East Coast Trip: Part 3. The Andy Wright Experience?

East Coast Trip: The Andy Wright Experience

Friday August 8th.

Michelle and I walked back into her apartment around 9 PM. She was sleepy and I was like what are we going to do? She didn’t know, maybe we’ll just chill out and do nothing. Lounge around the couch. Maybe watch some of the Olympics.

So I get my sleepy mode on. I sit down to check my email. Michelle looks at some stuff. About 15 minutes later:

Michelle – Hey, you know we’re in D.C. and it’s Friday night, shouldn’t we go out and have like one drink.

Will - … (really?)
Michelle – Come on. Don’t be old. You’re not thirty yet!

Will – Did Andy Wright tell you to come out?

Michelle – Yeah, he just texted me.

Will – And he wants us to meet him somewhere?

Michelle – Well, no, not exactly, but he’s at this bar on U Street.

Will – Fine, give me fives minute.

I went into her room, closed the door, and lay down on the floor mat. I needed a moment to restart my computer, in my brain.

But first let me back it up a few hours.

Friday Morning:

Mike and I went to Dunkin Donuts and did a little talking. Talking about the future, talking about doing another ski trip. (I always forget to ask Mike for money from the last one.)

Then Mike took me to the metro station and I was on my way into Washington D.C., one of my favorite places! You know there is a lot going on there, but I swear I never see a lot of people, like I usually do in New York, when I feel swarmed around.

I was reading “Understanding Comics” which is kind of a breakdown of what Comics are and where they come from, and also an argument for it’s consideration as an art form (which it is, I mean really think about it, all the bad, cheeseball comics there are, there are just as many bad paintings or television shows.) But this book was really cool, because it was drawn and told like a comic book, which makes it really easy to understand, and from a visual and storytelling standpoint, it’s really the only way to do it. And it made me feel a lot better about all the comic books I read as a youngling, although really I did for the entertainment/escape value and not art, but hey, no one needs to know that, really.

You get a lot of reading done on the metro.

I arrived at my stop and lugged all my luggage up onto the street. Every time I go back to North Carolina, I always think about how great it would be if I took some of my books back with me, and since I had a little bag space, I was like hey, why not. And then I realized I added about 40 pounds to all my bags. Good thing my book bag can hold a lot of books.

A few minutes later, Michelle drove up and picked me up off the street corner like a, well you know what. (See earlier blog entry for accidental prostitute story.)

Of all my friends, I think Michelle and my relationship is the most familial, brother and sisterly. It’s always important to meet her boyfriends, not to just give them my stamp of approval, but to see if they are treating Michelle well, and see how she’s treating herself. (I’m sure she would do the same for me.) Now I won’t go into the history of Michelle’s boyfriends here on the blog, but I will just say that when Michelle is dating someone they are a very important part of her life. So, I was excited to meet Mr. Andy Wright, her latest boyfriend and I was going to be the last, because everyone else had met the chap. And to be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to make of this guy, because everyone who had met him talked about how he was such a stand up guy. Really stand up guy. Could Andy Wright be as awesome as he was advertised. I wouldn’t find out for hours, because we had the whole day to hang out first.

First order of business, brunch! Hell yeah mofos! I love Brunch with a passion! In fact, I love brunch so much that I’m planning a Brunch Club and accepting applications right now. Well, we went to “The Diner” in a part of town called Adams Morgan, which I have many fond memories of, from my late teens, early twenties, particularly the Coffee Shop “Tryst” which just so happens to be right next to “The Diner.”

Now, I’m not sure if you’ve all met Michelle, but this girl is popular, which isn’t quite the word, maybe “magnet for good feelings and friendliness”. For example, we we’re just chilling, eating, you know and suddenly some guy walks up and is like Michelle, and she does the whole Cheek Kiss with this friend of hers, and I’m like, typical, and they do a little chit chatting before he goes back to his table. It’s like this with her everywhere. You could be in some café in the middle of nowhere and the guy that might have helped her pick out some fruit at the local vegetable store two days ago might walk up and be like “Ah, Michelle! You are so beautiful, let us Cheek Kiss and chit chat for a few moments before we go on with our lives!”

After brunch, we went off in search for a shirt that I might wear to my reunion. And then we ran around the National Gallery of Art, which is phenomenal, and I got to visit my favorite series of paintings; The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole. I like to see where I fit in every few years. Am I still reaching for the White Castle in the sky or am I maneuvering the rough rapids of adulthood? Depends on the day and the hour.

Afterwards we got to watch Jazz on the Fountain or in the garden, and down a pitcher of Sangria, which was quite good, but I started to get dizzy from the lack of food, so we went on over to this Bookstore Restaurant, which was awesome! (PS. I’m currently on a flight to Singapore, and it’s been over a month since the events took place, so my memory of particular names of places is a little skew.)

And no experience with Michelle is complete until you’ve spent some time watching street performers, this time they were breakdancers and they were quite good.

So we get back to her place and we’re chilling and we’re watching the Olympics and then Andy Wright texts. And here we go…

So an hour later we’re standing in line at this bar/club on U street, and there is a bouncer with a Mister T Mohawk and cowboy boots, and there is the annoying group of people in front of us who can’t make up their damn minds about whether they want to wait, and they start getting snippy with Mohawk Bouncer guy.

15 minutes later we’re inside and I’m walking through the bar meet Andy Wright. All I know about this guy is that he’s tall, white, and has a red beard, I mean what does that even mean. And then I meet him, and he’s tall, and has a reddish beard, and he looks really young, and he looks really nice, and he is REALLY REALLY WHITE. LIKE REALLY WHITE. Which is really funny. I mean I thought DAVE was WHITE. But this guy is super white. And it dawned on me that Rachel was right, this was the kind of guy that she might date. Not that she would ever try to Shark Andy Wright. I mean he absolutely adores Michelles, and seems to be doing pretty cool work as this company that provides first run, ie not used, books to young underprivileged children in the states. He may so put together that I had very little to talk to him about.

We all have a drink and I take Andy and Michelle to their PATHETIC dance floor. I mean it looked like Dwight Schroot was the DJ, and that lasted about 10 minutes, although I always think it’s amazing that when people get really drunk they just stop caring about beats and so if there is music without beats their almost in the perfect place. And you know it’s also funny to see men deal with the fact that when their women are trashed, they like to get freaky and dance up on everyone. It’s interesting watching their boyfriends, they get this look, and its that here we go again look, and then mixed in with their particular reaction, whether that’s resigned, aggressive, or amused.

After the failed dance expirement, we went back to the bar area, and for the next hour, I almost exclusively talked to this girl Zanna.

Let’s chat about Zanna. She was tallish, red headed, freckly, and really beautiful, I think she was like 35. And we hit it off almost instantly. I think we have the same sense of sarcastic humor. The whole, lets push sarcasm and truth to ridiculous levels and see how people react and how fun it can get. Anyway, she was kind of avoiding this massive bouncer named “MOSES”. She had been drunk a few times and he had kissed her a few times and now Moses wanted to go out with her, which can only mean one thing, and I’m not talking about a relationship

Anyway, I gleamed some things off my conversation with Zanna also known as Suzanna Gilbert, it’s kind of like Teal said, and everybody else said, that money and security really do matter to women when looking for someone. This Zanna girl was like 32 maybe and she was now looking for a man from like 35 to 45, okay looking and he needs to make over 150,000 a year, and she’s having a really hard time finding that. Anyway, it was just interesting to see a Woman talk about not looking for love, or a good companion/partner, or sex; she really just wanted security. Crazy, but I guess that’s what happens when you’re 32 and still single. Since most of my female friends are not either, I can’t really ask them for advice, but you know their probably already in love, so their just going to have to deal with how much their beloveds make.

We went back to Michelle’s place. Took a decent length nap and it was time for BRUNCH again. Oh My God, have I mentioned that I love brunch!