January 11th, 2002.
Friday
The big project right now is to sit in a position where I do not feel bloated, and to get all the little pieces of pastrami and pepperoni out of the space between my incisors. James just came over, saw what I was doing, and said "Don't you think people are tired of hearing you say those things?" Why does he have to hurt my feelings like that? I just thought I'd mention it because that's what I'm doing right now between sentences. And there really is a lot of pastrami in there. Or was it corned beef? I can't recall.This morning it was a real battle to stay awake on the F train. I actually got a seat today, something which rarely happens on the morning commute. As soon as a I sat down, I started to fade. I only fell asleep for a few seconds at a time, but it was impossible to maintain any sort of alertness. When I finally got out at West 4th Street I was having real troubling navigating my way around.
The reason for the grogginess was the lack of sleep for the last few nights. On Wednesday night I was already exhausted, but stayed up till about three reading the Preacher comic books. Best thing ever. Don't give me any guff about comics either. It's a wonderful medium, and you just can't tell some stories in any other way. Aaaanyhow, so I spent most of yesterday exhausted, but I still had to go to my increasingly humiliating guitar lessons. I don't practice enough, and it's really starting to show. So after that, called Caryn and met up with her and her co-worker Phoebe at Jeollado for sushi. They were all excited when David Cross and Janeane Garafalo walked in. I was still more impressed when, walking out of the elevator on Wednesday, I see a large man blocking my way, talking about his stock portfolio. Turned out it was none other than LL Cool J. I found it funny to hear him say things like "So you're saying if I diversify 80% of my portfolio or so..."
After a rather satisfying meal, I walked with them down to Ludlow street to Max Fish, the bar where one of their coworkers was having an art opening. I didn't really want to go, but I figured I'd be diplomatic. We were all going back to Brooklyn later anyway, so what the hell. Thankfully, the place was too crowded, so we went in and went right back out. Then I decided to head home to change my clothes before going out for the evening. I'd had an interview earlier in the day, and wasn't feeling very comfortable in the clothes I wore. The interview itself was fairly innocuous. It was at one of those huge magazine publishers. They didn't even have a job opening. They just like to interview people in case something comes up. So I had to trek up to Times Square by 8:30, which meant I left the house at 7:30. Which means I got up shortly after 6:30, after going to bed around 3:30. That wasn't a lot of fun. Normally i slowly get more alert as the day progresses, but yesterday was a nightmare. I walked across the street to the playground and tried to take a nap on the benches with the hobos, but all the stuff kept falling out of my pockets. Anyway, I was tired.
So I went home after Max Fish to relax a bit before going out for the evening. The plan for the night was to go to Great Lakes. Matt's friend Ray really wanted to meet Caryn's friend Nate after seeing him at Matt's party last month. So we set that up. I also kind of wanted Nate to meet the bartender at Great Lakes, coincidentally also named Ray. So Caryn, Nate, and Phoebe showed up at my door around 10, and we walked down to the Lakes. Along the way I kept telling Phoebe and Nate that Caryn said she'd sleep with George W. Bush. I like telling people that out of context. But it's true. Caryn said that, under the right circumstances, she'd do W. In fairness, this was actually an extension of the "Would you rather sleep with a homeless person or kill a homeless person" question I'd been posing. I was disappointed by how easily some people could answer, so I tried to think of something that Caryn would find much less desirable. That being the President. Being the principled liberal she is, she was forced to say that she couldn't kill him and would therefore choose to sleep with him. This made me laugh. So I asked Nate and Phoebe, and to all our shock, Nate volunteered "George Bush is HOT!" That was unexpected. But Nate maintained that in his youth George was a real hottie. After giving it a bit of consideration, I guess I could see that. I just didn't expect to have to think about it given the company I was in. But to sum up: Yes, Caryn would sleep would George W. Bush.
So we got to Great Lakes, and naturally the Matt portion of the contingent wasn't there yet. So we sat around and talked about music and whatnot. Great Lakes is a good place to do that. It's also become a great place to get into heated, impassioned, and often idiotic arguments and screaming matches. Sort of like a dumbed down, drunk version of the French Salon. The hot topic for the first portion of the conversation was Phoebe's mind-boggling, obessive love of the mercifully short-lived tv series "My So-Called Life." I hadn't met Phoebe before, though I'd heard good things about her from Caryn and was myself enjoying her company, but this was an unspeakably horrific revelation. There are few shows that Ii've hated more than this. Phoebe conceded that the main-though only- thing wrong with the show was the writing staff's utter inability to inject the work "like" believably into the dialogue. I admitted that this was actually my main gripe with the show. Phoebe was saying how wonderful the dialogue and observations were, but I could never even allow them to get through to me because I was constantly infuriated with the spoof-like nature of the language. "It's, like, sometimes people, like, are, like, just not what they seem to be." A typical line. Anyway, she and Nate were going ga-ga over their mutual devotion and admiration, whilst Caryn and I sat there with our mouths agape. We did agree that the show used pretty good music, albeit mostly of-the--moment variety of alterna-rock that was peaking in the early-mid nineties, like Buffalo Tom, which was one of my favorite bands at the time.
So then Matt, Jed, and Ray arrive. It was sort of interesting to watch as introductions were made. I wouldn't call it a date or anything, but there was definitely some sort of expectation, apprehension, and/or anxiety about the Nate-Ray thing. It's nice to meet new people, but when you go into a pre-arranged meeting with possible romantic overtones, that always feels sort of artificial. I've been on one blind date in my life, and for the first few minutes I couldn't stop laughing. Though I eventually settled down into my normally hilarious self. And had a good time. Wish she'd call me...
Anyway, so we sat around and got into more arguments about music and tv and movies. At one point, Jed and Caryn got into an almost violent altercation. Jed had had a good amount of what he likes to call "angry juice," that being beer, and he was looking to pick a fight. His first and best opportunity came when he said he like the Royal Tennenbaums better than Rushmore. Caryn pounced at this, and Jed just started his little schtick and went a little far. I personally felt like he was being an asshole. Caryn was all up in arms. She usually avoids confrontation, but at one point aimed low with something like "I'm going to kick your unemployed ass back to West Virginia." I'm paraphrasing. But it's very unlike Caryn to attack such sensitive areas of a person, particularly to people she actually likes, and the unemployment thing is something Jed is not very proud of and would like to forget whenever possible. He feels bad enough about it already, and for some external force to make him feel bad about it was probably even more shame-inducing. So for her to say such things, she must've been super fucking pissed off. I actually had to restrain her when she got up. There was no way she could have won the argument, even though Jed was just spewing garbage and not really making any valid points at all. As they say in Gladiator, "Win the crowd, and win your freedom." Jed is definitely adept at winning the crowd, either through humor or fear-inducing, drunken antics. He can at the very least command everyone's attention, at times doing things like speaking very loudly but not screaming, or pounding his fists and/or bottles into the table. I was surprised when his beer bottle didn't shatter when he slammed it down. I was also kind of surprised that Caryn didn't break a beer bottle of her own and start swinging at Jed with it. So jed definitely had the mob with him, not so much on his side of the argument as just having us along for the drunken ride he was taking us on. Even antagonistic and confrontational Dylan, who even agreed with Jed, thought he was being a huge asshole for attacking Caryn.
So then we all cooled down and shortly after that Ray left, followed by Caryn, Nate, and Phoebe. Connie had shown while we were there, as well, as got to witness the fireworks. I think she was amused, but also disturbed. Anyway, then Jed and I took a car home, where once there ate some of Dylan's macaroni and cheese. It's really been egregious how he's been taking my beverages. There's no other word. It's one thing when it's a big thing of grape juice. It's another to just take my 16 ounce bottle of 7UP into your room and drink it. So I didn't have a problem eating his food. He should know by now anyway that you can't keep leftover pasta in the fridge and not have someone attack it. Then I finished the leftover stuffing from Christmas dinner and went to bed, only to get up four hours later and come into work. Where I am now. And am now ready to leave.
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