thelastasthmatic

this weekend was awesome.

hit the road to memphis early saturday morning (after about 3hours of sleep) with my buddy brian. we found out that there is a150 milestretch between nashville and jackson that has no hardee's fast food joints, much to brian's dismay-all the man wanted was a sausage biscuit. ended up at a backyard burger in jackson (it was lunchtime by then anyhow), where we loaded up on high cholesterol and heart attack material to be washed down with sweet syrupy goodness(to be read as bacon cheddar burgers, fries, and super big root beers).

minutes later, however, i was cursing like a sailor and ready to hurl said root beer out the window. i lifted the cup out of it's holder for a big swig, when i saw and felt a steady stream o' sugar juice pouring from the side of the styrofoam container. we pulled into the next rest area to clean up. that's where we found the puddles of soda underneath both seats. i ended up counting to 10 a few times, then washing the rest o' my meal down with a warm cherry coke i had stashed in the cab earlier that morning.

we made it to memphis about an hour later. rendezvoused with karen (one of my sister's friends) to drop off the poster/collage i made for the party. after giving us directions to sun studios (karen is a doll),we started talking about the selection of alcohol they would have at the party. i kept hearing they were having wine and beer, which was cool. but after the last few weeks of tension and stress, i was dying for some bacardi. brian's particular about his liquor too, and we asked karen so we would know if we needed to bring our own stuff or not. we parted ways and headed for sun studios.

and proceeded to get lost.

well, not technically lost, we just couldn't find sun. we were downtown and almost to the mississippi river when we saw a sign for stax studios/museum. fortuitous, since stax was the main goal all along. we were just going to ask directions from someone that worked at sun when we got there. funny how things work out...

stax was fantastic. i hate to say i didn't know the extent of it's legacy. issac hayes, otis redding, sam and dave, rufus thomas, booker t and the mg's are just some of the names that recorded there. we stood on what brian accurately described as hallowed ground. the men and women that worked/recorded there did so as a family-race never interfered in the magic happening within those walls, even though the nation(at the time) was tearing itself apart just outside. issac hayes' gold plated cadillac eldarado and the wah-wah pedal used in the recording of the theme from shaft were just some of the highlights of the museum.



on the way to my sister's house (after the spiritual experience on maclemore avenue), i noticed a missed call from karen. i called her up to find out she had been at the liquor store earlier and had wanted to make sure she was getting the right thing, but we would now have to be happy with what she got. she had picked up a bottle o' bacardi 151 for me and some smirnoff premium for brian. did i mention karen is a doll?

we arrived at lori's house in plenty o' time to get ready and
say hi to her 'kids'. lori has 3 exotic short hair kitties and a 20 pound siamese named 'little man' (wanna guess who got me started with my brood?). she showed up a few minutes after we got there with some freshly applied eyelashes,
makeup , and a champagne bottle-sized buzz. after she finished getting ready we piled into the mercedes and headed off to the shin dig (for once in recent memory, i was going to be fashionably early to something, no doubt because someone else was driving ).

the party was held at her friend(and hairdresser) bonita's
house. bonita's house is fabulous-she is into stylish and funky art, and the house is decorated like some hip museum. the backyard was lit with tikki torches and christmas lights, and had a little outdoor fireplace to keep folks warm as their alcohol-laced blood thinned. the bar was actually pretty well stocked (though we kept our juice hidden in the kitchen).



the catering was great, too. i only tried a few pieces of chicken (too focused on my liquid intake to be bothered with food),but there was hardly anything left by the end o' the night.



you may find this hard to believe, but i am terribly shy. i know
and love all of lori's inner circle of friends, so i knew there would be plenty of people to hang with. i was determined, however, to meet as many new people as possible and to live up to the social standard that my sister sets so high. i must say that, as the night progressed, i did an excellent job-exhibiting just the right amount of humor and charm. thanks to ron bacardi, though, i did introduce myself to some people twice ("yes mato, we met at the bar about 10 minutes ago")!

the dj/singer/saxophonist/floutist was incredible. he was a
master player, his performance on both the sax and flute were nothing less than amazing. and his vocal work was solid, with a great sense of humor. and though most middle-aged white people cannot dance:



it was great to see lori (and a few friends) dancing on the
picnic table:



i was happy to see her having such a great time.

i love my sister.



brian was having a blast. smirnoff and several lovely ladies
stroking his beard kept his spirits high.



of course, i was having a stellar time. bonita's sister was passing out jello shooters, not an easy thing to down when you're already drunk. she noticed my difficulty, ran her finger around the edge to loosen the treat, and shoved it in my face saying, "suck it! just suck it!" i had to switch to water after a few more o' those because i was feelin' sooooo good. danced a little with lori, who's eyes were bright with alcohol and joy. i then moved into the house as people started leaving and the temperature started to drop.

it was time for one last cocktail.

i sipped my rumncoke while hanging out with my sister's best
friend sheila. she was friends with lori in hawaii when i was born, so she's known me my entire life. we've grown closer the last few years, and she's been great at allowing me to unload my emotional baggage on her. we had a deep
conversation about love and what i should want and expect out of a relationship (funny, cause we were both drunk, standing in the middle of the kitchen, surrounded by drunk people who had no idea of the importance of the dialogue we
were having). somehow, we ended up on one of bonita's couches.

and, well...







needless to say ,i slept very well that night...