I'm spent.

And like the summer, this blog is done.
Possibly a new one to follow? Who knows?
Take care, kids.
Anastasia.

84 Miles Is A Long Drive.

Especially when two people are very sick.

Setting: A hookah bar, Round the Clock, Andrea's house, a car, outside of Sara's Place, a few parking lots.
Characters: Anastasia, that's me; Andrea, my pseudo-sister and best-friend-I'm-not-fucking; Jim, one of the boys; Vince, a friend of ours; Brooke, a super-hot 'goth'(not really, we just call her that); Mal, a girl who we had met before; Mike, who is cute but dating Mal; Kyle, my boyfriend; an interstate policeman; and Sara, the owner of Sara's Place.

Everything started out ok. We had a trip to a hookah bar planned, and I brought Kyle. Everyone else was there by the time we got there, and we saw Vince outside. He wasn't allowed in because he is 16. Kyle and I talked to him for a while and I gave him a book to read.

We sat and smoked hookah for about a half hour to an hour, and had to leave. Right as we were leaving, a boy that Kyle used to know called Andrea. As she was outside, I gave the phone to Kyle. I guess it was interesting for everyone.

After I got back from dropping Kyle off, something was clearly amiss. We had to leave to drop Vince off and Andrea spent her time at home running around looking for rolaids. Jim was sick. Later I found out that he was sick because this girl Mal had given him 3 xanex type pills. He had a headache, and she promised him that they were baby aspirin.

The problem: baby aspirin no longer exsists.

Jim threw up a total of three separate occasions round trip. twice in parking lots, and once in front of his house after we drove him home.

On the way down, Andrea sped. It was the highway so nobody cared. However, we drove past a cop car and I immediately said to Andrea, "you're going to get pulled over". Of course, She did. This is her 3rd or 4th ticket. Of course, she freaked out.

Sick person count: Jim, throwing up/sick from pills; Andrea, sick from anxiety/chain smoking.

Vince wasn't so hot either.
We decided to pull over at a 24 hour restaurant called Sara's place. When we got there, we realized it was closed. However, after about 20 minutes of loitering, Sara came out and offered us free coffee. I ended up being the only one who drank it, but I drank all but one cup on the way home.

We had to pull over a few times, and my mother called, yelling because driving my sick friends home is irresponsible. Yes, mom.

When we made it back to Andrea's house, I was supposed to go home. Jim was still sick, and couldn't even walk. No sane person would have let him drive home, and while I don't claim to be sane, I was smart enought to give Andrea his keys. He threw up again when we got to his house.

Oh, Why?

Last night round the clock was closed.
We had to go to another place where they charged us extra for assorted things.
After I had catered and they went to lollapalooza, homebase was closed.
What a drag.

#2: Schoops

Another way to recount the day.

I call it, "the Things I Attempted to Drink Today.

Happy birthday, darling. We love you very very very very very very very much.

How Andrea's actual birthday went was a shame. We tried to make up for it the day after.

Setting: Andrea's house, and Round the Clock.
Characters: Anastasia, that's me; Andrea, my pseudo-sister and best-friend-I'm-not-fucking; Mary Kate, the girl next door; Jim and Jason, the boys; Julie, our other friend who doesn't like to stay up all night; Ryan, the President of our chapter of The Young Democrats even though he's not a democrat (he's more liberal than that); Stella, Ryan's gorgeous Guatemalan girlfriend; Brad, the manager and DILF; and a cast of obnoxious 16-year olds and other people.

The day really started with a trip to Meijer for groceries. We bought mushrooms and herbs and butter, and Andrea got cigarettes. She was disappointed because she didn't get carded.
When we got home, I made lunch. The Menu: A spinach and mixed herb salad with flowers, Spaghetti with pesto sauce(made with nastertiums), Mushrooms a la grecque, and Sauteed zucchini with fresh herbs. That was when Mary Kate showed up. After everything was ready, we all sat down to a nice, green meal. They loved it. And there was frozen lemon cake for dessert.

Behind the garage is, as we discovered, an excellent place to smoke, so after lunch we headed back and remained there for several hours. Eventually Jim, Stella and Ryan, and Julie showed up(in that order). After Julie got there, we headed out to Schoop's and the tobacco shop next to Schoop's. There, Andrea bought an adorable little pipe, for the sole reason that it was adorable and cheap.
Schoop's was pretty uninteresting, save that the booths are so small we had to get two. We felt bad, and got french fries to make up for it.

When we got back home, Mary Kate and Stella and Ryan had to leave. So they did. the rest of us got chairs and went into the garage. For them, it was substance time. for me, photo time. and then, per usual, the guitars came out. Everything rang with song.

Round the Clock was as long as usual, but in the middle (sometime after Andrea had her snicker pie and sometime before Julie had a pecan roll) a girl that hates Julie for some reason showed up. Julie and I decided to leave and get batteries (which we needed anyways).

Meijer was fun. There were boys in white jeans and stolen bottles of glue for ashtrays as well as the batteries we had planned on. When we got back, the girl was stillt here, so we sat outside and applied glue to the test ashtray and talked for an hour or so. Eventually, the girl we were avoiding left, and we headed back in.

Besides the pecan roll and a little haggling between Jim and Andrea about money, not much else happened. We went home to our respective places of sleep. And slept.

I really am that forgetful.

It's been almost a week since this happened. Better late than never, right? I think it may have something to do with that dream.

Setting: Andrea's basement and Round the Clock, in that order.
Characters: Anastasia, that's me; Andrea, my pseudo-sister and best-friend-I'm-not-fucking; Jim and Jason, the boys; Derek, a 16 year-old with two different kinds of ADD and slight autism (in other words, he's all over the place. His heart is in the right place though, I think.); Mike, a vaguely cute guitar genius; Jake, Jim's younger brother; and Matty, Andrea's little brother.

The night started out at Andrea's house with a jam session far surpassing any jam sessions we may have had in the past. There were 4 guitars, one of which was electric, most of us sang at one point, and Jim recorded bits and pieces of it.

One thing he didn't get, however, was a cover of Two Headed Boy parts one and two by Neutral Milk Hotel that Andrea and I did. We used a Martin guitar instead of Andrea's Epiphone, and it made all the difference. At that point everyone had left the basement besides Jim, Andrea and I, and it was Jim's first time hearing the song. I half watched him, half watched her, and spent part of the time with closed eyes. At some points, we all three had our eyes closed. Easily the best cover we have ever done.
It was eerily moving.

After that, with the three of us completely laid bare emotionally, everyone came back inside. We decided to go to Round the clock, and upon arrival, Brad gave us a full pack of Virginia Slim cigarettes. An hour or so later and we were back home.

Of Earthworms and Ovaries

I really don't understand this dream. At all. And it won't leave me alone.

Setting: I'm not sure. For a while it's in a church basement, then a parking lot of a possible hospital.
Characters: Anastasia, that's me; A man with dark hair, possibly a dead uncle of mine that I didn't know exsisted until I related this dream to my mother (in which case his name is Ernie); and Neutral Milk Hotel, a band from the 90's.

In the supposed basement of a church I met this man with dark hair. I've dreamed about him before, and he generally surfaces as an uncle I thought didn't actually exsist. Apparently, he's my dead Uncle Ernie, who was shot before I was even thought of. We tend to talk about everything when he shows up, and this time it was music. He always knows what's going on, and we had an incredible conversation about Neutral Milk Hotel, among other things. He was sad that they only had two albums also.

Later I found myself driving home from a possible hospital of some sort with a Neutral Milk Hotel tape in the player. I had to stop for an ambulance full of Neutral Milk Hotel. I didn't get to talk to most of them, but i sorely wanted to. One of them, most likely Jeff Mangum, picked up a handful of earthworms that appeared in swarms out of nowhere and held them to my ear.

they were singing Oh Comely.

Oh comely I will be with you when you lose your breath
Chasing the only meaningful memory you thought you had left
With some pretty bright and bubbly
terrible scene That was doing her thing on your chest
But oh comely It isn't as pretty as you'd like to guess
Oh comely all of your friends are letting you blow
Bristling and ugly bursting with fruits falling out from the holes
Of some pretty bright and bubbly
friend You could need to say comforting things in your ear
But oh comely there isn't such one friend that you could find here
Standing next to me He's only my enemy
I'll crush him with everything I own
Your father made fetuses with flesh licking ladies
While you and your mother were asleep in the trailer park
Thunderous sparks from the dark of the stadiums
The music and medicine you needed for comforting
So make all your fat fleshy fingers to moving
And pluck all your silly strings and bend all your notes for me
Soft silly music is meaningful magical
The movements were beautiful all in your ovaries
All of them milking with green fleshy flowers
While powerful pistons were sugary sweet machines
Smelling of semen all under the garden
Was all you were needing when you still believed in me
Say what you want to say
hang for your hollow ways
moving your mouth the pull out all your miracles
for me
And I know they buried her body with others
Her sister and mother and 500 families
And will she remember me 50 years later
I wished I could save her in some sort of time machine
Know all your enemies we know who are enemies are
Goldaline my dear we will fold and freeze together
Far away from here there is sun and spring and green forever
But now we move to feel for ourselves inside some stranger's stomach
Place your body here let your skin begin to blend itself with mine
-Neutral Milk Hotel, Oh Comely

Who knew the princes of Serbia liked family dining?

More importantly, who knew the princes of Serbia liked drinking and yelling about how this country is horrible, but they love Bush?

Setting: Where else but our Round the Clock?
Characters: Anastasia, that's me; Andrea, my pseudo-sister and best-friend-I'm-not-fucking; Jim and Jason, the boys; Nichole, the most inept waitress on the planet; Nick, the waiter; Brad, the manager and DILF; and the Princes of Serbia.

It was night two of a RTC double header, and therefore Andrea and I were angry that we went out. This may or may not have had something to do with the bizarro double-header anxiety that took place (both of us had anxiety attacks; this is highly unusual and completely unprecedented). It was horrible- Andrea curled up into a ball and I sat there shaking. Jim looked worried.

After we had both calmed down and several hours passed, the drunks at the table behind us started talking about (bad) music, and how they love said music. At one point this went from music to politics, and they declared their royalist, anti-communist beliefs. I'm a communist.

I quote the louder drunk guy, "No o-fucking-ffense." Wouldn't the 'fucking' in the middle imply offense? But who could have known that they were the drunk princes of Serbia, still angry that their parents were evicted from their home country by commies?

It was a time full of anger. I started asking if anyone had gags to shut everyone up. Jim ran outside because he got so angry. Andrea began feeling nauseated.

then they left.

Really, It's the same story.

There is nothing new about what I have to say. When I say it's exactly the same, I mean it. Another late night, the same pseudo crushes, everything. These both revolve around drifting away from the restaurant.

Setting: That all night diner Round the Clock, Jason's basement, and also Andrea's basement.
Characters: Anastasia, that's me; Andrea, my pseudo-sister and best-friend-I'm-not-fucking; Julie, our other friend who doesn't like to stay up all night; Jim and Jason, the boys; Josh Brown, called Josh Brown because his skin is brown; Nick; the waiter; and Lou, another waiter who looks like the guy who played Herman Munster on The Munsters.

The first night started out a liitle odd, with a trip to Walgreens for blank cds in the pouring rain and a hand-coloured paper sleeve for said cd. We were dressed up. After the traditional endless Round the Clock experience, including a disappearing waitress and the discovery that Lou was the only waiter in the whole place, we up and left.

It was 6:30 in the morning and we couldnt go home. Instead, we followed Jim, Jason, and Josh Brown to Jason's basement. Jim and Jason have a similar living arrangement to Andrea and I in that Jim pretty much lives at Jason's. I f0und that slightly comforting.

Jason's basement has bugs and recording equipment. Jim also needs a mic stand and I found that slightly comforting. There was also a couch that shed and got stuffing all over my black dress, and a hole for the sump-pump/toilet water intake pipe.


When we got down to playing music, I knew Andrea had no idea Jim had turned on the recording program. She didnt realize it until after he turned it off. There's about 25 minutes total (my estimate). We were there for 3 hours, and switched off playing between the boys and us. The best bits, however, were most likely the collaborations, with Josh (who was for the most part obnoxious but woth mentioning) playing percussion on the keyboard and Jim on violin. I don't know how much of those were recorded. We got home at 9:30, and it occurred to me that i stayed awake for 28 hours.

The events of night two are, as I stated, shockinigly similar. The oddities this time were based on drugs, plain and simple. Drugs and Julie. Julie came with in a shocking turn of events (known as "Julie wants to do something with us"), and so they smoked pot. I don't do those things because I'm paranoid and need to know everything that is happening at all times. Julie stayed with us all night, which is also out of character for her, but it seemed like she was happy when we headed back to Andrea's with Jim in tow. Technically, I invited him.

We got there and Andrea's mother was awake for some reason. Really, she didn't care. We stayed outside anyways. Jim and Julie took turns on the trampoline, and it turns out that Jim is an acrobat of sorts. At about 6 Julie went home, and Jim, Andrea and I took a walk. It was beautiful to watch the sun rise outside and to enjoy at least a part of the day. When we got back Andrea's mother was on the porch and waiting for someone to pick her up.

After she left, we headed to the basement and played music in turns some more until Jim had to go to traffic school.

The only thing I worry about now is the look that Jason gave me aswe were leaving. It said "don't lead him on" and I worry about who it was meant for. I'm doing the best I can. If he falls in love with us, the only hope I have is that it's the same love Andrea and I are both spiraling into. It's not romantic, but it tends to be just as strong.