Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Life Goes On
That September Denver turned 21. He was back upstate in school. He called and told me that Todd was planning on driving up and I should catch a ride with him. I hadn’t seen Todd since the “Puke-Shooting-Bitch incident” (mostly, I avoided him) and really wasn’t sure how he would take to spending a couple hours with me in his car. [Ed. Note: See ‘Parties II’ Dec 2,2011]
Surprisingly, he was very cool about it. I apologized profusely, and returned the change of clothes he had lent me that night. We really got to know each other better on that trip up to Albany and turns out he was really cool. He had been dating Kelly and I believe he still was by this time. It wasn’t an issue now, but would become one in the future. We celebrated Denver’s birthday by bar hopping and having a great time.
On that trip I also met a friend of their’s known as "The Melman". He was a bit of a mystery and told the most interesting stories. He was a bit of a nomad. He never stayed in one place long and you never knew where he would turn up next.
That September, Jay Mark and a friend from Jay’s dorm opted to rent a house together instead of living in the dorm another year. Dan moved back home to move closer to his new girlfriend, Danielle. We just called them Dan Squared. She was his ex-girlfriend’s former best friend that I met when I drove both of them to the "Rumpus in the Hamptons." Danielle chose Dan’s side in the whole ‘cheating on him with his friend’ scandal.
Rumors of how much fun was had for Denver’s birthday, a bunch of us went back up to Albany in January for another festive weekend. But this time I had other things on my mind.
While we had a couple of pitchers of beer at a table I found myself a bit anti-social and opted to sit at the bar. Matt came over and ordered a ginger ale. He was done drinking for the night and I should have been done a lot sooner myself. Anyway I got into a deep theoretical conversation with Matt while sitting there.
You see, I had met this girl at work that was amazing. So amazing, that I was intimidated by her. She was smart, funny and beautiful. She was tall, blonde and wore combat boots to work. Around her I was sure I acted like an idiot. I always found reasons to walk past her just to see her or to say hi to her. I never really talked about it to friends in any kind of serious way, if I did reference liking her, it was in a joking way. I felt she was out of my league and if I was rejected, it wouldn’t be something I could shake off. I didn’t come out and tell Matt any of this directly, but in a roundabout way. Matt , always being blunt and direct, told me to just ask her. I had nothing to lose. I didn’t have her now, and wouldn’t have her if I did nothing. And it’s funny, when you are drunk pride goes out the window and it made complete sense. So I drank more to celebrate. After that bar, they were going to another bar but felt I may have hit my limit. They handed me the house keys and sent me on my way home. They pointed my body in the right direction, gave me directions and told me good luck. There I was in a strange town, counting blocks out loud and walking down the street with my hand holding the key to their house outstretched almost the entire time as I staggered to try and find a house I’d only seen from the outside a hand full of times. Hours later when they got back they admitted they were surprised I actually made it back. I’m guessing it was because I was a man on a mission and when I got back home I was going to fulfill that mission.