Last night I went to sleep kind of early. Which is surprising because pretty much all day I didn’t leave the apartment let alone the couch. I watched some TV and parts of a couple of movies on TV. I cleaned up a little bit. I watched all of The Good Girl, in which Jennifer Aniston gives a surprisingly good performance. Actually, come to think of it, it’s the only time I’ve seen her act. I took a couple of naps throughout the afternoon and never even bothered showering. I slept in on Sunday morning.

I finished off Saturday late in the evening (early in the morning) with a soft crash into my pillow after skipping my usual cigarette on the way home. It was 3:30 in the morning. The bartender at one of my local haunts allowed me and three other people to stay afterhours cause for some dumb reason we weren’t through partying yet. The bartender locked the doors at 2:00 after kicking everyone else out of the bar. As he was kicking everyone out, I turned to the girls next to me and asked if they thought we’d be staying after they closed. They simply shrugged their shoulders. They had arrived about an hour after I did and made a direct, no-fucking-around, declaration that they were intent on getting full-on drunk while there. I was well into my bourbon and coke having arrived about an hour before they did. I went there alone only expecting only a nightcapper. This is because I had just gotten done watching the improv group, Impulse Theatre, down in LoDo. We went there for Kaths birthday. It was really funny and definitely worth my $15. I would certainly recommend it to anyone up for a lighthearted evening. Because I met my friends at the bar above the theatre for drinks before the show I went and ate dinner on my own in advance.

Before that I had been spending the evening at the 15th street tavern. A place I’ve begun to like more and more. I was there with my brother and a handful of his friends just trying to keep ourselves busy before they left for a party and I went to the comedy thing. Previously we had occupied our time walking around 16th street and hanging out at my brothers house. I arrived at my brothers after having visited Beech just before lunch. I interrupted Beech’s housecleaning and we talked about moving and house buying. It happens that he lives two houses down from a guy that was supposed to give me baseball tickets for that afternoon, unfortunately the tickets were for the previous week. Trying to get those tickets was one of the first things I had done on Saturday after watching a little bit if TV in the morning.

Friday night I umpired one of our league’s kickball games. I was a lot of fun even though I really had no idea what I was doing. Or maybe that was the reason it was fun. Before that we played our game. We lost again, we haven’t won a game yet. I think we might be having too much fun.

I’ve always said there are few things as easily satisfying as exchanging smiles with someone you find mutually attractive.

To My Dear Girl Summer,

I’ve always thought you had a pretty name. It somehow so perfectly represented who you were and what you meant to me. Your long straight golden hair (you’re such a funny bear), your bounce and giggle, liquid-shiny smile, and blue-sky eyes. Summer, you know you were difficult at first, but you had somehow found a way to propel yourself into my heart. And my fondness for you has only improved since I met you in late June. We’ve had some great times over the past few month’s. I had fun going to parties with you, you’ve seen me through some accidents, some lonely times, and exciting times. I’ll treasure our long hot days and cool evenings together. You’ve taught me a lot and have introduced me to some great people. People who have truly influenced, affected and now become a part of who I am. For that I thank you most. And I think we can both agree that while we were together, we were good for each other.

And we’ve only been apart for a couple of weeks now, but, I can already look back at what we had together with both a sort of fondness and melancholy. And were both sorry that you have to leave. It’s heartbreaking to have to let you go. But I’ve met somebody else. She’s more my type. A brunette with dark skin. She’s really colorful but often melancholy and she likes nothing more than a warm body to help her keep warm during those first five minutes of waking on her crisp mornings. She smells of smoke and leaves and earth. I love when she talks in a whisper. She has hazel eyes, a sparkling green that melts into a woody brown. And they get me every time. I know you don’t want me to go on and on about her but she’s my future now. And it’s only fair that you know cause she is a close friend of yours. Her name is Autumn.

Thanks for all the memories. I hope to see you next year.

Love always,
Hubs

Had a tough day at work. Everything is ok now though. I stayed up late watching blind date last night (shut up) and right when each person was about to say what they thought about the their date, one of those “this is a test of the emergency broadcast system” things came on and beep beep beeped out everything the dates had to say. I wasn’t too happy about that. I also watched the new show on HBO called Carnivàle. It’s seems pretty cool. It has the midget from “Fire Walk With Me” in it.

This shadow puppetry is amazing (It’s a bit risque but then again so were the links from yesterday).

I had previously mentioned a strange Korean phenomenon. It seems it doesn’t take long for these things to travel over seas.

“Hubs!!!!” about five of my friends from the living room cheer loudly. I love when I enter a room filled with a bunch of my friends for the first time in an evening, it seems they always stop what they are doing to give me a heroes welcome. I’ve mentioned to them that this always makes me smile. Maybe that’s why they do it. Or maybe it’s because they are around each other a lot more often than they are around me. Or maybe they just like the sound of my name passing between their lips. I like to think its cause they like me.

I went to the Freedom’s last night. They invited a bunch of people over to watch the Monday night football game.

Cool, glad you could make it over to watch a little football with us Hubs. Go Broncos!
Eh. You know I could give a shit about the Broncos, I don’t even know who their quarterback is.
It’s Jake Plummer Hubs.
Well, I just came over for the snacks, the beer, and the company.
Beer’s in the laundry room.

Things calmed down quick. I never know what to say when people ask me what’s new. I had a conversation with a girl I’d never met on the back porch. While we were watching the dogs run in circles we were able to make it last a total of five sentences and it was a struggle at that. I just don’t care sometimes. It makes me lonely. At the wedding I found myself walking up to the long, folding-table with the white tablecloth on it, and picking up the several of the plastic champagne glasses and drinking their contents in two swallows. Then walking out on to the porch, sitting down next two girls who were making out with each other in order to get attention from others. This annoyed me. I finished my cigarette before they were finished entertaining. Sometimes I’m too bored to enjoy myself.

The broncos were winning the game by more than 30 points before the end of the half. The game was a blowout, the natives were restless so the tequila and makers mark shots came out. Lots of the guys got really drunk cause they had girlfriends or wives that would drive them home. A few lived within walking distance. By the end of the game things had completely melted down. The conversation traveled from how to pickle tomatillos to donkey punching (which, surprisingly, many found humorous), and everywhere in between. We were screaming above a TV that was on way too loud, about politics, using gross generalizations that we really didn’t understand. Soon me and Beach just began singing random songs that we made up on the spot only cause we didn’t want to listen to them argue anymore. And we wanted to hear our own voices pass between or lips.

I left work early on Friday in order to get a new cell phone. The guy there tried to act like they were out of stock but since I called them on Thursday I knew the weren’t and began to throw a fit. He quickly shut me up, spent ten minutes diddling around in the back room, acting like he was looking for something and then finally getting me my new phone. Afterward, I spent some time at the office programming a few numbers into it. It’s cool though, better than my old phone anyway.

I had kickball again on Friday night. We lost, but we have so much fun that nobody really cares. I took a digger running into first because I freaked out about touching base, but everybody thought I was trying to slide. I couldn’t understand why anyone thought I would make a headfirst dive into first base but it must have looked pretty cool. Afterward a few of us headed out to Romes for a couple drinks. However, not many people showed at Romes because octoberfest was happening downtown. Afterwards, I met Leber and Mel at my local haunt for a couple of cocktails to celebrate Mels birthday. A bunch of Mels friends were there and bought me my drinks all night. I had so many beers and shots stacked in front of me I couldn’t even drink them all.

I woke up sort of early on Saturday and packed my stuff up to go into the mountains for the weekend. I would have slept in but I had an hour and a half drive up to the ranch for the Trout Families wedding and I wanted to make it in time for lunch. It’s a good thing I left when I did cause the trip took longer than is should have cause of traffic and bad drivers. My brother officiated the wedding and did a great job. He used some readings from Apache and Middle Eastern traditions. The vows were very unique and some of their friends got up and read poetry or played music they had written for them. It was a very untraditional wedding and was actually really refreshing after the number of white weddings I’ve been to this summer. The party afterwards was tons of fun. This crew is so tight knit and loving they are a just a blast to watch let alone party with all night. I was a bit wiped out from Friday and called it an earlier night though.

I slept in on Sunday and waited around for my mom to come meet me at the ranch. Afterwards I drove down to the springs to visit my grandma. I was so tired I accidentally fell asleep on the road twice. The first time was only for like two seconds: everything just went black and I woke up immediately afterward. The second time was for a few seconds longer and I had actually swerved into the other lane when I awoke. That scared the shit out of me and I was pretty awake for the rest of the drive. When I got to my grandmas I was able to sneak in a few naps while she fixed angelfood cake. She sent me home with a bunch of cake, strawberries and two whip cream canisters. On the drive home I called Jami who made sure I stayed awake even though she probably didn’t know that’s what she was doing.

Soo ché? Saru ché!
Danda lé ké maru ché!

Afterwards I headed over to a hippy bar a couple of blocks away. I don’t know why. I mean I like the bar, and usually the patrons there are pretty fun. But I’m not really sure why I went. I guess it was out of boredom. I sat at the bar next to this bucktoothed girl that’s a cook at the Palamino She wasn’t very interesting and it took an effort to keep the conversation going. She shared her cherry cigarettes with me. They tasted light and smelled good (for cigarettes) and coated your lips with sugar as you inhaled. This made me want to lick my lips a lot. When she left, the bartender asked what her name was. I said, “I have no idea.” She replied, “You talked to that girl for an hour and don’t even know what her name is? You must not have been hitting on her.” I must not have been.

Later that night, and after a few more drinks, I was feeling pretty loose. Some other chick sat down in the empty stool next to me. I have no idea what we talked about but it came pretty naturally. Of course it was probably just drunken rambling. She bought me kamikazes. I entertained her with the lets-see-who-can-keep-a-totally-straight-face-and-stare-into-your-eyes contest. I kept on winning. Thus the kamikaze shots.

Check out this collaborative blog I’ve been a part of.

After another long day at work yesterday, I went out to my local haunt for some dinner and a couple of drinks. I got the marinated portabella sandwich with artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers and melted provolone. It was delish. I also put down a couple of Stellas. Meanwhile the couple sitting next to me were both drunk, and all over each other. They were a newer couple cause she was playing the if-you-can-remember-my-middle-name-you-can-sleep-with-me-tonight game and ws having a lot of fun teasing him with it. When he got up to go to the bathroom she asked me for a french fry. I gave them all to her cause I was full. We had a nice little chat and introduced ourselves. When he got back she left to pee. I asked him if he had figured out her middle name yet. He said no but he knows it starts with ‘L’ and is one syllable. When she comes back he guesses Lisa (one syllable?). Realizing that he has lost the game he just begins guessing: Leanne, Linda, Lou, Liz, Lolla, and on and on. I listen for about fifteen more minutes while finishing another beer and then I turn to them and say, “Is it Lyn?”

I fell asleep on the couch in front of the television last night. It was early when I nodded off. I hate it when I do that. The couch isn’t comfortable for sleeping, just for napping.

I’m surprised I’m holding up so well. Things aren’t going that great, particularly on the money front. I paid my rent 10 days late this month, that cost me $30. I have at least $60 in unpaid parking tickets. I haven’t talked to Jami in like 5 days. The stock market has been kicking my ass for the last two weeks, badly. I have a phone bill that is nearly as large as my rent. I lost my cell phone. I’ve spent the last two days working till 7:00 at night. But amazingly enough none of this shit is getting’ me down. I’ve felt better, mentally, this last month than I have for the past six. Shit is just rolling off my back. I must still be riding the Asheville high. Attitude is everything and it feels great.

I had my first kickball game on Friday. It was a blast, the most fun I’ve ever had on a baseball diamond. Playing beer in hand is encouraged and soooooo much easier when your not wearing a glove. We played a decent game even though we lost. More importantly it was a total time. Afterward we went to Rome’s where we proceeded to drink eight pitchers of beer for a mere $12! Yum. Afterward I went out to a couple of my old haunts for a night capper.

Saturday afternoon I finished off the last of my crawfish etoufee and headed out to the Blake Street Tavern to meet the boys for Jimbo’s bachelor party. We sat around for a few hours and I mostly drank cokes and bloody mary’s and ate tons of french fries while watching the CU football game. After that we headed over to the titty bars. It was your typical bachelor party/titty bar scene. The bachelor got fucked up, one of my buddies did the old boot and rally. The funniest thing I saw was a friend get the shit kicked out of him by some strippers boob. He was flying back in his chair a foot at a time. He was yelling for her to stop but she wouldn’t. No, it wasn’t sexy but it was damn funny.

On Sunday I slept in and then spent most of the afternoon running around looking for my cell phone that was somehow lost in Saturday nights festivities. It blows cause that’s my only phone. I don’t use a land line, though, I’m now thinking about getting one.

My brother and his girlfriend invited me over for dinner with them on Tuesday night. She knows that I love Cajun food and she’s from Louisiana so she made crawfish etoufee. I kept telling her that I’ve never had crawfish before so they made sure to invite me over when they fixed it. It was sooooo good. She sent me home with all the leftovers too. I had it again for dinner last night. Mmmmm.

After dinner and a couple of bottles of wine we headed out to the Lions Lair. I’ve wanted to go to this divey punk bar since I was in highschool but never really had the reason to. It was everything I expected: dark, smoky, and rowdy. We went to go see a band called Tub Ring. Check out some of there music here (but I think they were better live). They come from Chicago and were recommended by a few of my brother’s friends. They sound kinda like Mr.Bungle meets Mindless Self Indulgence meets Secret Chiefs 3. We had a blast though. The first band sucked and was getting pretty heckled from the bar patrons. The second band, Bangtel, was a pleasant surprise and their claim to fame was that they had a giant woven blanket with a picture of a pussy on it tacked up to the wall. I ended up staying out till like 2:00 whooping it up. Way too late for a school night especially for a guy who’s sick.

As a result I was sick and tired yesterday. Literally. Not to mention my bills are stacking up. Time to start saving some money. I guess.

On Friday I woke up at a decent time. This was the first time that I got to see much of Asheville in the daylight. It is a cool town nestled in the mountains of Western NC. It is smallish and clean and reminded me a lot of Boulder in its size, location (mountains), residents and weather. First I went and got my haircut. We went to lunch at La Paz were I had the most delicious crab and artichoke enchilada. Then I was complaining that the accents in the south weren’t as strong as I thought they would be so Jami took me to Walmart but the Walmart:Hick ratio was down that day so we didn’t have much luck. We drove around Asheville just shooting the shit and looking at places and neighborhoods, etc. We also went into downtown Asheville and walked around and chatted and hungout. Jami knows everybody in Asheville, it’s like hanging out with a celebrity. We went to Vincents which is her secret hideout and I only one of a handful of people she’s ever taken there and that made me feel special. Later on we went back to her apartment and I met her roommate who was a super cool guy and got me a excellent rate on a hotel in town. Jami fixed dinner for everyone while Randy and me went and got beer and stuff. We all sat around all night and drank beer and sang songs. It was fun to watch Jami and Randy interact because I couldn’t keep up with their name-dropping and I wasn’t gay enough.

On Saturday we got all of our stuff together and went up to her house on Lake James. The drive there was great. The countryside was real pretty and we sang songs most of the way. We got there before anybody else and hung around by the lake. Soon Ginni, Megan and Ted arrived. We talked and drank beer till we were hungry and then we headed down to Judges for some real NC barbecue. I have to admit that southern BBQ is way better than any of the brisket shit we have around here. Ginni almost killed us on the way back to the lake house because she was laughing so hard. I had tears in my eyes but don’t remember what was so funny, do you guys? We came back and lounged around drinking beer. Megan and Ted pooped out real fast. Jami shortly followed somehow disappearing. But I don’t blame her, the food put us all in a coma and I think I was starting to wear on her a little bit. I can be annoying in large doses and we hadn’t had any time away from each other. Ginni and me stayed up late trying to get drunk, it was hard. But our conversation was great. Unfortunately it never got warm enough to go in the water but I was plenty happy with meeting new friends and having time with my Jami.

We stuck around the lake house till late in the afternoon. Jami had to check everything 100 times before we left. I think she thinks that I constantly criticize her, but mostly I just notice these super cute nuances and have to open my big mouth about them. On Sunday night we went up to Jamis parents house for steaks. Her parents are super cool and I had a great conversation with her Dad. Their house is beautiful but the toilet didn’t work and I was afraid to say anything about it. Afterwards we headed into town and got ice cream. And then we went to Vincents and Broadways (Sportsies is the coolest bar in Asheville if you ask me) for a few PBRs. Sunday night, when we got back, I started to feel sick.

Monday pretty much sucked. I was sick to my stomach cause I had to leave. And I wasn’t sure what kind of impression I made on Jami but knew we liked each other. But hell, I knew that before I even got to Asheville. I couldn’t really eat lunch. Jami seemed irritable but I thought It was cause she was hungry and sick or maybe I fucked up, but it turns out she was upset because I had to leave. The plane ride home I spent staring out the window and watching the clouds go by. I was depressed. I still kind of am, because everything now seems like a step backwards in a way.

I miss you like crazy.

I was woken by a phone call at about 5:30 AM on Thursday morning. It was Jami making sure I was up and getting ready. I was asleep and don’t remember the call but it didn’t matter cause I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

I timed it just perfect and arrived at the gate right as it was boarding. Terminal B. US Airways Flight 122 to Charlotte North Carolina. The flight was uneventful, I slept nearly the entire way. In Charlotte I waited in a bar and smoked. I had a connecting flight to Asheville. A twin prop plane, DE Havilland DHC-8 Series 300. Seat 3F. But in my mind I wasn’t going to Asheville, I was going to Jami.

I wasn’t nervous till it was announced over the loud speakers that in a few minutes I would be arriving at my final destination. Then my mouth got dry and I started to sweat (and thinking about how sweaty I was gonna be made me more sweaty). After collecting my bags I walked around the corner towards security. I recognized Jami standing behind the clear plastic wall immediately. In fact, I was a bit surprised by how quickly we recognized each other. We quickly left the airport and once on the steps outside the airport we paused and looked each other in the eye and I kissed her. We both blushed and smiled and freaked out.

We headed to downtown Asheville both wanting a beer to calm our nerves and to listen to the voices that we have heard so many times come out of the faces we’ve only seen in photographs. We went to one of her old haunts - “The old” French bar. We drank and talked about all things while I tried to get rid of the waves of surrealness that occasionally washed over me. Boy can she blush.

Last night I went out to dinner with my dad. We went to one of our favorites: Tommy’s Thia. My dad called me this afternoon to let me know that he thought the conversation that we had was unique and fun and interesting. I agreed. We talked about about the wedding(s), chicago, our jobs and me going out to visit Jami this weekend. And some other stuff. It was funny he was being all fatherly. Sometimes he forgets I’m 30. Or maybe sometimes I forget I’m only 30.

I’ve got a bunch to do tonight. Mostly I got to do laundry and pack and clean up a little cause I hate coming back to a messy place. I also have my first kickball meeting tonight. Our first game is Friday. I hope we win. There is supposed to be a fastest pitcher (the kind that holds beer) drinking contest afterwards, it’s more important that we win that.