BUZZNET! Saturday night I dropped off my daughter at her friend’s house for a sleep over. She was even more happy than I was. I was happy only because her well timed request to sleep over at her friend’s house coincided with the Buzznet meet up staring none other than tony pierce. I was running late because running late is what I do. I had to stop at my brother’s house to borrow some loot and I got hijacked into a Thanksgiving Dinner Reprise. Thanks brother the food was good. He also lent me the fifth season of The Sopranos on DVD of which I was only 3 episodes short of completing. Then I had to jump into my oh so illegally parked car which amazingly did not have a ticket on it and sped down to Uncommon Ground which I was initially afraid only served coffee but turned out to be a pretty cool bar. The lack of Southern Comfort and above mediocre service may keep me from returning but a cool place nonetheless. I arrived and tony was in his signature hat wearing it in signature style. (I will not capitalize his name out of respect for his refusal to do the same) He was sitting at the bar with Bobby D and two other people whose names I instantly forgot and never heard again as they didn’t join us before they left. It wasn’t until after we moved from the bar and away from Bobby did we learn that he was a childhood friend of tony’s. After that it seemed too hard and too rude to go over the bar and tell Bobby that I was going to ignore the person I came to see in order to pimp him for cool (read embarrassing) stories about tony p, so I didn’t. What I did do was sit and listen to one of the most interesting and funny story tellers I have met. Tony is able to talk like he writes, or write like he talks. Chicken or the egg you tell me. The other people in attendance in order of arrival were Byron, Chris, Brian, Diana, and Alex. Sorry tony for linking people to their blogs when available and not their Buzznet pages but people will find them I am sure.
There were many conversations at once and involved so many things. tony’s amazing ability to post twice every single damn day. Going to school in Chicago, living in CA, going to a cubs game for $3 back when the beer vendors would have sold to the underage because it is hard to make a quota when there are only 13,000 people in the stands, and drugs. That was tony’s convo. tony couldn’t believe that Alex and Diana don’t smoke pot and neither could I. They are musicians for goodness sake, classical musicians but musicians none the less. I think I read somewhere that Diana is an opera singer. I would hate to be her neighbor. Although to their defense I believe what they said was that they don’t smoke pot in their dorm rooms. On scholarships and all. Pot is not really my thing. Alcohol is my drug and it has been enough. Pot used to be tony’s drug but a little wouldn’t do it so a little got more and more and then more and more wouldn’t do it so he just gave it up. Put it aside more in circulation for the younger crowd. Then tony said drugs are what college is for. Experiment. Be all hallucinogens make you think you can be. But do it in the woods. Nature is your friend, he says. Nature knows you’re high and is nice to you. The stars are brighter, the grass is greener and the trees just say Duuude. Never really tried that stuff. Made an attempt once at age eighteen to do shrooms but could find any. Turns out watching Pink Floyd’s The Wall on shrooms is a bad idea according to tony. Nature. Nature is where it’s at.
Gave tony a big kiss on the cheek from Whatsername. No pics of that though. Might end up on the internet, you know. Bought him a shot. Two I believe. One of Bicardi, because they weren’t selling Cuban. But he sipped it neat like a Cuban. Props for that. And a red headed slut. I usually save that for later in the night but I left early as you will soon read. And I bought a round or two for Alex and Diana our two underage attendees. tony noticed them fidgeting first and ask if they wanted a drink. They were debating whether or not to use their fakes. I said all you have to do is ask. If the overage invite you out they expect you to drink and they expect to help the cause. Diana asked how much they owed for the drinks and I gave her a you gotta be kidding me look and said I was always willing to contribute to the delinquency of a minor. I feel that within reason it is not only your privilege but a duty to provide alcohol for the underage. It is like paying it forward. Someone bought for you, you should buy for someone else. Keeps the world going around.
Kind of like blogging does. We talked about blogging some, not as much as we should have being in the prescence of the blogfather, but he is pretty much able to and happy to talk about any topic presented. Before going to uncommon ground I had a conversation with Brother about blogging. Mainly about how I write too much on mine and if Monkey ever sees it I will so not be able to afford all the therapy she is going to need. He doesn’t read tony, which I find surprising but he is in IT and reads informational blogs. Blogs that link to places that tell you what happened and what is important. I think to think that this is important and what is happening. I think the busblog is the essential blog, and it should be as tony wrote the book.
Why did I miss the last 5 hours of drunken nonsense and hot dogs at 4am? I so do love hot dogs at 4am. And cheese fries. Didn’t anyone get the cheese fries?
Why did I plan 2 cool things on the same night? Part of the definition of a cool thing is that it is something you want to keep doing until someone makes you stop. So why stop voluntary? Because she is cute. Cuter than tony. Maybe not smarter, funnier or more prolific than tony but definitely cute.
Speaking of books. I bought a copy of Stiff. The one with the staircase on it. That one speaks to me I still don’t know why. And the coolest thing about the coolest dude is that he said paypal me later. Not now. Not you can’t leave the premises with out paying buster. Later. I had no real American currency and he didn’t have his xbi credit card reader. Later. How cool is that. I thought about taking advantage of the priceline type Stiff sale that he has going on but I thought fuck an autographed copy is worth $25. I’ll pay $25. The problem with the previous sentence isn’t the $25, it is the autographed. I went all the way down there to meet the man himself and get an autographed copy of Stiff. He dug around in his bag for the cover I was looking for and handed it over with a big smile on his face and my big dorkness forgot to have him sign it. Tony you are still getting $25 because I still want that autograph and your sense of duty will then force you to get to Chicago when it is not asscold out side and sign my book before going to a game. We will have to put the book in my car before going in ‘cause there is no way I am getting mustard all over a genuine tony p autograph. And we can’t do it after the game ‘cause there is no way in heck that anyone is remembering anything after all that Old Style. But I am drinking Bud Light because I will drink crap beer at a game but it’s at least gotta be a crap beer that I can pretend tastes good.
I live for Cub’s games in the summertime. Only hit six or seven this year but hope for a better record next year. Both mine and the Cubs.
Speaking of missing things at the Buzznet party. I missed OakParkMastermind and ElginRoots. Why is that it takes someone to come almost 3000 miles to almost meet someone who lives ten miles away.
She is Latina. I told a friend last Wednesday I was going to meet a girl, and when we got to the Latin club where she was he said what does she look like I said she is Latina. He said, curvy with nice hair. I said, you’ve met. That really is the best description of Latinas I have heard yet. I am going to call her Smiley because she is and so far she makes me smile. With Saturday being one of the few Saturdays that I was not working and Monkeyless I made plans with her. I was supposed to meet her between 9-9:30. I left Uncommon Ground when I overheard someone say it is 11:30. I left so quick that I was a good twenty yards down the road before I realized that I didn’t close my tab even though I had asked the waitress for it. But she also forgot one of the drinks in the two drink order so I should of asked again for the tab. At least I wasn’t in my car 20 minutes down the road. I got back in closed my tab and I don’t think any of the buzznetters saw me so I don’t think I looked like a dork.
I pick up Rico. As I am getting close to the bar he is in I call and say where are you and he says he is on the street corner smoking a joint. I laugh, see him in the street and promptly try and run him over. Sure enough he was actually standing on the corner smoking a joint. And he doesn’t even smoke. And he aint supposed to be drinking either, but he had three before I picked him up. Which probably means five. Then he drags me to a small taco stand for tacos with the strongest onions known to man. A piece of gum and a few drinks later Smiley was still giving me shit for my onion breath. Rico you bastard. Smiley ended up leaving the bar she was at to go down town to Nacional 27 and Restaurant club that plays Salsa on weekends. Most nights I believe. We (including Rico) had a few more drinks and then we ended up at Betty’s a place I should just let die already, but it is familiar and so close to home. At the end of the night I snagged a piece of gum from the bartender to try and finally kill the onion breath and I asked Smiley to wait as I paid my tab but the bartenders were doing shots so I got put on hold and when I got out side the Latinas were G O N E gone. I checked my phone no calls. Bastards. Without even saying goodbye. No kiss goodnight. I was a little pissed. I didn’t call her I thought she should call me. This morning I saw my phone and I had three missed text messages. Three, all from smiley. I guess I am the asshole. Rico agreed I am the asshole.
I was going to write this as soon as I got home but Rico stayed at my place so we sat and watched Sopranos on DVD, on my computer because my regular DVD player is dead. I watched all three episodes I needed to finish the season. Up till 8am I was and slept till only 10:45am because I had to go pick up monkey. I dropped her back off at 3:30pm and then took a well deserved well needed four hour nap. I then took Smiley to a movie. It was good. You may or may not see a post on that.
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