After a breakfast of sugary cereal followed by an egg and cheese sandwich I hopped on the train in Rahway to New York. I did some reading on the train. It makes me wish I took trains more often.
I met up with Jackie and saw her Chelsea apartment. Pretty nice. We hung out for a while as I cooled down from the balmy weather outside and then decided to head to Brooklyn.
We walked the streets of Williamsburg for a while, checking out some overpriced shops, watching a student film crew shoot some scenes and getting a smoothie to keep it cool.
Any questions? Ask beer. That's what I do. We went to the Brooklyn Ale House to escape the heat and have a few afternoon drinks to kill some time.
A few drinks turned into a few more and then a few shots and then we were drunk. It all happened so fast. The Genessee Cream Ale was really good though. The shots of Honey something or another Wild Turkey were also not bad. The honey really masks the whiskey taste.
We met a couple at the bar who we struck up a conversation with. The girl was a model so Jackie had things to talk to her about and her husband was really funny so we had something in common too... right? We had a good time talking and they posed for some shots. Not too bad for drunk photographer in a poorly lit bar, eh?
They decided we should go back to their apartment and hang out so we ended up in a cab, laughing all the way back to their place. Simon had an amazing vinyl collection of old punk music so we threw on some Bad Religion and hung out having some more drinks. A NOFX album or two later, we decided it was time to head back out.
I have no idea where this bar was but we walked there I think. It's a little blurry at this point. We met a few of Simon's friends from the neighborhood there and had more beers. Ah, more beers, what a great idea! I don't even know what we were drinking at that point. I just said, "I'll have one of those, too!" after someone ordered.
Simon was there some of the time.. I'm not sure where he disappeared to randomly but I was amongst his friends who were either laughing with me or at me. It could have been either at that point. At one point I decided it was time to be sober so I started eating breadsticks and drinking water. It didn't really work.
After losing contact with most people I recognized I started walking to Jackie's apartment only to realize I was in Brooklyn and she lives in Manhattan. I only got about half a block before I came to this realization, by the way. So I came back, sat with people I knew until Jackie got there and we stayed a little longer while I drank more water and then took a nice walk to the train station.
Do I look drunk? I am. I was so tired and felt so bad when I got back. It felt like it should be almost dawn but it was not too long after midnight. That's what happens when you start drinking in the afternoon. I just drank water and fell asleep, waking up every now and then. Oh, what a night! It really was pretty great though.
I went to my mom's for lunch with her and Larry. She made a summer pasta thing with red peppers and mozzarella. Really good. We spent some time going through the photos from the trip. We looked through them on the big screen since the Wii reads SD cards. Who knew?
I went down to Sam's after a while to join in the BBQ festivities for a little while. She made me a portabello sandwich almost immediately after I got there. We had some great food and I caught up with her, Ali, Jordan, and everyone I haven't seen in a long while.
We got into a game of horseshoes that took quite a while. Somehow Jeff and I won the game though! I got a couple of ringers. It's always so much fun there, I wasn't happy that I had to leave.
I picked up Diana and drove to Baltimore, parked and went over to Mex. The bartender that we had last time I went with Dave was there and remembered me so that was cool. We had some drinks and food and talked to her. She did a shot with us for good measure.
We had some time to kill before the show so we enjoyed our time there. We did another shot before going in. Still not as inebriated as when I drank Dave's wine.
Thursday played first and opened with a new song followed by "For the Workforce, Drowning." It feels like it's been so long since I've heard them play that. It was just nice to not hear all of Full Collapse again!
The set was great and the slideshow was a nice addition. The new songs sound so much better live in my opinion. I just can't get into the vocal effects on the album though the music is great. It fits in just fine live. They closed with "Turnpike Divides" after "Jet Black New Year" and it was a perfect closer. Worth the black eye.
We went out to the bar and got some water in between bands. We came back in as Taking Back Sunday was already playing. If I ever had a problem with them before, it's official: they're back. They are so good live and they play a great set of songs.
I will say that Adam talks so much that they could have played another two or three songs if he would shut up. Otherwise they play a lot of old stuff and the new stuff is so good live as well as on the album. I want to see them again already.
We got some more water after the show and considered what else we could do. We ended up just going home. Baltimore is a fun place to be at night though; I need to stay down there sometime.
