Sometimes, I get myself into situations and I look back and I wonder, “Why didn’t I just listen to my gut?” He’s never been wrong, and although he’s not always fun, he certainly has my best interest in mind. Have you ever gotten that feeling….. the one where the abdominal Jiminy Cricket screams out, “NO STOP, THIS IS A BAD IDEA!”? I get them from time to time, and because of these two next stories I’ve resolved to listen to him these days. I’m not sure if it’s an inherent survival technique passed down from generations of hunter/gatherers or just that I’ve become streetwise to a point where I can read a bad situation like a housewife can pick apart a trashy romance novel, but I’ll tell you this: If you see me running, you best follow me, because all hell is was or will break loose in the opposing direction.
In south Jersey there’s a place called the Pennant on Rt 130. Large venue does the typical south Jersey thing. Serves cheap drinks, harbors cover bands and house music. They do this thing on Wednesdays called White Trash Wednesdays. $5 cover at the door starting at 8 or 9pm Live Cover bands Alternating sets with a house music DJ and $.25 drinks increasing by $.25 on the hour. Needless to say such an environment creates some strange bed fellows.
I little bit of background in time here. I was hanging out with my friend Joel a bunch at the time. We had both gotten out of relationships recently and we decided the best thing to do was to go out get drunk and just try to not think about our exes. So White Trash Weds became a weekly gathering. We’d collect a bunch of friends load up into the van and head off in search of girls and drink and Foreigner cover bands.
One such night Joel’s friend Heather came along. She brought some friends and we all got drunk and rocked out that night. One of her friends …. Amy caught my eye. Amy was cute and she was cool or as cool as a guy drinking $.50 Bourbon and cokes by the fistful can remember a girl. Anyhow, we all went back to Joel’s that night and I think Joel and Heather hooked up or something, everyone else left aside from me and Amy. We got to talking and talking got to kissing and then we passed out. Nothing else happened, we were at Joel’s mom’s place and I’m not about to ruin her couch. So anyway Amy and I exchanged numbers and we went our separate ways in the morning…. or she did I decided to sleep on the couch for a few more hours before I went to school. Joel and Heather apparently had a pretty good night because they were still at it for like another hour and a half while I was trying to go to sleep. I didn’t want to hear my friend having sex, especially due to the fact that It only reminded me of that scene from High Fidelity where John Cusack’s ex is having sex with his neighbor in his head. “No one is having better sex in the world than they were in my imagination.” Which in turn reminded me of my ex and I was still exercising those demons. Also Afghan covers by their very nature are not ideal for blocking out sound.
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