JP

Fair warning to all before you begin reading – this is going to be a long post. You may want to go make a nice sandwich before beginning.

I just had a totally awesome, and yet, horribly sucky week. How can I have both? Well, think the past week as that nice sandwich you should be enjoying right now. The bread of said sandwich is the awesomeness of my week, however that cold meat you didn’t remember buying that was a wee bit slimy that your chomping into is the suckyness of my week. That’s okay, I’ll wait why you go throw that out and make a nice PB&J.

Everything started on Monday. Much to my surprise, I had a good day at work, which is as rare as three tittied stripper. After work, I headed over Target, grabbed a quite bite to eat, and wait for Jess to get off of work so we could go to the concert. When I finally saw here, she was giddy about what had happened at work. Her boss, who was a complete and total louse, finally got shit-canned. Needless to say, we both headed to the concert flying high. (not literally, but metaphorically)

We get to the concert, and end up being 5 ft from the stage. Much to our surprise, the show ended up being a totally acoustic show. I wasn’t sure how I would like that at first, but considering Tantric originally started out being an acoustic band, my worries were quickly subsided. The show kicked total ass! The first opening band was very good, ending their set with an awesome cover of Nirvana’s “About A Girl”. The second band came up and was pretty decent. I will have to say that the best part of that band was the smokin’ bass player. After the 2 local opening bands got done, they reset the stag and Tantric came one. They did a 4 song set and literally blew the roof off the place! Here is their set list:

Mourning

Something Better
Breakdown
Down and Out

They played for a good 30 minutes and I have to say I enjoyed every minute of it! I have been waiting to see this band for the past 7 years and to see them up close, acoustic, and for free was just beyond amazing. After Tantric got done, it was about another 35-40 minutes before Saliva took the stage. It was just the lead singer and his guitar player. This is where the show took a turn for the worst. They played 3 songs, thanked everyone for coming, and hen left the stage. No encore, no taking a little break, no nothing. Three songs and they were done. From the mood of the crowd, they pissed off quite a few fans that night, and rightly so. We had been waiting there for over 4 hours, and the best they had to give was 3 songs? I realize the show was free for everyone, but that’s still pretty shitty.

Speaking of shitty, that’s how I felt the next morning. I woke up at 5am to go to work, and could barely move. My feet were swollen from standing in the same spot during the show for about 4 ½ hours, by body ached, I had a fever, sinus pressure, and that general feeling of ‘yuck’. I had just enough energy to make it to my Mac, call off, and write an email to my guys to let them know what to do for the day. I was back in bed by 6am and slept straight thru until 1:30pm. I got up, dragged my heels to the couch, and laid there until 1:30am, at which time I made it back to the bed. I woke up on Wednesday morning and felt almost the same exact way, sans the swollen feet. This time I was smart enough to put my cell phone on the nightstand before falling asleep. I rolled over, called off, and went back to sleep. This time I slept only slept until about 10am. Jess was off that day and she had to do some running around and asked if I wanted to go. I was content to spend the day riding the couch again, but she was concerned since I hadn’t had much to eat in the last 24 hours. She sweetened the deal and tried to get me to eat something by offering to take me to Waffle House. After about another 15 minutes of chiding I agreed and took my first shower since Monday morning. We made it to Waffle House and I managed to put a single waffle and most of a small hash brown into my stomach before it started to get angry with me. After that, we headed to Barnes & Noble for her to pick up the new book in a series she has been reading, and then her to allergist’s office so she could get her weekly allergy shot. After she got her shot, we headed to Blockbuster since I was exhausted and wanted to veg for the rest of the night with some movies. We watched a movie, and then were in bed by 10:30pm.

Thursday and Friday were typical days at work, which is to say they sucked. I also had the great honor of working Saturday, which was a treat. It was after work on Saturday that things started to get back to their original state of awesomeness. Jerry and I talked last week after the podcast about going to a new bar that a buddy of ours just opened up call Nowhere Special. With plans set, I met Jerry there around 7pm on Saturday. When I got there, I saw the owner Allen and talked with him for a while until Jerry showed up. After that we had a few drinks, played some good music, and actually managed to get JP to join us for a few hours. At one point, we played ‘She Hates Me’ on the jukebox and recreated the infamous sing-along from my bachelor party. We then got the bright idea to call Ormando to see if he wanted to join us as well. Neither one of us have seen Ormando in a few years, and thought it would be fun to get together. We extended an invitation to him last week to join the cast of Growing Up Geek, which he gladly accepted. This was the first communication I have had with him in a good 2+ years. The only problem with calling him that no one had his phone number. JP, being the geek he is whipping out his iPhone and found his landline listed online. I stepped outside and gave him a call. He told us he would love to come over to the bar but he had some friends over and extended us an invitation to come over and drink for free after we left the bar. I told him I would see what happens and give him a call later. He ended the call that he would really like to see us again and hang out. I though this was really cool since we haven’t seen each other in a long time. I will say that is one of the very cool things about my friends. We may not see each other in a long time, but when we finally do, it takes us about 5 minutes to catch up and then it’s just like old times again. I headed back into the bar, made my report to Jerry and JP, and then proceeded to shoot some really bad pool. It was around 11:30pm that we had to make a decision – go record a podcast or go to Ormando’s house. The decision was made to go to Ormando’s. JP couldn’t go, so it was just Jerry and I heading off to the wilds of Edwardsville.

Punching Ormando’s address into my GPS, we were off like a prom dress. We got there around midnight or so, and proceeded to drink until the wee hours of the morning. We sat around his kitchen table catching up, telling old stories, and even called Georgia to scream at her in the way that Ormando only could. After her ears got done bleeding, we all passed the phone around and talked with her. I have to say it really was like old times again. Back in the day the 4 of us hung out all the time. With her on the phone, even though she was a few thousand miles away, it felt like the band was back together.

Speaking of band, after I got off the phone with her, I discovered that everyone had left the confines of the kitchen and were now in the living room playing some Rock Band. Being wise enough to know when to play and when to observe, I watched them play until 3:30am. Then thank to the magic of Daylight Savings, it was 2:30am again! We stayed there until the clock read 3am for the second time that night and decided it was time to make our leave. Of course, once we got in the car, Jerry and I both realized we were starving. Not being ones to ignore hunger pangs, we headed to Sheetz to grab some late night eats. After acquiring our food, I dropped Jerry off at his house and headed back to my place. Once home, I made my way to my computer, checked my email, and ate my bagel sandwich. I looked at the clock and it read an adjusted 4:30am. It then hit me that it even though it was technically 4:30am, it really was 5:30am, and I had been up for over 24hrs. I made my way to the bedroom, got changed, and fell into bed.

Then something more cruel than cruel happened. My eye popped open at 7:30 in the fucking morning. With Jess already gone to work, I laid in bed with Spike and Loki and could not go back to sleep to save my life. Realizing that 3 hours was all the sleep I was going to be allowed, I got up and headed into the living room. Throwing on the TV I channel surfed for a few hours until I started getting tired again. I finally fell asleep on the couch around 10am, and woke up at 1:30pm, finally feeling somewhat human.

That my friends, is how my week went down. Right now my wife is making some cookies in the kitchen and we’re going to be spending a nice quiet evening watching some movies. Another workweek starts tomorrow, and I’m going to try and squeeze every last drop out of this weekend!