Fun Times On Nana’s Birthday

"Let me explain.  ::Deep breath::  No, there is too much.  Let me sum up."

Lol, there certainly was a lot that happened in the past week!  As far as Sunday with the Stone Pony . . .  Well, after going into normal girl mode and spazzing about what I could wear, not finding anything suitable in my closet, and telling my mom I had to go and buy a new shirt, she actually gave me forty dollars for that night.  So I took twenty and went to Fashion Bug.  I found this really cute black shirt with pink trim at the sleeves and collar with four monkeys on it that says "Dare to be Different."  So that just seemed perfect.  I picked it up and came back to the house where my mom tells me that Rob had called about half an hour before.  I tried calling him back, but I guessed that he’d been on his break and of course, he didn;t answer his phone.  I don’t think I left a voicemail, but I remember what I was worried about:  We had agreed the night before that I would just pick him up when he got off at five because he was gonna try to get out of there as soon as the clock hit five.  But the day before, he hadn’t been sure about hanging out when he got off, cuz he thought he’d had a seizure earlier that day.  I was afraid he was gonna tell me he’d had another one and couldn’t go to Frank’s concert.

Luckily, that wasn’t the case.  Though I was worried and hadn’t been able to get in contact with him, I decided I would just go to Staples and find out if anything plan-altering was going on in person.  So I took my shower, got into my pink jeans and new shirt, and wore this nice black jacket.  I got a camera, my cell phone, my keys, and Soulmate by L.J. Smith, (cuz I wanted to read it and it had my ticket inside,) and left for Staples at around 4:35.  I knew I was leaving insanely earlier, cuz it’s about a five minute drive to Staples, and that’s if I don’t inadvertantly speed.  Anyway, I was there before 4:40.  So I turned off the car and sat there and read for a while, constantly looking up at the door to Staples.  Five o’ clock came.  Five o’ five came.  Five ten came.  That was around when I decided to get out and see what was keeping him.  Well, I walked in the store and saw someone going towards the back.  I guessed it was him but wasn’t sure.  In any case, nature was calling me and since I didn’t know how long of a drive was ahead of us, I went to the back to use the bathroom.

As I walked back to the front of the store, I saw Rob walking back in.  I gestured to him and said hi and we walked back out, him saying he knew I must be there cuz he recognized my car.  (Who wouldn’t recognize it, what with the monkey and all?)  I said yeah, I’d been waiting outside, but nature called.  He apologized for being later than he thought he’d be, but I brushed it off saying it was okay, I’d brought something to read anyway.

We got in and I asked if he’d brought the directions for how to get to Stone Pony.  He said no, he thought I’d gotten them.  I said I’d looked them up but hadn’t printed them out, that I thought he was gonna do that.  So, after a quick detour back to my house to write out directions, we were on our way to Burger King so we could get something to eat.

We talked and laughed there, (as well as me yoinking some of his fries cuz I was dumb and didn’t get any,) then he called Frank to make sure they were still going on around seven-ish, when we expected to get there.  Then we were off to the Parkway.

Lol, he was telling me that I should be going faster on the Parkwaty when I was already going fifty.  Yeah, maybe that seems slow to some of you, but I was, like, the only student driver who had to be encouraged to go faster when I was learning.  So, yeah.  I go as fast as I’m comfortable with.  But I was teasing him about this being real roads and not crazy taxi and stuff, so that was fun.  It helped get me at ease, too.  Cuz I really don’t like driving on a semi-unfamiliar Parkway route for the first time at night to get to an area I’ve never seen before.

(Oh, by the way, I asked him if he was okay seizure-wise, since I’d been worried about it.  He said he was fine.  It turned out that he called during his break just to make sure I was still coming at five and that plans were still in place.  So that was a relief.)

Anyway, we’re listening to music and all that on the tapes I have, singing along with Nightwish and 1985 and Your Wildest Dreams, me belting out Wicked songs and undoubtedly smacking myself in the head for the Encore words I should have known but missed the night before.

When we got off the Parkway, I don’t even know how to describe it.  The roads there were so weird!  But there was this one part where we were supposed to make something of a slight left turn, (more like a veer than a turn,) but I veered a bit too much, and actually started going the WRONG way down a ONE way road!!!  Luckily, there weren’t really any other cars around us and I didn;t have to back up, I just needed to swerve back to the right.  Other than that little mishap, though, we were good.  And now Rob has something he can laugh at me about for a good long while.  Which he has taken decided advantage of this week.  Lol.

We got there in one piece, though, parked, and put quarters in the meter just in case.  When we started walking towards the place, that’s when I started getting nervous.  I don’t even know why, but I just suddenly started thinking, "What the Hell am I doing here?  I don’t do these kinds of things!  Am I crazy?"  (Not meaning the good kind of crazy that I know I am, I mean scary-certifiable-crazy.)  But I knew I couldn’t turn around and run, so I kept moving forward.  I just made the decision to stick to Rob like glue that night.

We went in, one guy took our tickets, another asked if we’d be drinking.  Obviously, we both said no.  Upon entering, Rob pointed out a couple of people in the band wh came over and said hello.  Rob introduced me and I smiled and said hi, even though I’m sure none of us could hear one another because of another band finishing up their set.

Well, finally Rob and I went and sat down on these bar stools at these little tables.  We said hi to Frank, too, the one from Matawan that Mike knew and I recognized.  When I asked if he remembered me at all, he said I looked familiar.  I told him, too, that Mike says hi.  So Rob and I are sitting at this table and after a bit, I got up and sat on the stool next to his so we wouldn’t have to lean over the table every time we wanted to say something to the other.  The band that went up basically sounded like something you’d hear in Hot Topic.  You know, the vocals that can’t be understood, the kind of screaming/hoarse yelling kind of thing that makes you wonder how the heck these people aren’t absolutely destroying their vocal chords?  And there were these kids "dancing" to it that Rob and I were making fun of.  Lol.  At one point, he leaned over and said in my ear, "See, those are the kids I w

as telling you about that think they can dance."

When Frank’s band was getting ready to go on, Rob got out the digital recorder that Frank had given him earlier so Rob could record the performance.  Frank hadn’t shown him how to turn the blasted thing on, though.  So Rob’s looking at it and at one point, I said, "It might help if the lens cap were off . . ."  Lol.  Anyway, he couldn’t figure out where the On button was, so I asked if I could look at it.  I’ve got it positioned on my hand and that’s when he found the button.  So I pushed it and voila! it comes on.  We went down to the dance floor in front of the stage and I offered to record it, since it was already in my hands.

So, their band is called Evolution Now and I recorded the first song they did, but then my arm started really hurting, so I handed it to Rob, telling him, "Your turn."  He recorded the second song, then did the same thing to me.  "Your turn."  I recorded the third, gave it back to him, and he recorded the final two while I stood next to him and danced.  Lol, he told me later he wanted to say something, cuz he was seeing me dance, but he didn’t wanna be like, "Yeah, Kate’s dancing!" and embarass me on camera.  I told him he could’ve, I wouldn’t have cared. 

Anyway, after their set was done, I asked Rob if we were heading out or sticking around.  He talked to Frank who said he’d be out in a few minutes if we wanted to hang around.  I had to get out of there, though.  It was a really cool place, but there was a pretty good amount of smoke, and considering what can happen with my eyes, I didn’t want to be subjected to it longer than necessary.  (Oh, and one thing really surprised me.  I think I’ve only ever mentioned my allergy to smoke to Rob once or twice, yet he asked me if my eyes were okay when we were still sitting on those stools.  I couldn’t believe he remembered)  So we let him know we’d wait outside and went out the ‘stage door.’  I went straight for my car where there was soda, just gulping in non-smoke-filled air.  I started coughing, too, just because there was such a contrast in air quality.  Rob and I got in my car and just sat there for a bit.  I think both our ears were still ringing, cuz that place was LOUD.  Anyway, we sat in the car for a few, but then everyone that Frank and the other band members had asked to come were congregating outside, so we got out and joined them, me stupidly without a jacket.

As they were putting their equipment into the different cars, Frank said they were going to a diner and if we wanted to go with them, we were welcome to.  We were up to that, so we said sure.  We were gonna follow Frank to get to the place, but I accidentally left the parking lot before they did and didn’t know it, but had two other cars following me because they thought I knew where I was going!  I discovered that when I realized that I wasn’t sure where we were headed and I knew we weren’t following anyone, so I pulled over for Rob to call Frank, and two other cars pull in behind me!  I got out of mine and went over and talked to this blond guy who was in the first car.  I told him I wasn’t sure where we were going except that it was a diner near the Monmouth Mall, and that Rob was calling Frank right then to find out if they’d even left the parking lot.

Well, Rob got through to one of the band members and they said to stay where we were, they’d come by and we could follow them.  I let the blond guy know that and we got back in our cars.  We had a five car tag line thing going, with me and Rob at the end!  Which made things interesting, considering they were all going faster than me!  Lol, Rob kept telling me to speed up and at one point as we were going around a U-turn, I said jokingly, "Okay, when and if you ever drive, you can go whatever speed you want.  But you drive with me, we go my speed!"  Lol, it was pretty bad, though, cuz at one point, the light in front of us turned yellow as the third car was going through.  The fourth car made it through okay, and then there’s me, still a good number of feet behind.  But I didn;t think that they’d wait for me, and I knew if they didn’t, we’d get lost.  So I floored it, and accidentally went through the red light!  The other cars hadn;t started moving or anything yet, so there was no real danger of an accident, but Rob and I kept glancing in the mirrors and whatnot, expecting to see flashing lights any second.

So, we get to the diner and pile out of all the cars and they start joking about me going through that red light and the blond guy who was driving the fourth car said that he would’ve puled over and waited for me, he didn’t think I was gonna make it through.  And we were laughing at Frank, cuz he was still in his car listening to the Evolution Now demo CD he was giving out to people that night.

Finally, we piled into the diner and I was marveling over the mini carousel ornament thingies that were there, as well as the fact that a portion of the ceiling and walls were mirrors.  (For anyone in NJ who wants to check it out, it’s a place called the Blue Swan and it’s just south of the Monmouth Mall on Hwy 35.)  I ran back out to my car just before we were seated cuz I realized I didn’t have my camera with me and I definitely wanted to get some pictures of these people.  (And of course, actually get pictures of Rob, cuz I have, like, one.  And he’s in the background.)

We talked, laughed, ate our chicken fingers and cheese fries, and at one point, I can’t remember what was said, but the girl siting next to me started laughing at something and snorked her milkshake through her nose!  Then she was still laughing and she had her hands up to her face, which was turning bright red.  I just sat there, amazed, saying, "Wow, I thought I was the only one who did that!"  (Yeah, I’ve snorked my fair share of drinks, and yeah, I still turn bright red, sometimes pruple, if you make me laugh hard enough.)  Then at one point, I think they were talking about how Anthony, (the band’s singer,) took off his shirt during one of the songs, and somebopdy says something about man-boobs.  We all laughed and then the table got really quiet.  The guy on Rob’s right says, "Well, how do you follow something like man-boobs?"  To which I said, "With woman-boobs?"  Which got a good laugh.

The wife of one of the members also commented on my shirt, saying she liked it.  I said thanks and said it definitely fit with me and I figured it’d be a good match for the jeans.  So of course then I had to stand up and show off my pink jeans, which somehow no one had noticed till then.  And the girl beisde me who’d snorked the milkshake said, "Yeah, I’ve only known you for an hour, but that shirt definitely describes you."

I remember we talked a bit about Phantom and Wicked, too.  Undoubtedly, I once again said how much I wanted to see the play a second time and Wicked for a first time.

Before we left the diner, I got a

group picture of everybody, which was nice.  Lol, after I took it, I joked about, "Now watch I develop these, like, four months later and I’ll be like, ‘who the Hell are these people?’"

As we were going up to pay, Frank was talking about another show in New York that he’s playing at the end of January.  He was asking if any of us wanted to come and I looked at Rob and said, "Hey, I’m up for it.  So you know you have a chauffer if you’re gonna go."  So he and I both have tickets for this show in New York.  It’s gonna be awesome, I can’t wait!

We weaved back to Hazlet through Redbank cuz we were already on 35, and I was so hyper, I asked if Rob minded stopping at the outdoor rink in Union Beach so I could skate for a bit.  So we both ended up skating and he’s getting better.    Seriously, though, he is getting better.  We went back to my house after that, so we could both use the bathrooms.  Mike was just getting back from his New Year’s adventures when we got to the house, so all three of us walked in together.  Mike stayed down and talked for a bit and then went up to bed.  Me and Rob stayed in the living room and talked for a bit and get this!  I mentioned not too long ago about writing him that letter that night that I got really depressed coming back from his house?  Well in it, I talked about his Don’t Trust Anyone mindset.  You know what he told me, (actually while we were on the way to Stone Pony,) ?  He told me that he didn’t really hold to that!!!  It was just a saying he’d picked up and will say sometimes.

Lol.  Oh, well.  Largely, that’s a relief.  Anyway, I did show him the letter I’d written to him since whenever he checked his E-mail, it would be there as well.  (At least until he deleted it.)  Anyway, we talked a bit more, I don’t remember exactly what about, and then I drove him home.

And that is what all happeneed to me on Nana’s birthday.  At one point in thecar, maybe while heading to the diner, I kind of looked up at the night sky and said, "Happy Birthday, Nana."

She’d have wanted me to have fun on her birthday.  And that’s what I did.  Tonight was one Hell of a good night and honestly, I can’t wait to pull off my plans for Rob’s birthday, because after the night at the Stone Pony, he deserves it.  I owe him.

Damn, this is a long sum up!

P.S. — While we were at the rink, I asked him if he wished I hadn’t kissed him the previous night, if he regretted me doing that.  He said no, but that he didn’t know how Mike would feel about it and didn’t want Mike to spazz on him.  I said Mike wouldn’t spazz on him, that I was the one who kissed him, so if any spazzing would happen, it would be aimed at me.  But that Mike wouldn’t do that.