old friends

This past weekend was the first of three weekends of weddings - the ceremony at St. Mark's and then the reception at the Buffalo Launch Club. We watched a thunderstorm roll in over the river and when it passed it was beautiful, quiet and calm. One of our friends knew her way around the closed off sections of the club, so she led us up to the attic where we lifted some New Year's tiaras and pinatas and brought them down to the dance floor for community fun.

One of the people I ran into there was a guy, John Thomas, who I used to play with when I was growing up. He lived in the house behind me and used to cut through an alley behind our garage to see what my sister, myself and another boy we played with were up to. For some reason I always remember him wearing a boy scout uniform. Anyway, now he's a West Point graduate and is stationed overseas. I had this feeling, for some reason, that given the serious nature of what he was doing that he might really want to break it down and dance - and he did and we danced for like a half an hour straight!

I finally made it to Betty's and I must say it is just as tasty and hip as everyone says it is. Definitely worth the hype, plus Tomas was bussing there too so I got to say hi.

Amanda came up from Chatauqua, where she's playing bass for the summer, and visited for the evening which was such a fun suprise. We walked around the neighborhood, went for dinner, drank brass monkeys and talked about the people we missed from college - and laughed at the ones we didn't. Hope to be visiting her down at the Institute for her last concert of the summer.

love in the time of cholera

I don't know how exactly one gets a cold in the middle of July, but I have one. A very January-like hacking cough. How might that have developed, I ask. Well let's take a little trip back to Saturday night...

• Frizzys then
• Dancing on Jeffrey, not technically with Jeffrey since he was only a bystander really followed by
• After hours in the brokedown palace which lead to
• Dancing, or maybe just spinning around, to Five for Fighting '100 Years' and finally
• "If I come back in this room and you two are not doing something kinky with this bunny, I'm going to kill you."
• After which I fell asleep on the sofa

mmfs x three: fucking a
mmfs x three: too many cigarettes

Fin.

hot zone

The heat always makes me feel wasted. Just the drive between work and home in a hot car is unbearable. Patrick even shaved for the first time in 10 years, which is a sure sign of global warming. Luckily, Caitlin is donating one of her parents' old air conditioners to my bedroom. Installation is a priority.

Been spending my evenings doing my annual volunteer stint at the Spina Bifida Independence Camp. Always memorable, always makes me smile. {see photo}

collective narratives

My friend Ali and I have decided to start a joint blog where we can collaborate on some creative writing. The posts will have a combination of both writers, so you won't really know where one person ends and another begins. It'll be exciting to see the blend of our different perspectives and styles. It's an experiment really. So if you're interested in seeing some of it, visit.

www.collectivenarratives.blogspot.com

grateful dead, taste of buffalo

Although I don't have many, or any, Grateful Dead songs in my repetoire, I went with friends to the Phil Lesh show out at Darian Lake on Saturday. It was a good day of listening to music and slowly getting drunk in the hot sun. I don't have much background with the hippie jam band scene but I'm getting to know it a little better more recently.

Pretty standard fare at Taste of Buffalo. All of the "good stuff" was in such small portions that being budget conscious I had to opt for the bigger dishes, like cajun chicken strips and a gyro, to make sure I didn't suffer the usual Taste fate: $20 in the hole and still hungry. Mission accomplished.

{Editor's note: Can we please get a picture with every mascot in Buffalo drinking alcohol? Enter Mr. Peanut and Kelly's sangria.}

dance party

Transmission 10, the indie dance party at Mohawk, turned out to be an incredible time. Music that you don't usually get to dance to at the bar (Clap Your Hands, Mates of State, We Are Scientists and Metric to name a few) equaled all night rocking out. Plus, the djs kept it real and threw in some guilty pleasures, like Gwen Stefani and Black Eyed Peas. I love it when you go to the bar and people are really honestly dancing, and not just to grind on the opposite sex. Only problem was on a hot July night the place was dripping with sweat and I left a hot mess. Kelly and I stayed and danced for hours, even after the rest of the party left for Skybar. Somehow I couldn't trade the top 40 bar for the hot time I was having at Mohawk!

Sunday night I made an impulsive drive to Toronto to see Dimitri from Paris spin at club Sonic. Disco dance party randomness with many a shirtless man in tight pants! I didn't get home till seven am when I had two leftover Mighty Tacos and called my night complete.