Saturday, December 10, 2005

Early Night Illuminated

Friday was Rachel's early night. Rachel's early night is when she doesn't have to close the bar - and she gets off early. I always look forward to Rachel's early night. I envision the hour hand pointed at the numero eight on the clock. As she pulls her purse from the corner cabinet, Leslie, Mart and I will pull our heavy coats on. Slip on our gloves and prepare to warm up our cars. I envision each of us watching the sight of our own breath as our engines fight against the cold. I imagine we'll all drive in a nice and tidy caravan back to Rachel & Mart's house where we'll drink beer and watch bad TV and talk until we begin to pass out. It. Never. Happens. That. Way. After a couple of beers and a really, really early night - the four of us decided to get a couple of drinks across the street at the Moose Lodge. I like the Moose Lodge. Especially in winter. The fact that it's called a 'lodge' makes it sound more...I dunno...wintry. Like inside everything will be a lot warmer. A place where they'll serve good hot coffee and meat and potato style food. Normally, the Moose Lodge is quiet on Friday nights, with the over 50 crowd dominating the bar stools and circular tables. But when we walked in, the twinkle lights were illuminated, the karoke was in full swing and not a seat was left in the house. We finally got a table, I sipped on Starbucks & milk, the beer was flowing like water and we laughed, and we got loud, and we danced and we sang and we stayed way longer than usual. Outside the air was cold, steam was rolling off the roof and slinking across an inky black sky. Icicles clung to ever over hang. Parking lots were covered with snow and ice and became death traps. Such nights however, are always made better by the day after. Leslie gave me a wake-up call. I fought with the idea of separating from my bed for the rest of the day and Rachel called me after she'd thrown up. We talked for hours about everything and nothing at all. In a way, such nights seem to bleed into the next day - and in a way - you don't want them to end. You stay unshowered and undressed until early evening. It's an attempt to rush through dinner and get back to the bars or the company of friends to act as though the night never really ended. You want Friday to last until you go to pick up the Sunday paper.

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