Tempe Nights and Days Into The NYC Haze

Monday night. I don't think I wanted to do anything, or I couldn't do anything. I was broke. Liz calls up. She asks if I want to go to Longshot's with her, and meet up with some of her girlfriends. She offers to pay for my drinks; who am I to decline? So I go. We get there; it's karaoke night. I start consuming whiskey at a rapid pace, on top of the twenty-two ounce vodka I had before leaving the house. Some of her friends start singing some songs, and becoming more drunk. We have some shots. At one point I do Springsteen's 'Born To Run', and I rarely do karaoke; must have been very drunk. This goes on for over two hours, until everyone is shitfaced. Liz and I leave around a quarter to two, so we can make it to the Rogue for a quick drink before closing time. We go in, she orders up the drinks, and I head for the bathroom. On the way, I bump into Rikki, we talk for a bit, and make plans to jam when I get back into town. When I get back the drinks are ready. We are just about finished with our drinks when the lights begin to flash, and it's time to go. Back at my place we hang out for a bit before I run across the street to grab a pack of smokes from the Orange Store. While there I run into some guy I saw at the Rogue earlier, and three of his buddies. They start asking if I can score them some bud. I tell them I have none to sell, but they can come through and smoke some of mine. On the way over, one of the guys tells me that he pimps some of the girls that work on my street, and this prompts us to discuss other business related matters. At my place we listen to some grime, rap, and P-Funk; we finish my weed; we drink Southern Comfort; they see my Magnum condoms, and freestyle about a 'whiteboy' using them. I exchange phone numbers with one of the guys, and they go after a while. Liz and I hang out for a while more, and then I sleep.

Tuesday. I wake up around four-thirty in the afternoon, and I'm still drunk. I don't do much on this day. I catch up on some errands. Liz texts me, and says some of her friends want me now. I make Sukiyaki. I watch a bundle of downloaded TV shows. Derik comes by for a while. I go to bed early.

Wednesday. I wake up at a decent hour. All I had to do was my laundry before meeting Viki for happy hour, and I do it. Just in the nick of time; she actually helps me fold it before we go out for drinks. For round one, we go to the Rogue. Happy hour at the Rogue is always an interesting place to drink. On this occasion, the bar was packed, meaning that every stool was taken, no more, no less. This is packed for the Rogue during the day. She drinks beer, I drink whiskey, we drink a lot of each. One of the old-timers buys a round for everyone at the bar; a classy dive bar alcoholic move. After several drinks, we relocate to 'The Bar', so I can get some food. We order up the drinks, I ask for food, but the bartender tells me she's about to get off, so she won't make me anything. This prompts us to tear through the bowl of cheetos, potato chips, and doritos. She comes back and asks if I still want food, I tell her she missed her chance, she laughs and throws us a couple of free bags of doritos. Viki and I cross the street to get to my place where we drink some vodka tonics, and I make a cheeseburger. Viki leaves. I go over to Carmen's. I ask her if she still wants to go out; she does. I hang out and listen to music at her place, while she showers, and gets dressed. During which, I pickup her new neighbor, while I'm on her balcony smoking a cigarette. When she's ready, we walk down Apache over to the Vine. We drink there for a short while before calling a cab to take us up to the Rogue. Over there we indulge in cheap, stiff drinks, and play a bunch of songs on the jukebox. We talk, having a more in depth conversation than we usually do, and we get very drunk, very quick. Once we're very drunk, she goes into one of her freakouts. She starts saying she wants to go, so I call Derik, and ask him to pick us up; he will, in thirty minutes. During this thirty minutes we sit out on the curb in front. She starts to complain about waiting, then she attempts to insult me, but only to piss me off, I tell her I know she's lying, then she jumps on top of me, punches me in the face a few times, and then we make out on the sidewalk. Derik comes, we get her in the car, and drive back over to Apache. When we get there, she is being intentionally difficult, falling, and forcing me to carry her while she plays dead weight. I knock on Jim's door, and ask him to help me, which prompts her to drop the act, and hop right up and jog to her apartment, but she leaves her purse in the hallway. I grab it, and bring it over. She pleads with me to stay with her, but I tell her I got to go, so she tells me to fuck off, slams her door, and locks it. After that I go on over to Tut's to meet Derik. We chill with some of the people there for a while, and then I tell Jenny to call up Bill, and we'll drink at his place or mine. We decided on my place. I collected money for beer. At the store, some guy from Ghana, hugs me, and says how much he loves America, I tell him 'God bless'. We go back to Tut's, round up a bunch of people, and head over to my place. All in all, it was about five guys, and four girls. We start blasting music, and delve right into this drinking game someone knew. This killed the case of beer we got very quick, we continued with So-Co. We got drunk. Bill and I walked over to the Orange Store for cigarettes, then he went home. On my way back, Jenny was leaving, which was beat, because I was going to try and hook-up with her. Once inside, Derik and I spend the next hour watching two couples make out on my couch to Snoop Dogg, while we ate hot dogs. The time had come for me to kick everyone out, I needed to sleep, so I could wake up and pack for my trip to New York the next day. I sleep. Carmen calls me an hour later.

I wake up, predictably hungover, just feeling like shit all around. I waste time. Try to ride out the hangover. I wait until there's about an hour left before I need to catch the bus to the airport. Then I take out the trash, I shower, I pack, I power everything down, I catch the bus. After checking in and the security check, I hit the Fox Sports Bar. Chili fries and beer. I make it to my gate just in time for boarding, and we're off. I sleep, listen to my Ipod, watch some corny movie, and a TV show Charlie Sheen is in. We break through some rough turbulence, and land; one of those landings where all the airplane neophytes clap after the landing. Of course, it's fucking raining, which means I'm not going to the bar when I get to Hoboken, because I'm not walking the seven blocks to L&J's in the rain. So, after I grab my duffel bag, I get picked up by my sister and her boyfriend. We chat a bit in the car on the way to Ana's; we get there, I thank them, and tell them I'll see them Sunday at the beach. Ana left me a set of keys under the mat, since she was sleeping already, because she had to be up at five to teach kids the next day. I got in, made some Mac and Cheese, watched TV for a couple of hours, and slept.

When I wake the next day, Ana is long gone, and the weather is still shitty, but at least it's not raining. I take a shower, lock up and head toward the PATH station. When I get there, I take the train to 14th street in New York. I call Catherine, no answer. I call Carl, no answer. I text Layla, no response. By the time I get to 2nd avenue, Carl calls back. He tells me he's not working on the Lower East Side that day, he's on vacation. He invites me down to some thing he's having at a bar called Ashes in Red Bank that night. However, the combination of himself, Ana, a couple of other girls, and myself would equal a drama festival, so I decline. We make loose plans to hang out the next night. Walking down Avenue A now, I call Josh. He says he might come up from Delaware the next night. By the time we get off the phone, I'm walking past Thompkins Square Park, into 7A, a nice little bar I like to go to. I order a pint, and drink it quickly. After that, I discover pitchers are only ten, so I drink a pitcher of beer. I spend about two hours there, during which I drink, watch Comedy Central, play the jukebox, and Layla texts me back to say she has the flu, so she can't make it out. When I leave 7A, I go into SoHo, walk around, head west through the bargain district, stop in a bar on MacDougal street, and wind up on 4th street at Down The Hatch. I order up another beer, and some lunch. Over lunch I talk to the the bartender about driving times heading south, and she can't believe I made New Orleans in under fifteen hours. We trade more roadtrip stories, and then I go, because by the time I make the train, and walk back to the apartment Ana will be home. Ana calls me about two blocks from her place, I tell her I'll be right there. When I get in, we talk for a bit, and then decide to walk down to the pier on the Hudson. We sit there for a while, and I actually take a nap on the steps. Afterwards, we walk across town to the supermarket to buy vodka and food to make dinner with. At her place we have a couple of cocktails, and fall asleep. In a couple of hours we wake up, and I make chicken parm. During which, we drink a lot of vodka, because we were short on cash, and could not afford too many drinks at the bar later. Catherine calls me up after dinner, and invites Ana and I over to her place for drinks. We hop in a cab after Ana got ready, and go to the PATH station. We get off at the World Trade Center station, and walk over to Chris and Catherine's apartment. We do our hellos, and have a quick drink before we go up to the roof. The roof is beautiful, because it's sixty stories up, in the heart of downtown Manhattan, but it was foggy that night, and it obstructed our views. We sat up there for over two hours, drinking vodka and beer, telling funny stories. Ana and I were going to go to the East Village, but Catherine and Chris wanted to make veal parm, so we stayed. Catherine and I walked to the market, to get some missing ingredients, while Chris got started on the veal. When we got back, we ate appetizers, drank Amstel, and watched Goodfellas, while we waited for the veal. By the time we were finished eating, it was four am, and time to go. The bar was out, due to the late hour, so Ana and I rode in a fresh puke scented cab over to the Christopher street PATH station, and went back to Hoboken. At Ana's, I decided I would leave, and head down to the beach. I showered, packed my bags, and hailed a cab to the PATH station. I rode on to New York Penn station, and caught the first train heading south. On the train, I drift in and out of consciousness, and then get off at Bay Head. My ride picks me up, I get to the house, drink a glass of water, and go right to bed.

I roll out of bed around two. I go downstairs to make scrambled eggs and breakfast links. I watch TV for a minute. I run into my father, and ask him if I can borrow the car to get a mother's day gift. He says we'll go together, and get food for dinner in the process. We go to the supermarket and the fish market, dinner and a gift are gotten. We get back, I take a shower, and make some phone calls to setup what I'm going to do later. For dinner we make teryaki chilean sea bass, cilantro-lime-rum glazed shrimp, and shrimp dejonge. When we're done cleaning up after dinner, I catch the train up north to Red Bank. When I get off, I walk into the Walt Street Pub to take a piss, and catch a band doing a Springsteen cover. I walk outside, and Ducky is pulling up in his Lexus to pick me up. We cruise around Red Bank for a bit, before going to Ashes to meet Nelson. I get stopped at the door for wearing sneakers, so Ducky goes in to tell Nelson and we're off. We stop by 7-11 for smokes on the way to Echo. Over there we see Kelsey working the door, once inside I run into B.C., who gives me a warm greeting. At the bar we order about five double Jack n' Cokes apeice. In a bit, Nelson comes through with a few heads, we drink more. A half hour later, we decide to go to Chubby's. Over at Chubby's, it's a disappointment. A far cry from the days when we ran the place, didn't pay for drinks, had girls dancing for us on the bar, and knew half the people in there; so we leave quickly. Once in the Lexus, we drive over to West Long Branch, to Jack's. It was a bit more live at Jack's, but when you leave for as long as I have, it's hard for things to be the same. I spend most of the time there smoking cigarettes outside, and setting up a date for later in the week. From there we head over to the Windmill, for some quick food. It's about two by now, so Ducky drops me off at the train station, and we agree to meet up the next Friday in New York. I ride down south, get picked up, go home, and sleep.

Mother's Day. I'm up around noon. My sister is at the house already. My father and I go for a boat ride, I drive back, after we pass the police. When we get back my other sister is there with her boyfriend. They make a big feast, which was sausage, meatballs, brasualle, stuffed peppers, and spaghetti. While they make dinner, I drink about five Mojitos. The neighbors come by and we bullshit with them for a while. Dinner is ready, and I eat entirely too much. I pass out on the couch before dessert.