Ah, the new year of 2004. It was at this point a year ago I had intended on disembarking from the city to go on our trek of the land with young Ingrid. From all this nostalgia has set in as the days pass through this month and I recall all that’s happened over the year. Quite a few times I’ve had the urging to call Ingrid and say a friendly hello, but given the situation of having more or less kicked her off the walk I figure its probably best I leave it all alone.
So the New Year celebrations we had were enjoyable down in ole Texas, and the next morning Katy, Bubba and I went out to breakfast then set me on a bus heading back to Denver for work the next day. On that next day I was greatly anticipating a quiet, nice, snuggly evening with Laura after work. The plan was for her to join me at the shop as I closed it up then we’d cozy in for the night at my place. This did not come to fruition. Late in the day I received word she wasn’t coming with the only explanation of sad confusion. Over the next few days I was to discover she no longer wanted to spend as much time with me in fear that she’d be crushed and hurt when I left. So another era came to an end.
All of this made for a month of mania. High highs and low lows. I began, somewhat, to date again but with a strange motive in mind. What I sought was simply a girl I could curl up in front of a movie with and have adventures with through out the day, and so I found Angie. Angie pretty much reminds me of a 1920’s flapper girl in the way she does her hair, dresses, and talks. I’m convinced we could start a speak easy and roll in the dough with her as the hostess and me in a snazzy pin striped zoot suit. She and I roll around the evenings and have a grand ole time in high spirits despite our manias on all the other days.
Half way through the month, after some emailing between Laura and I, we decided to meet up again in Boulder. It was a good time talking and hanging out, but by the nights end it certainly seemed like we’d be right back where we started if we continued outings such as these. The situation reminded me some what of one of my favorite movies, Happy Together. Its about a couple who are tremendously connected and keep coming back to one another, but every time, in very little time, their individual lifestyles tear the relationship to pieces.
I also discovered a new gang of friends. I had another run in with young walking Julie of back in October who at one point was going to join me when I shove off in May. She has a gang of friend that play board games every Friday night, craft nights on Tuesdays, and so on so I tagged along to one of the game nights and hit it off with everyone. Oddly enough I haven’t seen much of Julie still, but now I have a group of folks from her friends as well as ole Mel who get together every week and do some gaming. Perhaps the next step is arranging for weekly dinner parties as we had back in New York.
So this was my mania over the month, high times with Angie and the new group of friends, low times remembering the high times with Ingrid and Laura. In the last week of the month, though, I took ill with the flu. I thought it was a cold that was going around, but folks insist it was the flu since I had no energy and was running a temperature I refused to have gauged. This was the week of tea, honey, and oranges as well as the Band of Brothers series borrowed from the library.
By the end of the week I was feeling a bit better and I’d remembered I had a photo show in February at my shop so Angie drove me around to get frames for the pictures. We were both out of it from our individual problems as we traversed the towns and as we did so we decided we needed a vacation. Once that was decided Angie remembered a friend who could hook me up with frames for cheap so with that we set it up then took to the mountains for a hot tub vacation.
The hot tub was precisely what the doctor ordered. All our troubles flew away with the steam as we relaxed for the hour and a half we couldn’t afford. When we left we went up to Black Hawk, a gambling town up the road, for some free hot dogs and hot chocolate in the casinos. Once we were there Angie cashed in an old card from one of the casinos we were at for $28 which we decided to blow on the video poker. Blow we did. With it she won $250, some of which she gave me to gamble with. With that I won $200 which I paid her back the loan then went to a slot machined and with the first two pulls of the bar won $160 each time. We were sittin’ pretty having a grand ole time. While all this was happening our spirits were soaring so we even gave some money out to people sitting next to us if they were bummin’. We left at the end of the night with about $350 more than we came in with.
So such was January. That night at the casinos brought back the spirit I had on the walk and hope to resume when I set off again in May. The idea that we went in there without a care knowing full well that we could come out of there even more broke than ever but basically seeking a good time. When we left we prospered like kings and queens which in my opinion was due to the attitude of not letting anything get us down. We shall see what comes of February. Perhaps another adventure or two, perhaps another twist and turn in the events of life. Only time shall tell.