Wednesday February 18, 2009

Fuck this 5:30 AM opening bullshit. I get up at 4:00 AM, pissed as usual. There's something about heading into work before the sun even comes up that just gets my blood boiling. It seems so fucking pointless. But, in the long run, it's a paycheck and I do get out at 11:00 AM, which is pretty solid to say the least. But then I remember that even though I get out at 11, I'm too fucking tired to want to do anything in the afternoon other than sleep. So, fuck it, there's nothing good about opening. And on top of everything, I'm opening with Ryan, which makes it even less enjoyable. Fuck my life.

I do the morning routine and head out the door. I get to work about ten after five and, of course, it was a waste of time to rush because that son of a bitch isn't even there yet. He shows up damn near ten minutes later (which means the store opens in ten minutes) and we cruise inside to get everything set for opening. I brew the coffees and set up the bakery, while Ryan does nothing. Shocking, I know.

Of course, the store is dead for the first hour, slowly picking up as the morning gets later. It's only day three of no smoking so I'm at the peak of my irritability. Pretty much any customer that walks in just pisses me off when I look at them. And the fact that I have to give them things just makes it worse. This quitting of the cigarettes thing is really as hard as people say it is, possibly harder.

The traffic in the store finally picks up and the rest of the morning seems to fly by. I end up walking out with almost thirty bucks in tips (pimp). I cruise out at 11:00 AM and gun it home, trying not to fall asleep at the wheel and also trying to hold myself back from turning into the nearest convenient store for a pack of squares. This is day three and I'm starting to doubt if I can make it to day four.

Once at home, I cruise into my room and instantly fall asleep. I didn't even bother turning the t.v. on. I just collapsed on my bed and fell into a coma. And it was fucking glorious.

I wake up to my alarm going off at 3:00 PM. I have to be at band practice at 3:30, so I roll out of bed, throw on a shirt, slip my shoes on and head out. I swing by the gas station and grab a Red Bull for a quick pick-me-up.

I get to Dave's and head inside. Tim and Ryan (Dave's girlfriend and the band's keyboardist) are sitting at the table. Ryan informs me that Dave is upstairs taking a shit, so I might want to just take a seat and make myself comfortable. I do so without question. After what seemed like an hour, Dave finally cruises downstairs and we head out to the shed.

We run through the set list and work on the new song a few extra times to be sure we have it down. After the first run through, we take a break and Dave packs up a bowl. I partake in the festivities. It's been like a month since the last time I smoked, so I got pretty baked. This, of course, made drumming veeerrryyy enjoyable and more creative. We ran through the set a second time. This time, however, each song was extended about twenty minutes in length (when you're flyin' high and playing instruments, you forget just how much time is spent "jamming").

We wrap up at about 6:30. I get a call from Stin just as I'm heading out to my car informing me that our entire neighborhood is without power at the moment (fuck). Ironically enough, the only place in town that still has power is the bar right down the street, Roundhead's. Stin, Phil, and Phil's friend Shaun are all chilling there having some drinks, so I cruise on over to meet them.

I get there and the place is fuckin' slammed. I find the guys and order up a beer (two-dollar pints, can't go wrong). We all throw in for a football-sized pizza (which is fuckin' gargantuan) and sit around bullshitting about our days. The waitress comes out almost a half hour later to inform us that they accidentally put sliced beef on our pizza instead of our requested ground beef. As an apology, the manager gives us a round of beers on the house. This makes me happy (fuck, I didn't even mind the fact that there was sliced beef on the pizza as it was, but now I'm getting a free beer out of it).

We devour the pizza in a manner that can only be described as savage-like and kind of fucked up and twisted to watch. We all order up one final round of pints before getting the tab. We get a call from Stin's mom letting us know that the power was back on. We finish our beers and cruise back to my house (slowly and taking side streets, as we are all mildly buzzed).

We all get back to my place and assume positions in front of the t.v. (not like that, fuckin' pervs). We end up watching this new show on Comedy Central called Important Things with Demetri Martin. The show winds up being hilariously fuckin' brilliant and I am almost in tears by the show's end. Everyone chills for awhile longer and end up heading out around 10:30 or so.

Right as they are leaving, Tool comes home and Shimon cruises over, as does his brother, Nelly. They all sit around the table enjoying their roast while I continue to vegetate on the couch watching episodes of Mythbusters. They all cruise a little after midnight and I start to get tired. I head into my room and get ready for bed. I go to turn on the t.v. with no luck. Turns out that the power-outage fucked up the power strip that my t.v. and numerous components are plugged into. The only way to fix it is to reset the power strip, which means I have to pull out the entire t.v. stand just to get at it (which is not happening because I am far too tired to bother with such a strenuous process).

I say fuck it and head into the living room to crash on the couch for the night. I throw in Die Hard with a Vengeance and am out within the first twenty minutes.