simmer down, now

Since I've couped myself up for the better part of two weeks, and since I'm relatively sure I'll be working the entire weekend, I decided it would be best to go out tonight and blow off some steam. I mean, I've worked something like 50 hours this week, and counting; I deserve a little fun, right?

I had forgotten how much my brand of fun hurts. Tonight was so eventful in its uneventfulness, I don't know where to begin. I should start with this evening's unlikely precursor, which, funny enough, was my supper--an ice cream sundae. Unlikely, because it wasn't my intention. It just kind of happened that way. There is an ice cream parlor here in town that makes the yummiest of sundaes. I go rarely so as to preserve the specialness of their tasty treats. I ended up tagging along with two coworkers who were headed to the parlor late in a long day of work--just one in a string of many long days. The sundae was yummy and very filling.

A couple hours later, it was finally time to leave for the day, and I was nowhere near hungry. I decided to go see the band of another coworker perform at the bar outside of downtown, but since I had some time to kill, I hung out with a friend at his store. I ended up pounding a beer there and heading off to the concert with him and his sister.

Two more drinks--a High Life and a rum and Coke that the bartender forgot to put the Coke in. We caught two songs of my coworker's band. The following act was rather pisspoor, so I left--more or less with the intention of going home. And then it happened...

It started raining. Mind you, this is the first time I've seen rain since April. The first couple of drops were startling--what is this, I thought--but soon there was no mistaking it. Precipitation to be sure. Granted, the intensity of the rain never rose above a steady drizzle, but still, I was becoming rather wet, and I really had to pee, so I stopped at the local watering hole, which was on my direct path home, and about halfway between the bar outside of downtown and home.

I took a leak and ordered another beer to wait out the rain. It would be my last beer, of course, since I was there by myself. Eventually I found a table that left me pretty much hidden from the rest of the room.

But almost everyone I know in town eventually filters into the local watering hole. And tonight was no exception. Before I finished my beer, I was joined at the table by a coworker, one of the same I went to the ice cream parlor with (see how it comes full circle?). She offered to buy me a drink. Of course, I accepted.

The lights came on; she stumbled out, and I stumbled out soon after. It became very clear to me that I would never make the two-mile walk home without something to eat. Luckily, there was a pizza cart.

The walk home was pretty much instinctual. One moment I was downtown, the next, I was eating chicken chow mein. I blasted the stereo; I fell asleep on the couch. Pretty standard, really. I woke up when one of my roommates came home. I'm still so tired. This is why people don't work on Saturdays unless they have to.