IHOP and she turned 20

shit, guess I should add more...

wrote this on the train ride to woodbourne to meet blair and proceed to IHOP.

[some background: I went out with this girl in high school who absolutely destroyed my heart. It took a long time to get over it, and by that point, we would never see each other again. I used to ride the R3 out to her neck of the woods (forest hills) once a week, sometimes more. Today was the first time I've been on that train, that route, since before she broke up with me.]

[scrawled out as quickly as the thoughts formed in my head, on the front of the R3 schedule...]

"This is it. The nerve. The 
direct route to her 
ghost. Keep a look 
out. You can 
see her apartment 
complex from the 
train, I remember. 
Fuck, there it is. 
There it is. This
is it. 10, 15 seconds
maybe sitting here.
I sat on that bench 
waiting for her, once.
Just a few more and
we'll be out of this
fearsome place.
Just a little longer
more.

[and this written on the back]

"We're past that 
terrifying location.
Past the hell.
the outer reaches 
of the universe,
now.
cloudy limbo skies.
we're too far 
beyond sense, now.
It'll be done soon.
You'll be off this
train. Let your
heart settle down.
have a cigarette when
you get off.
almost there.
It's only the deadlands.

after that bad trip through never-again-land, I jumped off at woodbourne. A place I had never been too, and frankly, frightened me [despite my rough exterior, I am frightened by the silliest of things. Like the woodbourne train station, kahunaville, men in pink bunny costumes, and, at least for the first 90 seconds, Blairs driving].

A wait ensued, in which I was victorious. I think. Either way, Blair, Erin & Tony showed up, honked, and I hopped in [it's just that easy].

now, this was the first time I've ever met blair face-to-face. Naturally, we talk a fair amount over AIM, but we never met. Today we did. I'll take the limb of assumption, and say we talk more on AIM. So it goes.

Tony, I had never talked to before, or met, and didn't even realize he was blair's boyfriend until the tell-tale clues arrived [ie, being refered to as "blairs boyfriend"].

And of course, there was erin. But we already know her.

;)

We made our way to IHOP, where we proceeded to wait for a table to open up [and for more people]. By this point there are four, no five, of us; Ron, Art, Blair, Tony, Erin, and I. In come two more people, who's names I forget. It's nothing personal, I'm just very bad with names. In fact, I'm very embarrassed at how bad I am with remembering names. I feel it's offensive to not remember a person's name, so I constantly feel as though I am offending people because within 30 seconds, their name is gone.

moving along.

... A nun asked if I was picking on erin. I said yes, erin said yes. The nun chuckled her nun-like chuckle and walked through the door. I presented her with a double hail satan [index and little fingers extended from a fist], which erin thought was me giving the nun the finger. That's just wrong. I would never give a nun the finger. What a horrible, horrible thing to do

hail satan.

For one reason or another, we move to a different waiting area. Three lovely girls walk in, who annouce, quickly, to the group that they are hung-over.

excellent.

this is where it gets a little hazy. At some point we're led into a room seperated from the main hub of the IHOP, but with windows so we can see the rest of the IHOP. I can only assume this room is either the interrogation room, or the VIP room.

"Can we smoke in here?" I ask the ... manager, as we enter. "No", he replies.

I was wrong.

This is the torture room.

At some point between sitting down, the three lovely girls having a smoke outside, and me briefly looking over the menu [with erin's help on how to operate it], many more people showed up. This includes Tobey, Bill, Matt, Marina and I think one or two others. Marina and Tobey, I would of actually liked to have met individually, as they were the only people there that I didn't know, but had read their diaries. but it didn't work out. Even though Marina was around the whole day, in fact, even though she lives 5 blocks away from me. Still ... anyways ...

holy fuck it's cold in my apartment. BRB.

...

ok.

brrrrr.

I felt awkward, as everyone knew each other, it seemed, except me. I definitely felt like the odd man out, and I know my personality can often times feed this position. I tend to be quiet and aloof, but i really don't mean to be distant or unapprochable. I wish I was the conversationalist that never felt uncomfortable in these social situations.

Germany came up with Erin, and the girl who sat across from me ased if I lived there.

"No," I replied. "I'm being deployed there."

"What? I don't know what you mean"

"I'm in the Army, so they're deploying us to Germany."

Now, this threw me for a loop. My response, that I am in the Army, for one reason or another didn't seem to jive too well with her. It was just a reactive feeling and watching her body gestures that gave me that impression. That perhaps she is anti-military.

Erin received no more then 6 straws in her soda, because tart-cart kids need help finding the straw. So I gave her six. This was cause for much, nay, endless amusement on my end, especially since I would put them in while she wasn't looking.

I really want to continue on with this story, but I'm falling asleep as I type. I need to go. I'll finish later. Blair's Birthday Two, Electric Boogaloo, coming soon.