With a cold that has lasted over three weeks, I gathered my strength to prepare our home for invasion by the scariest type of party animal: a Gomez. A Gomez is not something to mess with. A Gomez is the Wu-Tang Clan of party animals. Be it rain or shine, a Gomez is there to have a good time.
Little did I know, my foul mood was about to be lifted by a visit from my longtime close friend Matthew Gomez and his gorgeous lady Devon.
Gomez and I met way back in 2002, while he was attending auto-mechanic school in Phoenix Arizona with Jancsi (Week Two) and Aaron Greene (Week Four). We clicked immediately and he came up with Aaron to live in Colorado with me for a summer, in what may have been the original "shithole." My mom found a condom in our toaster at that shithole. Wow, that was a sentence.
Anyways, we've been in touch since, and we both ended up back in Seattle in 2004, in a house (shithole) with Jancsi and Aaron. Blah blah blah, we know each other. We're tight. Fast forward to present day. The current hell I was in stemmed from several factors, one of the major ones being that I wasn't fully moved out of my old rental house in Greenwood. The landlords were harassing us about getting all our stuff out and cleaning the place, despite the fact we are paid up to the end of February. Being sick, I had procrastinated any hard labor and of course ignored the landlord's phone calls. So they had been stopping by the old house unannounced to continually check if we were gone and it was clean. This is not under contract as a legal thing to do in WA State, by the way. (A landlord coming to a rental property without formal notice, keep that in mind!)
Gomez had asked if he could use our empty rooms for a stop animation photography music video he wanted to make for Valentine's Day. Which is today, and here is that video:
As you can see, it is a very heartwarming video and clearly looks like it contains no intent of harm or evildoing. However, the landlords, who stopped by unannounced to checkup on their property, were very angry to find out we were allowing video taping to occur in the space we have paid for. This was so annoying to me, that I still have not cleaned the old house. Lucky for Gomez and his crew, I stopped by unannounced on my way home from work shortly after the landlord arrived, and assured him I had authorized use of the house and that I was helping. So you will see my name in the credits, because I helped as he awkwardly stuck around to supervise. I'm pretty sure he thought we might be filming pornography.
That Meet The Parents situation was on the Tuesday before our double date. And the rest of the week was going about the same: I had just learned my favorite co-worker might be getting transferred to another store, I was unable to track vocals at my Undercaste Studio session because of my sinus condition, my wife and I just learned we have a $3,000 plumbing issue, and more. It was a rough week. The small clash with the former landlord was just an uncomfortable blip on the radar.
Nonetheless, I was excited for some relaxation time and to get to know Devon better. If Devon can put up with a Gomez and his crew of scoundrels, she must be quite a lady. And I could tell I was right about that because she told us her favorite food was Mac and Cheese! As a rule, for future double daters, the visiting lady will get to choose both the main course and beverage. Her beverage choice was a clear liquor drink that involves use of a cucumber. Strange, but an interesting challenge. For the macaroni and cheese I spent hours and hours laboring away, shredding various exotic cheeses, boiling penne pasta, baking the cheese and the soft pasta together, utterly slaving away in the kitchen.
Or I just purchased some Beecher's "World's Best" Macaroni and Cheese and popped it in the oven. Yeah, I did that. Sorry, sometimes we won't be doing things from scratch here at 52DD. And quite frankly, half of y'all will just be getting a delivered pizza and a twelve pack of PBR, okay?
To accompany the pasta, I boiled up some broccoli and heated some bread to dip in olive oil. The drink was what I had to do my homework on. I stumbled upon a recipe by convicted felon Martha Stewart, which was vodka, cointreau, muddled mint, fresh lime juice, ice and a sliced English cucumber as a garnish. Nothing fancy, but if it's good enough for a prisoner, it's good enough for a Gomez.
Conversation was upbeat and lively. Devon had just finished her work week and was ready to let loose. Gomez had taken a night off from his post at Lock and Keel in Ballard, and was equally as stoked and ready to go. I have known Gomez was a lot of fun for awhile, but Devon turned out to be as well. She is very well put together and often has insightful things to say.
We chatted away and did some Table Topics questions, and as the hours passed, we realized we could catch our good friend Griff J's show down in Fremont. Griff is the mastermind behind the camera on the Man Crush video Gomez and I starred in (see Week Five) as well as many other cult-classics in the indie rap scene, including My Girlfriend Beats Me (co-starring Ben from Week One):
We got to the White Rabbit in time for Griff's set, during which I apparently decided to stand on stage for part of. I also had to purchase a few shots for gentlemen that Gomez and I had bumped into while "freak dancing" with each other, both actions of which they found offensive. I was also escorted out after falling over too often. That Martha Stewart really knows how to make 'em!
Gomez and Devon win the award for being First Couple to Spend the Night, a prestigious award for sure. As another note to future double daters, we do have a private guestroom with a queen sized bed and clean sheets. It is your's for the night and we would rather have you stay than anybody get a DUI! So kudos to them for breaking that barrier. Gomez, of course, lived up to the hype and brought the party.
Still fighting this evil illness, Erica and I are cleaning up the house and preparing for a Thursday night dinner with her longtime friend Chris and his girlfriend Eileen. My band Worst Animal will be playing the Nectar Lounge this Friday the 17th, so we could no do our usual Friday spot. But if you're looking to lock down your slot at 52DD, this Friday at Nectar would be a great time for us to chat about it, would it not?
Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day! If you don't have someone special in your life, don't worry, I'm sure you'll find someone before the year is over. If not for any other reason, to get a free dinner at my house.
(*)"The darkness" is a period of time where I become depressed, grumpy, and as a result, grow a beard and get fat.
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