so, i made a choice around 9:00 this morning that it seemed like it was going to rain pretty hard - the wind was picking up, and the temperature dropped very suddenly - and i'd better get me and my bike home before it did.

that turned out to be a bad choice, as it cleared up early in the afternoon. what seemed like it was going to be a cold and wet day turned into a humid, overcast one - and i like humid, overcast days. it would have been a good afternoon for a beer outside, if there was indeed a good place to find one, which was less clear. that food truck was penciled in as a kind of a joke.

so, i didn't make it to the end of the day symphony, but i'm going to figure this out, eventually. in some sense, it's still early in the year. but, where's the place that is open not just until 6:00 but until 12:00? even accepting that it's a good idea to put an hour or two aside to eat, if i want to get to these sunday afternoon or evening shows i need something better to do on sunday morning.

hey, maybe i'll start going to church.

(laugh track)

i missed everything in the afternoon, but i got some nice biking in. the early show ran late, meaning i only caught around 10 minutes of the last show, which was also early. the early show was mildly entertaining, but i was more interested in the second show, and i should have left early, but i actually didn't realize it was that late (although, again, the second show was also early). i'm not really fans of either act, so it's not that catastrophic, really, but i would have ideally been able to have caught most of oozing wound. alas. the first dance club was empty a little before midnight and the music wasn't interesting enough to shrug it off, so i did leave early, and ended up at menjo's a little before midnight. the bartender at r&r seemed to think i was drunk, but the bartender at menjo's served me. i guess the best way to answer the question is that i was certainly under the influence of alcohol, but i don't think i was too drunk to serve; r&r was wrong, here, and menjo's was right. and, they waived me cover again (that's three times in the last month). i guess i had three drinks at menjo's before going back to r&r, and i did eventually convince them to serve me, just further demonstrating that the initial decision not to serve me was wrong - if i was too drunk to serve when i came in, how could i be less drunk three drinks later? the event listing said 7:00, but i didn't expect them to be open later than 5:00, and they had the place cleared by 5:30.

see, i wasn't sure what the right logic would be about the gay complex on pride weekend. i want to be clear here: there were a lot of disappointed people walking out of that place at 5:30, many of whom clearly thought they'd be there a lot later than that. there was a general consensus that the other place would be closed right at 6:00. a lot of bars will stay open all morning on movement, so why not stay open all day on pride? you can start serving again at 7:00! and, there were 300 people there that didn't want to leave. so, i was hoping, with little supporting evidence, that they'd be open very late - but i just ended up as one of a large number of people that was pushed out earlier than they wanted.

there's another complex opening up in the west end and i need to make a point that should be obvious: if you hire a dj to spin at 7:00 am until noon or three or four in the afternoon on the sunday of pride weekend, you will attract hundreds of people that want to be there. my search for a more general early sunday morning dance party may be a little obscure, but i was hooked into the gay zeitgeist this week, anyways.

i want to make a general statement about alcohol: i don't think there's anything wrong with being drunk. i don't drink when i'm at home, but when i'm out partying, i enjoy being drunk, and drink because i like it. i have no shame in these truths, and would behoove you to change your attitude, if you do. so, i have no response to people pushing temperance other than to tell them to proselytize to somebody else - i have no interest in your politics or your morals or your worldview in general, so fuck off.

regarding my alcohol intake, we all screw up once in a while, but i can actually generally handle my alcohol quite well. i mean, you're looking at a 95% success rate in terms of making it home without blacking out. so, you play the odds, and tell me what the right answer is. further, i am absolutely certain that i was drugged on at least two of those nights (one of them because he told me as much). the only times i've ever run into actual confirmed alcohol problems are when i'm taking shots or otherwise drinking strong drinks; so long as i'm drinking beer, i'm able to essentially drink all night, and i will if you let me.

the thing that tends to knock me on my ass is actually not alcohol but marijuana. alcohol is a cns depressant, but it is also a racing buzz - it makes you want to get up and dance. good pot will amplify the effects of alcohol, but if you take a pass on somebody's sativa, or eat a brownie somebody made in their kitchen, you could find yourself in need of a couch. please be clear on this point: if you find me sitting down somewhere, it's probably (like, 95 out of a 100 times) not because i'm drunk but because i'm stoned and i'll probably be fine once it wears off a little. and, so long as i smoked it rather than ate it, you're probably looking at ten minutes before i'm up and ready to go.

storefront marijuana stores in michigan are coming soon, and, when they are, i should be able to minimize this problem by ensuring that i'm only smoking high-thc indica. in the meantime, it's an environmental hazard i have to deal with: people are going to pass me shit that is going to make me need to sit down, and i'm going to need to do it, when they do.