[this is my life, and it's ending one entry at a time...]
2005-11-10 - 2:45 p.m. - no rest for the wicked...
Last weekend was the mother of all rough weekends. Since it�s a
big entry, I thought I�d do something different and break the entry up in
chronological order, so if you were watching a movie version of this blog you
would see the �time caption� at the bottom of the screen before each of "scenes"
begin.
Friday Night
It started out innocently enough. I attended someone�s b-day party, a really
cool person whom I met through myspace I might add. The venue was at Jet Vodka
Lounge, a swank joint with an airport terminal motif, a full-featured
international vodka menu and cocktail servers in sexy flight attendant outfits.
Delmar, the promoter who helped setup my birthday thing at WET a few weeks ago,
setup another promotion for the b-day girl�s party last weekend. She actually
got the idea of using Delmar as the promoter for her party from the invitiation I
put out for my own b-day in a myspace bulletin. Cool huh?
So anyway, I went to the party solo because my usual partner-in-crime, my cousin
usually can�t hang for the Friday night thing because of her work. I made my
rounds and of course greeted the b-day girl, the only person I knew in the whole
place once I spotted her. Oh and I actually met Delmar this time. Last time I
was so blitzed that I didn�t get a chance to run into him. He gave me a free
drink card too. =p
It was a nice crowd, but I was a bit of a wallflower though so I wound up
swinging back a few martinis to loosen myself up, but it didn�t help much
because my game was so off that night. The open bar deal didn�t cover martinis
but the bartender was nice enough to give me half-price on them. The open bar
promo ended around 1:00am and the crowd thinned out not too soon thereafter.
So I sat around at the near empty bar, riding out my buzz until the b-day girl
took off. She and part of her entourage took off to Wet (where my b-day was) of
all places and I wound up eating and going home, thus ending my Friday evening.
I know I could have done a little better in terms of socializing. I think all I
need to do is smile, make more eye contact and open up a little bit more.
Saturday Morning/Afternoon
But anyway, the following Saturday morning and afternoon was pretty low key. I
went into hangover recovery mode and was perfectly content with just chilling
out for the rest of the day, but then my cousin called asking if I wanted to go
out. Part of me just wanted to continue chilling out. I had that scratchiness on
the back of my throat and mild cough that is a usual sign of an oncoming head
cold. All the chain-smoking of the night before didn�t help matters much either.
There was one catch however, the cute go-go dancer chick with whom I had that
wild make out session with on my birthday was hanging out with my cousin that
night and I haven�t had a chance to run into her since that night our tongues
danced. Honestly, I didn�t know where I stood with her, if I did at all, since
that little �interaction� of ours. What I really wanted to do is thank her for
one of the best times I had in a really long time but honestly I don�t even know
she remembered any of it.
That in itself is a difficult thought to swallow for myself. When I go through
something as intimate as a kiss, I�d like to think that I could sway that person
as much as I was swayed by the experience. I know that there was alcohol
involved and that she most definitely drank a whole lot of it and I could hardly
blame myself if she had forgotten the entire experience, but still even armed
with that knowledge, it�s not making me feel any better.
Saturday Night before 1:00 a.m.
So anyhow, we went to this forgettable suburban bar to get pre-sauced. I�m not
sure why we went there of all places. I think it�s because she was driving on a
ticket, which she didn�t even have with her so we were limited on the places we
could roll into. Because she had no ID, if she didn�t have a contact to get her
into the club, then she wasn�t going to go in.
We only stayed at that place for an hour-and-a-half or so because she had to
go-go dance at Redno Five. So off we went in 2 separate cars. My cousin rode
with the hot go-go dancer chick and I rode in style with my cousin�s cousin and
his new Mitsu Eclipse. The new �06 model is actually pretty damn hot.
Saturday around 1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m.
Now Redno was more like it. We made it there around 1:00am. The crowd was a
little thin at first but things started gathering speed as the night progressed.
I wasn�t planning on drinking hardcore that night. Since I blew all my cash the
night before I had to ride on my plastic. Visa�: it�s everywhere you want to be
when your ass is broke like me. =p
I was a bit tired so I decided to go with Red Bull & Vodka for the caffeine
boost. This chick at the bar asks if I want to have a shot with her, so I smiled
and I told her maybe. Then 2 of her friends roll up next to her 2 of them were
having J�ger Bombs and the third chick, who was an Asian I might add, had some
unidentified shot. The ones with the J�ger Bombs downed theirs quickly, while
the Asian chick gagged on her first shot attempt.
I was chatting it up with the first chick with some small talk. Do you come
around here often? So how do you like this place? The Asian chick still had her
shot at the bar so I asked her if she was a nurse. She said no, but seemed
dumbfounded by the question. Then I followed by saying �Then why are you nursing
that shot?� She smiled and said OK, you got me�
So I ordered 3 J�ger Bombs from the bartender, one for me and a couple for her
friends. I would have gotten one more but the Asian chick was still nursing her
shot. She finally caught up though when we all took our shots together. They
thanked me for the shot and headed towards the door. I�m not sure if they went
out or if they went downstairs. It�s been so long since I hit Redno that almost
forgot there even was a downstairs. =p
Anyway, the rest of the night was fairly uneventful, I got a few looks here and
there but no catches. I was able to get an opening by telling a chick that the
tag on her top was sticking out, she was so grateful that she offered me to sit
next to her on the speaker pedestal. My follow-through wasn�t so good though
because she lost interest a few minutes later and wandered off.
I swear that cats have greater attention spans than drunken chicks. At least you
can grab and keep their attention by dancing a piece of yearn in front of them.
As for drunken chicks, my dancing yarn doesn�t seem to grab their attention for
very long.
Oh, somewhere in between all that, the cute bartender chick poured a couple of
Kamikaze shots and had a shot with me. I swear all bartenders should be as cool
as her. As the night wound down I shifted my positioning to get different
vantage points on the floor. The go-go dancer chick looked totally hot dancing
on the speaker pedestal by the percussionist. I swear she�s a total guy magnet
and it�s fairly obvious she thrives on that kind of attention. She left her
smokes in the car, so she did come to me like every 30 minutes for another one
of my smokes. If only she was as addicted to me sexually like she was addicted
to nicotine it would be almost perfect.
The crowd eventually starting thinning out, so I checked my watch, it was around
4:30am. I pounded back a few of rounds of H20 and I squared my tab with the cute
bartender chick. While I was waiting for the club to close out, I was mildly
entertained by this super-drunk chick. She was kind of doing this staggering
dance thing. It was amusing how guy after guy tried to take advantage of the
situation and grind up on her. She�d have that WTF? expression on her face brush
the guy off and stagger to another spot on the dance floor and continue doing
her staggering drunk dance thing, only for the cycle to repeat itself 3 or 4
times with different guys. I think the same guy even came back twice. Such is
the beauty of alcohol-induced stupidity.
Around 5:00 a.m.
Finally, 5am hit. The lights popped on, the music stopped and they started
clearing the joint out. The cute go-go dancer chick got off the pedestal but was
still doing the guy magnet thing without missing a heartbeat. I suppose the fact
that she was wearing one the skimpiest outfits a female human could possibly
squeeze into, helped matters greatly in that respect.
Ultimately though, it was artsy looking club photographer dude that got her
attention. He was taking pictures of her on the pedestal earlier and having her
pose for more when she got down thereafter. It was an interesting gimmick
though. I may have to try that photography thing someday. As such, whatever
chance I may have had with her that evening was at that moment obviously not
meant to be. So we all said our goodbyes and parted ways.
My cousin�s cousin drove us from the city back to my cousin�s place in the
�burbs where my car was situated. I swear, we couldn�t have possibly planned
this fiasco out any more poorly. By the time we got back to her house she
discovered she was missing her keys. It turns out the keys were in the go-go
chick dancer�s car, now isn�t that just lovely. I told her cousin to drive us
back to my car so we can wait in there and he could head home. My cousin was
then on the cell asking the go-go dancer chick to pass by her place on the way
home so she could get the keys.
Around 6:00 a.m.
Then it happened, around 6am the go-go dancer chick�s tire had gone flat and she
was stranded somewhere south of downtown. So I drove w/ my cousin from the
suburbs, straight back to downtown where we came from. Although she initially
pulled over because of the flat, she continued driving south, away from downtown
and away from us because she was being harassed by some people on the street. So
she drove from 8th a few blocks down to 11th.
Around 6:30 a.m.
About 30 minutes or so later we were finally able to catch up to her car. I went
outside to change the flat to the spare while she sat in the driver�s seat of my
car to warm up. She was still wearing that flimsy go-go dancing outfit. She also
had a jacket on top of that, but that didn�t cover her bare legs and it was
rather cold and drizzling out there. O.o
So there I was kneeling on the cold, wet cement while loosening the lug nuts on
the flat tire. I had to use the tire-iron and mini-jack kit that came with the
car. Not the easiest pieces of equipment to use, but they do the job. So there I
was in the cold air breathing in the cold air with my throat already sore from
the onset of a cold and abuse from two nights of consecutive chain-smoking. This
type of exposure pretty much insured I was going to get sick with a cold.
I finally had the car jacked up, but the tire didn�t come off. Then I noticed a
6th lug nut. FUCK! So I had to jack the car all the way back down to the ground,
loosen and remove the last lug nut then I had to jack the car all the way back
up again. By that time my back was killing me. I had to reposition myself so
that my body was closer to the ground, so I kneeled and rested on my shins.
This time, I had better leverage to jack the car back up again. Oh and for the
record it takes about 10 to 15 minutes of constant turning to either jack a car
up to proper height or lower it back to the ground, using that stupid mini-jack.
Actually jacking down the car is a little faster because gravity is on your
side, but it�s still a major pain in the ass.
I was able to finally remove the flat tire, replace it with the compact spare,
put in the lug nuts, jack the car back down and finally tighten all the lug nuts
with the tire iron. She was good to go, or so we thought. So we began our quest
for breakfast. As we were driving to find a place to eat, my cousin was telling
me what they had talked about in the car. Apparently, all the guys she ever
�dated� were complete assholes and she was utterly amazed and dumbfounded at how
nice of a guy I am and she was equally dumbfounded why she is not attracted to a
guy of my qualities.
It looks like the �nice guy syndrome� has once again reared its ugly head and
cast its dark shadow upon me. It goes a little deeper than that though, it turns
out I�m not her �type�. My cousin then revealed she really wasn�t into Asian
guys. I kind of knew it all along buy the way she�d flirt with a total stranger,
but when it came to us she never acted toward me in any way that could be
mistaken as flirting, with the exception of my b-day of course, which really
threw me off. Although she loved her as a friend, my cousin then proceeded to
warm me that if I wanted anything serious in terms of relationship, the go-go
girl would not be a good candidate because of her indecisiveness.
Around 7:15-7:30 a.m.
As we proceeded to drive, I had her follow me to Lake Shore Drive (LSD), which
was probably a huge mistake on my part. Although we were driving rather slowly
for Lake Shore, which is an expressway of sorts, her rinky-dink doughnut spare
couldn�t take the speed. The rubber part of the spare tire popped right off.
FUCK again! I checked my rear view mirror and I almost thought I was
hallucinating, but I saw the rubber part of the tire roll down the middle of LSD
while cars are swerving to avoid hitting the errant rubber tire. That tire must
have been under-inflated.
She was able to pull over to one of the emergency parking zones of Lake Shore
Dr. I thought about putting on the spare from my car, but the cars were whizzing
by pretty fast and there was hardly any room to move around and change the tire
again. Plus I was exhausted, so I wound up calling 411 and getting the number to
AAA on my cell.
I got AAA on the line. Supposedly both of the cute go-go girl�s parents have
AAA, but we didn�t have any of the member numbers and the search under their
names did not come up at all, and even if we did have the right info we weren�t
sure if the go-go girl was an authorized user under their names.
So I ended the call with the first AAA rep, regrouped my thoughts and called AAA
again to arrange a tow truck under my own name. It turns out only AAA members
can request emergency roadside assistance, fortunately I was able to enroll over
the phone and pay for the annual membership fee via credit card. Damn am I glad
I brought that fucking credit card with me.
Around 7:30 a.m.
After I got my membership squared away, I had tow service arranged. The tow
service called my cell to let me know that there was a truck about 30 min away
so I waited in the car until it arrived. Both my cousin and the go-go dancer
were fast asleep in my car. For some reason I was in some weird zone where my
body felt tired but I wasn�t really sleepy. It kind of felt like jetlag but not
quite, so I just stayed awake waiting for the tow truck to arrive. Somewhere in
between, day broke. The sun was up but it was a cold, wet, overcast and dreary
day. I got bored waiting around, so I snapped a picture on my camera phone. If a
picture could reflect a mood, this picture would reflect my mood at that moment
perfectly.
Around 7:40 a.m.
A tow truck pulls up maybe 20 minutes ahead of schedule. I was saying to myself,
damn they are fast. When I got out of the car to meet the driver, it turns out
however that it was the City tow truck making its rounds on LSD. I told him I�m
expecting a tow from AAA. Although he was supposed to tow disabled cars on the
spot, he said he�ll continue his rounds and when he comes back he�ll have no
choice but to tow the car to the Montrose Beach parking lot where we can leave
the car until arrangements are made to pick it up.
Around 7:40-8:00 a.m.
The AAA tow truck finally arrived. Both my passengers were still fast asleep. I
went out to meet the driver and gave him the 411. The car was stopped in the
emergency parking zone just south of the Fullerton exit. He said there was
Firestone nearby that�s open on Sunday, so it was on. He asked me what my
ethnicity was. I told him I was Filipino. It turns out he has lots of Filipino
friends and he was telling me all these stories about them, how they always hang
and joke around, which I thought was pretty cool. As he hoisted the car onto the
flatbed, an awful noise of metal grinding against metal was made by the bare
spare tire wheel and the metal deck of the flatbed truck. Slowly but surely, he
was able to get the go-go chicks car onto the flatbed.
I pulled off to the Fullerton exit to make way for the truck and to let it take
lead to the Firestone. It turns out the one we were headed to is close all those
clubs by Weed St. The usual clubs like Zentra, Crobar and even the one I went to
last Friday, Jet were all within a block away.
Around 8:00-9:00 a.m.
When we arrived the Firestone was just opening up. The guy who opened the place
up was the only one there so he started processing everything. The mechanics
that actually change the tires weren�t there yet so we had to wait. I went back
out to check on the Tow truck driver. He was unloading the car from the flatbed,
but he needed help to guide the car down. So I got in the car, held the wheel
steady, shifted the gear to neutral, while he winched the car back down the ramp
of the flatbed onto the parking lot.
I thanked the AAA driver who set the truck back up and took off shortly
thereafter. I then handed the keys to the disabled go-go mobile to the Firestone
guy and went back to the car to wait it out. I closed my eyes a little to rest
my head, but then I had to use the bathroom, so I got back up to use Firestone�s
facilities.
By the time I got back to the car, go-go girl needed to use the bathroom too.
She was a little disoriented when she stepped out of the car, so I led her by
the hand to the entrance. Sometimes, you can kind of tell by a person�s body
language whether someone is into you or not. Sometimes it�s the way that person
looks into your eyes or smiles at you. Other times it�s the way they hold your
hand. If you give her hand a gentle squeeze and she doesn�t squeeze back you can
pretty much take that as a sign that the chemistry is not there.
It was like I held her hand but she didn�t hold my hand back, so I guess that
was that. About halfway through she saw the door and said I can take it from
here. Then she smiled and said �Thanks Daddy�. I�m not sure what that meant, but
knowing my track record with females, it probably means I�ve taken on some
father figure role in her mind and it probably has nothing to do with being her
�daddy� in bed in that �who�s your daddy?� kind of way. Oh well�
So we continued waiting in the car and the two girls continued their slumber. It
must have been 45 minutes to an hour before the tire finally got changed out. I
saw them pull the go-go mobile out of the garage, so I went back to the front
desk and proceeded to pay for the tire and service with my handy-dandy credit
card. Membership does indeed have its privileges.
Around 9:00-9:50 a.m.
Now that the go-go mobile was fully operational we finally proceeded to go for
breakfast. I took lead and she followed with her car. My cousin was still dead
asleep. I didn�t have any cash and I wanted to eat some quality food, so we
wound up driving to Clarke�s in Lincoln Park, one of the best 24 hour diners I
have ever eaten in. We were able to find parking about a half a block away with
my cousin still sleeping on the passenger�s side. I uttered simple 1 to 2 word
phrases such as �WAKE UP!� �FOOD!� �EAT!� as to not confuse the sleeping beauty.
My ploy didn�t work however and she woke up as confused as ever. =p
So we staggered our way into Clarke�s got seated and eventually ordered and ate
breakfast. One thing I noticed about the go-go dancer chick was that she was
really loud. Actually my cousin was loud too but not swearing loud. You should
hear the mouth on this girl. I heard stories of her getting kicked out of places
and I began to see how that could have happened. I mean if this were 5:30 am
after a drunken night of partying I�d understand, but this was somewhere between
9:30 and 10:00 am. There were children and grandparents present and she was
swearing like a sailor. I�m just glad nobody took offense. It�s a big contrast
to say the least from the times I�ve seen her as the sober, quiet girl. The
thing is she really didn�t drink much from the night before but I think the
sleep deprivation may have gotten to her.
Somewhere in between I received a call from the office saying one of the backups
failed. Because I was part of the weekend and after-hours support and because
this was an important end of the month backup, I had to come in and setup a new
backup job. By the time the check arrived, nobody had any money, so I covered
the bill with my card again. I made sure everyone had all their stuff from my
car and my cousin drove the go-go mobile home w/ the cute go-go dancer chick,
while I headed towards the train station.
Around 10:10 to 11:10 a.m.
I found parking by the EL stop. I didn�t have my student U-Pass, but I did have
my handy Chicago Transit Card on me for backup. I guess all those years in the
boy scouts paid off in terms of being prepared. Riding on the EL on a Sunday
morning is different than your average morning commute. Trains travel less
frequently and there are fewer cars per train. It�s still a good deal if you
need to ride into downtown though.
I must have waited at least 15 to 20 minutes until the train finally arrived.
Once I boarded, I found a seat and took a long awaited nap. It�s usually about a
30 min train ride from stop to stop. I must have dozed off for too long however
because I blew right past my stop. I had to get off at Clark and Lake, bridge
over to the other side and hop on the Orange line to ride the opposite direction
of the loop back to the stop nearest my office.
Around 11:10 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
I finally made it into my office, but I had nothing with me. I left my
swipe-card, ID and keys all at home. I had to use my Driver�s License to check
in with security and get a visitor�s badge and I had to ring the after-hours
buzzer to get in the computer room. Once I got into the computer room, I did my
thing. I re-set the tapes and the backup job up to run. For some reason it
failed immediately. It looks like the first tape was �locked�. So I rebooted the
backup server, put in 4 new blank tapes, labeled the first tape on the system,
set the backup job again crossed my fingers and ran it.
It looks like it was running fine this time. I told the operator on duty to call
me back if anything happens. I went back to my desk because there was a pack of
Black Cherry Halls I kept in the drawer as backup and my throat was totally
sore. It was time for me to finally head back home.
Around 12:01 to 1:00 p.m.
I made my way back to the Loop stop. The sun finally broke through the clouds
and I could feel the warmth of its light on my skin. I wish I had my sunglasses
though because that shit was bright as hell. The train arrived at the stop
around 10-15 minutes later. I took a seat and was half-asleep half-awake. I
tried to remain conscious though as to not miss my stop again.
I finally made it back to the home stop around 30 min later. I went back to my
car from the station and drove home. I gave a brief recap of my misadventure to
my family and excused myself because I went on for more than 24 hours without
sleep. I hopped in the bathroom and took one of the best feeling showers I�ve
ever taken in my life, and around 1:00 in the afternoon I finally collapsed in a
heap in my bed.
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