V-day perparations and the Hold Steady; Missing flowers and Broken Flowers; Apple Store; Aristocrats and Bar Hopping
2/13
I took off from work and started running errands. First by Central Market to pick up the foodstuffs that comprised dinner, then by Kroger to pick up a few more mundane things for general purposes and to make dessert. I got home and started assembling dessert, and had in mind to go ahead and start picking up my place and iron a shirt for the big day.
What I had forgotten was that the Hold Steady was playing. Cindy called me up and asked if I wanted to meet her there, and we got there in time to catch their show, though I was sad when I realized that I missed the Plastic Constellations, whose 2004 album Mazatlan I had spun a few times on the ol' iPod and enjoyed.
The band was good. Cindy called it a cock rock genre piece. Dan and I came up with something funny and quotable to call them, but it eludes me now. Bryan would have hated them as they were somewhat spoken (or yelled) word.
I skipped out on Cecil's afterwards to do a little more Valentine's preparation.
2/14
I took off early from school to get things ready. I finished picking up a bit (though I hadn't had time to give my apartment the cleaning it so desperately deserved), set the table, etc. I waited until 6:30 or so to give traffic a chance to clear out and then went to Central Market to pick up Cindy's flowers.
Which, it turned out, some other lucky girl was probably walking around with, because they accidentally sold them. Whoever decided to buy them must have recognized my impeccable tastes, going with a mix of red and white tulips over the somewhat cliché roses. They offered me a more expensive arrangment at the price I had originally requested, but the arrangements were mostly pastel and not nearly bold and dramatic enough. The girl quickly did an arrangement which wasn't quite what I wanted, but close enough, and then did exactly the right thing, which was to give it to me for free.
I got back later than intended because of the flower-associated delay, but ended up having just enough time to get most of dinner ready before Cindy showed up. I talked about dinner elsewhere; suffice it to say, both of our dishes were tasty and we had a good meal. Afterwards, we stopped by Blockbuster with the intention of picking up Thumbsucker, which was again checked out, and instead ended up with Broken Flowers and The Aristocrats (which we saved for later).
Broken Flowers was an odd little film. It had the slow, moody, deliberate pacing of Lost In Translation (and similar use of Bill Murray), though without the sense of wonder of being in a foreign land, and cribbed the "revisiting old loves" theme of High Fidelity. There was some good, quirky humor in there, but ultimately, the movie failed to go anywhere or reach any satisfying conclusions, and left me feeling unfulfilled.
Cindy seemed really happy with everything I did. She got me a nice card saying that she had enjoyed the time we spent together, listed off some of my qualities that she appreciated, and said she looked forward to what the future brought. It was just the right amount of emotional stuff without being overly ambitious or scary, and I was impressed with the tastefulness and restraint it showed. Plus, it eliminated any weird drama that mismatched levels of committment would have brought to the evening, which was, admittedely, a concern.
2/15
The used Mac I bought from Rebecca's friend Kelly had been giving me problems since day one, so I finally got around to taking it to the Apple Store right after work. They finally narrowed down the problem to some bad (and, not concidentally, cheap) RAM, and, well, it's better, but still somewhat iffy. I got home and blew off a couple of invitations to go out, as after a couple of days when all of my time had been spent either preparing to spend time with Cindy or spending time with Cindy, I needed some alone time. It was good.
2/16
I came home, put a quick dinner together, and then took care of some errands. Cindy called to say hi, and eventually to invite herself to watch The Aristocrats. We watched the movie, and it was pretty entertaining. Not brilliant or anything, but the breadth of comedians they got involved was impressive, and the film was well-paced and consistently entertaining. Worth watching if you're not easily offended.
Char called during the movie to invite me out for beer. When it was over, Cindy asked if I was going to meet Char and I told her I was thinking about it, and she said she thought it was time for her to leave anyway (these events are important later).
I joined up with the guys at Woodrow's. BCM Lauren texted me that she and Kitten were up at the Mink, and of course it was Lauren, so how could I refuse? There's always a good time to be found there. Char, Leroy, and Zach (who's hosted a couple of parties I've been to) joined me. Shots were taken, a good time was had. Char and Leroy seemed to think the Mink was a little seedy—maybe because it was dark (specifically, they commented that it seemed like a place you would take your mistress).
Anyway, Lauren and Kitten took off (I didn't realize is that they were walking home). I drove on home and got a drunk dial from Lauren, and we had a good chat. She's a very smart, astute girl, and I always her commentary on the things going on in my life interesting.
It caused me some trouble, in retrospect, but it was a good evening out—just a little short. Damn 2:00 closing time...
I took off from work and started running errands. First by Central Market to pick up the foodstuffs that comprised dinner, then by Kroger to pick up a few more mundane things for general purposes and to make dessert. I got home and started assembling dessert, and had in mind to go ahead and start picking up my place and iron a shirt for the big day.
What I had forgotten was that the Hold Steady was playing. Cindy called me up and asked if I wanted to meet her there, and we got there in time to catch their show, though I was sad when I realized that I missed the Plastic Constellations, whose 2004 album Mazatlan I had spun a few times on the ol' iPod and enjoyed.
The band was good. Cindy called it a cock rock genre piece. Dan and I came up with something funny and quotable to call them, but it eludes me now. Bryan would have hated them as they were somewhat spoken (or yelled) word.
I skipped out on Cecil's afterwards to do a little more Valentine's preparation.
2/14
I took off early from school to get things ready. I finished picking up a bit (though I hadn't had time to give my apartment the cleaning it so desperately deserved), set the table, etc. I waited until 6:30 or so to give traffic a chance to clear out and then went to Central Market to pick up Cindy's flowers.
Which, it turned out, some other lucky girl was probably walking around with, because they accidentally sold them. Whoever decided to buy them must have recognized my impeccable tastes, going with a mix of red and white tulips over the somewhat cliché roses. They offered me a more expensive arrangment at the price I had originally requested, but the arrangements were mostly pastel and not nearly bold and dramatic enough. The girl quickly did an arrangement which wasn't quite what I wanted, but close enough, and then did exactly the right thing, which was to give it to me for free.
I got back later than intended because of the flower-associated delay, but ended up having just enough time to get most of dinner ready before Cindy showed up. I talked about dinner elsewhere; suffice it to say, both of our dishes were tasty and we had a good meal. Afterwards, we stopped by Blockbuster with the intention of picking up Thumbsucker, which was again checked out, and instead ended up with Broken Flowers and The Aristocrats (which we saved for later).
Broken Flowers was an odd little film. It had the slow, moody, deliberate pacing of Lost In Translation (and similar use of Bill Murray), though without the sense of wonder of being in a foreign land, and cribbed the "revisiting old loves" theme of High Fidelity. There was some good, quirky humor in there, but ultimately, the movie failed to go anywhere or reach any satisfying conclusions, and left me feeling unfulfilled.
Cindy seemed really happy with everything I did. She got me a nice card saying that she had enjoyed the time we spent together, listed off some of my qualities that she appreciated, and said she looked forward to what the future brought. It was just the right amount of emotional stuff without being overly ambitious or scary, and I was impressed with the tastefulness and restraint it showed. Plus, it eliminated any weird drama that mismatched levels of committment would have brought to the evening, which was, admittedely, a concern.
2/15
The used Mac I bought from Rebecca's friend Kelly had been giving me problems since day one, so I finally got around to taking it to the Apple Store right after work. They finally narrowed down the problem to some bad (and, not concidentally, cheap) RAM, and, well, it's better, but still somewhat iffy. I got home and blew off a couple of invitations to go out, as after a couple of days when all of my time had been spent either preparing to spend time with Cindy or spending time with Cindy, I needed some alone time. It was good.
2/16
I came home, put a quick dinner together, and then took care of some errands. Cindy called to say hi, and eventually to invite herself to watch The Aristocrats. We watched the movie, and it was pretty entertaining. Not brilliant or anything, but the breadth of comedians they got involved was impressive, and the film was well-paced and consistently entertaining. Worth watching if you're not easily offended.
Char called during the movie to invite me out for beer. When it was over, Cindy asked if I was going to meet Char and I told her I was thinking about it, and she said she thought it was time for her to leave anyway (these events are important later).
I joined up with the guys at Woodrow's. BCM Lauren texted me that she and Kitten were up at the Mink, and of course it was Lauren, so how could I refuse? There's always a good time to be found there. Char, Leroy, and Zach (who's hosted a couple of parties I've been to) joined me. Shots were taken, a good time was had. Char and Leroy seemed to think the Mink was a little seedy—maybe because it was dark (specifically, they commented that it seemed like a place you would take your mistress).
Anyway, Lauren and Kitten took off (I didn't realize is that they were walking home). I drove on home and got a drunk dial from Lauren, and we had a good chat. She's a very smart, astute girl, and I always her commentary on the things going on in my life interesting.
It caused me some trouble, in retrospect, but it was a good evening out—just a little short. Damn 2:00 closing time...
posted by L. Maxwell Ward at 3:57 PM
