Week Thirty-Two: Aaron and Nell

I will admit, I was in somewhat of a funk recently. Like my end of March, depression beard funk. I've been spreading myself thin at work, especially caring too much about how business goes on a daily basis at my shop. I've been going way too hard with music, both creating and promoting it. I badly needed some balance. Luckily, my unofficial spiritual adviser from the past was about to reemerge. This week, Erica and I welcomed my buddy from high school Aaron Harris and his lovely girlfriend Nell.



Aaron is an extremely talented artist. In high school, it was drawing. Later in life, he picked up the brush and has developed into a rather incredible painter. I purchased several pieces from him, a few of them are hanging in my bedroom currently. There was one piece, however, the large painting I am holding up in Week 22's picture for Joe and Christina's date, that we couldn't find a suitable place to hang up in Tune Castle. Erica calls it "the boner painting" because one of the gentlemen riding on a jet ski clearly has an erection. We allowed Aaron to reclaim the boner painting.

The only possible place for the boner to go, was of course, the giant gaping hole above our dining table. That void was finally filled prior to Aaron's visit, when Erica and I decided and agree upon hanging a framed woven-bark tapestry. The frame matched our table, the tapestry matched our cushions, and the the size was perfect. So Aaron and Nell were the first couple to see an almost fully decorated living/dining room.



Aaron has always been ahead of the curve, stylistically and trend-wise. He always had the music that was about to be popular but wasn't yet. He caught onto stuff early, in art or fashion, before other people. He isn't a hipster, because hipsters are phony bandwagon hoppers. He is legitimately ahead of the game. So it was no surprise to me that he pulled off an ever fabled DOUBLE MATCH. He arrived wearing a sweater that matched Nell's top. He removed it to reveal a button up shirt that was nearly identical to mine. He had done it! Successfully matching outfits with two members of a double date. Well done, Aaron, well done.



Now, typically, I would dive deeper into some backstory. But, the vast majority of our date ending up being backstory! A few bottles of wine into it and we were getting all nostalgic. We ended up recanting every good memory we could recall. So I will get to that all in a moment, but first, the food.

Aaron is a vegetarian by philosophy. He does not support the murder of animals. My secret bleeding heart agrees with him but I don't possess the willpower he has to bring my thoughts into action. So I needed to cook a meal with no meat for the second time on a date. I decided to roll with Spinach and Artichoke Heart Lasagna.



Ingredients list was simple:
-lasagna noodles
-veggie stock
-spinach
-artichoke hearts
-tomato paste
-chopped onion
-garlic
-mozzarella
-crumbled feta

Turns out lasagna is the easiest thing on the planet to cook. I just chopped the white onion, tossed it in a skillet, cut up four cloves of garlic, added it to the mix, poured in some veggie stock, added tomato paste and chopped spinach. Placed the mixture over the noodles in a baking pan in layers, adding the mozzarella over it, more noddles, making a stack, then topped with feta. Popped it in the oven. Easy.

On the side we served some boiled broccoli with lemon and fresh fruit. The meal was decent. The top noddle over cooked during the baking process, but the flavors were there. We capped the dinner with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and chocolate fudge. It was all pretty decent, but not my best showing at the rodeo.



I am notorious in my circle of friends for having over-documented high school. I literally have two trunks full of pictures. They just sit around in my garage, waiting for old friends to bait me into taking them out. Aaron, an old friend, did just that.

The photos revealed some tragic realities of my high school experience. No matter how you spin it, I wore bright red gloves and black cowboy hat with a red feather to prom. That is just a fact. I'm not sure what universe I actually pull that off in. So now, 12 years after the incident, I can fully see what an amazing tool I looked like at the time. (And I am typing this blog wearing a t-shirt with 9 cats on it... the more things change?)

I didn't fare any better as our search through the trunk continued. Harris found an old Creative Arts publication I used to put out with Riana's (Week 9) father Tom. Every single poem I wrote was about the same girl who dumped me the year before. He read every single poem I wrote out loud to my wife and Nell. At that point, I knew there was only way to level the playing field...

I have video. When we were 16, our friend Blair procured a video camera. I took the tape to a transfer place (it was VHS back in 1998) and made it into a DVD. The video shows a bleached blonde Harris (as well as a bleached blonde ME) skanking to Sublime, dancing around in a living room in boxer shorts and screaming into a traffic cone. It was clear... we were AWESOME in high school. It was also the end to a great evening. Erica and I went up stairs, and Nell and Aaron crashed in Aaron Greene's bed (both roommates were out for the night).

Nell and Aaron sneaked away in the morning and went to the Green Lake PCC. They picked up some eggs, veggies and spinach, cleaned up our kitchen and started cooking us breakfast. For the first time in 52DD, Erica and I woke up to somebody cooking for us.



All and all I would say things have turned around for me this week. The car troubles turned into a trade-in and new vehicle. My mood is back to pleasant, which is better than average for me. And I have a lot to look forward to on the horizon. Specifically this week: a visit from my musical ex-boyfriend Ian and his current girlfriend Minta. Stay TUNED.