(no subject)
Well… continuing on from my last entry about Winnemucca.
Thursday night, Brooks and I ended up just eating pasta and staying in. We listened to a lot of NPR while cooking, and enjoyed the sounds of ‘evening jazz’ every night. We spent a lot of time just being together, not doing anything in particular, but talking and enjoying the short time we had together.
We got up Friday morning and explored the town. We drove around town, and saw basically the entire town in 10 minutes. We drove though the ‘red light district’, which included several small shacks and signs that said ‘we bare all’. I can only imagine what the hookers in Winnemucca must look like, but there was a surprising amount of cars in the parking lot at 2 in the afternoon. We went to Water Canyon Park, which is a trail that goes into the mountains, and we hiked around and I got to throw snowballs at Brooks.
Snow!
It was beautiful in the mountains, there was a stream and the ground was wet because of the melting snow. It wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be, but still required a jacket. Clouds were coming in, and it looked like it was about to rain. It was snowing on the tops of the mountains in the distance. Brooks said the park is a popular part of town, and should be really busy with people during the summer. It’s the most beautiful part of town, and it feels very isolated, but it’s only about 10 minutes outside of town. We walked around more, but decided it was far too muddy to try to hike the trail. We went back to town, and cooked dinner. That night Brooks made pizza with chicken and avocado, it was delicious. After dinner, we decided to go out to see the Winnemucca nightlife with Brooks’ friends.
We went to his friend Ellen’s apartment, and as soon as we talked in his other friend, John, began telling us a sorted tail about their friend Kurt, who had recently stolen painkillers from another friend, Amanda. John had long hair and a beard, was originally from Alabama, said “man” at the end of almost every thought, asked if I was Brooks’ lady, and kept telling us this complicated story about Kurt… later, we found out that John was very drunk, which made his disjointed story make a little more sense. Ellen was on the phone when we got there, but she came out and introduced herself. She was cute, seemed normal, was very granola, and she’s one of Brooks’ good friends in town. We all walked together down the street to go to Cheers for the evening. On the way there, whom should we run into… Kurt. He’s walking in the street, and talks to John and Ellen. John and Kurt look as though they are constantly on the verge of fighting, John’s pissed because Kurt has been ‘talking shit’, and Kurt says he’s going to leave town. They talk in the street, but soon enough there’s no fight, and we all go into the bar.
The bar isn’t too shady, but still not the nicest place I’ve ever been. There’s a shuffleboard table and pool table in the back, and that’s where most of the people are. Brooks knows a majority of the people in bar, swears to me that they aren’t scary, and introduces me to several people. I talk to this woman Crystal, she’s like in her 30s, and is in town because her husband, who is sitting next to her, got a job there. She’s nice, but depressing to talk to. She keeps saying that all there is to do in Winnemucca is drink, and later on, her husband mentions their usual $300 a night bar tab. They are originally from West Virginia, and it’s very soon obvious that very few people at the bar are actually from Winnemucca, it’s the type of town that people just somehow end up in, either they are environmental people like Brooks, work in the mines, or are escaping from something at home. I talk to more people at the bar, I met Jess, Brooks’ friend, she’s 18, from England, blond, and nice. She had an internship in Winnemucca doing environmental things and for some reason decided to stay. She’s involved in a lot of the Winnemucca drama, it seems, but she was very social and entertaining, especially since she’s 18 and has made friend with 55 year old woman whose the bartender and is drinking openly at the bar --- it’s Winnemucca, they don’t care! We hang out for a while, mostly watching people, Brooks is sweet and buys me a drink. We watch his friends bet on pool, Kurt and John have overcome their fight enough to play pool together against some old fat guys who we assume are from out of town. The money keeps increasing, Kurt is being rude to John even though he is his partner, a fight seems like it might break out, but it never does. John was supposed to go work, but keeps playing pool - he’s the DJ at another bar called the Mineshaft, which I’ll talk about later. They tried to get me to hold the money for the pool game, but I stayed out it. Kurt remembered my name, which I thought was strange because he seemed pretty drunk.
There’s another group of interesting people in the bar, there’s a girl - who I think was a hooker, but Brooks didn’t fully agree - she was about 19, maybe a little older, really gross blond hair, wearing a wifebeater that said ‘hypnotic’ across her chest, and her leopard-print bra was completely showing. At one point, she went back to the bathroom with one of her man-friends, a fat guy with some type of jersey on who looked pretty wannabe gangster, and his guy asked her to take a picture of her boobs, which I’m assuming she did because she came out laughing and adjusting her top. She later told me that I had good hair, so she was fine by me. She was with an older couple, a woman who was very tan and wearing a zip-up hoodie with no shirt underneath, and her husband who was also tan and wore a huge ring on his finger. This group played a lot of pool, and had most of their money taken by John and Kurt. There was also a guy with a huge beard in the bar, who was in his 60s, he was getting a backrub by a dyed-redhead at the front of the bar. I was getting tired of the smoke, and wanted to hang out with Brooks, so we said goodbye to everyone and left the bar.
On the way home, he wanted to show me the Mineshaft, one of the seeder bars in town. We walked in the backdoor - everything in Winnemucca has a backdoor - and came into this nasty bar. There was a stripper pole in the middle of the dance floor, backlights, and we walked out as soon as we walked in. It was pretty gross, but entertaining, and I still find it funny that John is the DJ there. We walked home across the train tracks, and that’s the nightlife in Winnemucca.
Saturday morning, we drove out to the hot springs, which are about an hour out of town. It was completely isolated, you could see for miles and miles. It’s all open range, and on the way home, we actually saw cows in the middle of the road. The hot springs were strange, it was a resort at one point years and years ago, but now it’s in a empty field, and it’s two large kiddle-poolish tanks that the hot water comes in from the ground. It was incredibly hot, the temperature said it was 112 degrees, way too hot to actually sit in. The weather was beautiful, so we sat outside in the back of Brooks’ explorer and talked for a long time. He was able to get about half way into the springs, but I just had my legs in for a little bit. It smelled like sulfur, and there were little prayer flags on the gate next to the tank. We stayed out for about 2 hours, maybe a little longer, and then drove back to town. Brooks accidentally put his nalgene on the roof on his car, which we realized while driving, but we pulled over it was still there. We went home, and decided to stay in for the evening even though there was a party that night. We looked at Brooks’ pictures from hiking the Appalachian Trail. It was really nice to hear all of his stories, and to stay in and talk for the night.
Sunday was lazy, I slept a lot - in fact, I slept a lot the entire trip. Brooks made a frame for his Kappa Sigma composites, which was very crafty. We made fajitas for dinner, and then made chocolate chip cookies for dessert. We hung out most of the evening, his roommate, Justin, was home. He was decent, he’s from Pennsylvania, Brooks described him as an ‘8th grader’ and that was pretty accurate.
Brooks went to work on Monday morning, and I slept. He came home for lunch, and then got off at 3 in the afternoon since he went to work at 6 a.m. We hung out for the afternoon and evening, didn’t do much, made nachos, and enjoyed my last night in town. Tuesday morning we headed to Reno, this time I was awake for the entire drive, which doesn’t matter much because there’s nothing to see but open space. We went to the apple store, fixed Brooks’ computer, and went to REI before going to the airport. On the way to the airport, we were listening to the radio in Reno, and we hear some ad about midgets at a casino for St. Patrick’s Day - it was SO Reno, that’s basically my impression of the city.
I said goodbye to Brooks, I was sad, but it’s not too horrible because he’ll be here on the 28th. My flight was delayed, so I sat in the airport and started my book. The power went out in the Reno airport, which was funny because everyone playing the slots lost their games and there were screams of “SHIT” when it happened. The flight from Reno to Phoenix was fine - I read the entire time - the lady next to me was wearing a black crushed velvet shirt, ate a lot of trail mix, and held her husbands hand the entire flight. Being delayed worked out well, because I didn’t have to wait for my next flight. I sat next to the Roller Girls from Phoenix who were coming to Austin to battle the Austin Roller Girls for SXSW. Everyone on the plane was going to SXSW, they all looked hip, and the guy behind me was talking about being a writer for Playboy. I finished my book as we flew into Austin. It was lightening outside, and the plane was bumpy, but not too bad. I landed, Ben was there to get me, we stopped and got food, and then came to Georgetown. I was going to go hang out with people last night, but I just went to bed instead.
I woke up this morning to housekeeping, and it scared me. I’m going to Kerrville this afternoon, but I have some errands to run in Austin first.
It was a really good trip, very relaxing being in the middle of nowhere without TV, a phone, Internet, and other distractions. I’m impressed that Brooks and I can be together for 5 days without being annoyed with each other, it was so good to see him, and I’m so excited for his visit to Georgetown. He needs to live closer, but it’s good to have him in my life even if he is far away.
Thursday night, Brooks and I ended up just eating pasta and staying in. We listened to a lot of NPR while cooking, and enjoyed the sounds of ‘evening jazz’ every night. We spent a lot of time just being together, not doing anything in particular, but talking and enjoying the short time we had together.
We got up Friday morning and explored the town. We drove around town, and saw basically the entire town in 10 minutes. We drove though the ‘red light district’, which included several small shacks and signs that said ‘we bare all’. I can only imagine what the hookers in Winnemucca must look like, but there was a surprising amount of cars in the parking lot at 2 in the afternoon. We went to Water Canyon Park, which is a trail that goes into the mountains, and we hiked around and I got to throw snowballs at Brooks.
Snow!
It was beautiful in the mountains, there was a stream and the ground was wet because of the melting snow. It wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be, but still required a jacket. Clouds were coming in, and it looked like it was about to rain. It was snowing on the tops of the mountains in the distance. Brooks said the park is a popular part of town, and should be really busy with people during the summer. It’s the most beautiful part of town, and it feels very isolated, but it’s only about 10 minutes outside of town. We walked around more, but decided it was far too muddy to try to hike the trail. We went back to town, and cooked dinner. That night Brooks made pizza with chicken and avocado, it was delicious. After dinner, we decided to go out to see the Winnemucca nightlife with Brooks’ friends.
We went to his friend Ellen’s apartment, and as soon as we talked in his other friend, John, began telling us a sorted tail about their friend Kurt, who had recently stolen painkillers from another friend, Amanda. John had long hair and a beard, was originally from Alabama, said “man” at the end of almost every thought, asked if I was Brooks’ lady, and kept telling us this complicated story about Kurt… later, we found out that John was very drunk, which made his disjointed story make a little more sense. Ellen was on the phone when we got there, but she came out and introduced herself. She was cute, seemed normal, was very granola, and she’s one of Brooks’ good friends in town. We all walked together down the street to go to Cheers for the evening. On the way there, whom should we run into… Kurt. He’s walking in the street, and talks to John and Ellen. John and Kurt look as though they are constantly on the verge of fighting, John’s pissed because Kurt has been ‘talking shit’, and Kurt says he’s going to leave town. They talk in the street, but soon enough there’s no fight, and we all go into the bar.
The bar isn’t too shady, but still not the nicest place I’ve ever been. There’s a shuffleboard table and pool table in the back, and that’s where most of the people are. Brooks knows a majority of the people in bar, swears to me that they aren’t scary, and introduces me to several people. I talk to this woman Crystal, she’s like in her 30s, and is in town because her husband, who is sitting next to her, got a job there. She’s nice, but depressing to talk to. She keeps saying that all there is to do in Winnemucca is drink, and later on, her husband mentions their usual $300 a night bar tab. They are originally from West Virginia, and it’s very soon obvious that very few people at the bar are actually from Winnemucca, it’s the type of town that people just somehow end up in, either they are environmental people like Brooks, work in the mines, or are escaping from something at home. I talk to more people at the bar, I met Jess, Brooks’ friend, she’s 18, from England, blond, and nice. She had an internship in Winnemucca doing environmental things and for some reason decided to stay. She’s involved in a lot of the Winnemucca drama, it seems, but she was very social and entertaining, especially since she’s 18 and has made friend with 55 year old woman whose the bartender and is drinking openly at the bar --- it’s Winnemucca, they don’t care! We hang out for a while, mostly watching people, Brooks is sweet and buys me a drink. We watch his friends bet on pool, Kurt and John have overcome their fight enough to play pool together against some old fat guys who we assume are from out of town. The money keeps increasing, Kurt is being rude to John even though he is his partner, a fight seems like it might break out, but it never does. John was supposed to go work, but keeps playing pool - he’s the DJ at another bar called the Mineshaft, which I’ll talk about later. They tried to get me to hold the money for the pool game, but I stayed out it. Kurt remembered my name, which I thought was strange because he seemed pretty drunk.
There’s another group of interesting people in the bar, there’s a girl - who I think was a hooker, but Brooks didn’t fully agree - she was about 19, maybe a little older, really gross blond hair, wearing a wifebeater that said ‘hypnotic’ across her chest, and her leopard-print bra was completely showing. At one point, she went back to the bathroom with one of her man-friends, a fat guy with some type of jersey on who looked pretty wannabe gangster, and his guy asked her to take a picture of her boobs, which I’m assuming she did because she came out laughing and adjusting her top. She later told me that I had good hair, so she was fine by me. She was with an older couple, a woman who was very tan and wearing a zip-up hoodie with no shirt underneath, and her husband who was also tan and wore a huge ring on his finger. This group played a lot of pool, and had most of their money taken by John and Kurt. There was also a guy with a huge beard in the bar, who was in his 60s, he was getting a backrub by a dyed-redhead at the front of the bar. I was getting tired of the smoke, and wanted to hang out with Brooks, so we said goodbye to everyone and left the bar.
On the way home, he wanted to show me the Mineshaft, one of the seeder bars in town. We walked in the backdoor - everything in Winnemucca has a backdoor - and came into this nasty bar. There was a stripper pole in the middle of the dance floor, backlights, and we walked out as soon as we walked in. It was pretty gross, but entertaining, and I still find it funny that John is the DJ there. We walked home across the train tracks, and that’s the nightlife in Winnemucca.
Saturday morning, we drove out to the hot springs, which are about an hour out of town. It was completely isolated, you could see for miles and miles. It’s all open range, and on the way home, we actually saw cows in the middle of the road. The hot springs were strange, it was a resort at one point years and years ago, but now it’s in a empty field, and it’s two large kiddle-poolish tanks that the hot water comes in from the ground. It was incredibly hot, the temperature said it was 112 degrees, way too hot to actually sit in. The weather was beautiful, so we sat outside in the back of Brooks’ explorer and talked for a long time. He was able to get about half way into the springs, but I just had my legs in for a little bit. It smelled like sulfur, and there were little prayer flags on the gate next to the tank. We stayed out for about 2 hours, maybe a little longer, and then drove back to town. Brooks accidentally put his nalgene on the roof on his car, which we realized while driving, but we pulled over it was still there. We went home, and decided to stay in for the evening even though there was a party that night. We looked at Brooks’ pictures from hiking the Appalachian Trail. It was really nice to hear all of his stories, and to stay in and talk for the night.
Sunday was lazy, I slept a lot - in fact, I slept a lot the entire trip. Brooks made a frame for his Kappa Sigma composites, which was very crafty. We made fajitas for dinner, and then made chocolate chip cookies for dessert. We hung out most of the evening, his roommate, Justin, was home. He was decent, he’s from Pennsylvania, Brooks described him as an ‘8th grader’ and that was pretty accurate.
Brooks went to work on Monday morning, and I slept. He came home for lunch, and then got off at 3 in the afternoon since he went to work at 6 a.m. We hung out for the afternoon and evening, didn’t do much, made nachos, and enjoyed my last night in town. Tuesday morning we headed to Reno, this time I was awake for the entire drive, which doesn’t matter much because there’s nothing to see but open space. We went to the apple store, fixed Brooks’ computer, and went to REI before going to the airport. On the way to the airport, we were listening to the radio in Reno, and we hear some ad about midgets at a casino for St. Patrick’s Day - it was SO Reno, that’s basically my impression of the city.
I said goodbye to Brooks, I was sad, but it’s not too horrible because he’ll be here on the 28th. My flight was delayed, so I sat in the airport and started my book. The power went out in the Reno airport, which was funny because everyone playing the slots lost their games and there were screams of “SHIT” when it happened. The flight from Reno to Phoenix was fine - I read the entire time - the lady next to me was wearing a black crushed velvet shirt, ate a lot of trail mix, and held her husbands hand the entire flight. Being delayed worked out well, because I didn’t have to wait for my next flight. I sat next to the Roller Girls from Phoenix who were coming to Austin to battle the Austin Roller Girls for SXSW. Everyone on the plane was going to SXSW, they all looked hip, and the guy behind me was talking about being a writer for Playboy. I finished my book as we flew into Austin. It was lightening outside, and the plane was bumpy, but not too bad. I landed, Ben was there to get me, we stopped and got food, and then came to Georgetown. I was going to go hang out with people last night, but I just went to bed instead.
I woke up this morning to housekeeping, and it scared me. I’m going to Kerrville this afternoon, but I have some errands to run in Austin first.
It was a really good trip, very relaxing being in the middle of nowhere without TV, a phone, Internet, and other distractions. I’m impressed that Brooks and I can be together for 5 days without being annoyed with each other, it was so good to see him, and I’m so excited for his visit to Georgetown. He needs to live closer, but it’s good to have him in my life even if he is far away.