This is NOT Over

Thursday Feb 8, 1990 From $2 Cocktails to Hockey Player Drunk

Northern Illinois does not seem to realize that it is February. I have lived in this state all my life and in my experience, February is the shittiest of months. Cold, wet then refrozen, cold, gray and if you're lucky...a lot of rain (sometimes of the freezing variety) at the end of the month.

Stepped outside and it was in the mid to upper 50's and sunny. I walked to class and thought about walking right past Doucheable, er....DuSable Hall. Poor DuSable, he did all that he did to contribute to discovering and mapping the territory of our great state for me to abuse his name this way.

Ah, he probably did it for the beaver pelts, just like everybody fucking else.

The only thing that bummed me out this morning was accidentally putting milk in my coffee. Don't ask me how it happened, and don't tell my father. He used to make fun of me anytime I dared to put anything in my coffee. He was probably right to do it. The milk was yucky in there. It is possible it was yucky milk to begin with…anyway I am not making that damn mistake again.

I hope to make more interesting ones.

Did not go back to Douglass after class. Walked to KDI to hang out with Ilene. She was sort of busy but took the time to talk to me. It wasn't her that called the other night. Kind of a drag, but at least someone called.

We walked to the used record store downtown and talked about records with strangers. She is better at it than I am. First, Ilene T is easier on the eyes, second...she knows a hell of a lot more about rock 'n roll than I do.

She bought a few things and asked if I wanted to go back and listen to music with her but I told her I was meeting a friend downtown. Who knows, maybe that'll make me sound mysterious. It happened to be true but the truth can be mysterious, can't it?

Forget I said anything.

Met with Danny for drinks at the Candlelight and introduced him to Pete.

Not Hanrahan, although he and I drank at the Candlelight on many a night and I am never surprised to see him there.

The Pete I am talking about is Pete the Bartender. Pete with the Gray Eyes. Gray-eyed Pete with the White Hair. The Pete who has served me ever since I came to this God-forsaken, nice town.

God love Pete. He poured us each a shot of Crown. We toasted him. Then Pete made me my Old Fashioned and a Whiskey Sour for Danny.

When Pete the Bartender wasn't looking, Danny and I traded drinks.

They tasted the goddamn same.

I shouldn't complain. For $2 cocktails, they were just ok. In this world, at this time I say if you can find something that is at least ok, that should be good enough.

Danny gave me the newest draft of the Jure Grando paper. He said, "This is different than what you read. Check out the ending. I'm not sure how true it is, although I am pretty sure I can defend it. Anyway, it is the ending Uncle Larry is paying for."

"So he gets it," I said, trying to sound like the Boss from Cool Hand Luke.

We laughed and finished our drinks simultaneously.

Danny wanted to know where he should drop me off and I asked him to take me back to the dorms. I said, "I've got this Thursday night tradition thing on John St and if I show up with your pages in my hand they are going to make an asshole out of me."

"You want me to drop you off at your dorm so you can walk all the way back to the slums without my draft?"

"I make the walk all the time. If it's no difference to you..."

"Sure."

When we got to Douglass Danny volunteered to wait outside while I put the pages in my room and then take me to Tradition. What a sweetheart.

Besides the potential for embarrassment, I'm glad I took the draft back to my place before going to Tradition. I would have certainly lost it had I brought it. John and I got obscenely fucked up while playing Nintendo Ice Hockey for several hours. We were incredibly drunk by sunrise.

Dare I say, hockey player drunk...?