Random Memories About Some of My Boys: The West Coast Edition

Random Memories About Some of My Boys: The West Coast Edition

I just got really, really homesick. I was making breakfast and dancing around, when Jocelyn Enriquez's "Do You Miss Me" came on the playlist. Naturally, I had to drop everything and do the Filipino cha-cha right in the middle of my kitchen, as if I was back in college, clubbing in San Francisco with like 200 of my friends.

It's not that I pine for the actual state of California, but rather that I miss my family and friends. If I could magically disrupt their lives and move them all to New Jersey... well, I wouldn't. New Jersey is an acquired taste. But the thought is nice.

Anyway, here are some random memories of my friends in Cali:

Jon-Jon, John and Eric(L-R) flew out to the East Coast for my first wedding in 1999. They stayed a couple of nights at a hotel in Midtown, then spent the remainder of their trip at my aunt's house in Queens. The night they flew back to San Jose, I got a phone call from Eric. When he dropped Jon-Jon off at home, he carried a duffel bag to the door for him. Jon-Jon said "That's not my bag" and Eric replied "Well it's not mine and John said it wasn't his." So they opened it and found 13 pairs of women's shoes. Mind you, they picked this bag up from the carousel when they arrived in New York, brought it to the hotel, then to my aunt's house, then back to California. The entire time, each one was thinking "Fuck so-and-so, we're only here for a few days and they brought all this luggage."

Eric and I also once flooded one of the dorm apartments because we were drunkenly dragging people into the shower, fully clothed.

One of my best friends in college Wes (left in the pic) and I used to take random road trips where we'd think of a random letter and number like "G9" then go look it up in the Thomas Guide and go wherever the place was. One such winter Friday, we ended up at Yosemite National Park with a change of clothes each, a carton of Marlboro Menthol Lights (my brand) a carton of Marlboro Lights (his brand), two bottles of Absolut and a deck of cards. The next morning, down about 10 packs of smokes and 2 bottles of Absolut, he dragged my hungover ass out to go hiking. Four hours later, we made it to the top of the mountain, but I'd thrown up about eight times along the way. On the way down we slid down some muddy rock face super fast, then he made me cross a log over a river so he could take a picture. Worst sobriety test ever.

I look like Lily Tomlin in The Incredible Shrinking Woman.

Mike J (a different one) taught me how to cha-cha, one drunken Tuesday afternoon after pulling me out of "Oceanography" class. I was sitting there, feeling proud of myself for finally making it to a class when he sticks his head in and waves a bottle of Absolut. I tried to shake my head and send him away but my legs had already lifted my ass off the seat. He taught me to cha-cha using my cassette single of Erasure's "Always" and to this day bitches every so often "I can't believe I taught you to cha-cha to that gay ass song." Like teaching someone how to cha-cha requires a more stereotypically masculine musical score.

In college, my "high school sweetheart" Gerald and I once smoked at a party on Newport Island, which was later broken up by cops. Being paranoid as a result of the um, herbal essences, instead of leaving with the crowd we hid in a bedroom closet with about 8 other people (who were hiding because they were underage and drunk). Once the cops cleared the place, we snuck out through the garage door and crouched in some bushes until we could get to his truck undetected.

Ant (another of my best friends in college) and I used to go to restaurants and try to sing our orders, set to the score of Les Mis songs. But we always busted out laughing and could never get the whole order out. As in, (sung to the tune of the line "Life without Cosette means nothing at all, would you weep, Cosette, should Marius fall...") "I would like a cheeseburger please on this plate, and perhaps, a Coke, to wash down the taste.."

Mike J (Mr. Erasure), Ben, Chris, Dean and I once played the drinking game "I Never" at my dorm and SOMEONE was buzzed in record time, because SOMEONE ELSE kept saying things like "I never carried around naked pictures of my ex-girlfriend, then got busted when my current girlfriend found them" and "I never got caught having sex by my grandma when I was 13." SOMEONE ELSE is a real punkass to play "I Never" with, apparently. Two OTHER people got caught when Dean said "I never spanked anyone in bed." All I can tell you is that I wasn't one of them. Freaks.