Month: June 2011

  • Lupus and the Greedy Jesus

    Lupus and the Greedy Jesus

    Lupus and the Greedy Jesus

    (A One-Act Tragedy Play for a Modern Recession and a Poor Faith Economy)

    by

    Matt Zbrog

    CURTAIN:

    It was the opposite of a dark and stormy night.  The Wells Fargo branch was quietly going about its business… Marshall the bank teller was standing at his post with hopeless ennui… Matt was on the far end of the bank, an air conditioning vent running softly through his gorgeous hair…

     

    ENTER ANNE, a gigantic potato sack of an old lady… she speaks with the loud authority of a Martin Luther King, Jr., and with the righteous indignation of a fox news lunatic…

     

    Anne:  YALL NEVER GONNA BELIEVE

    WHAT HAPPENED TO ME

     

    Anne stumbles towards Marshall… her walk looks like a water balloon tumbling lazily across smooth tile… She has a smile on her face as wide as a watermelon slice… And she launches into her Shakespearean sonnet where syllables and pace are missing but only because she is eloquent enough not to need them…

     

    Anne:  I GOT THE LUPUS

    GOT MY OLD CROCK-ED HIP

    EVERY STEP FEELS LIKE I’M FALLIN

    BUT YALL KNOW ME

    THAT AIN’T THE WORST OF IT

     

    Her fat melting tootsie roll fingers slap the papers on Marshall’s desk…

     

    Anne:  I’M HERE TO DISPUTE THESE CHARGES!

     

    Marshall studies the pages with absolute blasé.  He confronts the reality of his day to day job in terms of the big picture and blah blah blah blah bank stuff blah blah… back to Anne…

     

    Anne:  I WROTE A 20 DOLLAR CHECK

    AND YALL BOUNCED IT

     

    Anne waves a twenty dollar bill in the air like a white flag from a foxhole…

     

    Anne:  BUT I GOT THE MONEY

    RIGHT HERE

     

    Marshall shrugs his shoulders and says something stupid about that not mattering and he feels like blah blah blah dude you work in a bank no one cares blah blah blah.  Anne continues…

     

    Anne:  I WROTE THAT CHECK

    FOR TURTLE ROCK BAPTIST CHURCH

    YEAH

    THAT’S RIGHT YOU SON OF A BITCH

    I WROTE THAT CHECK TO JESUS.

     

    Silence.  Then, on cue, from far away, Matt speaks up…

     

    Matt (softly):  Woah!

     

    Anne does not hear this.  She continues…

     

    Anne:  YOU SEE NOW?

    JESUS WANTS HIS CUT

    OK

    OK

    ALL PIMPS GET ‘THEY’ SLICE

    BUT

    NOW JESUS WANTS TO CHARGE ME FEES?

    NOW JESUS WANTS PROOF I GOT HIS CASH?

    SOMEONE BETTER TELL JESUS

    TO GIVE THAT SHIT A REST

     

    In the distance, Matt hangs on every word, hands clasped as in prayer… Marshall’s reaction is worthless and disrespectful…  Anne has exhausted her obese body with all this emotional rage… She fans her moist, gelatinous skin with her clammy hand…

     

    Anne :   I MEAN

    LOOK AT ALL WELLS FARGO GOT!

    LOOK AT ALL THAT CRACKER MESSIAH GOT!

    WHAT DO I GOT?

    I GOT A BOUNCED CHECK

    AND THE GOD-DAMN LUPUS.

     

    … Anne pauses for a breath into her fat, fat, grocery bag lungs…  musters every  joule of energy… And then yells out her Faith Eulogy, confronting her upbringing, her creator, her destiny, her reality (!!!) …

     

    Anne:  THIRTY DOLLAR FEE ON A TWENTY DOLLAR CHECK?

    WELLS FARGO AND THAT GREEDY JESUS

    CAN GO STRAIGHT TO HELL.

     

    Silence, it has a sound.


    The bank-turned-congregation tries to process the miracle just performed, but their tiny bank-minds are grappling with implications far beyond their bank-depth.  Marshall begins to sob… few are concerned…


    Matt:  HALLELUJAH!

     

    FIN.

  • My First Blowjob

     

    My dick is bigger than yours!” Collin exclaimed, folding the tips of his fingers over mine. It looked like the scene in Tarzan when Jane presses her dainty palm against the wild beast-man’s hand. “Your dick is the same size as your middle finger. See, mines bigger than yours, a lot bigger. You have a small dick,” he explained, showing its alleged size with his thumb and index. Since this was a gross overestimate, I remained silent, not sure if I should correct his mistake.

    (more…)

  • Right Place, Right Time

    Right Place, Right Time

    Enough was enough. I hadn’t had a solid one-night stand since October, making it one of my biggest dry spells since college. The drought had to end.

    KG, Ron, their wives, and myself (the perennial fifth wheel), hit a local club late on a Saturday night. The two couples left around 12:30, but since Ron’s place (where I’d be crashing) was just a seven-dollar cab ride away, I stuck around to do more slithering.

    It was a disaster: 0 for 10 became 0 for 20, then 0 for 30. I did manage to make out with a tall Czech woman, but she had dog-poop breath and lacked a deodorant application within the last twelve hours, so I didn’t count that as a success. As it was, I found myself waving down a cab in the hysteria of the club’s aftermath just before two a.m.

    Ron lived in one of those obnoxious apartment complexes that make you call in at the front gate just to get into the damn parking structure (as if stalkers and robbers wouldn’t be patient enough to wait to follow someone in), so he gave me his key card just before he left. He told me some instructions also, but I have selective hearing, and I involuntarily ignore anything having to do with electronics, office jobs, or cars.

    After the cab dumped my sorry ass off, I fished the key card out of my pocket and searched for the scanner. On the right wall next to the gate was a panel of buttons with speaker holes and some other crap. There were no slots or anything, so I hovered the card over the entire panel. Nothing. I continued to frantically wave the card everywhere like an Asian tourist with a camera, but was getting no results. I heard a car pull up behind me, accompanied by a quick door slam. I turned around.

    As many of you know, my hook-up career is blemished with catastrophic disasters: I’ve blown multiple threesomes; I’ve been cockblocked by rabid goalies; chicks have pissed and shat my bed; and I’ve gotten head from a girl who turned out to be a guy. The list is endless. I think I’m due for something good.

    My time had come. Walking toward me was an attractive 30-something brunette wearing a miniskirt and heels. Judging by the greasy Del Taco bag swinging gracefully from her left hand, this brown-haired beauty had just come from bars, where she had been hit on by a hefty supply of lushes and meatheads, which had led to bitching among her friends and subsequently sent her straight to the Del Taco drive-thru. Now here she was, fresh from a frustrating night in which every guy had failed her who-is-going-to-fuck-me sweepstakes, and she was walking directly into my domain: Post-two-a.m. Resident Parking Structures.

    “I can’t get this thing to work,” I barked at her.

    “Here, let me do it.” She took out the same card as mine, hovered it in a spot I had already tried (only slower and more patiently), and the door buzzed open.

    “Sweet. Thanks.”

    She smiled at me and walked around the corner and into a hallway towards Ron’s place. I followed her.

    “So who are you?”

    “Who am I? I’m Polly. Who are you?”

    “Psh. Not your name. What’s your story? Why are you getting dropped off at this hour, and why aren’t you at a post party?”

    I snuck a fart. She looked back at me, still walking. Then she smiled and said, “Went to bars with my girls, but it was getting late, and my friends were complaining.” Shocking.

    “Do you have any wine?”

    “Yes, I have wine. Why?”

    “Because I want a glass.”

    “You do, do you?”

    “Yep. Have one with me.”

    Her phone rang.

    Apparently the cab was loaded with her reject friends, who had seen me follow her inside, and then appropriately judged me as outright scum. “Hi,” Polly said into her phone. “No, everything’s fine.” Brief pause. “Yeah, he just wants a glass of wine, and then he’s going home.” She looked back at me as I followed her up the stairs in an increasingly uncreepy manner. The voice on the other line became audibly louder as Polly continued to fend off the phone goalies. “Don’t worry, everything’s fine. I’ll call you tomorrow.” Pause. “Okay, I will.” She hung up.

    We were now walking down the third floor hallway, one story above Ron’s place. Polly spoke. “Just one glass, okay? I need to get to bed.”

    “Yep, same here.”

    “Wait a minute, have you even told me your name?”

    “No, but don’t worry, I will. We have a lot to talk about.”

    She laughed. “Who the fuck are you? Do you even live here?”

    I smiled. “No, I’m staying at my friend’s place on the second floor, but he’s sleeping and I don’t want to wake him. And I need a glass of wine.”

    Polly shot me a thoughtful look, and I raised my eyebrows sarcastically back at her. She turned and unlocked her door.

    I was welcomed to her pad with a huge gust of cat litter. I watched as two of her three cats weaved between her legs; the other one sat in the corner of the living room and glared at me with fluorescent eyes, reminding me of myself at a nightclub just before my first 0-fer. 

    While Polly went to the kitchen counter to fire down her tacos, I went straight to the couch and flopped. Between bites she asked about my night and how I ended up alone at the gate. I diffused her suspicions by telling her the truth: I had gone to the club with my married friends; they wanted to leave early; I wanted to stay.

    “What’s your friend’s room number?” she asked.

    “I dunno–two something?”

    “You’re not some sort of weirdo are you?”

    “Depends how you define weirdo.”

    Polly stared at me as she worked down her last bite. Then she violently crumpled up her taco wrappers, which for some reason gave me a semi. “I mean, you don’t go lurking around people’s apartment complexes at two in the morning every Saturday night, right?”

    “No. First time.” I smiled. “And I’m hoping you aren’t one of those girls that likes white wine.”

    “Oh God no.” She turned towards the cabinet and grabbed a fat bottle. Truth is, I know nothing about wine; I only use it to get laid. You could give me a thousand-dollar glass or a two-dollar glass and I couldn’t tell the difference.

    But I made fun of her anyway. “That bottle looks cheap. What is it?”

    “It’s all I got. So stop whining.” She winked at me.

    “Nice pun. Haven’t heard that one before.”

    She laughed. “Can you open this for me?”

    Oh no. I just realized I hadn’t used one of those corkscrew things in years, maybe decades. If I couldn’t open it, she’d know I was a fraud.

    “Sure.”

    I clumsily tried to take the cork out using the top because it looked like a bottle opener; Polly gaped at me like I was a lunatic. I lost my composure, became nervous, and fumbled the bottle onto the kitchen tile where it shattered like purple vomit. “You’d better leave,” she told me.

    Just kidding. I was clutch this time. I uncorked the bottle like Casanova, and poured the velvety liquid into our glasses with stunning ease. No spill.

    We migrated to the couch. She laid down on one end, feet propped diagonally across the coffee table in my direction. I sat on the other end and petted the cat that was sniffing my pants. “One glass and you’re out of here. Got it?” she asserted.

    “Yep, that was the agreement.”

    I continued petting in silence, waiting for her to initiate things. I had done my share of question-asking; it was her turn. Finally, Polly began. “So what’s your story? Who are you and what do you do?”

    Perfect. I gave it a 95% chance that my “high school math teacher” thing would seal the deal, and I was spot on. At first she didn’t believe me. She even made me show her my Teaching Association cards I had in my wallet solely for such purposes. Then the questions started to pour in: Are you a cool teacher? Do you give a lot of homework? Do you give out detentions? What’s the worst thing a student has done? Do your girls hit on you? On and on–they were the same inquiries I always got, so I was a pro at answering them.

    As I gave my teacher spiel, I began rubbing her calf–which had made its way to the couch. After I felt I’d done enough talking, I asked her about her job, which I ignored, and then about her cats, which I listened to. After another couple minutes of chatter, I’d had enough of the small talk. I leaned over and went in for the kiss.

    She stopped me. “Um no. We’re not hooking up,” she announced. “I don’t even know you.”

    I sat back up. I guess I had to get to know her some more. “So do you have any brothers or sisters?” I asked robotically.

    She began laughing hysterically. Between her laughs, she again asked, “Who the fuck are you?” Moments later she got up and went to the bathroom.

    There was a time when I would have been angry with myself for making such a premature move, but at this point I was too intoxicated to be so calculated. That, and I already knew there was no way she was kicking me out after “one drink.” She wanted it bad tonight; I could sense it.

    When she returned to the living room, she set her quarter-filled glass of wine on the kitchen counter and started doing the dishes or something. Then she leaned against the wall and asked me the infamous I’m-going-to-fuck-you-in-T-minus-thirty-minutes question, “Okay, so I barely even know you. Seriously, though, who are you again?”

    After answering her redundant question with essentially the same response as before, I realized my glass was empty. I got up and took the glass to the sink, giving her ass a nice smack on the way back to the couch.

    “Come sit down with me,” I told her.

    “No, I think it’s time you leave now,” she said weakly, not a hint of finality in her voice.

    Instinct took over. “NO. Sit down!” I demanded. I shot her a jokingly serious face and pointed to her old seat as if I were commanding a dog.

    She appeared stupefied, gazing at me as a young girl might look at her father after getting caught in a petty lie. Then she grabbed her glass from the counter, took a long sip, and walked slowly back to the couch.

    She spent the next five minutes “getting to know me”–basically asking me again about teaching, where I lived, where I went to college, brothers and sisters, etc. After I repeated myself for the twentieth time, I made a decision that I was finished talking for the night. From this point on, either we hook up, or I go home. I leaned in for the kiss again. Success.

    She tasted like wine and tacos, but I didn’t care. I was monstrously horny; any flesh would do. “You’re not staying over,” she told me between kisses.

    “I know,” I said, kissing her neck.

    A few minutes later she got up to pee. Again? Usually it was me who did all the urinating. When she returned, I pushed her up against the wall and started making out. I put my hands up her blouse and squeezed her nipples. We were now in a mini hallway area where the rooms forked off. I noticed one room had nothing in it except newspaper all over the floor and a couple litter boxes. Her cats had their own room! “Who’s room is that?” I asked.

    “It’s nothing. Come on, let’s go to my room.”

    We entered her room only to find another cat sprawled out on her bed like a fourth grader watching cartoons. Polly picked the animal up and dumped it into the living room. I immediately took the cat’s spot on the bed. Polly returned, shut the door, and looked at me. “You’re staying over tonight.”

    Whiskey dicked but maintaining good wood, we fucked gloriously for nearly thirty minutes. She even had a moderate bush. Though I’m usually not a fan of such laziness in the form of hair, a nicely groomed forest is delightful to look at once in a while. It makes me think of rookie year of my masturbating career when I spanked it to Penthouse Letters and old Playboy mags of Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy–both with muffy mid-nineties beavers.

    I awoke the next morning a little past nine. After answering some more of Polly’s mundane questions, she made the absurd claim that I was her first one-night stand ever. I laughed at her and called her a liar, but she held her ground, stating she’d always been a one-guy kind of girl. Before leaving, she told me that I had to come over and fuck her at least one more time, so she could remove the “one-night stand” label from last night. Without asking how many two-night stands she’d had, I told her she had a deal and left.

    I usually don’t write actual success stories like this, but after my Salsa Debacle story, I got a lot of heat from my friends. “I’m sick of reading about fucking handjobs!” “Get it together, man!” “We need more fucking!” they told me–all valid points. But in light of my one-in-a-million gift from the hook-up Gods, I’d like to think things are starting to turn around. Could this be the beginning of an epic run of sane hottie after sane hottie? I sure hope so. I have a vacation to Croatia and Russia in about a month, and it would nice to ride this momentum into the European bedrooms. In the meantime, the next time I strike out at bars, you’ll know where to find me: at a parking structure near you. Picture me lurking…

  • So what were you in high school?

    So what were you in high school?

    Nirvana and Marilyn Manson patch on the white out painted backpack … you were Candace the “I don’t care” hesher girl.

    Over weight and jolly … you were Jebediah who “turned out to be gay” guy.

    Cute, but excessively shy girl with carefully hanging bangs … you were Christina the “study until I get into Harvard” girl.

    Got your girlfriend pregnant at 15 and were cool for it … you were Travis the “failed sex ed” guy.

    Exceedingly intelligent with a social problem of making every situation in life a scene from Seinfeld … you were Eric “my parents never let me play with my friends” guy.

    Came up with an acronym to represent your group of friends like TCFS crew … you were the “too cool for school” guy.

    Asian and proud of your high score at the arcade for Street fighter 12: Marvel heroes vs Jacki Chan … you were Matt the “unusually good virtual dancer who never danced with a real girl” guy.

    And on and on and on …

    So where did I fall?

    Captain of the soccer team, doubles tennis star, and vice president of the Ping-Pong club would suggest I was Brock the “never take my letterman jacket off” jock guy. But I wasn’t.

    My solid schedule of nerdy honors classes would suggest I was Melvin the “took my SATs two years early” nerd guy. But I wasn’t.

    My refusal to drink and do drugs might give you the idea that I was Johnny “don’t fuck with me I’m straight edge” guy. But I wasn’t.

    So I ask again, where did I fall in the high school social strata?

    Well ladies and gentleman, I invite you now to know, understand, and appreciate exactly what I did when I was not on the fields or courts or behind the books.

    I was a gamer.

    The key to this story is to understand that in the waning years of the 20th century, their existed a tiny gap in our technological lifespan where the communication channels of the burgeoning internet were slow and came bundled with loud modem sounds and screams of siblings telling you to get off the computer so they could use the phone. In this brief snapshot of time, I found my social circle.

    What is a LAN party?

    There was no option, to circumvent annoyingly slow modem speeds, we would have LAN parties at someone’s house. Laptops did not exist at this point. So you packed up your 32 pound monitor, three foot tall computer tower, keyboard, mouse, cables, network cable, speakers, chair, and a table and “gamed” at your buddies house.

    Speakers were frowned upon so most of us acquired 5.1 channel surround sound headsets that would loosen a vertebrate with every fatality. Imagine walking into a room with 10 glowing computer monitors, with 10 young adults staring at them and not a single sound to be heard except for rapid clicking and then without warning…

    “Ahhh FUCK YOU man, I was reloading.”

    “Dude, who took the chain gun?”

    “Eric! Stop fucking stealing all my porn! I can see you doing it!”

    “Alright guys, you ready … lets go.” And no one moves a physical muscle.

    The Early Days

    We began modestly with a core group of guys. LAN parties were simple, you showed up, plugged in, and were gaming in a matter of minutes. Organizing a party was no more than telling your parents that you were going to have a few friends over.

    For most of us, our virtual identities were established and I myself adopted l0c0luke with zeros and which I still use to this day for many online identities. Ballnchink made a name for himself early. BadKarma was never far away for that head shot. The twins of congerific and Congerking were bastards behind the Gatling gun and were always good for a good turrets blurt out. A virtually living legend was born in the form of Raven who’s blood coursed with Pepsi and was, in all forms, the comic book shop guy from the Simpsons. Dahpimpsta received some of the nastiest jewish slurs to have existed. And the godfather of them all was BuckWilder who amazed us all with his own apartment designed for gaming and a hot girlfriend.

    The times they were a good.

    The Pinnacle

    From those humble beginnings was born a wild beast that would thrash through my weekends for the next three years. Our community and momentum had grown and it was not uncommon to have a dozen or more gamers at a LAN party. But one hot and humid summer afternoon, the gaming gods aligned, and the ultimate LAN party of all time happened. My dad had access to dangerously high-powered networking equipment and a desire to watch his electric meter spin faster than anything we had seen before. We had an excess of space, tables, chairs, and most importantly, time.

    The gamers arrived. We stacked them on top of each other passing out extension cords and power strips and vague directions of where to sit. I had bunkered down in my air conditioned bedroom with a select few friends as the mayhem and noise heightened in the living room. By mid afternoon we had 24 gamers piled into the house, overflowing onto the patio, and sitting on the kitchen counters. Faces were lit bright with rocket launchers and an endless quantity of porn, music, and movies to be shared/stolen.

    The power went out several times under the weight of 5000 watts being consumed a second which was followed by howls and shrieks that would bring a chill to even the most comfortable gamer sitting in an air conditioned room on a separate power circuit.

    Despite the whining Asians I didn’t even know, and the pleas for more power, and the constant knocking for entry into the air conditioned room, and the small fortune spent on power, it was a perfect gaming day. A day that will never be repeated and a day that would bring our nerdy social circle its high watermark as we all gamed our way towards the end of an era.

    The Money

    I can remember the day clearly when I sat down at the gaming table and the guy next to me looked at my screen, and then looked at me, and then laughed as if I had just urinated in my pants while talking to a girl. I had never felt so bad and it was all because my video card was not 3D accelerated. That night my dad and I sniped an auction on EBay for a new one and it was all down hill from there. Video cards, ergonomic mice that had fans inside to keep your unnaturally sweaty palms dry, water cooled computers that gave you super abilities, headphones that caressed your scrotum while you played … if you had the money, you could kill better than your friends, and that’s all that mattered.

    The Deceit

    Clandestine alliances were formed and it became very clear in our virtual world. Did you feel betrayed when your girlfriend cheated on you? Did you feel depressed when your dog was hit by a car in front of you while it’s blood splattered on your new white shoes? Did rage engulf you when the lunch lady refused to accept pennies as a form of payment? Well all these things hold no relevance after you have just spent two days locked in your room with four other guys trying to beat a game that culminates with your “buddy”, who has been sitting to your left for these 48 hours, literally stabbing you in the back (in the game) and taking all that you had worked so hard for. My virtual avatar slumped to the ground, and my real human heart shattered. I wanted to cry. I wanted to break ball massaging mouse pads. I wanted to give up.

    The Alcohol

    Gaming is a very exact social activity. There is not much room for error when strafing around a blind corner and rocket jumping to the other side of the room and switching to your sniper rifle in mid leap to claim a headshot and then landing with your knife drawn for a bare handed kill. Well giving a bunch of pasty skin youths alcohol and then asking them to do these professional feats of assassination is simply laughable. Watching your friend stumble across a narrow bridge and drowning in the lava without turning on his force field just makes you shake your head in shame.

    I remember waking up one morning with my left cheek flat on my keyboard and only one headphone on after a particularly late night of gaming and beers. I had been firing some sort of loud weapon that was jarring my headphones for the last 5 hours. I thought I was being attacked with a large explosive on my right side for the next two days.

    The Depravity

    When Diablo 2 came out, I lost a week of my life to Beelzebub himself. I left my room only for short food breaks and soccer practice. A few of my friends never left and slept as they played in some sort of half sleep, half button clicking trance. When we had finally “won”, we all realized in a moment of depravity that indeed we had all lost, and lost significantly.

    The factions were rife and organizing a multiplayer game was practically impossible. Some people came over only to steal music and videos and porn and programs. Others came over only to use your recently installed ISDN line to play with other LAN parties around the world.

    The LAN Party was losing it’s cool and no one was fighting back nor did they want to.

    Our gaming existence would eventually become extinct and we were to be no more. The high speed Internet arrived and the need to interact with other people was less and less appealing. Many gamers chose a solitary life of independent gaming that in many cases would last for many years. Others, like myself, chose to walk away with a tip of the hat to the beast that motivated me for three years and give her a polite “Thanks, but no thanks.”

     

     

     

  • Live Blog Reading: That One Time in Highschool…

    Live Blog Reading: That One Time in Highschool…

    I am simply shocked I have survived this long. Ten years ago when people asked me “Where do you see yourself in ten years?” I would always respond with “In a wheelchair.” Alas, my days of skidding around a basketball court with a high speed wheelchair that has sharp spines sticking out of it’s wheels are still ahead of me. And to celebrate/mourn this fact, my high school is having our ten year reunion in some scabby hollywood establishment.

    Well, as we took Our Thursday, we are going to take the reunion!

    Our Thursday is proud to present “That One Time in Highschool Live Blog Reading” where we will grace you with that embarrassing story behind the bleachers and tease you with a lengthy description of how short Cindy Lou’s skirt was that memorable day. Unlike the high school reunion, we will not be charging a cover and all we ask is for you to bring your memory of days long past and share with us a great night of story telling.

    When? June 17th, 2011. Story time will begin at 9pm but we encourage, nay, expect you, to arrive earlier to share some laughs.

    Where? My house in Simi Valley at the top of the hill. Email [email protected] for directions.

    The punch will be spiked, and the snacks might stay in your system for 12 – 16 hours. We encourage you to bring food and drink. We will provide the rest.

    Sign up at the facebook event page!

    LIVE WEBCAM OF THE EVENT

  • The Greatest Drinking Game of All Time

    The Greatest Drinking Game of All Time

    Disclaimer: My friends and I know The Greatest Drinking Game of All Time.  If played correctly and passionately, it has the power to change the world.  If played incorrectly, it can end friendships and land someone in the hospital.  I understand the bolditude of such claims out of context.  So here’s some context.

    Random Plug: If you would like to see the uncut, extended version of this story performed live, please check here and it might work out.

    My favorite holiday is Halloween.  There are a lot of reasons why.  One reason is that it’s the only mainstream Pagan ritual which has not been claimed by Christianity.   Easter and Christmas rolled over like France and Poland.  But something about Halloween has kept it from conversion…

    So with that in mind, on 10/31/2010, Doc and I arrived at Chef’s house just inside San Diego territory.  From his 10th floor apartment, I could see a huge life insurance to our right and a massive Mormon cathedral to our left.  We were deep inside enemy territory.

    But we were in disguise.  Kind of.  Doc was dressed as A Creepy Abstraction of Recurrent Mischief, aka The Cat in the Hat.  I was dressed as the narrator from Fight Club.  If you know either of us, then you understand that neither of our costumes were much of a stretch.

    Best costume award went to Chef, however.

    The 364 other days of the year, Chef would be an excellent candidate for President of the United States.  He has always been diplomatic, to put it one way.  He carries a certain respectability and class in public situations, as if he truly took to heart the parental advice of when you go out in public, you represent your family, your country, and your faith. His maturity and intelligence would be exhausting if not for the fact that his friends and loved ones know that deep down inside of Chef lies a hilarious, reckless, possibly-racist 12 year old pulling a few levers.

    And on this Hallowed night, the inside was the outside.

    Chef was dressed as “Green Man”, an all-encompassing body suit of green which shrinkwrap-hid all his features… gave him the ability to chroma-key into any situation… a codpiece was inserted in order to exacerbate his pelvic region.  Every five minutes or so, Green Man would pour a shot of whiskey over his green veil, slurp up whatever dribbled through, and then scream something horrifically racist or obscene… but he would always add, at the end, an intelligent and bold declaration of justification:

    “ANONYMITY!”

    Yes, all of our core ideals were on display that night, underlined and bolded in 28 point font.  We were hoisting our insanities and ideals high above our heads, waving our dirty underwear as humongous flags.  We did this because it’s the one holiday where it’s acceptable.  We did this because we were drinking whiskey and wearing costumes.

    All three of us were vibing very well.

    I decided to spruce up my costume, so I went to the kitchen and tried to draw some real blood to smear on my white shirt.  Authenticity!  I picked up a steak knife from the filthy sink and started stabbing at my fingertips.  Apparently, that was not the best way to go… overall result was that my shirt looked like I’d swiped at it with a red ballpoint pen and nothing more.

    Chef came in and, immediately understanding the situation, took the knife from me and started stabbing at his green palm frantically.  He looked like a bloodhungry zombie woodpecker.  He would fling whatever liquid he harvested.  My shirt was improving, slowly.

    The Cat in the Hat stomped in yelling

    “I’LL SHOW YOU HOW TO GET BLOOD!”

    And ripped the knife away from Green Man.  Doc put his left hand (paw?) face up on the counter and then slam dunk stabbed the knife down with his right hand.  He held up the wound and squeezed it till it sprayed like a poked water balloon all over my now-Jackson-Pollack blood-splattered shirt.

    We all stared at my shirt in satisfaction and then shook hands.

    It dawned on us we had just made a blood pact.  But there was no reason.  We all stared at each other, and then I yelled

    “SOLIDARITY!”

    And that was good enough.  The knife went right back into the sink, unrinsed.

    The poor girls who showed up just then for the pre-party were literally speechless.  Abhorred.  Frozen, staring at a bleeding Cat in the Hat, a racistly drunk Green Man, and a blood covered narrator.

    “COME ON IN, LADIES!”

    The women were dressed as the characters from some X-rated version of Alice in Wonderland.  The Queen of Hearts, Alice, and The Rabbit… all wearing lingerie.  The rabbit stepped through the door and immediately dropped a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.  She yelled out for someone to get paper towels and a broom.  I returned her request with a blank stare.  Because as that glass bottle shattered, all I could imagine was how many inhibitions were now going to exist, inhibitions which could have otherwise been neutralized, or at least delayed, for several hours.

    All I could say was,

    Who can think about a mess on the floor at a time like this?

    Unfortunately, The Cat in the Hat was really starting to bleed all over himself as a result of his severe stab wound.  To fix the situation, Chef handed him a Dracula cape.  Once The Cat tied the cape around his neck… we all saw the perfection.  He had transformed into a bloodhungry Childhood Memory…

    The Queen of Hearts stupidly interrupted and asked why we didn’t wrap the wound with the cape:

    “WHAT’S THAT GONNA DO?”

    So I tried to explain.

    We must work with our mess, not clean it up!  We refuse to lie to ourselves!  We do not fear or hide our flaws!  We are imperfect and proud to be!  All things are part of the grand design!

    “SOLIDARITY!”

    Chef screamed, a hallelujah chorus, his green veil dripping with whiskey.

    And one unforeseen advantage of the Dracula cape was that it gave Doc the perfect exit to any situation.  For example, about five minutes after putting on the cape, there was an awkward silence, and The Cat in the Hat said

    “I had a nightmare… Fabio died in his sleep… no one was concerned.”

    Eyes bugged out.  A dog barked somewhere.  The silence grew.  No one realized he had offered a haiku.

    So the Cat lifted one side of his cape, twirled around, and shouted

    “CAPE TWIST!”

    As he scampered out of sight… the perfect exit.

    The girls were all extremely nervous from the blood and the cape twists and the anonymity, so we broke out the hard alcohol.  They wanted to play Kings Cup.  We wanted to play our drinking game.

    Our drinking game is, I think, genius.

    Everyone has a drink of their own.  In addition, there is a shotglass and a bottle of hard alcohol in front of whoever’s turn it is.  When it’s your turn, you say a fault about yourself.  Make it good.  Then some or all of the crowd responds with either a cry of BULLSHIT or a cheer of HOORAY.  If someone calls bullshit on you, you take a shot and try another fault.  If you get a HOORAY, then others sip their drinks in your honor and you pass the bottle.

    The game always starts really tough.  People give lame faults that sound like they’re applying for a job.  I’m a perfectionist… I try to control things… I think I’m too skinny… But after a few BULLSHITS people loosen up and you really begin to see the cracks.  I’m afraid of  telling the truth about myself… I feel alone all the time even when I’m with friends but I never truly reach out to someone else… And a few more bullshits, a few more shots later, and the game really begins to spotlight some tragically human confessions.

    Reproducing those confessions here would be uncouth and go against the spirit of the game.   Some people have cried in realization or guilt.  Most people have gotten frustrated and angry.  But in the end, shot after shot, fault after fault, everyone finds some solidarity.  Everyone remembers it’s okay to admit to what you really are and okay to admit to being wrong.  Everyone feels pretty weirdgood.  It’s a beautiful game.  And everyone gets really drunk.

    The game is called “We’re All Fucked Up.”

    That night, the game went splendidly.  A few dozen faults came and went.  We were all good and liquored up… a real team with bonds thicker than blood… and we prepared to unleash ourselves upon the Pagan world.

    As we made our way down the street looking for a cab, we made a few stops.  Alice puked on the sidewalk.  The Rabbit, high as a kite on acid and whiskey, gurgled and fell into a bush.  Chef was leaned up against a random garage door, his green hand up the skirt of a smiling Queen of Hearts.  I was piggy back riding on Doc’s shoulders as he tried to run full speed through the middle of the street.  We hit a speed bump or something and collapsed in a heap of laughter and blood and costumes.

    A woman on the other side of the street barked out her window:  what the hell is wrong with all you kids?

    The Rabbit laughed:

    WE’RE ALL FUCKED UP

    Chef screamed:

    ANONYMITY

    I ripped off my bloody shirt:

    SOLIDARITY

    And as the women went to call the cops

    Doc yelled:

    CAPE TWIST

    And we twirled right on out of there.