muted

infidelity

today is saturday (i shit you not). which means...

march 3, 2006 was a friday. which means...

march 3, 2005 was a thursday. which means...

march 3, 2004 was a wednesday. which means...

my "goodbye fidelity" gathering was exactly three years ago.

chris (who first got me saying “maaaa!....see?”) was the person who decided i should be sent off in some way. he knew me well enough to realize that if the event was planned to take place at an area bar, i probably wouldn’t show. therefore, he decided the only place to have it and be sure that i’d attend would be at my own apartment. we invited the people who might give a shit that i was leaving and figured we’d grab a beer ball and some pizzas and wing everything else.

i remember having mixed emotions when wednesday came. i was worried that no one would have a good time and, since i was living by myself, it would be completely my fault. plus, there were some people attending with whom i’d never interacted outside of work. however, living alone had been a horrible experience for me so having the company could be nice.

let’s see if I can remember everyone who ended up attending:

- chris: always made me laugh

- katie: we had become close due to a shared prolonged shitty experience implementing a new client. she was fond of telling me how weird i was.

- brennan: close for the same reason as katie and i; sat in cube next to mine with chris; funny as hell

- david: i nicknamed him “dickie franks” (and it stuck) because it sounded funny; also went through experience with katie, brennan and me; funny as hell

- phil: my cubemate; only knew him for the last few months but he was a funny fuck

- matt: shared same manager as me; we talked about music a lot; cool dude

- tara: used to share same manager; great sport when it came to my office hijinx

- jeremy: used to share same manager; super sports fan

- mike: used to share same manager; good sense of humor

- nate: tuna boy! loved talking sports with him

- brian: we bonded over music and rocked out together a bunch of times - wee hermans for life!!

- keith: motherfuckin' zoots!!!

after work, i raced to the papa gino's down the street from the apartment while chris headed to a liquor store. once people started arriving, we gathered in the kitchen, laughing, eating pizza and drinking beer. i had the computer rocking a party friendly playlist i had put together earlier that week. i remember that we kicked the beer ball pretty early in the night so mike and i walked to the corner store to grab a thirty pack. a bunch of people (well, as big a bunch as you can have as a subset of 13 people) played cards in the living room while the oc played on the tv (tara and katie were huge fans and the show was pretty new at the time). matt discovered my turntables and records in “the office” and almost shat himself. “dude, you can’t move! you’re too cool.” (still the most surreal thing that's ever been said about me to my face). chris and matt had some fun with those for a while. dickie franks found my guitar and started walking around taking requests. zoots showed up late but had some green with him which we used in kim’s small closet off the bedroom (as it was now empty). i even got someone to partake for the first time in YEARS which was a blast. at one point dickie franks and i were doing our best rendition of guns and roses’ “patience” and i was singing at the absolute top of my lungs. this moment was captured on video by brennan to whom I had given control of the videocamera.

the gathering was quite a success. the only hitch came at the end of the night when most people had left. i went to the bathroom and broke the flusher when i...flushed. of course, i freaked out because i was wasted and not handy enough to know how to address it. luckily, tuna boy assured me that it was an easy fix. i just had to buy a part from home depot which wouldn't set me back more than a few dollars and the installation would be self explanatory.

the next day at work was very bittersweet. while i felt honored to hear everyone recount what a great time they had, there was a sense that we all regretted waiting so long to get together like that. it definitely sucked that it took me leaving to realize how much people actually liked me.

i’ve watched some of the video from that night recently and it’s very difficult for me to do so. although i love seeing those people again, i can’t even watch sober video of myself and i am quite far from sober in that footage.

i still talk to some of them through email but not as much as i'd like. just this week, though, i got an email from matt. every now and then we'll ask each other what's been "in your ears" and exchange music recommendations. he sent me this amazing remix of a midlake song. it blew my mind and i gladly told him as much:

roscoe (remix)

p.s. ok, so another one of those freaky coincidences just happened as soon as i hit the "post" button. i checked my email (again) and there was a brand new email from brian! holy crap. wee hermans, motherfucker!!!!