By Nous

                             June 22, 2006

BRAINDEAD?

Hotelier was pretty heart-breaking today. Jinyoung, I felt your pain. As I sat eating my large breakfast
(I don't wake up till like 1:30 in the afternoon anymore), the tears in Jinyoung's eyes were like mirrors.
I'm kidding, that was supposed to be a terrible metaphor. Sometimes, it's tempting to be terrible.
All little rations. These words of mine.
My nose is runny for some reason.
I went to the Alamo today after not having been there for a while. My sense of time is gone, so don't ask
for a specific chunk of it. I decided I would try to get good at Galaga since they did away with Bubble
Bobble a long time ago (my reason for not paying a visit to the thrift store, my old friend). I dropped
the first quarter into the slot and began to focus, trying to figure out the game.
It wasn't hard of course, but I'm just not good at games, usually.  Once more the kids gathered round to
watch me kick ass, which I was doing for quite a while. And while I did not get the high score this time
(second place), I'll try again tomorrow, or soon anyway. I went to the books and found some logic book on
morals.
I sat there for half an hour or more reading it. Kind of interesting.
I came back and remembered that I had left my speeding ticket near my computer and asked my mom why she
wanted it. Right now she's calling the number on it.
I was issued a citation for speeding in Navarro County, and as I reside in Pasadena and have never gotten
a ticket before, I did not know how to pay for it, where to go, et cetera. I was going 91 in a 65 on 45
North, heading up to Dallas to visit my friend, Jake, at an anime convention. Ben and I got there that
day, midnight, and stayed at Javad's dad's place which was weird.
Just staying with Javad was weird, as I'd never really talked to him before, but he's a cool guy, easy-
going. Anyway we all went to the Adams Mark hotel the next day, where the convention took place, and as
soon as I stepped through the revolving doors, I see this guy in cos-play come up to me, saying my name.
I recalled his voice vaguely but did not recognize the guy at all, until after a moment of befuddlement,
I realized it was Jake.
"Oh... Oh! Hey, Jake!"
He laughed and I was like, "We're going to go look around," because he and his friends (who were all
dressed up like Naruto characters, with really good costumes) were being photographed. So we walked
around. After a while, I suggested we get a bottle of Jack and walk around drunk. Soon, Ben, Javad, and
I were standing in the parking garage, at a hidden turn, pouring Jack and Coke into our cups with ice
(provided by A-Kon). It didn't take long to get buzzed, and soon we were pretty drunk.
I don't remember much except that after about thirty minutes of walking around I called Jake, because I
hadn't seen him the whole time, and he invited us up to his hotel room. After taking the elevator to his
floor, I hear a girl who has just stepped into the elevator after us, comment, "It smells like sweat and
beer."
I hadn't taken a bath in a few days.
We are sort of introduced to Jake's friends at that point, and they seem standoff-ish, unwilling to
accept us. That's how some people are, and I figured they'd warm up after a while, which they sort of
did. I tried to fall asleep on the couch, and somehow ended up on the floor near the door staring up at
a girl sans cos-play walking into the bathroom with another girl.
Ben, Javad, and I left again and Javad had a run-in with a ninja who specialized in anti-stealth.
He was big, fat, and had a shirt with letters on it that said "ninja" or something. He would stand
behind a pillar and tap people on the shoulder and then hide. And people would look back and no one
would be there.
Javad found this amusing/stupid.
"Why don't people go behind the pillar?"
So after a few minutes of us standing by the elevators, not going in for some reason -- and Javad warning
people about the ninja (Watch out! He's -- No! Look! It's a -- Hey!) -- Javad says, "I'm going to go tap
HIM on the shoulder."
So he does, and then runs back to the elevator. But the ninja had seen him so he comes right up to him
and taps him several time on the shoulder and runs away.

I remember leaving the convention for a while and going to Christie and Matt's apartment and seeing their
new baby. We all went out to eat (bbq buffet, fucking good!), and I cleaned my plate, because I hadn't
eaten that day, or the day before, really. After a while we parted and went to pick up another bottle of
Jack (we'd finished the first one) and head back to the convention.
I was still a little hungry, and this girl in like a white bikini and cape with this dude who "might as
well be sitting with her sister [Ben]" sat next to us with two boxes of pizza. They asked us if we wanted
some, and I did indeed. So I took a piece, but found it hard to finish it. Javad and I somehow got into a
conversation with that girl about political and sociological stuff (which always happens on 7 days,
numerologically speaking). Then she and her friend took off for the hentai exhibit or something.
We saw them later at Party Elevator.

PARTY ELEVATOR!

This was weird, and kind of cool, and I don't know exactly how it happened. I guess we were in the
elevator and Ben said, "We should just stay in here." It must have been something like that, and then
we thought about it briefly and fancied the idea. In fact, I really liked the thought of just staying
in the elevator while A-Kon was going on. But I had been drinking.
So Javad, Ben, and I just stayed in the elevator and anytime the doors would open and we would be face
to face with some new people, we would shout, (this phrase was just natural) "Party Elevator!" At first
we'd introduce ourselves and then after a while -- once Party Elevator had developed a following -- we'd
all say one thing about ourselves. Mine was, "I've failed English twice," and "I can say excuse me in
Gaelic."
Our following was a 36 year old blond dude with glasses named Bernard who sort of looked like a stockier
version of the host from the Joe Shmo Show (remember Joe Shmo? That was cool) and two guys who were
apparently gay, which I didn't realize till Ben and I got home and, in recounting our experience at Party
Elevator, Ben brought it up.
"They were gay?"
"Yeah," he said, "Remember when we were leaving, that one guy in the blue kept smacking your ass with a
stick. And Alex (pink shirt, long hair, goofy-looking, quiet) kept looking at you really weird. And then
someone called him on the phone and he said, 'Oh, nothing. NOT getting laid."
That last part, Ben said through his teeth and I got the picture.
Anyway, there was one more guy, but I forget his name. Doug? Dennis?
We rode the elevator for six hours, till five in the morning. Javad kept getting off and on, because he
has a thing about elevators. So at one point once we've got the Party Elevator crew we all get off at one
of the top floors and just hang around this empty little corner area by the elevators. Really homey, I
liked it. I wanted to stay there longer.
By that point, I had been drinking for a few hours, and had removed my under shirt and was wearing my
long-sleeve collared shirt only, unbuttoned of course. Somehow I lost that T-shirt up there in that area.
Bernard, with his awesome camera, probably got a good picture of me knocking on doors asking for
cigarettes, which I'd forgotten about till Ben told me about it. I ended up raiding an ashtray filled
with lights outside. A week later I found my long-sleeve shirt under the car seat with cigarette butts
and tobacco in the front pocket.
Anyway, about Javad. We were in that area, near the top floor (the elevators there got fancier for some
reason) when Bernard told me he'd never smoked weed. So I was determined to go find someone with weed so
that Bernard could experience it at least one time. And what better time than at an anime convention in
the middle of the night.
Somehow I'd forgotten about the group of people we'd stumbled onto at Party Elevator, where we got off at
one floor (this is when it was just me, Ben, and Javad) and as we're walking around, we hit a hallway and
immediately smelled weed. As we're walking back to the elevator (hotel floors are empty and boring) a
group of weird looking people come out of a room and it's obvious that they were the source of the weed
smell. We're all in the elevator and we've done our Party Elevator routine and then I say, "You guys are
fucking high," or something like that. And this tall, skinny black dude starts giggling like a hyena.
I remember him wearing a dress, but I may be thinking of the guy from the Rocky re-enactment who played
the main doctor guy (I've watched it once) and hugged me in a very homosexual manner. Apparently as that
was going on, D said, "That stripper was right about Nous." A stripper at Club Exotica thought I was gay.
Anyway, I'd forgotten about those guys. So once more to the elevator!
But we only go down so far, about two floors down.
Oh, there was no logic to my search for weed. I think I'd forgotten about it as soon as I stepped into
the elevator and felt the familiar atmosphere, my mother for six hours. I was just going to wait in the
elevator and ask people if they had weed, I guess.
Anyway, we go down like two floors and some people come inside. And then, someone says, "Let's go to the
very top."
Now, the very first time we got in an elevator, it was apparent that Javad didn't like it. He covered his
ears and squeezed his eyes shut and just looked generally uncomfortable. So when we thought of going to
the very top, the very first thing I heard was, "NO!" and then Javad was scrambling around. But where to
go in an elevator?
Anyway, I guess the other folks who had come in had pressed the button for the top floor because the
doors opened and Javad lunged at the wall on the outside. But we realized we were on the top floor. And
Christ, was it fucking awesome.
It was a restaurant. That's all the top floor was. You exit the elevator and walk down a little hallway
and you're there. And it's an entire floor. And it was empty because we had missed dinner, as the ONE
waitress remaining explained, (the other folks who were in the elevator left after hearing this) but we
stayed. Aside from her there was a jazz band still playing effervescently, which is a terrible adjective
to describe them, I guess. But they were playing their instruments so intensely and just looked so happy.
This all was like a scene out of Spirited Away, which is a good movie you should watch if you haven't
yet (I'm talking to you, Kate).
So we're in an empty, dimly lit restaurant, but the waitress tells us we can hang around, and a jazz band
is playing, and no one is saying a word. There are huge windows that look down on Dallas, and we're all
just doing the Ferris Bueller thing where you stand with your forehead against the window, with no other
support, and just look down. It seemed Javad got over his fear of heights then and there, or maybe it's
the fact that elevators are on gears and it's a tiny room that scares Javad. Either way, he was enjoying
looking down.
And the gay guy in the blue who would later be smacking my ass with a stick was telling me how much he
loves Dallas. I don't remember much of what he said, but I remember this: "There's just no place like
it."
I really liked how much he loved Dallas. I was enjoying looking down at Dallas, living vicariously. His
love of Dallas was infectious.
Anyway, we left without tipping the band and soon we caught up with Bernard and the guys downstairs. It
was at this point that I raided the ashtrays, I think. Anyway, we all go back to the elevator and we get
off at this one floor with a patio and we hang around not really talking about anything. Just looking at
shit. Kind of letting the day sink in, I guess. And we walk back inside and see that there's a gym, and
it was opening in a few minutes. So we wait around, and I'm completely sleepy and I just need a way to
keep awake. I was getting to the delusional state you get to when you stay up for too long. It was like
five in the morning at this point.
This guy comes by and opens the gym and we all just start working out.
The only way I can explain WHY this happened is because of what I jus said, about needing to keep awake.
It was like instinct. Nobody thought about it. We all went to different machines and just started working
out, without saying a word to each other. Javad and I were on treadmill. I think Ben was was lifting
weights.
Then I worked on my legs and did curls. Worked out my pecs.
It was all really gay, but I guess no one thought about it at the time. I didn't. I'm semi-delusional by
this point and I'm hearing things and sort of talking to myself. And we're all in a room working out and
building up a sweat.

You know, I can't explain it in words, what happened at the gym. What I've said just doesn't capture how
utterly bizarre it was, though at the time it seemed completely natural. There was almost no asking
"why," but just going through with it as if it was utterly important (A Room With A View Reference,
somewhere in there). Collin says that's what doing acid was like for him.

Anyway, that's how our night ended. I dont know if this is sudden but now I've got to thinking just why
that happened. And I like it, which is kind of funny.
And another thing that's kind of funny is something I said to Collin on the phone, and I told him I was
going to put that sentence at the end of this, even though it would make no sense.
"I guess at heart, we're all a mother's child."
But I decided against it. Instead, to paraphrase SOMETHING, "The answer is not why, but yes, yes, yes."
I think that's a better ending, and as I went to fill up on gas at the new Citgo that opened (only 2.60
per gallon) I saw a billboard that said, "Where are you going? The answer is YES!" And so I find that to
be quite appropriate, and in accordance with things lately.
"Yes."
Mm-hm. I believe that explains it.