I was hoping to get back to creative and insightful questioning of society’s ills, because lately this website has read more like a LiveJournal than a thoughtful “blog” about stuff, but last night was a holiday and thus I must slip into “let me tell you all about last night” mode
I woke up and had to work yesterday. I drove down Route-24 to I-78 and passed nary another car on the road. Silently, I grumbled about having to be at work on a national holiday. When I pulled into the parking lot I was shocked to see it was more than adequately filled with customers. My dour mood sunk even lower (which is a more common occurrence than you’d think–I have many levels of anger and sadness I am capable of attaining). My shift lasted from 9am until 3:30pm, at which point I returned home (after almost killing myself at an intersection by pulling into the middle of the street while facing a red light) and relaxed on the couch for a while, until I found out what the hell I was doing and which god damned place I was doing it at.
So I drove to Jersey City. The main street I usually drive down to get to Alex and Jenna’s apartment was closed, but lucky for me, a randomly executed right-turn put me on a side street I recognized as being close to their apartment. I parked in a deserted lot and prayed I’d return to a car later and not an empty space.
The party was in full gear when I arrived. Ilya greeted me with something along the lines of, “Did you just walk in while the Velvet Underground’s ‘Heroin’ was playing? Because that’s pretty much the best song to have playing when you enter a party.” While cringe-inducing in its douchey-ness, his assessment was accurate. The next several hours were filled with drunken debauchery. Here are pictures!
That’s the skyline, from one side of the roof to the other. From left to right that’s New York (in case you’re confused by the large building with the red/white/blue roof), New York/Jersey City, and Jersey City.
That’s Jersey City in the first picture, and sort of fireworks (??) going off in the second picture. Look, I’m not Walker Evans, I’m holding a stupid phone camera while highly intoxicated. Just try to enjoy it. As the display drew to a close, Z noted that, “this was cool for the first twenty minutes but now it’s gone on way too long–just like an indie rock concert!”
Here we’ve got Ilya, the rest of the room gathered around playing music, drawing, and other sorts of activities. For a while I nodded out in a hammock. There was a cat sleeping on me. No pictures of me because I deemed the one Z took of me unacceptable due to its troublesome subject matter.
Oh yeah, and this is what July 4th looked like in San Diego. Thanks Maddy.
Side note: while I was half asleep in the hammock, Jet called to tell me some good news. Firstly, she’s getting married to her boyfriend Christopher this weekend. Very exciting news. I met Christopher last time I was in Chicago and he’s a very cool guy. In my state, I tried to sound as happy as I could, but really I wanted to close my eyes for a while. Oh, and also, she finished editing my manuscript, so she’s going to mail it to me and I should be able to finish the editing/correction process in the next few weeks. Then all I have to do is edit the between chapters and I’m done with the book. Joy.
At some point, we left the party. Ilya and I went to some dingy little shack for $1 pizza rolls that tasted like heaven. Then I drove home and crashed into my bed for a while. The power was out when I woke up, and remained that way for the majority of the day.
