All Over the Place

Maddie Hayes: David, may I please have some ANSWERS?
David Addison: Delaware, all of the above, 90 degrees.
- Moonlighting

I've had difficulty focusing today. Do I have AD/HD and someone forgot to tell me? If so, where's my Ritalin?

No topic tonight, just me babbling incessantly. For those of you who know me, it'll be just like I'm there.

Halloween is rapidly approaching and for the first time in seven years, I will not be spending Saturday night at the Warehouse. Or any bar, for that matter. Halloween Saturday is one of the nights we used to refer to as "amateur night" when I was still bartending. To say that the place will be crowded is an understatement. Halloween actually surpasses New Year's Eve as the busiest night of the year, and every moron in the city seems to come out of the woodwork to drink themselves into a drunken stupor. I counted fourteen ads for bars and clubs having costume contests in CityBeat, including some that I had never seen advertise in that paper before. (Soupie's? New one on me.) This doesn't include the Creepy Crawl in Main Strasse Village, which is being co-sponsored by seven bars in Covington. No, my days of being packed sardine-tight into a not-well-ventilated room full of inebriated frat boys and rednecks are over. I'll be at Zappagirl's house baking cookies (she has bat-shaped cookie cutters!), eating pizza, and getting ready to go to Fearfest at Paramount's Kings Island. I'm unnaturally excited by the prospect of going to this Fearfest thing. Cheesy haunted houses and roller coasters? Where do I sign up? I'm such an overgrown kid.

I didn't get a chance to go to Kings Island this year, which means I have still not had a chance to ride Son of Beast. Ooh, new record breaking coaster! The tallest (218 feet!) and fastest (78.3 mph!) wooden coaster - and A LOOP! Whee! I'm so excited, and a bit nervous...but it's a good fear.

Speaking of fears, I thought of an interesting irrational fear to add to last night's entry, although it wasn't mine. When my sister was three or so, she was afraid there were alligators in our basement. We had a playroom down there, and the carpet was green, so she figured that they were just blending in, waiting to get her as soon as she stepped foot down there. Tee hee.

Man, she is so going to kill me for telling that story.

Sudsy Malone's, the local laundromat/bar is booking bands again. Hooray! You just gotta love a place where you can get a beer and listen to a band while you're folding your unmentionables.

I saw a review for Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows, and it wasn't very pretty. The reviewer gave it an F. It's really irritating that it's Halloween and the only decent horror movie that's out right now is The Exorcist, which Roger Mexico and I just watched a few weeks ago.

I think I want to see Charlie's Angels. The TV ads kick ass. But I still ain't going to some franchise bar in the Main Street Entertainment District (TM) to get preview passes. Especially a club with the oh-so-original name of "Bar." Give me a break.

So apparently there's this place called Anything Airbrushed that will do your Halloween costume makeup for you. Um, is this for lazy people or something? Part of the fun of the costume thing is actually designing and assembling your costume, not hiring a makeup and costume crew to make you look picture perfect. Yeah, you might win a contest, but where's the originality? The creativity?

(This from the girl who went to the Witches Ball dressed as a fairy, and discovered that there were at least 10 other fairies there.)

Nash joined me for a beer last night, asking for my assistance on his Halloween costume. He's going as Wes Borland from Limp Bizkit. I wish I was going to the parties he was going to, or he better take some pictures. When I called him this afternoon, he was on his way to pick up his black contact lenses.

Roger Mexico and I are going to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's house tonight to see the new kittens and decide which one he will eventually be adopting. Wonder how the cat he has now is going to take to the addition to the family. I have a guess. Two words. Hockey puck.

Looking at the Fall Dining Guide in CityBeat is a really bad idea when you're hungry. I want to go eat at every one of the featured "new classic" restaurants - right now. Too bad I don't get paid 'til tomorrow and budgeting is going to be tight if I want to go to Fearfest and the Elliott Smith show at Southgate House. Maybe I can squeeze in a stop at Kaldi's next week. Mmm...Kaldi's. Bacon and roasted red pepper cream cheese wrap. Hazelnut coffee.

I must stop drooling all over the keyboard now.

Homecoming is this weekend at the university near my house. Homecoming = parade = blocked off streets. Memo to myself: sleep late Saturday.

And finally before I sign off for the evening, I just want to sing the praises of my local corner market, or as Roger Mexico and I refer to it, the hippie store. It's run by a bunch of Deadheads. They have a framed picture of Jerry Garcia over the register. I'm not kidding. They also have the most eclectic mix of merchandise in the world, including a great import beer cooler, Wild Berry hand-dipped incense, ethnic foods, clove cigarettes (hooray!),an ATM, and a soda cooler that has both Tab and Jolt. The girl that waits on me in the mornings when I take the bus has been reading On the Road. They used to deliver pizza, too. The year I got snowed in and ran out of cat food, they had everything I needed - and they took my debit card. Rock on.

OK, I'm outta here. Time to go see the kitties and get something to eat. Not necessarily in that order.