March 25th, 2002. Monday
 
 

    On Friday, I partook in the great American tradition of going to a sketchy check-cashing place, cashing a pay check, and then going directly to the liqour store.  I was looking to make it a budget weekend, so getting sauced before going out seemed in order.  However, a nap seemed more important, so I got that out of the way first.  Then went with Jed down to Great Lakes.  It pays to be a regular at a bar, since I got half my drinks for free.  Nothing notable really happened, but I didn't get home until about 5:30, after stopping off at Matt 's place.  When I got home, I was a lot more drunk than I thought I was.

    On Saturday, I went to two of the worst parties I've ever been to.  The experience itself, however, was pretty entertaining.  For some reason, there were about 5 different groups of people having parties on Saturday.  I had planned on going with Jed and Matt to a party Jed's friend told him about.  While playing the guitar loudly in my room in the late afternoon I heard some sort of stirring and/or giggling coming from out in the hallway, around my door and Jed's door.  High pitched stirring/giggling.  Girls!  Actual females, in the apartment.  So I plopped down the guitar, somewhat embarrassed, turned off the light for some reason, and went out into the hall to find two of my upstairs neighbors in the hallway.  I don't like people getting in the apartment without my knowing. Anyway, Jed came out and also closed his door, and we stood around in the dark, and then sort of ushered them down the hall and out of the apartment.  In retrospect, it seemed sort of rude, but at the time it seemed like a logical course of action for whatever reason.  Anyway, they were going to a party on the Upper East Side and wanted us to go along.  Jed already had to go to the aforementioned party, but I told them I'd go.  I figured a change of pace might be good.  And they're nice people.
    So around 9 or so we took off for the Upper East Side, one of my least favorite parts of the city.  The apartment itself was pretty cool. From what I overheard, it used to be a theatre, and the top floor we were on had a lot of glass ceiling, which was pretty cool.  There was also this huge chandelier that was left from the theatre also.  The place was at once cool and ostentatious.  The people were completely lame.  It was the frattiest party I've been to since graduating from college.  A lot of guys in Hawaiin shirts, taking turns tending bar, giving the same "Can I get you ladies a drink?" and speaking to me just out of deference to the ladies.  Everyone dressed like they made a lot of money.  But very, very poorly.  This particularly terrible Asian girl in leather pants was extremely annoying.  We spent much time mocking here.  At one point, one of my neighbors, Morning, accidentally spilled a drink on her most-likely very expensive see-through lavender shirt.  The other neighbor, Rachel, immediately burst out in hysterics.  Now, it's conceivable that she could've been laughing at Morning, or the situation in general, or something completely unrelated.  But for some reason, the Asian girl, and everyone else, knew she was laughing uproariously at her.  And the Asian girl got all sassy and was like "Oh, this is funny!?"  And oh, was it ever.  We were talking to her earlier, and she was really trying to force some sort of accent.  But we couldn't figure out what she was going for.  She was from Texas, and for a while it sounded like she was trying to inflect a Southern accent.  But occasionally it dipped into a Southeast Asian accent.  Regardless, she was incontrovertably horrid.  As was the party as well.  Actually just the majority of the partgoers.  The actual party, I guess, was fun.  I enjoyed talking with the neighbors and some of their friends.  Plus, there was a box of Entenmann's chocolate chip cookies.
    We left around 1 I guess.  On our way out, somebody drunkenly thanked Rachel for coming, and said he hoped to see her again.  But, he added, he probably wouldn't, "Judging by your burly boyfriend.  Who obviously works out."And he carried on for a while.  After looking around and confirming that I was the only male present in our posse, we concluded that the "burly boyfriend" was me.  Which was odd. I think I'm closer to being her boyfriend than I am being burly.  And I'm not even close to being her boyfriend.  Though she is kinda cool and seemingly available.  Anyway, that was weird.  He was also in a Hawaiin shirt.  What a jerk.
    So from there, I dragged everyone to a party in Carol Gardens in Brooklyn, where my brother Geoff 's friend was having a party.  After walking about 20 blocks in the wrong direction thanks to a communcation error, we finally got there a little after two.  By the time was got there, all the alcohol was long gone, and the only people still there were a few girls, and a gaggle of gay men listening to Madonna.  Morning was on the phone calling for a car pretty soon after that.  Considering how long it took us to get there, the party was a ginormous bust.  Jed, Matt, and Jed's friend showed up right as we were getting ready to leave.  They continued on the Boat, but I didn't really feel the need to watch Jed hit on Geoff's friend at 3:00 in the morning, so I went with the neighbors home.  I had a lot more fun eating noodles and watching Fight Club at 4am than i would've at the bar I reckon.
    Sunday I got a haircut and did laundry.  Jen K called as I was between the haircut and laundry, and she was in the neighborhood.  So I accompanied her to the D'Agastino's supermarket, my most despised market ever.  While we were there, we noticed the D'Agastino brand beer.  This is something sort of odd to us.  Though of course generic supermarket brands are commonplace, neither of us was very familiar with supermarket beer, since we're both from Pennsylvania and you can't buy beer in supermarkets in old PA.  So i bought one bottle of D'Agastino beer for us to share.  So we stood out on the curb, at 4 in the afternoon on a sunday, drinking the "pub style beer," as it says on the label, out of a brown paper bag.  Believe it or not, I'd never drank beer out of a paper bag before either.  So there's another great American tradition out of the way.  The market also had a sale on lox, with a 16-ounce package selling for 10 dollars, down from the normal 20.  I've eaten very little besides lox since then.  It it is grand.  I was reading about this salmon diet, where you eat nothing but salmon for like three days, and how no matter how much you like salmon, you'll get sick of it.  Well hear me now and believe me later: No way.  I can't get anough of those tide-fighting bastards.

Music I'm currently enjoying:
Cat Power's "Nude as the News."  I've heard this countless times at Great Lakes, and only recently found out it was Cat Power.  It took me forever to figure out which song it was, and no I'm left with several unwated Cat Power songs. Maybe I should put up a sign.  "Free cat power."  Get it?

Guided by Voices ' "Surgical Focus," "Motor Away," and "The Official Ironman Rally Song."  The first is my all time favorite GBV song.  The second is catchy, and I hear it in Great Lakes all the time.  And the last is just a great REM-esque song.  I'm sure GBV guy Robert Pollard is the inspiration for countless frustrated 20-somethings, as he didn't start his ascent to indie-rock diety status until his late thirties, after spending many years as an elementary school teacher in Ohio. Now he's a guitar wailing drunk.

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