Events I: Texas
September 19, 2005
The Vacation
The last time I took a real vacation was in February of 2004, so I was more than ready for this one. And, just as in February 2004, I used my vacation time to go visit my peeps down in Texas. The last time I went down there I headed straight to Houston. This time, I was stopping in Lufkin (where I used to live) first, so I took a different route than I’d done in the past. I learned one big lesson from this new route: Yahoo Maps can go f*&% themselves! Their stupid map cost me $15 in tolls and took me all over East Texas for no reason at all. I was expecting one toll… of $3.50. But $15? Oh… a little message to the Indian Nations of Oklahoma: If you’re going to charge people to drive on your roads, the least you could do is keep them up and make the drive pleasant.
When I finally got to Lufkin on Wednesday, I started my vacation with a visit to my favorite Chinese restaurant of all time. I know… I know… I’m a haus for making food one of the first things on my to-do list. But I’m not kidding. Hunan & Chen’s China Inn in Lufkin, Texas create something called Princess Chicken that I have yet to find at any other place in the world. If ever there was something that could be compared to the nectar of the Gods, it would be Princess Chicken. And I ate it again… after four years without… and it was heaven. I went to visit my newly married friend, his wife, and his best friend with whom I’d experienced so many of those “nights I can’t remember”.
The next day, I started the day off visiting more people I used to know when I lived down there. I visited a woman who used to work for me in the mall at her new job (she hadn’t changed a bit). Then I made a stop by the mall to see my old store. It’s funny how little some things change. Lufkin has been growing like mad the last four years. New stores… new shopping centers… and more traffic. But my old store looked so much like it did when I was there that it seems like time might have stopped moving in that one little corner of Lufkin Mall. My assistant manager took over the store when I left, and to my surprise, she was still there when I popped in for a visit. While I was catching up with her, an old teacher I’d had in high school walked by… stopped… backed up… and said “Oh I thought that was you… what are you doing here”?! I spent the next several minutes talking to my old teacher and getting all nostalgic (I have to remember to tell you all a FUNNY story about this teacher… help me remember). It was funny… and a little sad.
That afternoon, several of us made the drive down to Houston, picked up another ‘ho’ from the old gang, and went to eat at Mai’s. Mai’s has the best tofu springrolls ever put on this planet. To compliment our springrolls, we also decided to have a few sake bombs (which are shots of sake dropped down into a glass of Japanese beer). I think this is where the night started off on a bad foot. After drinks and eats, we headed to Chances to listen to Fluff the Kat play. Chances is a lesbian club. Yes, you heard me… a lesbian club. Haha. When you go out in Houston with two lesbians there really isn’t any other place you could end up. We drank more… danced… drank more… sang… drank more… acted like fools… drank more… drank more… drank more. I guess I forgot that I’m not really a drinker any more, because by about 1 in the morning I was feeling pretty rough. Instead of ruining everyone else’s night by leaving, I decided instead to go lay down in my car. Things were fine until everyone else showed up an hour later and I had to sit up. As I was sitting up, I could feel the sickness rushing over me, so I opened the door, stuck my head out, and puked right into the parking lot. Yes folks… you heard me… I threw up in the parking lot of a lesbian club in Houston, Texas. Trust me… I consider it one of my classier moments let me tell you. The rest of the night isn’t really that clear. We went back to our friend’s apartment… two people showered together… and someone made Tuna Helper… I think? I was in a state of drunken stupor passing out on the couch while all of this was going on. But I think that’s what happened.
Friday was spent eating more and doctoring a hangover. Friday night we saw The Exorcism of Emily Rose… which I can recommend as a truly creepy movie. It won’t scare the shit out of you… but it will creep you out. Go see it. And let me know how it is without a splitting headache :P
Saturday started with Mai’s again (since I technically hadn’t eaten it yet… it ended up in the Chances parking lot… remember) and a little shopping. And then it was back to the lesbian club Saturday night. This time I kept myself under control. In fact, when we left at almost 2 am, I was completely sober. I was the only sober one… but it was good because I made sure everyone else got home in one piece. I can’t imagine why… but I had less fun at the lesbian club sober… haha. Go figure! Haha.
We headed back to Lufkin on Sunday and I spent the next couple of days there meeting up with old friends and, in many cases, their new families. I drove past the house where my family used to live. I went by my old apartment complex. I ate at Jack in the Box (yeah… I know… not special… but for some reason we don’t have Jack in the Box in Springfield and I really miss their eggrolls… haha). I did all of the things you do when you go back “home” after being away for a while.
On Wednesday, I came back to Springfield. And I’ve had an odd feeling every since. I can’t tell you what it is… or what it means… or even why I’m feeling it. I’m waiting to see if it’s just normal post-vacation blues… you know… the feeling you have when you come back from a vacation and have to go back to your normal, boring routine. As soon as I know, you can bet I’ll share it with the world.
So to sum everything up, the highlights of this vacation where:
1) My friends (I miss you guys :( )
2) Goooood eats (I miss you, too)
3) Throwing up at the lesbian club (I miss the springrolls I left in the parking lot)
4) Loving being “home”
5) Outrageous Indian Nation tolls
But now that I’m back, I’m not going back to my normal routine. You see… my routine has been disrupted by another event… which I’ll talk about in another post… in a day or two ;)
Posted in Personal
June 29th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
[...] We sat in the car and yacked for a while. The topics of conversation were varied and dynamically moved from one thing to the next. Eventually, we started talking about lesbians. I had probably just told her about my awesome lesbian club experience from the vacation. But I don’t remember exactly what led us to that topic. She told me about a girl she worked with at her new job who, she had recently discovered, was a lesbian. She said the two of them had discussed relationship issues and compared relationship drama. And then she told me she’d had an epiphany: lesbian relationships were just like their heterosexual counterparts! She seemed shocked that the girl she worked with genuinely loved her girlfriend. Shocking, I know. [...]
July 22nd, 2006 at 12:44 am
[...] Update: Mere moments after posting this I went back outside to see what else I could witness… only to find the foul-mouthed guy mentioned above heaving his guts out in the parking lot. Haha! Between heaves you could hear him gasp “oh shit”… then more vomit. He the proceeded to lay down in the parking lot beside a car and pass out. Ahhh…. brings back memories. Is it wrong that I’m watching all of this… and laughing about it? Filed under: Humor, Characters | Tags: Characters, drunk people, human interaction, Humor, idiots, relationship issues. [...]
May 21st, 2007 at 12:44 am
[...] still got a ways to go. In September 2005 I wrote about the social life I used to have… and the strange feeling of emptiness I had upon returning to Springfield after spending a week in Texas with my old friends. In December [...]