Rich's Birthday

This weekend was Rich's birthday, which meant drinking. Lots of drinking. Every year we go to Kai Osaka, a Japanese hibachi restaurant. Grace didn't particularly care for the chef calling her "Lovebucket," especially when he was calling Lucy "Gorgeous." I think she was also put out that Rich would not dance with her the night before at the Warehouse, but he did dance with Wayland. I tend to agree with her, but for another reason--people can get hurt when Rich and Wayland dance.

Following dinner we went to a party at Kim's house, who was also celebrating her birthday. Kim's best friend was Nicole, who used to organize with us during out Student Government days. Nicole moved to Chicago last August, and is trying to get Kim to join her up there. I am opposed to any more people leaving Tallahassee, but they just don't listen to me.

On the way over, Allen and Cindy showed me the house they were interested in buying. Once I saw the picnic table in the back yard, I liked it immediately. When Allen and I lived at KAOS, he could always be relied upon to get drunk and dance on the picnic table he had stolen from a Hardee's that went out of business. Table surfing, he called it. The picnic table is another KAOS relic that was destroyed a few years ago. It finally collapsed under the weight of seven or eight sorority girls. We tried rebuilding it, but ten years of table surfing with nothing but dried beer to keep it together was too much. It did not last long at the hands of the frat boys, and the landlord told me he had bought a new one a few months after we left.

It's odd, but hearing that someone actually bought furniture for KAOS seems to insult the spirit of the place. Allen lives what Cindy calls a depression era lifestyle, and got what furniture he needed off of curbsides. One of our later roommates bought a couch, even though I tried to explain how sacrilegious it was. Although I don't get my furniture off the road, I have accumulated a collection by helping friends move and relieving them of articles they no longer need or could not take with them. I have John's old futon, Allen's desk and bookshelves, Jeanne's TV stand, Susan's chair and love seat, and a chest of drawers that had belonged to Joe Traina. Total expenditure for fifteen years in Tallahassee--$5. I like to think my grandfather would be proud of that.