sm62704's Journal: Home again

previously: Double trouble coming?

Patty didn't quite make it to the house Wednesday night.

I collected my beers and a funny look from the bartender, a new one. I'd been in Felbers earlier in the afternoon with Amy, and now I was there with Tami. The bar was pretty full, with no unsat-on stools, so we sat at a table.

Ever since Tami's been staying with me there have been few times I've been at Felber's without her. One guy there once said what a good couple we made, and I had to point out that we weren't, in fact, a couple but that she was married to some other guy. I imagine, though, that folks there must think Tami and I are a couple.

One time t Felber's the bartender said simething about us beihng a couple, and Tami said "him? No, my husblan'd in the national Guard. I just sleep with him!" She was joking, but my face turned red nonetheless.

Debbie, one of the owners (not Crazy debbie, this is a different Debbie. She looks kind of like the figure on the left in this illustration) sat at the bar with Barb, a woman I've known for several years who used to work at Top Cat's and is some sort of relation to the Felbers' owners, who are some sort of relation to Top Cat's owners. I told you this was a cartoon city!

I was apparently the subject of their conversation. "Keep one eye open when you sleep", Barb told Tami. "And a rolling pin next to the bed!"

Patty called as I was sitting in Felber's with Tami. She was in town, and was going to visit her mother before coming to see me.

She called later from her friend's. Her friend had moved to Virginia or some place, and was home for a visit, which was Patty's actual purpose for her visit to Springfield.

She never showed up. She called in the morning, she'd fallen asleep at her friend's and would see me when I got off work.

Then Tami called, depressed. There were little kids where she was staying, and they were driving her crazy. I invited her to McLunch.

Traffic was a fucking bitch. Half the streets are closed for repairs and private business construction, and the closed streets were strategically placed so as to make any journey through town as unpleasant as possible. Two of the one way sixth street's four lanes have been closed all year while they build a tunnel over it for pedestrians to cross from one half of the Urgent Care building to the other, new half they're building, and they closed three of the lanes by South Grand while they're tearing doen one perfectly good commercial building to construct another.

And Monroe was closed for some remembrance to fallen firefighters, even though I can't remember the last time a Springfield firefighter died on the job. In fact, fighting fires is less dangerous than construction work. Why aren't they closing streets in honor of the fallen construction workers who died falling off of roofs?

And some inconsiderate bastard had the gall to die, and have his funeral procession right at lunch hour. He's dead, Jim, why can't he make his last trip at one instead of noon?

After work I went to Felber's, and called Patty to tell her to call me when she got home. "I'll be there in half an hour", she said.

She wanted to take me out to dinner. "I wish you'd have said something," I said. I'd been eating peanut butter on crackers ever since McLunch. I'm trying to gain some weight. "So where do you want to go?"

"You need to ask? D'Arcy's!"

Of course. D'Arcy's was packed, with a half hour wait for a table, and it was only 5:00. If you're in Springfield, know that D'Arcy's food must have heroin in it, because it's addictive as hell. It's also reasonably priced (almost cheap), and the service is always excellent. It's my favorite restaraunt, too. I noticed that most of its other patrons were obese. Not just fat, obese to the point that a few more pounds of lard under their skins and they'd break their legs from the weight.

As we were waiting for a table, Tami called. "Whatcha doin'?"

"We're at D'arcy's waiting for a table, what are you doin'?"

"Going crazy!"

I got a pint of some flavor of Irish beer or other while we waited for a table. Half hour later or so a waitress seated us. Patty had corned beef and cabbage (of course). I had the second best cup of soup I've ever eaten (the best was actually potato soup at Top Cat's, which is perhaps my second favorite restaraunt) and a stuffed portabella mushroom.

I only finished half the huge mushroom.

We went home and watched "Earl", which Patty said she was sick of. Turns out her fiance is an Earl fan too and they have the first couple of seasons on DVD. I made Patty promise to supply me with some Earl, since they sell DVDs at her game store.

When Earl was over she said she was going to her friend's for a while. As she left, Tami called. "Wacha doin'?"

"I just finished watching Earl with my daughter."

"I forgot it was even on!"

"You missed it, it was a good one. I laughed my ass off!" Well, I had smoked a little pot after dinner, but Patty doesn't touch the stuff and she laughed quite a bit, too. Not as much as me.

I went back to Felber's with Tami.

Next: The Hamish