It should come as no surprise to, well, anyone really, that I wasn't popular in high school. I was a social misfit, in every way that counts. Most people find or fit into some clique or another - the social misfits have their social misfit groups, be it the goths, scrubs, psycho-Christians, the band geeks, the drama dorks, or what not. The popular kids fall into their cliques, the art folks, the stoners, the jocks, the smart kids, etc. Myself, I fell into none of them. I wasn't in band. I wasn't in the school plays. The goth kids were too pathetic for me to hang out with; the scrubs too dirty; the Christians - well, I wasn't really Christian. I was smart, but I didn't fit in with the smart kids, I recognized that my life wasn't defined by whether I got an A or B. I wasn't in honor society, nor did I have over a 3.5. I did have more AP credits than all but one kid, and I did have a higher ACT score than all but about five other kids in high school, but I was fairly reviled by those who considered themselves my intellectual superiors. They weren't, but thats besides the point.
In the end, I had debate, and that was about it. I didn't have many friends, really just two in the end - Jess and an art guy named Justin. That was really it. I didn't date. And most of the people that I had classes with I didn't get along with, for some reason or another.
There were, however, a few exceptions to all of this. One was a sweet, willowy, smart-hippie chick named Melissa - or Mel as she will be known from here on forward. She and I shared Honors English in 10th grade, and all other English classes from there on, culminating in AP English in 12th grade. We got along well - while we weren't friends per se, we had good discussions in class and always sat next to each other so we could mock the ivory intellectuals who had hard ons for themselves (thats a whole 'nother entry for another time).
We kept in touch after high school. I made a point of giving her a call when I got back in to town, and we'd get together, have lunch or dinner, and catch up. It was friendly - never any flirting or any of that other stupid bullshit that arises in normal guy / girl friendships. We were just friends. We talked about where we were in our lives, who we were dating, sure, but there was never any sexual tension. She was Mel, I was Matt, and that was it. Truth be told, she's probably the only friend who coincidentally does happen to be female that I've never been attracted to. It's not that she isn't - actually she's got an incredible body and an incredible brain to match. But for some reason, I just never was attracted to her. It'd be like hitting on my sister, or something like that. Scary.
So this past summer, when I found myself back in Lansing with no friends from that area, I gave Mel a call. I didn't expect much from that, all I really expected was for us to hang out for a lunch or a dinner as usual. But instead I hung out with her a lot more often - usually once every week or so, invariably on a Monday night. Those Monday nights were pretty special, and they always occurred in the same bar - Stobers, the coolest bar in Lansing.
Why do I say that? Because there's a big grafitti of it on the side of the bar. You see it when you park there in giant baloon letters, with a wizened old man face perched over them and griffon's flanking the words like sentinels: "Stobers: Voted Lansing's Coolest Bar". The motif in the bar is what a bar should be: old wizened wizards smoking pipes on frescoes, carved wooden griffons flanking the giant bar mirror, dull lamps casting grim shadows in every corner, smoke stains permeating every stool, and a wide variety of patrons, from the ultra-hip to the bikers to the stoners to the businessman. Its as if a Billy Joel song puked up everything but the piano man, and its a great bar. Billy (ha - that was unexpected even to me) worked on Monday's, serving beers and the spiciest Bloody Mary's you can find.
I'd always show up a good hour early; get a head start on the drinking. For me, it was Silver Bullets - all the way. After the first three or so I'd loosen up with a Bloody Mary, but after that it'd be back to the Coors. Mel, her boyfriend Rick - a short skinny guy with surfer blond hair, and their housemate Erin - the nonrelated femlae twin of Rick, i.e. short with long surfer blonde hair, would show up together, and we'd all get blasted. They'd inevitably smoke at some point; I usually didn't join them unless I felt like being retarded for the night. But they were good times, getting drunk (or stoned, depending on when or who) in the coolest bar in Lansing.
In about a week I'll be back up there. In a week I'll be hitting the coolest bar in Lansing once again, looking for Billy, ordering my Bullets, and waiting for the hippie trio to walk in that door again so I can forget what a failed and pathetic three months its been.
[EDIT] - I'm gonna try to gank-post some pictures of this. Let's see if they work:
Haha - someone didn't disable remote linking....
What a great bar.
Miss Any?
Alright, we're gonna give this a shot
January 02, 2005
Let's see how badly I failed these last year
December 31, 2004
Okay, so its trendy
December 28, 2004
Its just like that asshole, Joe fucking Lieberman. Annoying and rather pointless.
December 27, 2004
Is this a typical Christmas?
December 26, 2004