"I'm spinning round the room in awe" ryan adams

Saturday, June 04, 2005

"One nation under the media”

MTV wants to be cutting edge, edgy, young, hip even. Posers.

Nine Inch Nails was slated to perform their single, “The Hand That Feeds” on the MTV Movie Awards. During the performance, there was supposed to be an unadulterated, straightforward picture of President Bush as the backdrop. MTV is “hesitant” about the photo, and NIN has pulled out of the MTV music awards. Duh, there can’t be any political statements on music television, just image and sex. I hear so often how there is no substance in music - there’s fucking substance, you just can’t find it on national music outlets.

Thursday, June 02, 2005

Let's Go Samir!

Ohhh before the day is over - Happy Birthday Chris!!

Today’s work day was deliciously hilarious. I’m so lucky haha. Unfortunately the day came off to a bad start, Randy’s daughter got into a really bad car accident, so he left as soon as it happened. Thankfully she is ok though the car is totaled.

But all hell broke loose when Rich turned on ESPN and the National Spelling Bee was on – score! These poor kids had no idea what they were in for with Rich, Laura, and I critiquing everything they did. We even had nicknames for them, called the play by play action, and determined what they will be when they grow up. There was this one beasty sweaty girl from Jamaica who would bow her head and breathe deeply after every letter. After she lost I was sure she was waiting backstage to pummel one of the kids who beat her.

There was a little break, then the final round came on at 1pm. Laura came back form lunch just in time. Game time! We picked our favorite, little Samir from Texas. Oddly enough, it was very quiet in the office and we were positive that it was because every single music industry office was watching the Spelling Championship.

Little Samir was quite confident. He rattled off those letters and pretty much punked all those other kids. Then it was on…only two kids left. The girls were in Laura’s office and Rich was in his and here we all are screaming at the TV. Poor Samir got second!! Of course we totally taunted the winner. He liked his number card way too much. He tried to cover his face with it, then was speechless when the reporter talked to him. Ironic that the National Spelling Bee Champion was at a loss for words. Wuss.

The Bee ended around 3:30 pm then it was time for the 5:00 pm ritual – “90210”. Every damn day Rich puts on “90210” at 5. He didn’t know I knew for a while, but I can see his TV from my desk and I can see him watching the TV in the mirror. So, naturally, everyday at 5:01 pm I tell Laura that its “90210” time. Today was no different. I IM Laura with, “it’s time for 90210!!” then realized that I had IMed that to Rich! Haha! So then I start laughing and tell him that it was meant for Laura. The next ten minutes was spent with Laura and I collapsed on our desks laughing so hard. It was too damn funny. He told us to be nice to him and how it’s a hard room. Too funny. As we were leaving today he took my last piece of gum because I owed him at least that much.

On a related note, the day was pretty productive. You all need to clear June 26th in your calendars. And I got to talk to all of my work best friends today except for Kyle. Instead it was Marshall in the office. I bet Kyle is off visiting his girlfriend in Europe. How dare my fake California boyfriend whom I have never met or seen go visit his girlfriend! Haha. Wow! Tomorrow’s Friday! Yay!

Memorial Day shenanigans and realizations

Jen and I woke up around 11 am and started our day with a little Kelly Clarkson. Shut up, you know you love it. While Jen was in the shower, I got my internet fill. Many rock related emails later, I finally put a dent in what work I had to do when I got home. I also heard from John Faye, and oddly enough we had JUST listened to “Awake on Wednesday” from Whirligig.

We were on a secret mission on Monday, so on the way to bagels, we stopped into a store to case the place. Could be iffy, we’d definitely have to synchronize ourselves and come up with an elaborate game plan. We waited in line forever for our breakfast sandwiches after noon. After we refueled, we went back to the store to complete our mission. After a little drama, we succeeded. Dentyne Ice and cell phones always come through when you need it!

We passed the zoo and I noticed the Tamarin (oh how in the hell was I able to name that monkey. Hehe.) on the logo. I commented on his tail and how it would be cool if we had tails...this is why I don’t speak after only being up for an hour. Having a tail indicative of our moods and intentions would be very efficient. No second guessing, no lying, and no wondering. I want a freaking tail. Or screw that, everyone else should have a tail. Oh, I also tripped right around then too.

We get back to Jen’s and steal music off of each other’s ipods. I now have Coolio on my ipod. In the midst of our stealing frenzy, Mark called me up and beckoned me to his studio to listen to some tracks.

After I packed back up, I realized that if I left there with everything, that means I didn’t lose anything on this trip and that’s a first (this will come up later). I get to Silver Spring yet again and spend a portion of the rainy afternoon in Mark’s studio listening to his latest production projects and going through photos.

I left and must have been in a daze, but I was completely lost in Silver Spring and my autopilot failed me. So I called Jen and she saved the day via mapquest. I was kinda in an area I should have been, it just was off the beaten path. I made pretty good time to DE once I was on 95, a little more than an hour.

So I get to my mom’s so she can drop me off at the DE rest stop so I can meet Laura and all hell broke loose. First off, she was pissed because she assumed I would be back early on Monday and we could do something together. So I can understand her wanting to do something, but there are more constructive ways to letting me know aside from being snippy with me. Also, I hadn’t hung out with Jen since New Years and hadn’t seen Mark since March 19 of last year, don’t get pissed because I hung out with two people I hadn’t seen in months. So then since I was running late, I didn’t have time to fill my gas tank back up...so I go to get my wallet...where the fuck is my wallet!?! So luckily at Notty’s I left my wallet in the car and took out my license and cash so I had money on me to give to her instead, but of course the lost wallet just let open her wrath. How I am irresponsible etc etc etc. Yeah. Don’t fucking yell at me. It’s not like I threw my wallet out on the highway, I seriously have misplaced it. Then of course this turned into the whole “I’m always broke” argument. Which I am. Which I can’t help right now. She tried to bitch at me for going to DC this weekend, but I think all in all I spent less than $20 so I don’t even want to hear it. So I tell her I have bills, etc etc etc and she’s yelling and I’m yelling. I tell her not to deal with it then. Sell my fucking car if you want to bitch on how I owe you for car insurance and what not. Take away my cell phone if you want to complain about it. Seriously, do it. And of course she didn’t expect me to come back with that. I can do this all on my own. I don’t care. She had no answer to that. And I felt awful for arguing about it, but she was honestly picking a fight with me, all stemmed from me losing my wallet. I’m the one who is going to have to deal with replacing my credit card, metrocard, insurance card, etc, not her. Her yelling at me for everything isn’t helping any situation. What’s the deal!??!?! We stop at Wawa so she can get gas and I toss her my keys saying that I am done with it. She pumps and I go inside and grab dinner and coffee. I get back into the car and now I get yelled at for not getting her anything. Get me out of the fucking car.

We pull up to Laura at the rest stop, I grab my bags, and get into the Roxie Mobile without saying a damn word. The rest of the ride out of Delaware was spent with me bitching to Laura about my car ride to the rest stop. Again, her and I are in the same boat and we have hit rock bottom. We both pretty much left everything on a whim and with about $50 in our savings accounts haha. Seriously, we are in such a situation, financially and emotionally, that we have no where to go but up, but of course that hasn’t happened yet.

On a related note, we both asked each other about our weekends and we realized how bittersweet it was to leave stuff so familiar to us to go back to NYC. All of the stuff we talked about on the way down kinda went out the window after our great weekends. I think we feel this way because when we are in NYC we are both busting our asses – we have long work days then when we leave its more work through calls and emails so we barely have time to go out plus we’re broke. We haven’t created our scene yet, like we are both so familiar with at our respective home turfs. Granted, we do have our circle of friends here, but it’s not the same as hanging with friends who really know you and going to bars that know what you want before you even say it. And it’s all about of growing up, and trust me, I know how fortunate I am, but did I really have it that bad before? Funny, south we had all the confidence, now heading back north we are wondering if the sacrifices were worth it. We also wondered why we can count on one hand the number of people who have come to visit us since we left. Hell, I talk to some people almost every day who don’t live near NYC that I hadn’t before, and some people I used to talk to all the time I barely hear from. Heck, I see Morita and Nate almost every weekend and haven’t really seen Aurora since Vermont, though she drives past NYC every time she goes to Boston. Heck, Jen is twice as far as she is and we talk every day. We’re all busy, I work with some of the busiest people I know, but there’s always time for friends, or else they wouldn’t be there.

Also on our ride home we talked about our crazy roadtrips. Another validation that I belong here, I’m around likeminded people who don’t think it’s strange to drive eight hours for a show or to pick up strangers at shows or crash on someone’s floor. Laura and I have shared some of the same crazy antics, so the final stretch was spent sharing stories on how we’ve slept on random peoples floors in random cities for the love of rock.

All in all, my memorial day weekend can be summed up with a GBF lyric:
“the good thing about where I’m from is there’s plenty room to run but the city is the place where you deal with who you really are.”

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

a great aim convo to bring in june

jaypass0313: man i hateee going to bed early
jaypass0313: i feel like there's so much i could be doing right now
jaypass0313: but noooo, i have to sleep
jaypass0313: i'm not working normal hours when i grow up
jaypass0313: i've decided
jaypass0313: no 9 to 5 for me
galileo358: i know totally
galileo358: i will never work normal hours or wear dress shoes to work
galileo358: blech!
jaypass0313: hahaha i know
jaypass0313: i hope to get a job with a live production truck, and just travel around doing games...that would be awesome
jaypass0313: i wonder if it would be enough to sustain my living though
galileo358: haha i know, i just wanna go to shows all the damn time all over the east coats, but i dont think i can lve off of that :-jaypass0313: yeah
jaypass0313: stupid hobbies not being viable careers
jaypass0313: ohhh so miami girl starts tomorrow
jaypass0313: i'm soooooo excited
galileo358: ohhhh!
galileo358: hehehe
galileo358: i hope she isnt a fat cow
jaypass0313: hahahahahahahahah
jaypass0313: it'll be interesting
galileo358: do you know how you are going to introduce yourself?
galileo358: or what you're gonna wear?
galileo358: first impressions are key
jaypass0313: yeah, i know....i need a haircut, but i havent had time :-jaypass0313: hahaha
jaypass0313: i dont know though, i dont know if i'd want to dip my pen in the company ink
jaypass0313: i mean, that could be pretty difficult
jaypass0313: not the action of dipping the pen, the consequences
jaypass0313: hahahahahah
galileo358: AHHAHHA
galileo358: hahhahhahahaha
galileo358: so great
galileo358: yeah but you know, sports and tv is 95% of your life, where else are you gonna meet someone? ;-)
jaypass0313: I KNOW
jaypass0313: i have like, a 0% chance of ass outside of my industry
jaypass0313: its like a weather forecast
galileo358: now that is blogworthy
jaypass0313: 0% chance of ass at the bar tonight for jaypass, he's really struggling out there
jaypass0313: ohh, look at these clouds coming

mid atlantic trip - vol 2 (saturday & sunday)

Needless to say, I barely got any sleep, too much work related stuff on my mind and that had to get done, so I think I got a total of 2 hours of broken sleep. Fantastic. After laying in bed for an eternity, I decided to give up and wake up Mike and head out.

On the way to my mom’s place, Mike showed me the new “amusement park” and dirt bike park in the middle of the cornfields. What the hell?! There’s like a ferris wheel, a roller coaster, and a slide and it’s the best darndest thing to hit Bear, DE since the Walmart ;-).

Get to my mom’s. I have no room anymore. It’s storage for the stuff I didn’t bring with me to NYC and a lot of my riding crap. I don’t have a bed there anymore. All of my room stuff isn’t there. I don’t have a room. I also may not have my horses soon. Granted, I haven’t even seen them (Alexcia and Leaf) in months, but it just doesn’t make sense to still have them. Losing them may seriously be one of the hardest things I go through. So I grab my car and head to PA.

Get done early and head down to...Boonsboro, MD. It felt so awesome to be so free and drive with the windows down and the ipod blaring. Of course I got lost, apparently there are two Stinger’s in MD, but I was fine with it since it meant I could enjoy the road for that much longer and pretty much got the scenic route all the way through Maryland. Lloyd Dobler Effect needs to stop playing places where I don’t get cell phone service!

I walk in and see the bad to my left, a pit in front of them, and almost empty stadium seats. What is this place?! I couldn’t find anyone since this place was huge. Naturally my first thought was that this place would be cool to film at. I called Epler and then found everyone. Of course I talked a mile a minute since I hadn’t seen them all in so long and I was pumped full of coffee and energy drinks. I joined Mr. & Mrs. Williams, Jackie, Amy, Angela, Judy, Dave, and Janene a level up above the stage and behind blonde mullet man.

Blond mullet man grew an affinity for us and decided to show off during the show and make eyes at us whenever he caught us staring. Amy was going to give me $20 if I danced with him and I would have, but I didn’t want to jeopardize his future with any of the other girls. Amy got up, as did mullet man. He missed my look of panic, so Angela, Judy, and I engaged ourselves in a fake conversation. He actually came up and touched Ang and I. Ewewewewewew.

Ok, maybe I will write about the show, the hour that I caught of it. I missed “Land Down Under”, so I used “Stranger” as my rest room song. I like how this is now an ongoing joke. I actually made it back out before the first line was sung. The new songs sounded good, I really like “It Might Be”. Of course my initial thought was, “this sounds like Sting/The Police”. I know Phil really likes Stings work and have heard him dissect his tunes before, but I was never able to tell the influence until this song. “Birmingham” also gets a thumbs up. Big stages are fun, as are elevated drum kits. During the set break, I found out that I missed “London” so I joked with Phil that they should play it twice since no one here would notice. During the last set, they played an excruciatingly long “Two Step” but the ending was cool, nothing like beating the stage with sticks. Haha. Chris’s vocals were way tired and strained and sounded fuzzy during The Story. And the last song was name “Miranda Hafford Always Gets Her Way” – aka “Meet Me in London”. Too funny, sorry you all didn’t get to hear “Control”, I was only kidding!

We walked through the basement to get to the band van and passed through an antique shop. I asked Donnie if he’d buy me this ugly porcelain cat, but he declined. Weirdest venue ever. We talk outside as the van gets loaded up. There are three things that I will never live down when it comes to LDE. We’ll all be like forty and this shit will all still come up. Donnie will always be living in Tyler Ingersoll’s shadow. Just kidding. Donnie said he is going to have an Omnisoul dedication on his drumming video. Too funny. Oh, and Johnny is never allowed to touch me ever again. And shaving cream was busted out. Off to Sheetz!

Phil rode back with me because I wanted company and we had music stuff to talk about. We talked about other bands I know, their set list, cover songs, attitudes, images, interviews, etc etc etc. We covered a lot of ground and shared rock secrets. LDE is going to steal me away from NYC muhahaha. Personally I don’t think shaving cream outside of venues is appropriate, but what the hell do I know? Even if places or turnouts are awful, it is still someone’s place of business, and technically where the band is working that night. Phil and I also talked of other things aside from music, well, I guess it is sort of music related. This past week was emotionally draining for me, and 75% of it had to do with stupid things that stupid boys do. At least Phil substantiated my thoughts and his advice was to save my angst for a rainy day then let all hell break lose. Rock!

We get to the Kominski house and I immediately ran to the shower. I emerge to hear talking downstairs at 4 am. Of course there is no sleep, whenever we get together there is no sleep. Chris joined the house of girls and we stayed up till about 6 talking. I kept quiet on a lot of topics because I know that if I started I wouldn’t shut up, and I was just too damn tired.

Many weird dreams later, I woke up to the sound of my cell around noon. We got dressed and headed over to Panera - a Silver Spring tradition. After breakfast at lunchtime, we cruised around Connecticut Ave with the top down as Amy gave us a tour. Got back, collapsed, and decided to watch a movie. While Amy was on the phone with Beth, Beth said that she passed Mark, so I called Mark to tell him that I know where he is and what he’s doing. His response: “you’re over the Kominski’s, aren’t you?”. My phone barely got service so our conversation kept getting cut off, then he knocks at the door. Aw, so fun. So we go out to the car and chat and share stories. 40 minutes later, I’m back inside and join Judy and Angela and Napoleon.

As I was choosing music for my ride to Jen’s, Phil called. Guitar Center run for Donnie. So funny how I have done more runs to this Guitar Center for bands, than anywhere else.

Jen lives on Connecticut Ave so the ride was pretty painless. Nothing like singing with the top down. Found a sweet spot and ran to her apartment building. I think we squealed like little girls when we saw each other. We go upstairs and we tell of our adventures from the night before. It’s pretty easy to play catch up since we both read each others journals and talk almost everyday, so we know what’s going on despite the 220 miles between us. We decide to get dinner and continue our convo there. Stop in to see Hillary at work then to Potbelly’s because there is nothing finer than a strawberry milkshake when you need to wake up. I needed to tell Jen about Friday, and I was too tired to even speak, so I reached into my pocket and handed her a piece of paper. It was Tom’s number that he had written down. She said that she loves the fact that she knows how the story ends, but has no idea how it got to that point. Kinda like Memento.

After dinner, we went shopping. Or tired to. Why the hell does everything close early on Sunday. And seriously, it’s 2005. There are no more “days of rest”, especially not in the nation’s capital. Boonsboro, MD – sure, Washington, DC – no way. And if you have ever walked with me ever, you will know that I trip a lot. I can’t explain it, as Morita says, I am just not used to my new legs. Last time I walked around Georgetown, I tripped and skinned my knees, I came very close this time around, instead I just made a fool of myself. Radio stations now suck in DC. They also do in Philly. So naturally we had to sing whatever came on the radio as we drove through the district: Avril and Melissa Etheridge. What a sight to see.

We get back to Jen’s and realized that since we are pretty much jeans and basic tank top girls, we’re going to slut it out. And of course, slut it out to us means flip flops, jeans, and a non cotton tank top haha. Love it. But at least we needed safety pins, so I guess that counts for some sort of floozy points. In college, the group of girls we would go out with were called the Boobie Brigade (which I think Jen coined us all that during Slut Fest 24K...?) so that’s what this night was for us.

During the car ride we played some John Faye gems and realized that we’ll be doing this shit when we’re 35. We’ll get babysitters and going to hit up shows and bars on weekends. We also put in some Grahamy Colts and recalled when IKE and GCB played together at the Balloon. Then we remembered the debauchery that was the Balloon. Good times.

We walk in to “Land Down Under” and I find the girls. Instead of this song being my bathroom song, it was my “I need to get a beer” song. We get to Nottingham’s and the bartender serves us in 2.5 seconds. “And this is why we do the boobie brigade,” Jen said, beer in hand. We made our way back to the girls and danced and talked and made fun of the crowd. Guys are weird. Don’t touch us, ever. Don’t even look at us. Don’t be creepy! Ok, granted none of those guys were awesome, but seriously, you *may* have had an *inkling* of a chance if you actually came up and TALKED to any of us, but no, you had to be gross.

The band took a set break and I brought Jen over to meet everyone. Donnie and Johnny gave me a shot and I tried to keep Johnny away from Jen, but it was too late, she was done for. They played awful music in between sets. I am the whitest girl ever and can’t dance at all, so I had a good time mocking the other people who were really into it. But seriously, it was the longest set break ever. Enough that my ADD got the best of me and I pleaded with Donnie, Johnny, Doug, and Rusty to go play! I think I lost it when Hollaback Girl came on. Seriously, so ridiculous. Jen and I made it entertaining by “arguing” that it was “my shit”.
Finally the guys came on and Doug looked like he was in pain. It’s a wonder he made it through the night. LDE played the longest song ever and I warned Jen that it’ll be a while till she hears another original. Jen, Amy, and I stayed towards the back and watched the grossest guy ever. This guy was freaking hilarious. “Red shirt guy” was flailing about, with his tongue HANGING OUT, and he was rubbing his hands all over his body.

After Two Step we made it back into the masses. LDE makes me happy, I think I was beaming the entire time. The sound was great, the setlist was varied, and I was in good company. I can’t recall how it came up, maybe during Regulate, but Jen mentioned how she likes the direction that the band is going in and she probably didn’t go out to see them before because of what she heard on their site a year plus ago.

As we walked to the car we definitely got propositioned and shouted at. That is when we decided that we are too old for this shit, though oddly probably some of the youngest in there, and the Boobie Brigade must rest in peace. It just doesn’t need to happen anymore. Of course as soon as we got into the car, Jen put on Jonasay’s “Wish” (I hate that song), to be followed by deeper cuts from their first album.

I found the best parking spot ever in front of her apartment and we took random pictures in the foyer of her building. Miss Hillary had the pullout all set for me when we got home, saving us the trouble. How sweet, I wish I would have saw more of her than 5 minutes!

Weekend back to DC (Delaware City) and DC (District of Columbia) - Volume 1

“She got out of town on the railway, new york bound…
Baby, baby, baby when all your love is gone
Who will save me from all I’m up against out in this world
And maybe, maybe, maybe
You’ll find something that’s enough to keep you
But if the bright lights don’t receive you
You should turn yourself around and come on home
Let that city take you in (come on home)
Let that city spit you out (come on home)
Let that city take you down, yeah
For God sakes turn around” ~ matchbox 20

Ok, I would like to state for the record that until I stole that song from Jen today, I didn’t own any Matchbox 20, it was just in my head and I had to get it out. Especially because I needed this weekend. I think I say that a lot. Again, I find myself at a loss at where to begin. This time I’ll try not to write eight pages. I am also listening to Fiction Plane, not Rob Thomas.

I also couldn't get past Friday blogging since I am so damn tired, but the lyrics make sense for my recap, not for Friday's actions/thoughts.

Friday was chaos. Laura and I escaped the office mid afternoon and hit the road. We spent some time in traffic and admitted to each other our fears of our new lives and how our old lives used to be. Like me, Laura had two weeks to readjust her life and totally leave everything she once knew. Laura and I are alike in so many ways so we knew exactly where we were coming from. We had everything going for us where we used to be, both needed a change, and went NYC bound with no second thoughts till we were already here. Granted, we were the type of people that weren’t going to stay where we went to high school, but we never thought we’d go so far. The people that we left when we graduated high school were the ones who were going to stay and marry their high school sweethearts, have 2.5 kids, a minivan, and work somewhere boring and typical. Not us, there is too much life out there. We also have realized that we busted our asses for this wonderful opportunity and we work among the greatest and most talented people in the industry. Also, to make it in the business end of the music world, you pretty much have to be in L.A. or NYC and now the day we actually leave NYC will be the day that we leave the music business. Or so we thought until we drove home together tonight…

Oh, so while at work on Friday, I had IMed Tom to wish him a happy birthday and he asked what I was doing for the weekend. When I said that I’d actually be in DE for a few hours, he invited me to go out and celebrate his birthday with him and a few of our mutual friends. Let’s rewind the clock and catch you up. Tom is my last boyfriend, we went out for about four and a half years during high school and college. He’s three and a half years older than me, so it pretty much ended because we were in different points of our lives. Though it really wasn’t easy at the time, I wasn’t totally innocent and he wasn’t totally to blame, but due to doubts and anger issues, I ultimately called it off. I needed to focus on my career, then being broadcast journalism, and interests, riding and music, was constantly on the road, and phone cards sucked. It was a Sunday. And no offense to him, but I was moving onwards and upwards and he stayed the same - I realized that I was developing more than our relationship was. The last time we saw each other was last year at a PMB show, and the first time we talked to each other since then was last Sunday. Oh yeah, did I mention that he is now engaged to Erin, who was my best friend in college. Needless to say the above story could go on for a lot longer than a paragraph. So fast forward to now, and you have me being invited to hang out with the old William Penn High School posse in Tom’s hometown.

So later on Friday I meet up with Nate at Grottos in Newark and head to the Arsenal in Olde New Castle. On the way, I realized that I needed to change since I had dog hair on me and just came from working. Nothing says welcome to ghetto hickville Delaware (OK, so I went to middle school and high school while living in Delaware City, which is ghetto hickville, though I consider Newark my hometown because I lived on my own there and pretty much became who I am there) like changing in the car while Nate drives about 90 MPH on 273. I freaking remember racing down that road in high school. I also realized I couldn’t walk into the Arse sober, so I whip out the bottle of vodka I had in my bag and took a shot. While careening down 273, Nate totally cut off a minivan which proceeded to flash their lights at us. Nate was flipping them off and cursing them out at the red light and I look over and did a double take at the guy sitting at the light with us – it was Marty! Welcome to fucking Delaware, the smallest place in the world ever.

So we all get to the bar and then I start to panic, what the hell am I doing here, who thought that this was going to be a good idea!?! I walk in, and I don’t know if the music stopped for real or in my head, but it was if everyone in unison stopped and looked at us walk in. The Arsenal is the type of place that everyone in this small town goes and hangs out and pass the time at. Of course they know I don’t belong there. It felt so “Sweet Home Alabama”. So I said hello to people I haven’t seen in years and go right to the bar because I know the Captain will get me through this night. I say hello to Tom and this old guy asks me to dance. I did the catch up with everyone in a few minutes. I felt so out of place, I am asking people what they are up to, and its like time stopped. And it’s so hard to explain my life now to people not in the know. Especially because last time I was around this area was about five years ago, when I was Olympics and newspaper bound ;-). Needless to say, there really wasn’t much to talk about. Mike Clark came, and we immediately started conversation. Clark’s a musician and got out of DE as well. He used to date/is dating my first college roommate so he caught me all up on that. Saw Erin, craziness. We used to have so much fun together and it made me miss the old times in college. Seriously, I have awesome friends now, but Erin and I had a crazy time together and definitely was a Newark highlight for me. While Erin was making her rounds, Tom’s Uncle Paul came up to me and asked me to dance. And we all know I am one of the shyest girls ever. So why the hell not? I owe nothing to these people, especially not my dignity. I’m here for a night, I am going to make the most of it! So I kick off my flops (the bar is carpeted and actually really nice, a lot cleaner than the streets of NYC with my shoes ON) and here Paul and I are busting our groove things. Tom is DJing the bar, and I caught him laughing at us way too many times than he should have! Seriously the greatest thing ever to hit that dance floor that night.

Tom kept saying that even though this isn’t as exciting as NYC, they have a good time here. I had to admit, this was all way too slpw paced for me. But as I looked around, I realized that every one in that bar was happy. It didn’t matter to them what they were wearing, or what music was being played, or where they were, they were all enjoying the night. Then I felt like a snob. I felt so bad that this isn’t for me. I couldn’t imagine being in the same circle of friends and family for my whole life. Hell, Nate’s my longest running friend at eight years, and after that, I think Jen at four years. Wow. But I want something more than being around familiarity, I want discovery.

I escaped to the foyer of the bar and ran into more people from high school and also caught up with Tom on a few things as he reintroduced me to people who I forgot about. I talked to Erin for a bit and we decided that we wanted to hear some old school hip hop…so of course we got it. Erin and I were the only ones dancing and it was hilarious. We tried to entice the boys, and finally got Mart, Dan, and Nate to join us, though I think they were just mocking us! Nate and I busted out our best “break dancin’ Mike” impression. Tom ended the night with “American Pie” and tried to get me to sing and I actually grabbed the mic. Again, things get strange when I go back to visit… The night ended with us all arm and arm singing…have I mentioned that this was weird?

Oh, and it gets weirder. I ended up sleeping over Tom and Erin’s. Mike Clark was staying over there since he is in Harrisburg now and said he would drive me to my mom’s in the morning if I stayed. Off we went. I felt awful, Tom kept calling Erin “Miranda”. I don’t want to be that girl. While talking to Tom in the car (which by the way, I had a Jeep Wranger first, then Tom got a Wrangler…now I have a VW, and he has a VW. Stop it!) I am pretty sure I heard Mike say to Erin, “funny how you didn’t want him talking to her and now she’s in the car.” Again, I don’t want to be that girl.

So we get to Tom and Erin’s and we start talking and watching movies. Half Baked was Erin and my movie. One of my favorite memories of college was spending Friday and Saturday nights at Erin’s on Annabelle St. watching Half Baked and never seeing the ending because we’d pass out before it was over. I loved it. So of course that’s the movie that Tom puts in. Nate, Erin, and I on the couch, Mike and Tom on the chairs, and naturally Erin and I talk more than anyone. I think I actually contracted my gabbiness form her in college because in high school, I barely had anything to say to anyone. Haha.

She and I agree that Wawa is the best thing to happen at 4 am, so Tom and I went and did a Wawa run. Second time I went to a Wawa in twelve hours – I love it. Mac and cheese and lemonade iced tea, the old standby. We decided that 6 am is bed time and Mike gets the couch and I get the guest bedroom. Yeah, so should reiterate how weird it was that I spent the night in the house owned by my ex boyfriend and my ex best friend who are now engaged. Welcome to Delaware, Mir.