Weekend’s Events

radi0actv, aka, Aaron and I went out to see innsmouth, aka, Josh this weekend. After the end of work on Friday, Aaron picked me up, we went to the east end food coop, I picked up my 3 cases of soymilk (yay, good for the summer), then we got on the road. We chatted alot, (I got in virtually no reading this weekend, alas).

On a whim as we were passing Zanesville, I decided I had to show aaron a bit of my home town, so we stopped off. I showed him my high school, and my parents’ place (and we stopped by and said hi to mom.) I didn’t realize how much history I had tied in with the location until I started telling Aaron about my job at the K-mart, the pool I swam at, the doctor’s lounge of the hospital where I would go when I was skipping swim practice, it was really quite remarkable.

Mom asked me if I remembered why it was such a special date (I had forgotten it was my Dad’s birthday). So we ended up sticking around a little longer to wish him a happy birthday. We collected a couple of slices of carrot cake (which ended up getting ground into the carpet of Aaron’s car, D’oh!), water bottles, and juice. Yay, Mom.

Pretty much straight from there to Josh’s in Champaign, IL. It was uneventful, but not unpleasant. Aaron is a great guy to roadtrip with. We didn’t really run out of stuff to talk about, but we were glad when we made it to Josh’s. Stayed up chatting for another hour or two, then went to bed (i think I gave up the ghost first).

I also got up first in the morning, and was rather restless, but managed to keep quiet until everyone else got up. We went to breakfast in some nice place in downtown champaign, really not my kind of joint, but not bad. Took a campus tour, spent alot of time in Josh’s office practicing my silent self-entertainment skills while Aaron and Josh discussed EE stuff that I quit trying to follow pretty early on.

Then we went bowling. I got the most strikes, and the most gutterballs. I won the first game and came in second on the second. We all did better on the second game, though me only just barely. Josh was king of the spare. (me: luck, him: skill). Stopped by a vegan cafe/grocery store thing that reminds me of the east end food coop here in pittsburgh, picked up stuff while Josh and Aaron entertained themselves, went to the mall, and got Josh early graduation gifts of Scrabble and Taboo (wanted to get him a copy of suburban nation, but they didn’t have it).

Went out to dinner at some Thai place. (I got steamed rice, I so am not a Thai fan). Then the martini bar. I sipped their various drinks. Some were tasty, none really to my liking, but I was drinking in part for the other effects. Also had an apricot beer, or at least half of one. Very fruity, but still definitely beer. I almost choked on it when aaron pointed out it was $7/bottle. Hwa!

Then hit C-street. Meet & greet several of Josh’s friends. Ended up chatting with this guy, Derrick for a bit. Danced for awhile. Saw cute and not so cute boys aplenty. Josh and Aaron get pretty drunk. I drive back to Josh’s place (we drop Derrick off, but no time for a prolonged goodbye, because there’s a car right behind us, =( ).

We play scrabble for hours, while Josh tries to fix his linux installation (installed the gdm login, but didn’t have X working, even though he knew his card was nonstandard. He tried to just use the default VGA X server, which didn’t work, but he eventually managed something). Josh won, I came in last, but it was a pretty close game, overall. We totalled almost 450 points among the three of us. Aaron would have one, but he had the Q at the end, and Josh had a U. (I had Z). So, losing 10 points, while Josh lost 1, he ended up in second by 1 point. I got my ass kicked by two guys who couldn’t even walk straight. (not that I’m competetive)

To bed.

I wake up first, _again_. Blah. I learn to type very quietly, in an attempt not to disturb Josh. It’s slow going, but I’m browsing websites. I was actually really, really jealous of Josh and Aaron (going to be living in the bay area in a couple months, possibly in a shared apartment). I got up, browsed the web looking for transportation policy jobs in the bay area. Found a few leads, not very likely, but the possibilities perked me up a bit.

Finally, since nobody’s getting up, I go take a shower, which wakes them up (at 1pm, ugh) Since they’re going to take awhile I run down to the eefc-esque shop (strawberry fields) and get a loaf of french bread, still warm, a quart of soy milk, some funky flake cereal, and some organic fruit-in-the-center cereal bars.

I decide not to use paper or plastic bags (bad for the environment, blah, blah, blah.) As I’m walking back, I ponder the futility of that gesture in light of the packaging involved in everything I got. I then contemplate the death of the dairy delivered in glass bottles (while bemusedly thinking of soy milk delivered in such a style), and the nature of garbage disposal as a free good as opposed to recycling (comparable to highways v rails).

They’re closer to ready. We play around on Josh’s computer for a bit and get ready for our day trip to chicago. We get out the door at like 3:00pm. Along the way, Josh writes code on his laptop, for his thesis, and I read up on the economic distributive effects of the addition of highways. That doesn’t last long. Conversation ensues. Josh gives stock tips to a friend in NYC over his cell phone. Tells him to buy the company that Jost will be working for in July, and the company that Aaron worked for over the past two summers. Also tells him to call him back in a few months to let him know if he still has his shirt =) Make it to chicago by about 5:40. (brief fast food stop along the way)

It’s freaking cold in chicago. I call inqueery, aka Joel, out of the blue, to tell him I’m in chicago, and see if he’d like to hang out. Yay, he would. We head to the brown elephant (thrift store, proceeds go to Howard Brown Gay & Lesbian Health Center. We get there to find the closed sign on the door (closes at 6, it was 5:54). Aaron says we should go in anyway, as there are people shopping, and we do. Josh and I get jackets, functional, if not pretty.

We hit the pick me up cafe, grab some coffee & wait for Joel. We go up to Wrigley Field for Aaron’s tourist shot, then down to dinner at Chen’s a great sushi joint around the 3500 block of n clark st. (None of us had ever eaten there before). We wrack up a tremendous bill, stuff ourselves, and exercise our wits. It’s absolutely fabulous. Josh and I take center stage with our ongoing bitch-duel.

After dinner I show them where I used to live on Clark (for two weeks, with Jeremy Trager), just down the block. We then go to Spin, for Queer as Folk night, where Joel and I proceed to chat, while Josh and Aaron play pool, at Aaron’s suggestion. Josh wins, though Aaron shows massive improvement throughout the game. Some lady tries to hit on Aaron, telling him how fabulous the “1969” on the ass of his Gap Jeans is. We have fun with it.

We drive Joel back to his apartment, then take the long trek home, passing through downtown, where I point out the sears tower, with its top lost in the mist. And my former place of employment, Columbia College. (not to mention the L stop I took back to my hyde park apt. I milked this trip for massive nostalgia points)

Back at Josh’s place around 1am, and I pretty much immediately conk out. Josh and Aaron not far behind. I wake up at like 7am. I know it’ll be pointless at that point, so I surrender to oblivion for another hour. Can’t take it anymore. Go back to the quiet tapping routine, web-browsing, etc. They’re still asleep at 11am. <eyeroll> I skate around UIUC for an hour. I get lost, find my way back at noon, worried that I’ll be slowing down the process.

They’re still asleep. 11 hours. <double eyeroll> Grad Students. I continue to putz around. Eventually, 1ish? I try to rouse Aaron, tell him that we should get going. He seems resistant to waking up. I tell him I’ll take my shower then he can go. He likes the plan (it means he gets to sleep longer). I shower, dress, worrying about making it to see my parents in time to eat out, as planned, on the way back. Let alone make it home at a reasonable hour.

I’m out, Aaron is up, things are happening. We’ll grab breakfast. We wait for Josh to finish in the shower. I braid the resultant beard, shave my head, and let it grow back to the original length. Josh finishes. We head out the door. Drop our stuff in Aaron’s car. Hit this bread & sandwich shop vaguely similar to Baker Street here in squirrel hill.

Josh mentions that he’ll have to tell “Jon-Jon” about the Brown Elephant (thrift store, see above) since he’s really into thrift stores. I casually ask who that is (the names of josh’s friends in uc are myriad). (the following is paraphrased)

Josh said, “Oh, he was the blonde guy getting really close with that other guy at C-street, come to think of it, he’s crunchy vegan too.”

I respond, “You mean, the gorgeous guy, from the club, the one sucking face with the other guy, is vegan and loves thrift stores,” thinking this is entirely too good to be true.

“Oh yeah, and he’s a swimmer too.”

“Now I know you have to be shitting me.”

“No, I’m serious.”

Why the bitch didn’t tell me this when I could have drugged “Jon-Jon” and stuffed him in the trunk of the car, to carry him away to some life of mutual bliss, I don’t know. Clearly, Josh is a mean, mean man 😉

He then comments that the gorgeous blond boy (who just graduated with a bachelor’s in anthropology) isn’t into navel-gazing*, like at all. This did help cool my ardor to something reasonable.

*=”navel-gazing” was something Joel coined earlier for introspection. A key trait missing in many of my romantic partners that never made it very far, which was the context he brought it up in.

Aaron and I return, buying fireworks, eating with my parents at the olive garden, playing highway leapfrog with the balloon bitch and many other interesting characters, and I share with you the experiences I had from my fabulous weekend. I can’t remember a time I’ve had as much fun.

Thank you, Joel, Josh, and Aaron, you helped make an incredible weekend.