dance party usa!

went out dancing with the girls for the second night in a row. so much fun! last night i decided not to drink at all. go to the bar and order a soda, my friend todd is really confused. then amazed that i'm not drinking. 

i went to clubs, bars, and even raves, sober for years. now i'm more annoyed by drunken idiots when i'm not drinking. still had a great time.

last week, while reorganizing my bookshelves, a flier for this club i went to on sunday nights in syracuse when i was 16 fell out of a bukowski book. atlantis. think that after moving to dc there was a shooting at the club. it changed names and then closed for good. 

i never remember dancing there. just sitting around with david, chris, pat and greg, listening to the music...

greg does music stuff in brookyn/syracuse. and is weird to me every time i see him. a far cry from the boy who used to play me cure songs on the acoustic guitar while wearing a gorilla biscuits shirt.

pat works at newbury comics in boston and is engaged. he used to dress, as he called it "death rocker", back then. he did drugs and drank. listened to industrial and real punk music. out of everyone i knew in syracuse, he stuck out most in a crowd at the time. i heard of the descendents and so many other bands because of patrick. always thought he was a solid dude, even back when he was a total mess. now he's straight edge and still, in essence, the same person i met when i was a shy 16 year old. 

chris is in chicago, saw him for the first time in about 12 years when he came to ny last year for his sister's wedding. he's a married scientist. predictable trajectory from being a bio major at cornell. still vegan, still straight edge. 

david lives in san francisco. kind of perfect for the token gay guy at my high school. the ricky to my angela chase.

that i took david as my date to semiformal junior year is really funny to this day. i have pictures of david hugging john, my boyfriend at the time who was in college at SU, in front of zopies. john came and met up with us after getting drunk at hungry charlie's. couldn't convince the college guy to go to the high school dance instead of marshall street bars on a friday night. 

david and i go for months or years without talking. then it's like no time has passed. i've gone to his family parties, he's gone to mine. he's held my hand when my mom was in the hospital. consoled me after breakups, deaths, shakeups in life. 

john and i also go for months or years without talking. he's back in md, sorting his life out after some years of debauchery. we dated so briefly when i was really young. it's hard for me to even remember being his girlfriend.

john dj'ed and got me into a ton of the music i still love. *attempted* to teach me how to play mike ness songs on bass at one point. got overly psyched when the capitals were in playoffs. i'm really excited to see him next weekend and meet his new girlfriend. all the stuff that he's been through make any of my troubles look like a cakewalk.