew dark I drove out to meet my boyfriend and from his house we went to his aunts house and there we watched the John Stuart/Bill O Riley debate that was streaming live on the internet, or at least it was supposed to. We saw the end of it at least and an odd chuck from the middle.
After the debate we walked out in search of food. My boyfriend Bone, his aunt lives behind the Oregon district so needless to say we hang out there a lot. We settled on Smoking BBQ which is absolutely fantastic, if you’ve never had it you better go change that immediately. They know what they are doing when it comes to smoked/pulled meat and of course BBQ.
As we finished our meal two familiar faces appeared inside that small cramped charming street corner restaurant. It was my sister Rei and her boyfriend Captain Green Coat. Bone and I had met at my sisters book club so we know Green Coat and Rei very well. They had just come from Beer-fest and were in high spirits. After they ordered and sat down to wait. Here Green Coat informed me that Captain of Industry was going to be playing at Blind Bobs as part of Dayton music fest. I squealed like preteen on coffee then jumped up and down. Captain of Industry is a local Dayton band that I had been really into 2008-2010. They were really good but they guys sort of got caught up with life. You can’t have a wife and child with a job that allows you the time to perform so regularly with a band. Over time they just sort of stopped playing. I had missed my opportunity to see them once before and regretted it. Despite this however we almost didn’t go. It’s really not Bone’s kind of music, or scene, or bar. He sensed my sadness and ended up convincing me he’d be cool so we went. (And he was cool, only one small negative comment the whole time.)
The first song was already playing as we walked in the door. It was one of the few I don’t know so well so no loss there.
As soon as we payed and stepped out onto the floor I was shocked by the ocean of human beings. I’ve seen Blind Bobs crowded before but this is good luck going to the bathroom, lose track of your friends you’re lost for good, kind of crowded. I was intimidated at first and was ready to settle on a crappy view from the back when suddenly I spotted Captain Green Coat bopping his head to the music in the front of the crowd. And then I saw Rei towards the corner with considerable closeness to the stage and room to squeeze in! Opportunity was seized quickly.
As it turns out I knew a fair amount of people there; Judy the birthday girl from the day before, Thompson, Brian and Christian from Astro Fang a band that had played and I missed at Dayton music fest the day before. Over the music I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to these people but simply being surrounded by familiar faces made me feel instantly more comfortable and happy.
The music was fantastic with a raw quality live that I could have never appreciated before. The crowd was going crazy for it. Greencoat was down right up front dancing and singing along to the music. As soon as one of my favorites came on I couldn’t help it. I screamed and joined the crowd in cheering. The music is so loud it left my ears ringing for some time later. The beat was pumping steady so you could feel it in your chest.
All around me I was swimming in a sea of hipsters, semi-hipsters, freaks, geeks, and scumbags. We are all consumed by the music just the same despite where we come from and what label people chose to define us by. All inhibition melts away and is forgotten as I am suddenly singing along to every word of the song. I start out bobbing my head to the music but it quickly escalates to outright dancing.
The crow is rowdy and excited. The Astro boys dash across stage to get to the back door. Shortly after a few others jump on stage and start to flail their arms in rhythm to the music. Two guys manage to do some form crowd surfing. I am impressed with the band staying cool while seemingly chaos is erupting all around them.
The crowd thins a little as the show progresses but not that much. We got a good three to four extra songs out of them through enthusiasm (and demanding of more). I manage to get fairly close to the stage by the end. The last song had been my favorite by far and as soon as it started I was jumping up and down too excited to contain myself. I was so happy to be hearing that song it was pure adrenalin joy sound waves euphoric high. I danced to it wildly flipping my head and hair around so much I couldn’t really see that stage that I’d finally gotten close to.
Ears ringing I left the bar smiling.
And so we’re back to Sunday where I sit on the floor with a numb butt typing.
I should mention my Sunday was not devoid of action either. Rei, Green Coat, Boone and I went out to Cincinnati to check out the new Jungle Jims store. The original Jungle Jims is the worlds largest grocery store. There are isles dedicated to different countries from all around the world and high quality foods that you just can’t get anywhere else. There are old amusement park decoration and other oddities decorating the store making it even more absurd and larger than life.
The new Jungle Jims is very much just a smaller version of the original. There seem to be a few countries different like Russia and Argentina which I didn’t remember seeing before. The hot sauce section seems to possibly be bigger in this new store which is surprising and cool. It features a fire truck like the original but the actual selection seems larger and more varied. Rei and Green Coat got a Malinda’s spicy ketchup, so right now I’m making a mental not to go over to their house with French fries sometime soon.
The new Jungle Jims has all the old favorites so you shouldn’t miss out on anything you love from the original. We did note that there was no liquor store but with two small areas still under construction it may come in the near future. I will also note that the habrinaro lime olives are absolutely worth it and Asia has an impressive variety of instant ramen style noodles.
After our big trip to a grocery store we hung out at Rei and Captain Green Coat’s house to watch the director’s cut of Watchmen. Having regular book club meetings (Always on a Sunday) we ended up discussing the movie both directors cut vs theatrical and then it was between me and Green Coat talking about the comic vs the movie. By the time I got home it was after two in the morning. Miku anxiously awaited me and It really was later than I should be going to bed with school in the morning.
I sat down and pulled out my laptop as if to rebel against my drowsy brain. I will write and reflect upon my weekend before succumbing to sleep! And thus I sit tired and a little sore but smiling perhaps from a nice little weekend in my busy little life.