From Manassas to Blacksburg
So it's been a little while since my last post. I guess a lot has been going on, but as it is, I am sitting on a couch, waiting until 3pm for the man to come and fix the dishwasher. This is the important thing to do before I am able to go out exploring this new city, and get normal everyday supplies like...food, toothbrush/toiletries, and beer. How I arrived on this couch though, and all the details in-between on this crazy odyssey, is a bit of an interesting story...
... where to go back to? Not sure since I have told this story to a selected few, but as my memory seems to work in chunks at the moment, I guess it is easiest to start back three or four stories ago, and work my way up to now. I have three hours to kill, so I might as well tell this story from the beginning. So I guess then that means I'm starting back at arriving in Blacksburg, VA.
This part of my journey was meant to be a party for lack of a better word. I was making my way into St. Louis with my brother's car full of what I defined as useless material possessions that I did not want to throw away, and thus found an easy out by taking it to my parent's house. First though, I needed to stop off at my favorite watering holes in Blacksburg, See some old friends and drink my addictive personality into overdrive, and hopefully get myself sick to get it all out of my system, because after this stop in Blacksburg, all the other stops on my trip required a bit of maturity that I seldom enjoy or show. Thing is though, once I go off on a binge, if I do it right, it takes me a while before I want to do it again. And this was truly my goal. Somehow though, it didn't work out that way.
I stopped off in UVA first to have lunch with Jesse and had a very good chat with her. Got caught up with her story and philosophy on life, and was ready to drive into Blacksburg, but came in a bit later than I expected. The first stop though was to the Cellar, as it is my favorite bar to this day. The atmosphere, drink specials and overall proximity in Blacksburg makes it probably THE best bar in Blacksburg. The only annoying part of that bar is that on Thursdays, too many people show up for "hammertime" which is $6 for ANY pitcher on draft. On those days it doesn't matter if you know the bartenders or not, they're all dicks. Here I met with the core group of kids I hung out with at Tech. These kids are probably the most competitive, sport loving, alcoholic striving...educated fools that try to live a thug life (in as loose of the term I can use) that I have met in Blacksburg that do not aspire to join the frat/sorrostitute life. After Celler was the Rivermill which again is in competition with the Cellar for being the best bar, but still comes in second for me. Their atmosphere is more of a big party than of a Stammtisch. If you are a social butterfly, who likes soccer/sports/yelling drunk profanities at strangers who where different coloured jerseys as you do, than this is your bar. They specialize in pint nights, and as I said, is a great place to mingle around with everybody.
This first night (Friday) the Rivermill was a bit dead as far as I was concerned, nobody of interest to hang out with, the girls weren't anything to write home about, and at this point, my addictive personality was looking for something more. I stumble over to Champs, and I happen to find the band Euthanizer playing that night. I used to play in this band and so I received an extremely loud and warm welcome with this group of kids. I later got my guitar out of Karl's car and played a set with them. I loved it because I arrived in town 3 hours before and already had a show to play that night. The rest of the night after the show and leaving downtown isn't really worth mentioning. Smoked a bit and pondered my future as I played guitar on a giant been bag chair, whilst two girls, a K Love and a Greggerson entertained a conversation around a passed out Klenner. ..
...I pondered as well, where my locked memories of College lay, as there is a deep connection to this place that I feel, but it is not only of the place, it seems to also be to a time, and that time seems to be the era at CGC (the colonial gentleman's club) where my roomates where J.Dizzle, Nick(Vladimir) and Sue Lee. It was at this time that every element seemed to come together. When Nick was living there, he had a bed, a chair and an ashtray in his room. He had two modes, work (which was biochem) and party which was hard liquor, pot and other various mood altering chemicals. It was from him that J.D. and I learned how to attain that perfect balance between your work life and letting your head go off and create and explore without needing the "normal" material substances. Mostly I remember watching baseball on J.D's laptop, passing the peace pipe while listening to either Jurrasic 5, A Tribe Called Quest or something new, while exchanging knowledge learned in our fields, or philosophising realities in other realms. I think my understadning of engineering as a general field is due to him, and he probably walked away with a new appreciation for foreign language, culture and the difference of ideals and lifestyles in other areas of the world. This era is probably my most fondest of school, because it was where I learned that I was able to master german in my head. By this I don't mean that I knew everything, but that all the blocks that told me I couldn't have two languages go on at once in my head dissapeared. This followed to everything else I applied myself to, I realized that whatever I wanted to try to learn, I could if I give it time. My understanding of the world, and how to pose the questions to learn more about the world, was grown out of this era...
...Back to the been bag chair the time has gone by and Klenner is still passed out. Some people have a limit to excitement, where afterwards they crash completely, regardless of the situation. I unfortunately don't have this limit, or if I do, it is at a different level, since even after this night full of events, I was still awake at 4 am, looking around and so I decided to go to sleep since there was nothing else going on to do.
Saturday started with a bowl, Massive Attack and a trip to Macados. They have amazing sandwiches, and cheesefries. Great place for a hangover, which I was lacking, but played the part anyways to keep with the group, had a bloody mary for breakfast, as I consider this a healthy hair of the dog, which energizes you for the rest of the day. Came back for a bit of down time, I read this fascinating book called Baghdad Burning that is a collection of blogs from this girl in Iraq who just tells about her personal life. Very cool perspective, and educational for me, since I never paid attention to our activities in that area. This is what I love about K Love though, his collection of books that he reads voraciously is always on interesting topics. It inspires me to actually spend time reading in the day, since there seems to actually be interesting books out there, you just need to find them...
...Went over to Vassia's and got ready for our gig for that night, at Crossroads. We were playing this CD store that was having two indie bands from Maryland play there. We were supposed to open for them, but as it happens we dropped the ball on gettin there on time, and ended up playing last. So we thought, "great, now we're going to be here until 3 am just to play just like other shows we've done." Well, the show actually ended around 10pm with us playing at 9:30 or so, so it actually ended up being that we (badly played technical death/grindcore metal) got the headlining spot, above these creditable, mature (decent sounding) indie bands from maryland. Hilarious show, especially since our fan base were the same kids from Champs the night before, so we basically oversaturated our market for that weekend, and they were less impressed with our set this time around. Fun times though...
...Then off to the bars again. This time the Rivermill was packed with good times, good people and good beer. Klenner was already done though. I can't imagine how it must be like for him, working a steady nine to five, having a normal life, getting pulled back into the college life with OUR friends where its almost a competition in its own right. The rest of the night is really a fly by night kinda deal. I had about 6 options of who to tag along with, and ended up doing the worst of those options, was undefeated in beer pong, but it is no longer a contest for me, I seem to just try harder when someone makes my last cup that I have to try now to win this game. Most of the time this works, some times it doesnt but in the end, my competitive spirit for beer pong has been lived and I seem to have moved past it now. I dunno. After making the LAST cup in a sudden death on the Last game of a Race to 5 RACE TO FIVE, all other games have been 50Db quieter in my mind since.
The last night in Blacksburg was probably the most enjoyable. I helped Joe and Jeff close up the store so that we could go out drinking quicker. We went back to Jeff's and just sat around drinking, keeping the peace pipe lit and talked about life. I could add a lot of detail here, but I don't know which way to approach it. It was on this night, at this time, that most of the important questions I had about my life, and how I should go about it were asked and discussed among other conversations of course. Looking back, my mentality back then was still pretty infantile compared to what I expect of myself these days, but that is merely a foreshadow to the rest of the story. It was around 6 am that I pulled the blanket over myself on the couch and tried to squeeze a few hours of sleep before driving all day to St. Louis...
...perfectly sporatic and unplanned trip in my opinion.
... where to go back to? Not sure since I have told this story to a selected few, but as my memory seems to work in chunks at the moment, I guess it is easiest to start back three or four stories ago, and work my way up to now. I have three hours to kill, so I might as well tell this story from the beginning. So I guess then that means I'm starting back at arriving in Blacksburg, VA.
This part of my journey was meant to be a party for lack of a better word. I was making my way into St. Louis with my brother's car full of what I defined as useless material possessions that I did not want to throw away, and thus found an easy out by taking it to my parent's house. First though, I needed to stop off at my favorite watering holes in Blacksburg, See some old friends and drink my addictive personality into overdrive, and hopefully get myself sick to get it all out of my system, because after this stop in Blacksburg, all the other stops on my trip required a bit of maturity that I seldom enjoy or show. Thing is though, once I go off on a binge, if I do it right, it takes me a while before I want to do it again. And this was truly my goal. Somehow though, it didn't work out that way.
I stopped off in UVA first to have lunch with Jesse and had a very good chat with her. Got caught up with her story and philosophy on life, and was ready to drive into Blacksburg, but came in a bit later than I expected. The first stop though was to the Cellar, as it is my favorite bar to this day. The atmosphere, drink specials and overall proximity in Blacksburg makes it probably THE best bar in Blacksburg. The only annoying part of that bar is that on Thursdays, too many people show up for "hammertime" which is $6 for ANY pitcher on draft. On those days it doesn't matter if you know the bartenders or not, they're all dicks. Here I met with the core group of kids I hung out with at Tech. These kids are probably the most competitive, sport loving, alcoholic striving...educated fools that try to live a thug life (in as loose of the term I can use) that I have met in Blacksburg that do not aspire to join the frat/sorrostitute life. After Celler was the Rivermill which again is in competition with the Cellar for being the best bar, but still comes in second for me. Their atmosphere is more of a big party than of a Stammtisch. If you are a social butterfly, who likes soccer/sports/yelling drunk profanities at strangers who where different coloured jerseys as you do, than this is your bar. They specialize in pint nights, and as I said, is a great place to mingle around with everybody.
This first night (Friday) the Rivermill was a bit dead as far as I was concerned, nobody of interest to hang out with, the girls weren't anything to write home about, and at this point, my addictive personality was looking for something more. I stumble over to Champs, and I happen to find the band Euthanizer playing that night. I used to play in this band and so I received an extremely loud and warm welcome with this group of kids. I later got my guitar out of Karl's car and played a set with them. I loved it because I arrived in town 3 hours before and already had a show to play that night. The rest of the night after the show and leaving downtown isn't really worth mentioning. Smoked a bit and pondered my future as I played guitar on a giant been bag chair, whilst two girls, a K Love and a Greggerson entertained a conversation around a passed out Klenner. ..
...I pondered as well, where my locked memories of College lay, as there is a deep connection to this place that I feel, but it is not only of the place, it seems to also be to a time, and that time seems to be the era at CGC (the colonial gentleman's club) where my roomates where J.Dizzle, Nick(Vladimir) and Sue Lee. It was at this time that every element seemed to come together. When Nick was living there, he had a bed, a chair and an ashtray in his room. He had two modes, work (which was biochem) and party which was hard liquor, pot and other various mood altering chemicals. It was from him that J.D. and I learned how to attain that perfect balance between your work life and letting your head go off and create and explore without needing the "normal" material substances. Mostly I remember watching baseball on J.D's laptop, passing the peace pipe while listening to either Jurrasic 5, A Tribe Called Quest or something new, while exchanging knowledge learned in our fields, or philosophising realities in other realms. I think my understadning of engineering as a general field is due to him, and he probably walked away with a new appreciation for foreign language, culture and the difference of ideals and lifestyles in other areas of the world. This era is probably my most fondest of school, because it was where I learned that I was able to master german in my head. By this I don't mean that I knew everything, but that all the blocks that told me I couldn't have two languages go on at once in my head dissapeared. This followed to everything else I applied myself to, I realized that whatever I wanted to try to learn, I could if I give it time. My understanding of the world, and how to pose the questions to learn more about the world, was grown out of this era...
...Back to the been bag chair the time has gone by and Klenner is still passed out. Some people have a limit to excitement, where afterwards they crash completely, regardless of the situation. I unfortunately don't have this limit, or if I do, it is at a different level, since even after this night full of events, I was still awake at 4 am, looking around and so I decided to go to sleep since there was nothing else going on to do.
Saturday started with a bowl, Massive Attack and a trip to Macados. They have amazing sandwiches, and cheesefries. Great place for a hangover, which I was lacking, but played the part anyways to keep with the group, had a bloody mary for breakfast, as I consider this a healthy hair of the dog, which energizes you for the rest of the day. Came back for a bit of down time, I read this fascinating book called Baghdad Burning that is a collection of blogs from this girl in Iraq who just tells about her personal life. Very cool perspective, and educational for me, since I never paid attention to our activities in that area. This is what I love about K Love though, his collection of books that he reads voraciously is always on interesting topics. It inspires me to actually spend time reading in the day, since there seems to actually be interesting books out there, you just need to find them...
...Went over to Vassia's and got ready for our gig for that night, at Crossroads. We were playing this CD store that was having two indie bands from Maryland play there. We were supposed to open for them, but as it happens we dropped the ball on gettin there on time, and ended up playing last. So we thought, "great, now we're going to be here until 3 am just to play just like other shows we've done." Well, the show actually ended around 10pm with us playing at 9:30 or so, so it actually ended up being that we (badly played technical death/grindcore metal) got the headlining spot, above these creditable, mature (decent sounding) indie bands from maryland. Hilarious show, especially since our fan base were the same kids from Champs the night before, so we basically oversaturated our market for that weekend, and they were less impressed with our set this time around. Fun times though...
...Then off to the bars again. This time the Rivermill was packed with good times, good people and good beer. Klenner was already done though. I can't imagine how it must be like for him, working a steady nine to five, having a normal life, getting pulled back into the college life with OUR friends where its almost a competition in its own right. The rest of the night is really a fly by night kinda deal. I had about 6 options of who to tag along with, and ended up doing the worst of those options, was undefeated in beer pong, but it is no longer a contest for me, I seem to just try harder when someone makes my last cup that I have to try now to win this game. Most of the time this works, some times it doesnt but in the end, my competitive spirit for beer pong has been lived and I seem to have moved past it now. I dunno. After making the LAST cup in a sudden death on the Last game of a Race to 5 RACE TO FIVE, all other games have been 50Db quieter in my mind since.
The last night in Blacksburg was probably the most enjoyable. I helped Joe and Jeff close up the store so that we could go out drinking quicker. We went back to Jeff's and just sat around drinking, keeping the peace pipe lit and talked about life. I could add a lot of detail here, but I don't know which way to approach it. It was on this night, at this time, that most of the important questions I had about my life, and how I should go about it were asked and discussed among other conversations of course. Looking back, my mentality back then was still pretty infantile compared to what I expect of myself these days, but that is merely a foreshadow to the rest of the story. It was around 6 am that I pulled the blanket over myself on the couch and tried to squeeze a few hours of sleep before driving all day to St. Louis...
...perfectly sporatic and unplanned trip in my opinion.