I made fish fingers in our toaster oven minutes before I had to leave. I mixed mayo and relish together to make tartar sauce [a handy trick I learned from my parents], and ate 3 fish fingers. The other 3 I wrapped in tin foil and put back in the fridge; I was already feeling a little bit nauseous. I ran back upstairs, shoved a bunch of my clothes in my backpack. That's when the thunder started. We'd been seeing dark grey clouds loom over Boulder for a couple hours, but nothing had happened yet until I was finished putting everything I needed in my backpack. A loud roar of thunder burst through our open window. No wind, no rain, just thunder. The air was still warm of course, because for some reason it never falls beneath 80 degrees in our room. I got used to this over the summer, though, when the suite I was staying in at CSUCI had a constant temperature of 85 degrees.
Back to the thunder. It roared far off into the distance, but with enough gusto that my roommate and I looked at each other in disbelief. I put on my black hoodie, said goodbye to my roomie, and raced down the stairs. I was almost out the door when I all of a sudden stopped, turned to the hall closet and took out my rain coat. I figured I'd be needing that. It hadn't started to rain yet, but thanks to the thunder, I was given a clue.
As I ran down the stairs to the front entrance, I could see small water drops hit the ground. It was beginning. And of course, as soon as I stepped out from underneath the archway, it started POURING. Massive drops of rain hit my face, and left giant imprints on my raincoat. I had to walk 5 blocks in this to the bus stop. I realized my fate, and couldn't help but smile. I have no idea why, but the thought of walking to the bus stop in the pouring rain, wearing clothes that were definitely not suited for this weather [except for the raincoat I thankfully grabbed], it made me laugh. Loudly. The entire walk, I was giggling to myself like a madwoman. I thought of the time I was with Amanda in San Francisco and we had to walk more than 5 blocks to a bus stop, and all I had were jeans, my black wool coat [with no hood], and my silver shoes. That small adventure killed those poor silver shoes, but I don't regret it. That was one of my best memories with Amanda, walking to that bus stop.
Anyways, I'm walking through the streets of Boulder in this ridiculous weather, and there's lightning flashing off in the distance and thunder responding accordingly, and I'm laughing my ass off, soaked to the bone, letting my hood fall to my shoulders because the wind keeps pushing it back anyway, and just trying to get to the fucking bus stop. I finally get there and I'm completely soaked. My hair is wet, my jeans are wet; my shoes did nothing, I might as well just gone barefoot. But I'm here with 10 minutes to spare, and finally under some kind of shelter. And right as I sit down and admit defeat, the rain stops. Of course. I shook my head and silently smiled.
Finally the bus comes, and I get on for free with my student pass, and sit down close to the back. I figure I'm gonna be on here for a while, I should stay close to the back. The bus makes several stops on the way to Denver, at places I've never even heard of. Most of the stops were at shopping plazas out in the middle of nowhere. It was pretty bizarre. I'm still sopping wet, and now cold, too, because for some reason the AC is on full blast.
An hour long bus ride and my jeans hardly dried. I get off the bus and walk up the stairs to meet Katy. I apologize for my appearance, and she says "no worries", and introduces me to her friends Jaime and Summer. She and Summer live in Albuquerque, NM, but drove out here to visit Jaime who lives in Denver. And then I decided to meet them in Denver. All of them made plans to go to a concert that night somewhere in Denver at a place I'd never heard of, to see a band I'd never heard of, and they invited my along, and I accepted. I trust Katy's judgment and taste. I knew I'd be in good hands.
We walked a block or two to this restaurant/vodka bar called Red Square. Summer and Katy went to Poland for some theatre gig and fell in love with this specific kind of vodka called Zubrowka [pronounced joo-brohv-kuh]. They hadn't been able to find it in the U.S., but this place had it. So we stopped in, ordered a caraffe of Zubrowka and a bowl of Borscht [a Russian soup made of beets, pickles, eggs, and...something else...but really mostly beets], and then after we successfully and discreetly filled Summer's water bottle with the leftover vodka, we ventured into downtown Denver. The vodka was a little too strong for me, I only had one sip, but it was fun to watch Summer, Katy, and Jaime have a couple shot glasses full. They weren't drunk, of course, maybe just a little buzzed. Anyways, it made for good conversation.
We strolled along the 15th street mall in Denver, just looking at all the stands and stores and people. We stopped into a Himalayan exports store, and I found a really neat Om charm to add to my collection. I put it on the chain with the one my mom gave me. I'm sure people are like "Alright, dude, we get it, you're into that", but whatever, I like the way it looks. One represents my newfound independence, and the other represents my mom. The two things I couldn't live without. And they of course echo my life-changing experiences in San Francisco. So fuck it, I'm keeping them on one chain.
We grabbed a cab to Jaime's place and figured out our plans for that night. Summer and Katy and I sorted out our badass outfits for the concert. I had no idea what I was in for. I'd never even heard of this band, but from the way Katy and Summer were putting together their outfits, I could tell I was in for something good. Polka dot knee socks with a black silk dress? Yes, please. A plaid vest with a striped shirt and an olive green skirt? Uh huh. A star-filled grey shirt with booty shorts and matching grey leggings with snaps on the side? Oh hells yeah. We were good to go. I had a couple sips of a Newcastle, and a few sips of something called Vanilla Port, but I wasn't affected at all. We hopped in a cab, and took off for the Bluebird Theatre to see Slim Cessna's Auto Club.
The band was AMAZING. Truly amazing. It was a 6 part band, with a keyboardist, a drummer who looked about my age, a bassist, 2 male singers, and probably one of the most amazing guitarists I have ever seen, and that is including Pete Townsend and Keith Richards. I'm gonna talk about the two singers first, however. They were both very tall, very slim, and very white. One wore a white cowboy hat with a white shirt, and beige pants, and gold horn-rimmed glasses. The other wore a black cowboy hat, a black shirt, and black pants. They looked very similar to each other and sang very similar, too. Sometimes you couldn't tell which one was singing. Their showmanship was amazing. Each song started off as some epic story between them, something along the lines of, "Well, one time, me and Slim here, we was walking down the backroads of Georgia...", with maybe a "Yes sir!" thrown in somewhere, and a steady beat in the background. The singers also played banjo and guitar when necessary, and actually danced at one point. They had so much chemistry, and were so in tune with each other, it was awesome. The entire band moved so well together as one entity. Yes, the singers stuck out with their off the wall outfits and sheer charisma, but they didn't take away from the band as a unit. And the lead guitarist, oh my god, this guy rocked. He was relatively short, compared to the 2 singers, but he could wail. He played a 12 string electric for most of the show with an image of the Virgin Mary imprinted on the face of it. He played two different acoustic guitars at different points throughout the show, and of course he busted out the banjo now and then. He made sounds come out of that banjo that I didn't even know were possible. At one point actually, during one of their encore numbers, he stood with this back to the audience because it was a song that required a lot of feedback, so he stood in front of his amp making these beautiful beautiful sounds, while the 2 singers harmonized. We didn't see the front of the guitarist the entire time until the very end when he turned around, and he was not playing an electric guitar, my friends. No. He was playing a motherfucking banjo. A BANJO. Banjo + feedback = amazing? Apparently. I did not know that could be done.
The show ended at about 12:30 am, and we were planning on getting a cab back to Jaime's place, but we ended up just walking instead. We explored the streets of Denver with only Jaime and the moon to guide us. It was so cool. I love wandering through cities like that. Especially at odd hours. It reminded me of when I left my dorm at 4:45 am to catch the BART that one cold morning in San Francisco, and how different everything felt. It wasn't San Francisco anymore, it was a whole other place. Or maybe it was even more San Francisco without all the clutter. I don't know.
We walked through a park that apparently used to be cemetery but was then converted into a park [sound familiar, those from Ventura? Don't we have one of those?], and on the way through the park we came across two women and their dogs. One of the dogs was a white labrador puppy. I welcomed it into my arms and it got muddy pawprints all over me. I didn't mind however, as I hugged it and expressed the same affection towards it as I would've expressed to my dear Franklin. I miss him. I let the cute dog go, and we continued on our way. Summer and Katy walked behind me and joked about seeing zombies and such, because of the park's past.
We reached the apartment, raided the refrigerator, and watched Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. That is how the night concluded.
I woke up on the couch with the sun breathing down my neck. I switched to the other side of the couch so that the sun wouldn't blind me, and fell back asleep. An hour or so later, I woke up to Summer saying "I want to wake her, but I don't think I know her well enough to tap her on the head like I did with Katy." I woke up laughing. We sat around and drank coffee, and then got dressed and went to a breakfast place called Benny's [not to be confused with Denny's]. This was a mexican themed restaurant, not the all-american all day breakfast diner. I ordered french toast with a side of eggs, and this is where my weekend hits me, friends. This is where everything came together. As soon as I downed 4 slices of french toast and took a bite of the eggs, that was when the fish fingers, the Zubrowka, the Borscht, the foreign beer, the leftover vegetarian cal-zone, the artichoke dip, the pita, the coffee, the french toast, and the eggs hit. I didn't feel too hot. They'd planned to drop me off at the bus station right after breakfast, but I felt really sick. So we went back to Jaime's place and I...took care of what needed to be taken care of...and then we took it easy for a half hour or so. We watched a special on the Discovery Channel about the Freemasons. At first I was really intrigued, but then after a while, I just got really creeped out. It is a weird thing.
Finally we said goodbye to Jaime and took off for downtown Denver again. Summer and Katy were going to drop me off at the bus station and then head back to Albuquerque. I forgot to mention, however, that the Democratic National Convention is being held in Denver tomorrow, so the streets were packed with all kinds of things having to do with that. A bunch of Republicans actually rented a large U-Haul size truck and plastered a giant picture of an abortioned fetus on all sides. It was disgusting. I'd just started to feel a little bit better, but then I saw that and was thoroughly grossed out. Freedom of speech, though, freedom of speech. Besides that awful sighting, there was actually a lot of really cool things going on. The city was filled with people wearing Pro-Obama shirts and Anti-Bush shirts and carrying flags and picket signs and all kinds of things. Peace signs everywhere. There was even this nightclub that was going to have a "DiscObama" later that night. It was hilarious and awesome.
Summer and Katy pulled up outside the bus station, and Katy hopped out for a few seconds to hug me goodbye. She got back in the car and I headed for the steps down to the bus station. I waved as they drove away, about to embark on their own adventure once again, and here I was on mine. I waited for a good half hour or so, flashed my student ID, and boarded the bus. It was a relaxing ride back to Boulder, though the stakes heightened when I downed the rest of my water bottle and had to use the restroom very badly. So for the last 15 minutes, I was very uncomfortable. Unfortunately there are no restrooms on the buses to and from Denver.
We pulled into Boulder, and I quickly got off the bus and found the ladies' room. As soon as that was taken care of, I walked back out the way I had came the day before, and continued down the 5 blocks back to my apartment. I was very proud of myself for remembering how to get back. I was certain I'd get lost. But I made it back. And here I am.
