// February 26th, 2005 // 7 Comments » // Thoughts
I am a pretty good kid. Never been arrested, don’t really get into fights, am kind to animals. For some reason Friday just went a little nuts. As you can see I am at a crossroads. Family and friends and other people that have all kinds of different roles in my life read this site so you want to stay away from saying anything too risqué. Yet, there is also a school of thought that says you can only talk about music and school so much until users snore themselves away. I have been getting e-mails from people that tell me I don’t tell the whole story on this blog. There is one in particular from a guy named Scott in Arizona who told me this about my writing, “you can tell that you write about real things that happened to you but it’s like you take the reality and shine it then wrap it in plastic and expect your readers to think it is the real deal.” I thought about that for a while and found it interesting. I don’t go on any Hunter S. Thompson type trips or have all these dark secret things I do but I suppose in a way he is correct. I am a 21 year old guy and there is no reason to sit around and act like I play Scrabble every night.
The day started out simple. I believe I did very well on my Biology test and it was nice to get it out of the way. After packing some of my things I ventured home. Instead of stopping at my house I met my parents at the Country Club for dinner. The meal was excellent and this is where some of the drinking began. I got a chance to see one of my good friend’s parents and they are those type of people who love to just sit and drink and talk with you so I did. After that I went to the Blue Moon Bar at the urging of some of my former co-workers that were working at the CC at the time. The place was really packed and it had a lot of energy. I hung out with all of them for a really long time and even sang a little bit of karaoke. By the time last call came around I was a little drunk so I stuck around and drank some water just to be on the safe side. While I was sitting around some old friends were all plotting to do something after leaving the Blue Moon. I was urged to join in. This group of folks decided they wanted to go to a strip club.
At first I was hesitant because my bed was calling me but then it was explained to me that someone I knew from the past was working at this place and curiosity got the best of me. So off the group went, 5 guys and 2 gals hit the road to seek out their over priced thrills. We walked in to see a very stereo typical strip club type crowd. A few loners who look like they never talked to a girl without giving their credit card number first and a group of guys who were talking really loud and “high fiving” eachother every five seconds. They also wore those t-shirts with cutsey sayings that might as well read “I need attention for validation.” As we got seated in the establishment I saw that a person I know previously was indeed dancing in a very sexually suggestive manner on the stage. It is fun catching up with people you don’t see in ages. I have found that generally “catching up” type conversations happen at grocery stores or at restaurants when you see that other person. It has occurred to me that “how are you doing these days” conversations take a life of their own in the middle of lap dances. As the lights went down and clothes went on our group realized it was time to move on.
I was ready to go to bed but my peer’s drive to stay out longer proved to be a force I could not contend with. What is there to do at 3 am when everything is closed? Go to a casino. The amount of people that are in a casino in the middle of the night is amazing. I had no idea that crowds so big could be found every hour of the day. Thank god my few ounces of discipline overtook the ounces of Grey Goose in my system. I did not get very much money at all and lost at Black Jack. Every person I was with came away with less money than they had before. Some did better than others. As I was standing and watching some people play I looked over at my friend Roy and said, “Drinking, Strippers, Gambling…we need to go to church or something.” He began laughing. I still don’t know if the laugh came from the humor of putting the night into perspective or if it was a laugh from a delirious man who wanted to go home.
The adventure was finally coming to a close. I chuckled at how it all started with a test and how everything panned out as it did. I left Springfield at 3 pm on Friday and I didn’t actually step foot in my home until 5:05 am on Saturday.
Sometimes you need wild unexpected things to happen to remind you that you are not a robot who does the same thing everyday wether it be school or work. But alas, I shall get the halo back out of the bottom drawer, dust it off and see if it still fits. I will be wearing it for a while to come.