The Strange and the Familiar (2/28/94)
I know this is my current journal, but I just ran across this while
searching for something else in my email, and I figured it was appropriate
material. Since I've been working 60+hrs/week lately and haven't had time
to update this, it'll do for now. Its a journal-type entry that I wrote
when I was 17. Its amazing how much one changes, but its important not to
forget that all things which are now familiar were once strange (and that
some things, now strange, were once familiar).
Subj: Repost of the tale of my
weekend... (215/238)
From: Puff #1
To : All
Date: Mon, Feb 28, 1994 3:58:09 PM
The tale of my weekend.
I just had the coolest, strangest, weirdest weekend of my life...Here's
what happened with me, Darrell (Ferrari), Mike (Izzy), and Adam (Bird
Man).
Friday nite, we decided to go to Haverford College to see what was going
on.
While talking to Adam, I found out that not only had he taken the AHSME
math
test Thursday, and gotten a 121, but he had the answer sheet. Ms. Hawes
had
refused to tell me how I did, so with Adams help, I computed an
approximate
score, since I remembered most of what I got right. It turns out that I
qualified for the AIME with either a 107 or 112.
On his way to pick me up, Adam got a ticket for daring to turn on a
green light. 90$. Actually he might have been at fault, the turning
light was
red, but the main light green, and he turned. But still. Then we went to
Haverford College and played pool in their student center (3 pool tables,
a ping
pong table, Kombat, a jukebox). We became friends with one of the guys
there,
and went to a party afterwards. Deciding the party was boring, we went to
the
gym, where we had heard there was a late night game of volleyball going
on. We
found one of the players on his way to the game, and convinced him to let
us
play. We completely bullshitted, lying about how we were applying to
Haverford,
wanted to go there, etc., (when in reality we were just trying to enjoy a
Friday
nite). Darrell amd Mike were too tired, but Adam and I ended up playing
Volleyball from 1AM to 2AM in the morning with people we had never met
before,
under false pretenses. We got the number of the organizer of the game,
and
might go back and play again (playing volleyball with people who actually
know
what they're doing was great in comparison to school volleyball.) Then we
all
went home, and slept. In the car on the way back, I was rather shocked by
some
of the things I found it in a conversation the four of us had, but I can't
be
more specific.
Saturday, things got stranger. Me, mike, and Adam decided to go to
Rainbow Playground, a hard core techno dance club in Philly. Adam had
been
there before, mike and I hadn't. We took the train in, and entered
Rainbow.
The club was in a bad section of Philly, with its entrance down a dark
alley.
As we entered, we were frisked by a huge bouncer. My pencil was
confiscated
(they have a lot of graffiti problems). Unfortunately, Mike hadn't known
about
the frisking, and had several Whip-ts (Nitrous oxide canisters), his
cracker,
and a balloon. The guys at Rainbow got rather suspicious, said no drug
paraphenalia, and took it all (promising to give it back when we
left). Great,
now we had a rep w/ the rainbow folks. Anyway, I then entered my first
Hard
Core techno dance club. As Sparky said, it was a hole in the wall. The
bar
served a wierd brown drink which had, among its exotic ingredientes, lots
of
ginseng. What the hell, I tried it. Kinda sweet, and very strange, but
good.
Who knows what it did to me. The music was loud pulsing hard core techno,
and
the dance floor had strobe lights, colored lights, etc. The
social/hanging out
room was filled with a cloud of cigarette smoke, so thick that it was
noticable
as a fog. It was certainly an...experience. I had expected to see sparky
there, but was rather surprised to find, accompanying Sparky, none other
than
Katie Ritrovato, a person about as likely to be at Rainbow
as...well...me! I of
course couldn't have any complaints, given that I belonged there just as
much/little as she did. But hell, whats wrong with #1 and #8 in the class
relaxing on a Saturday night by going to Rainbow? I danced, of course,
for
hours and hours, with periodic breaks for rest and more of that ginseng
stuff.
While sitting in the hangout room, Adam was offered some weed. He asked
us if we wanted any, and after a long discussion, Adam and Mike bought a
dime
bag to split. It was the first time buying drugs for all 3 of us, and
neither I
nor Mike had ever smoked it. As it turned out, we didn't get a chance,
and Mike
ended up keeping it to sell at school. An employee of Rainbow came up to
us
during the deal, and offered some rolling papers in exchange for a pinch
in his
bowl. We declined, but were amused by the fact that an employee was
condoning
the drugs. At around 2:15, we decided to leave. Unfortunately, the place
we
were supposed to stay didn't work out, and we were left in the middle of
Philly
at 2:30AM with nowhere to sleep. So we went back into Rainbow, and
chilled
there until it closed at 4AM. Mike got back almost all of his stuff,
except his
cracker, which had disappeared, probably stolen by someone. In the
confiscation
box were tons of pencils, pens, and markers, as well as a bottle of
alcohol, and
a steak knife. Glad I wasn't carrying my knife. We talked to the
bouncer for
a while, who was curious about Nitrous, and where to buy it. He
apologized for
the loss of the cracker, but said the Rainbow could not allow drug
paraphenalia
inside, even if it was legal, and it wasn't their fault someone had stolen
something from the confiscation box. We said we understood, and parted on
good
terms.
We then headed to the South Street diner, a 24 hr establishment. The
streets were deserted, and it was fucking cold. Noone was on the streets,
but
everyone was at the Diner, and we had to wait 15 minutes to be seated (at
4:15AM!). Once we did, we took our time (nowhere to go, trains didn't
start
till 8 and buses till 9), and noticed the 2$ bill collection up on the
wall.
Aparently the diner collects 2$ bills, often autographed by
patrons. Bills
autographed by Kim Batiste, Darren Daulton, Tug Mcgraw, etc. were up on
the
walls. By one of the many random coincidences of the night, I had a 2$
bill on
me. Adam collects them (he has couple hundred), and had given me
one. We,
(mostly Adam) talked to the owner of the diner, Tino Nicholas for a
while. He
asked us to autograph the bill, so the three of us did, and he tacked it
up on
the wall (in a good spot too!). He then gave us the diner business card,
and
autographed it, and told us that if we were ever in line again, to show
that
card, and we would be seated immediately. We parted on good terms, and
the
card, which had on its back a listing entitled "important telephone
numbers",
and then Bill Clinton, Boris Yeltsin, Elizabeth II, Pope John Paul, and
then the
diners number (as a joke), came in handy later.
It was 6 or so, and we still had nowhere to go, so we went to Wawa for a
while, where adam bought a pack of cigarettes, I'm still not sure why,
since he
doesn't smoke. We started walking towards the train station, but it was
so
cold, we just walked into the nearest building, a hotel. We delayed and
stalled
the concierge, asking about bus and train schedules, and then to use the
pay
phones, so we could get warm. Finally we did, and decided that rather
than
brave the cold, we'd take a cab to 30th Street Station. We went into an
Amtrak
Customer service room, and Adam and I fell asleep in the chairs. Mike
woke me
after 20 minutes, so we could go buy tickets. He had a micro cassette
recorder
with quarter tones (red box) on him, for free calls at payphones. After
getting
our tickets, we went to the phones and played around. We were sitting
there,
thinking of what long distance number we could call for fun, when it hit
me.
The numbers on the South Street Diner card! We called the one for bill
clinton,
using the red box to make it free. I heard "White house, how may I help
you",
and said "Mr. Clinton please". They said "One moment.". Then hung up on
me.
It was still funny. Unfortunately we couldn't use the red box for
overseas
calls, to call Yeltsin, the Pope, etc. We went back to wake up Adam, and
boarded the train back. When at Narbreth train station, in the underpass
from
one side to the other, I saw a "for a good time, call, xxx at xxx". I
laughed
and read it out loud. Mike said "WHAT? Say that name again?!" It turned
out
to be a Freshman at his school, who everyone hates! Another coincidence.
Anyway, I went home, and went to sleep at 12 noon. heres a recap of the
weird
things that happened.
Played volleyball at 1-2 in the morning under false pretenses with people
I'd
never met before.
Found out some mind-blowing stuff in a discussion in the car on the way
back.
Found out that I qualified for the AIME.
Went to Rainbow Playground.
Danced to hardcore techno for hours.
Saw Katie at Rainbow.
Practically screwed some girl I'd never met before on the dance floor.
Was involved in buying weed.
Walked thru a bad part of Philly several times very early in the morning,
and
didn't get mugged.
Was frisked by a bouncer and had a pencil (a fucking
pencil!) confiscated.
Was stuck in Philly at 2AM with nowhere to sleep.
Had my signature put up on the wall of South Street Diner. (Ranked the
2nd best
diner in Philadelphia).
Became a preferred customer/friend of the owner of SS Diner.
Called the White House "White House, how may I help you?" said
"Mr. Clinton
Please", and they said "One moment please". All for free.
Walked into a random building and stalled the people there until we were
warm.
Had a friend see the number of someone he knew written in big letters at a
public train station, in a "For a good time call" message.
Had my computer die friday. Fortunately I fixed it Sunday.
Didn't go to sleep Saturday until 12 noon on Sunday.
Drank some wierd brown ginseng/who knows what else drink.
I'm sure I'm leaving out something, so much happened. All of this in one
weekend.
¾PuFF¾
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