Today's rambling: Dines in Hampstead Village
Written on Friday, Aug. 15, 2003 at 3:43 a.m.
while feeling a bit

Ah, my first entry since getting my laptop back! It came back yesterday, actually, and thankfully I was still at home when the UPS man arrived because I had to sign for it...and any further delay in getting mah precious computer back would have ticked me off! There was temporary worry because I didn't have the power cord and I thought that maybe Mom had given that to the Gateway folks...but it turns out that she'd just had it in her car. Still, I didn't even get to turn the darned thing on 'til now, since Geoff came to get me before Mom came home from work!

And now to what happened yesterday.

Everything started off great. I gave Geoff his present--two button-down shirts from Old Navy--and he liked them, much to my relief (or at least, he pretended to like them, ha ha ha), and then we drove back down to his place. Stopped by the Wine & Spirits store to pick up a few things, such as tasty Baja Luna, hehe...And after he and Tim got everything together at the apartment, we were off to Philadelphia. Everyone was happy, and I was so excited for that evening, so there were none of the usual frictions between Tim and I. We ate dinner at The Olive Garden, had a few drinks there, and then went to TGIFriday for one more drink.

At the venue, there were all sorts of people sitting around their cars drinking and such, and we were no exception. Tim was quite buzzed...and unfortunately, when Tim gets drunk, he also gets very obnoxious. I mean, I know most people turn rather "slap-happy" (as Mom put it) when they're drunk, but Tim really becomes unbearable. He'll say things about people as they're walking by, but his voice is loud enough that he can be heard by just about everyone. And while he's always fidgety and restless, drinking just exacerbates the problem. So now I think you can figure out what the rest of the night turned into. But I'm going to write it down anyway.

The "opening act" was some guy on a guitar (we went inside a bit after 8 o'clock so I have no idea who he was), and none of us were particularly interested in listening to him. Everything was outdoors, and the seats were so close together...so combined with the humidity, the heat was really uncomfortable. Geoff sat in the middle of Tim and I, and all throughout the concert he had to endure Tim's chattering and general obnoxious behavior. Tim had brought his cell phone with him, which I didn't think anything of because he was waiting for news on his father (yes, it was his father who'd had the heart attack). However, throughout the entire concert he kept playing with the phone, calling up people...basically everything that ignorant people with cell phones do. At one point, after my suggestion, Geoff snatched the phone away from Tim and hid it, but he eventually felt bad and gave it back.

While the first guy was onstage, Tim leaned over to Geoff and asked if that was Jethro Tull. He doesn't even know Jethro Tull music, and yet for some reason he wanted to come to this concert. When the band finally came onstage, the music started off kinda slow...and Tim fake snored. For Geoff, most of the concert was spent babysitting his roommate. I have to say that I actually felt embarrassed, as though somehow it as all my

fault. I know it wasn't, but still...it just didn't make the night very great.

Right toward the end of the concert, Tim got up to use the restroom. Five minutes later, I looked over and saw that he was standing by one of the stair railings, only a few feet away from the row Geoff and I were sitting in. I figured he knew where we were but just didn't feel like sitting down. However, a couple minutes later he hastened up the slope as though he thought our seats were further up! Geoff and I watched the rest of the concert, including the two encore songs ("Wind-up" [is that right?] and "Locomotive Breath"), stood there while two very large balloons were tossed out into the audience, and then finally hurried out to the sidewalk to wait for Tim. We watched all the people file by, were yelled at by a very wide black woman because we were standing on the grass...but there was no Tim. Geoff went to the restroom (I opted not to because the line was insane)...and yet even after he returned, there was still no sign of Tim.

"Do you think he'd know to go back to the car?" Geoff asked, and I shrugged.

"Well, if you know his number we could try calling him," I suggested. After all, he'd had the friggin' thing glued to his hand all night. We'd be sure to find him that way.

Except when we got to the car and Geoff dialed Tim's number, there was no Tim. "Now he turns it off," he grumbled.

I guess we sat there in the car for about 5 minutes (maybe a little less), listening to Ian Anderson chatting to a guy from the local classic rock station, and then I happened to glance to my right. And there was Tim...spreading his arms in a "What the hell is THIS?" gesture. When he stepped into the car, he actually had the audacity to say, "Thanks, guys!" or something of the like, as if we'd just abandoned him! Geoff said we'd

waited, and that he'd tried calling. Tim said he lost his phone.

"Where is it?" Geoff asked.

"I don't know."

"Where's your phone?"

"I don't know where it is."

"Let's go back and look."

Something muttered from Tim. Irritated, Geoff tossed his own phone over his shoulder and into the backseat. It glanced off my hand, but I was too irritated myself--not to mention a little intimidated--to make even a teasing remark. The only time I saw Geoff irritated was at the Moody Blues concert, when I was throwing my little sulking fit. People have seen him actually explode angrily, but I've been spared a scene like that. Last night, however, you could tell that he was right at that line. And it was a little frightening, not knowing exactly how he'd react or what would push him over the line. After he threw his phone, he flopped his head back onto the headrest and we just sat there silently. When Tim finally asked if we were going, Geoff again said, "Where's your phone?" Same response from Tim. I thought we were going to be there all night. But we finally started moving, when Tim made it clear (through body

language if nothing else) that he wasn't going back into the venue to find his lost phone. I find it hard to believe that he'd lost it in the first place, considering how much he was playing around with it during the concert.

After just a few minutes, Geoff seemed to have cooled down and gone back to normal. I, unfortunately, have not mastered that trick. When I get angry, I don't yell. I may snap a few things, but for the most part I just go quiet. Like Mom, come to think of it. Only I don't go for such long stretches without talking. A few hours or so tops, but nonetheless I still need my distance. Tim, who might have still been buzzing, didn't

realize there was anything wrong and so kept trying to talk to me. At one point, he said my name a couple times and I finally snapped, "Tim? Do us all a favor and be quiet." I figured that was harsh enough to keep him silent for awhile, but of course it wasn't. All during the car ride, at different intervals, he tried talking to me. I tried pretending I was

asleep a couple times, but then he started reaching back and touching my leg (not in a 'creepy old man' sort of way, just to get attention). I snapped at him several more times, feeling more and more miserable, but the topper was when we got to the apartment and he tried teasing me. I merely flipped him off and kept walking.

I hate being like that. If I'm angry, I should just get the yelling over with, but yet those few times that I did somewhat yell at him, I felt like such a horrible person! I flopped down on the living room couch, and for a few minutes Geoff sat in there, but then suddenly he walked out. After about 10 minutes I looked over and saw that the remote had been tossed next to me, and I realized he wasn't coming back into the

room. He'd just left me there. And I started crying. Only for a couple minutes, but it happened nonetheless. This was almost identical to what had happened at the Moody Blues concert, and yet again it was caused by Tim! I just cannot be around that man for any extended period of time without wishing that he'd disappear! He's infuriating, and while in romance novels that would be an endearing quality, here in real life it is not.

Thankfully, Geoff did come back, and acted pretty much like normal. Tim came in at one point and rather meekly laid a blanket over me, but by that point my guilt-ridden little heart had already softened toward him again. Around 1, Geoff started falling asleep, and he'd even moved a pillow onto my curled-up legs, as though planning to recline against me. He'd gone so far as to lower his head, but then he rested his cheek against his hand instead. Silly man.

He drove me home around...eee, I guess maybe it was 3-something by that point. If there was any tenseness in the air today, it was all on my part, since I was still feeling stupid about my behavior last night. Goodness knows, if I ever hope to win that man over, throwing little fits of temper is not the way to do it! Instead of just pulling up in front of my apartment to drop me off, he parked temporarily in a handicapped spot. He apologized for last night, and by the tone of his voice he was

still irritated over Tim's behavior...but the apology made me feel a little less stupid, hehe. I apologized too, and then while wondering what else to say, Geoff spoke up instead.

"I have to work tomorrow," he said, "but maybe we can do something this weekend."

^_____^

Here I was, thinking I might not see him at all until the 23rd (the move back to Clarion), but yay! He wants to see me again this weekend! Guess I either didn't annoy him as badly as I thought, or he once again employed that wonderful ability to push his irritation aside.

In November, there's gonna be this thingy called "Rubbing Elbows" with Ian Anderson. I was looking at the ad for it in my program last night, lamenting that I'd love to go, and Geoff piped up with, "We should go." I pointed out that I wouldn't be here, and he said he'd come up and get me. That was all before the bad stuff happened, so goodness knows if he still wants to do it...but tickets are going on sale starting Monday so I suppose I ought to just get over the fear and ask him.

As for the concert itself (ignoring the Tim part), it was really good. I didn't know most of the songs played, but Ian is just amazing. I'm not sure I ever would have thought a flute could work in the sorts of songs they play, but it really fits! And considering I've never really been able to even get the darned instrument to make ANY noise (the mouth shaping is weird for me), I have to give that man props.

Somewhere in the beginning/middle of the concert, he announced that Jethro Tull is coming out with a Christmas album. I thought he was joking. It seemed like such a hokey thing for a band like them to do! But they played "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and it was AWESOME. No singing, just instruments, and of course that flute sounded great.

Y'know, I've got my laptop back and yet something is acting up. AOL is telling me that my computer is low on resources, yet it's working super fast (or maybe I'm just used to Demon's super slowness). Why does technology hate me so??

Before closing this long entry, I would like to...well, first I would like to remark on the fact that I'm finally starting to get stupid comments like the one found in the previous entry. Seems now that I've made it so effortless to leave a comment, every brainless twit decides to leave stupid messages. *rolls eyes* Oh well, at least they didn't go through all the effort of leaving a note or something. Then I'd REALLY wonder if

they had a life outside the Internet.

Now, I'd like to leave you with two of my favorite Ian quotes from the concert. ;)

"Alright, enough of this happy shit." (Followed by a 'depressing' song that really wasn't all that depressing...but then again, I couldn't hear the words that well >_<)

"'Don't Wanna Be A Clinically Obese Person'. You might know it by a different title."