Means Headaches For Howard.

Kelly got me a few pillows from the couch and closet. I placed a couple on the floor, and my backpack where my head would go, and the sleeping pillow on that. I draped my leather coat on top of me and started to pass out. Kelly wanted to know if I wanted to get something from Subway. “You're going to Subway? It's like 4am man.” I slurred. Then again I remember living across the street from his place now and making 4am trips to Subway for cookies and such. I requested a bottle of juice. I knew I was going to need it in the morning.

I wasn't awake when he got back, and I slowly got back to consciousness around 09:00 hours. My eyes tried to open but at the risk of allowing light to enter too much I kept them squinted. My hair was in a mess because of the strange cowlick feeling. Almost like it is constantly being pulled by someone. I pat it down and get up from my bed. I nearly fall down again. Fuck, I'm still drunk. As I brace myself to walk around I desperately look around the kitchen for that juice Kelly got me. Only to find that it was later in the room on top of his bookshelf. It was warm to touch, but I didn't care. I started to drink it and swallowing large portions of the grape liquid. I finally stopped and gasped for air. A pounding sensation started on the right side of my head near the temple. Boom boom... boom boom. I went to lay back down on the bed and put the leather coat back over me. Getting up once in a while to lazily drink from the bottle again.

Kelly eventually gets up and goes on his computer while playing the latest download of the Howard Stern show from satellite radio. He talks to me, or to himself while we listen, laughing at a lot of the stuff that is going on. “Here take the bed man, I'm going to make pancakes.” He says. As he is walking out of the room I squint up to the freshly made bed and crawl over to lay on top of it bringing my pillow and leather jacket with me. I fall asleep again on top of the comforter. I'm not sure how much time progressed but I got up after hearing Kelly talk to his roommate outside in the kitchen. So I joined them and sat down at their table. I eat a pancake and drink some more juice and eventually I full wake up. The pounding headache remains and the only way to deal with it, is to forget that it is there, almost like how you forget to breath but do it anyways.

I leave Kelly's place because he has to do some studying and limp my way over to Robs house to watch Howard The Duck. He bought the movie over at Chumleighs for two dollars in VHS form. My toe is still hurting and now I have a cut on my finger from doing up the laces on my boots so much during last night (Saturday). When I arrive at his place all I can hear is the roar of the vacuum. Laura and Elsa were near done cleaning the place up busy throwing stuff out and cleaning the floors. Rob is laying on the brown couch outstretched with one foot on the floor and the other on the top, slouched with one elbow on the arm of the couch causing his arm to fail limply above his head, and the remote in the other. I request to the girls that they stop vacuuming because of my condition and Laura laughs it off. I sit down on the adjacent chair and slouch myself. When the girls stop the cleaning Rob goes upstairs and gets the movie, sets up the VCR in the back of the TV and starts to play it.

We don't really pay attention much to the movie though as we are both laughing and sharing stories from last night. The creepy dudes that came over wearing belly shirts, seeing Cedric on the street, how I visited my friend Api last night who was absolutely smashed, to agreeing about the beautiful porkchops we made last night. The girls come down and join in the conversation and starting to talk about some red headed guy that stayed around at the party who ended up to the be 25 years old.
“It was so creepy.” Laura said. Rob looked at her and agrees saying “Yeah 25 year old would accept an invitation to a 17 year olds party?”
I jab in saying sarcastically “Yeah what 24 year old WOULD come to a 17 year olds party.” Indicating myself. We all start to laugh and go back to watching Howard The Duck. I look out the window and see my dad dressed to the nine walking up to the door. I open it to greet him. His response was only a command: “Let's go.” I guess the party he went to sucked really bad because he was earlier than when I was expecting him. As a result I had to leave halfway through the movie. I said my goodbyes to everyone and thanked them for the invite. Adam tells me that I need to come by again sometime. “Yeah for sure.” I say with a pause, “I'll have to check my work schedule though.” Rob is expressionless at first but after a couple seconds he gets the joke about my unemployment and laughs. Adam remains expressionless.

So I leave Peterborough once again on a gloomy day in November. And like all my other car rides back to Oshawa, I drift off to sleep in the backseat of the car.

music to accompany the blog: Death Cab For Cutie - We Laugh Indoors.

Lemon Slices For José.

So Friday night I went out for a bit with Jordan for a little bar hoping in Oshawa, we checked out the Tartan and then Le Skratch. It was a fairly old crowd this time around at the Tartan which kind of sucked. That bar has a nice set up and design. Le Skratch was the same old thing with thugs looking out at the dance floor and slutty girls dancing around. Entering the place required the frisk down by the girls. Jordan got the hotter of the two and with both started to laugh about how they slightly tagged our nuts, and more so that the one girl rubbed my belly in a circular motion. "Next time ask her to pat you on the head." Jordan was quick to jab in.

The next morning I got up really early and painfully got CDs and DVDs ready for my trip to Peterborough. This time around I only packed a backpack full of stuff because whenever I went with a huge Nike duffel bag and sleeping bag, it was always taxing. Seeing that I am only staying one night I felt it is a wise decision. Change of clothes, small slip disc holder, busted PS2 controller, Polaroid camera, toothbrush and hair wax, and my minidisc walkman. I always bring my Polaroid camera everywhere I go for my blog; I know for a fact that I wouldn't be taking a picture in Peterborough though. For whatever reasons, it just never happens.

My brother drove me to the bus depot at around 11:40 hours so that I didn't have to worry about the bus schedules and disgruntled drivers just coming off a strike. The bus was scheduled to leave at 12:35 hours so I wandered around the downtown to waste some time. It was a bright day downtown but that October wind kicked in which made it dryly cold. I walked up Bond, took a side street to King, then to Centre and back to the Bus Terminal on Bond. It was pretty interesting because I took notice to a lot of downtown stores that I never seen before. An all Caribbean restaurant, a men's clothing store that had some sort of Italian name and even stranger was sort of orange reflective material in the window with faded pictures of men in suits, pedicure and hair salons with photos of models from the 80s, and sign for a new club at a spot where an old one use to be. I saw some familiar sites too like the Lovell drugs place across the King bus stop. I remember waiting for the 2King bus here while in high school and classmates I knew would go in and steal candy from the place. I remained in the bus terminal for the rest of the wait with my walkman playing. When the bus rolled up I go on and sat down and eventually fell asleep during the trip.

I wondered if I talked in my sleep because for some reason it felt like I was talking. I had my walkman playing so all I could hear was European power metal blaring away. Nobody was really starring at me though so I figure either I was in the clear or everyone else had walkmans on. I looked around some more and there was a little bit of both going on. I called Rob to let him know I'm in town and that I will be walking down the Rotary Trail to get to his place. "Alright lad, I'll meet ya along the way." He said over the phone. I got off the bus and started walking. I thought about getting a slice of pizza at Night Kitchen but thought it would be better to wait. The familiar sights make me smirk a bit and feel happy to be back in town. Rob meets me on the trail just before Parkhill Road and we hit up the G&P Milk Variety first. I didn't recognize him at first because he was wearing a different jacket than his usual brown leather one, and his hair was grown out a bit.

We then chilled for a bit in Rob's room as I wanted to show him the TV show "I Pity The Fool" starring Mr. T. We both have a fetish for brutal movies and brutal TV shows. This one really takes the cake though and we had some good laughs. Laura and Elsa kept darting in and out of the room preparing for the party tonight by putting everything valuable in Robs room. Laura is another classic Baragar with her style of humour. Yelling in my ear on occassion and do oddball things to try and get a reaction out of me. She seems to forget that I lived with Rob for 3 years and have become immune to the craziness. When Adam and Kristen arrive they see me and say hello. Adam reaches over and extends his hand for a hand shake saying "Hey guy, good to see you." I grab his hand shake it and when Adam starts to pull away it gets jerked back and I pull him towards the couch saying "No, give me a hug!" I reach my arm around try to choke him with a reverse headlock. We all start laughing as Adam keeps saying "No Matt... No!" and pulling away. They leave to pick up some alcohol at the LCBO for tonight and I slip Adam a 20 to pick me up some cider beer.

I watch some TV with Kristen as there is no more room in the car for me or her. She falls asleep pretty fast while laying down on the couch. When Adam returns to my surprise there are 6 tallboys of Magner's Cider Beer: the cider beer of cider beers. I know right away that this is going to be a great night. Adam looks at the tall 500ml cans and adds in “I prefer bottles, I don’t like that can taste.”
“Oh no way man, cans all the way, I can’t get drunk off cider beer unless it’s in can form.” I respond.
I get a slice of pizza at the local 2-4-1 and start the drinking with the rest of the house, minus Rob who had to do some personal business. I start to bug Elsa and Laura because no one has showed up to the party yet. "It's going to be so funny if no one shows up to your party." I say to them. They laugh and put on a pouting face and claim that it's not funny because it might be true and leave upstairs. My buddy Nick shows up with some of his homebrew in a backpack. It tastes a little different than his usual “honey beer” that he makes that is so damn good. We sit on the couches chatting for a bit and catching up. After having a bottle or two of his brew he has to go to another party.

Eventually three dudes show up with amps and instruments though. They pile it near the TV and then get acquainted with out names. We start watching SpikeTV which is showing "When Good Pets Go Bad" and we are all loving it. Rob eventually comes back and Tammy and Erica arrive as well with him. Halfway through the show five more people show up. Laura turns to me "See! I told you people would come!" We turn off the TV and the two guys set up their instruments. One has a mic and an acoustic guitar with an amp out, and the other has these bongo drums that have a long base to it so that it stands 5 feet off the ground. They play a bunch of covers from bands like Sublime, Weezer and even Destiny’s Child. They aren't really great, but at the same time it's kinda cool to have a live "band" going on while we're drinking.

I started talking to one girl when I am sitting on the arm of the couch. She's a pretty cute gal, but obviously only 18 so I put off the flirting a little. I think she came with some boyfriend or something, who was all over her at one point. He sits across and looks up once and a while. I lean over and talk right to her ear so she can hear me over the crowd. I leave the arm of the couch and get Adam, Rob and Kelly to do some tequila shots upstairs with me. As Rob and I prepare the lemons on the cutting board some young girl asks me what we are doing. "Oh just getting some lemon slices." I answer.
"Cool, I like lemons."
"Well then help yourself to some right there."
Rob and I start to walk upstairs and I peek over and she is standing by the kitchen with a slice of lemon in her hand and waves it too me. I wave back and then head upstairs to get the shots ready.

"To first year!" Rob says and laughs. It wouldn't make sense to anyone else but we all do cheers to first year. Kelly demands more shots and more afterwards. I filled up a glass Fruitopia bottle full of Jose Cuervo Gold, and it was all gone after 20 minutes of doing shot after shot. I get back down to the party and mingle a bit more with people and eventually everyone leaves for the bar. Rob, Tammy, Erica and I decide to leave as well for the 2nd Floor Lounge. We take the Rotary trail despite it being really out of the way for where we are heading. They stop on a house on the corner of Dublin and Alymer where some of Erica and Tammy’s friends live. They start messing around and Rob gives me some hilarious silent wording and I head out to the bar myself. Once I get to the entrance of the bar I immediately recognized the bouncer, but I don't know him that well. I waited outside and tried to think of who I could call to get in. I then think to call Adam who is probably already inside to get Kelly to get me in. Kelly comes down and motions me to come near as I start to enter the place the bouncer sticks out his hand and stops me. "Oh, you need to see ID?" I ask. "No, I can't let you in right now." I was so daftly confused about this and look at Kelly who shrugs. I stay in the doorway to chat with Kelly and he says that I can't get let in and to wait for a bit.

I turn around and see that Rob and Tammy are standing out in the street as well. Even though we got to say hi to Karem we still couldn't get in, so we decide to check out another bar. As we do we see Cedric, Scott and Mira across the street. "Ceddy balls!" Rob yells out as we run across the street. Cedric is really drunk right now and is in shock to see us. We walk with them to the bank and Cedric claims that he can get us in the bar. We walk back and he talks to the bouncer for a bit and comes back out to the side walk. "You can't get us in can you?" I say with a laugh. He does his usual Cedric chuckle and says he can't. "But you can get in right Ced?" He then starts to pretend he's popping his collar "Oh! Don't get me wrong" and chuckles some more. So Rob and I think that returning home is probably the best choice because we can just have some beers there.

We pick up a slice at Night Kitchen and start the walk back. Rob does his usual routine of asking for an outrageous slice of pizza that was created by the slaughter of a young animal. “I want to taste the innocence.” He says to the pizza guy. After finishing the slice down the street and exchanging bites with Tammy; I put the paper plate in the red mail box on Alymer Street like I usually do. It gives the mailman a present. When we arrived to the corner of Alymer and Macdonnell I realized that I couldn't walk anymore because of my sore toe. We called a cab for a ride back.

Back inside Rob’s place there was still some people partying, but apparently a lot of them left to catch the last bus back to the Gzowski residence. Minors... Rob's neighbours come over and we chat with them outside. Rob fires up the BBQ and slabs on some porkchops. He tells me to get some spices and the only thing I could find was some spicey mesquite. In our drunken state we keep lifting the lid of the BBQ violently, so much so that it comes off the hinges a couple of times. One of the neighbours, Gram, is slapping down the porkchops onto the grill with force. I decide to take over. Doing so I knocked over my beer that was sitting peacefully on the BBQ side. It tips over and begins to pour beer onto the concrete below, and eventually rolling off and falling down shattering. Well, no more beer for me. After the chops were done, as close as we could judge by the blackness, we put them on a plate, let them cool and grabbed them by hand to chomp on them. Probably the most delicious porkchops I have ever had in my life. Tammy actually takes a photograph of us with our meat in hand and beaming smiles.

After we finished I was invited over to play some SEGA Genesis with Gram and Adam next door. As I walk in they shout “Are you up for some Street Fighter II?” I of course confidently state that I’ll take anyone on. Gram is apparently the house champ at this game and schools me in the first couple games with Vega, as I played Ken. He’s pretty good, and claims that some people are only good with one character, so I switch up characters and actually start to win with Zengief. I even did the 360 move to his amazement to finish him off. I return to Ken and he uses Vega… and by sheer luck I figure out that pressing down and fierce punch counters his aero-move. He has no chance against me now and I clean out.

So satisfied with the old school gaming I retire back to Rob’s place which is winding down. Kelly eventually comes to pick me up though and I grab my backpack and head over to his place.

Part 2 Later.

music to accompany the blog: My Chemical Romance – The Sharpest Lives.