Afterglow 2009 - Day 8 Saturday

I hijacked James' camera and took a picture of myself and hoped that it would be include in their retrospective "Memories" photo album. I intended to be the only one in the picture, but James and Melissa butted in on my action. Oh well, it is their party...

This picture turned out blurry, but it didn't matter because I'm pretty sure that we were all blurry from drinking. We might as well look like we felt. You know (from left to right) Me, James and Melissa, but let me introduce you to 2 of James' good friends - Isaac and Jeremy. I've known them for many years, and it was great seeing them again and giving them a hard time.

I'm really glad that I made the effort to get way out there for this party, and I ended up having a great time. Before I knew it, it was bar close. And with the busses no longer running and without a ride home, another interesting dilemma was presented to me, and another story followed. The story is told below, but no explanation can do this night justice. It was just too random to put into words.

My brother James and his fiancée Melissa were in town (they live in Columbia, SC) to go to Afterglow, but they also had a bunch of other things to take care of before the wedding (which is May 29, 2010). After taking care of the wedding crap, they had a Going Back Home Party up at Club Paragon in New Berlin. At first I wasn't going to go because I just got back home from Afterglow and the Sheboygan Brat Days, and I was wiped out. But then I realized that it wasn't about me, it was about them, so I went. And it meant a lot to James and Melissa that I spend as much time with them as possible while they were in town. It also helped that Carl (right picture) offered to buy my first 2 drinks if I came out. The other reason I didn't want to go is because I don't have a car, and Club Paragon (Highway 100 and S. Morgan) is 12 miles from my home on Brady St. It eventually took me well over an hour, 2 buses and a 1/2 mile walk to get there. It was a journey, but it was one worth making.

There were plenty of awesome people here to talk with, and for the few hours I was here I didn't leave my seat. James has a bunch of friends that I only see when he is around, so I was able to catch up with them. And as far as I could tell, we all had a wonderful time.

At this point in the night I compared myself to Tom Hanks. No, I never was a man with aids, a retard, a man stranded on a desert island, a cop with a dog as a partner or an 8 year old in a grown man's body. I'm talking about Tom hanks in The Terminal, when he was a man without a country and he was stranded in the Airport. Since I didn't have a car and the buses weren't running, I feared that I would have to sleep at the bar. But my big brother rescued me, and talked Melissa's friend Jaymie into letting me stay over at her house. I passed out on her living room floor and got assaulted by her asshole cat all night. I woke up feeling like a piece of shit, then James took me back home. What a night.