Monday, August 9, 2010

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

If it was something within my knowledge and power, I would create a pill you could swallow which would activate an auto-shut feature for your mouth after your blood alcohol level reaches a certain percentage. This pill would have to come in a few different formulations. There would be a 0.01 formula so you can’t ask for your keys back until you’re sober enough to drive again. There would be the 0.05 for those people who, like me, lose their appropriateness filter after three for four drinks. Then there would be some upper limit like 0.10, which would also include some sort of visible effect to let everyone else know that you’re wasted.


I took our visitor from Italy to the monthly 1st Saturday Underground House party. I knew I’d be tired, so I told him and Twin Peaks that we should get there early. It was the 3-Year Anniversary Celebration, and started a couple of hours earlier than usual, at midnight. We got there at 12:30. By 2:30 AM, the place was so packed that they started turning people away. I saw a couple of friends that I had hoped to introduce our visitor to, but they left to handle what I can only guess was some sort of shady transaction and were never allowed to reenter. Oh well.

My favorite local DJ, David Harness was in the building. I told him that my heart skipped a beat when I saw him on the line-up, which would have been perfect if I’d have stopped there. But no, the auto-shut feature would have come in handy right then. “I don’t normally feel that way for men I haven’t slept with”. WTF? Booze is the devil. That’s all I have to say about it.

In the middle of David’s set it got so hot in the joint that I had to take a break, a long one. I sat in the cocktail lounge and, even after I’d cooled down, I couldn’t stop sweating. Our visitor surfed through the crowd while I was there and told me, “There is a wrestler here. He is very famous. I want you to take a picture of me with him.” I waited for Twin Peaks to return from the bar and we headed over there. As soon as I passed through the hallway, I knew exactly who he was talking about. It was Batista (I looked up his name today with a coworker). He stood almost a full foot over every man near him and was at least twice the girth. Our visitor was barely larger than one of the guy’s arms. It turned out to be a great photo: Jack and the Giant LOL. I thanked him for taking a photo with my friend. I admit that it was a rather dry thanks, but this guy has to be sick and tired of being fawned over by everybody he meets. Seriously, he had come to the club to dance and have a good time, right? Let’s get the photo over with so everyone can go back to having fun. Besides, WWE wrestling is all fake soap opera fighting anyway. You wanna see me lose it? Introduce me to Jet Li. I’d probably forget my own name. I’d even stutter a bit if I met Rodney Yee.

We called it quits early that night – a little after 4AM. The crowd had thinned out by then. The dance floor looked a lot like it did at 1AM. I had run out of steam, intoxication and cash. I don’t think there is any better time to call it a night. I still had to take our visitor home to Berkeley as well.

I was gonna end it there with a little blurb about how my romantic life continues to be boring. However, that may not be entirely true. There was a tense moment around me on Friday, midway through the Red Bike and Green monthly ride.

Killa B and B-Ry have been having some sort of (not so) secret pissing contest where I’m concerned. I’m not sure what exactly has transpired between the two, but I often feel like I need to distance myself from both of them when we’re all in the same space. So my romantic life continues to be boring as far as I’m concerned, but there is some mysterious undercurrent at work, which I’m pretty sure has no effect on my future love life (or at least I hope not). Any interference on my part will probably just be interpreted as me showing preference, so I keep the status quo as much as possible and let these things work themselves out.

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