Ok, so. As you may or may not know, I was very very sick for a while. I was dumb, and deserved to get sick, but that’s not the point. I laid low for what seems like over a month, got better, and then started dabbling with serendipity.
First, I finally bought myself a new audio interface since my old one was just a piece of shit lost cause type thing that nearly caused me to not be able to finish my final project last semester – and even when I had finished, I wasn’t so impressed with myself. I had planned everything perfectly so that I’d cash my paycheck, run to the music store, and get out of there before the numb feeling in my wallet (from dropping so much cash in one place for something that was not food or lodging) spread down to my legs and caused me to collapse.
After making the transaction, I went home…thinking “well, I’ll be broke this weekend but at least I’ll have something to play with”…but it was not to be. That night (friday the 13th….oooh), I got to thinking about my old friend (and roomate for a year) D., because he’s a wonderful musician and songwriter and when I buy new music stuff I do eventually realize there’s not many people I could share my giddiness with, and also I hadn’t talked with anyone aside from coworker/friends in so long due to sinus infection from beelzebub. So I called him.
ring-ring
“Hey, mister Ryan! Long time, no talk to!”
“I know, seriously…too long…I called to see what you are up to this fine friday night…”
“It’s so crazy, I’ve been getting so many wild calls…It’s my birthday, you know.”
(did you notice the first instance of serendipity? Is anyone reading this but my spellchecker?)
It was decided that we were obviously going to hang out. Something wild and fun would happen no matter what. I packed up my sampler, and after we rounded up a few more friends, we were off to ft. lauderdale, hot on the tip of a large house party with live music.
Well, it ended up not being such a house at all, but a Coral Castle (not sure if that link is the actual right place, it’s all quite confusing…will update if I find more information). Whether or not it was the same place, all I know is that it was a small castle made out of coral, with spires and iron bars and mirrors and stairwells and it was set up like an apartment inside, though devoid of most furniture aside from a table upstairs, which was currently holding up a bottle of vodka, a brown paper bag, and some playing cards. Apparently only two of us were brave enough to just waltz into the castle like we owned it, in order to find out these details. We left when my exploring companion walked into a dark corner of the upstairs, wrinkled her nose, and said “oh! it smells bad over here!”
Outside was a big lawn area, with the densest crowd of people around the keg. Maybe it’s the sweat from the hand of the person pumping the tap to keep the beer flowing from the keg…maybe it’s the pheremones of the excited mosquitos who are happy to have quite a few meals before their short lives end, or maybe it’s the excitement of partying at a new night time location, watered down by the nagging knowledge that your ex-girlfriend is there, doing the exact same thing, but keg beer always tastes the damn same. Always.
Oh, and the other familiar thing aside from watery-piss beer and catching the evil eye from your ex whenever you smile at a girl : police. So we made an expedient exit and headed downtown. I remembered instantly how crazy it gets down there. College kids, bums, musicians, police, in swarms so thick they spill out into the streets. Live music pouring out of every other bar (i saw the bar where my old band played our first show) or pizza shop.
After a heavy-enough dose of that, we turned the corner to our true destination: a bar called the Poorhouse. I can’t accurately convey how relieved I felt to see a large group of people uniformly dressed in black. No, they weren’t goth, and no they weren’t bikers (though there were quite a few motorcycles parked in front). Inside, it was poorly lit and some of the oldest, largest men I have ever seen were up on (a proper, mind you) stage, playing the blues. My curious friend and I made a beeline for the farthest-back bar to order drinks. Luckily, both my wallet and mind were numb at this point. While ordering, we discussed our poor luck and/or decisions because we had both left our cigarettes at home (me by choice, her by accident).
“Cigarettes?” A voice from the big gruff guy next to me. “yeah…”
“Well, you can have these,” he said, tossing a still-in-the-cellophane pack of cigs our way. “they were free.”
Blah blah, gratitude and all that. Second or third instance of serendipity so far but I was not counting. I’m sick of writing…I’ll just say that there was air hockey and there was jam sessions in our near future destiny. And apparently birthday boy left for Ireland the next day.
You see? This is the kind of stuff I am writing about these days. *shrug*
