Today’s soundtrack: Between the superheroes, and the electric blanket is warm
Today at 11:52pm: Cursing the DJ.


I e-mailed both of the Japanese girls from the other night. The one I thought was interested didn’t respond, and vice-versa.

The girl who did respond, Megumi, invited me to come by the bar Saturday night ‘cause she’d be working.

At 11pm I’m in the car, reversing for half a block on Hudson Street (to snag a bypassed parking space). It’s Annie’s birthday and I’m in the car with Shady, Annie, San Francisco Irene and their friend Mike Q.

At the door of Groove Jet we get to skip the velvet rope nonsense ‘cause Annie’s the birthday girl. Inside it’s the typical scene: Dim lighting, mediocre hip hop, too many bodies. I peel off from the group and nurse my Tanq & Tonic while holding up the wall.

A black guy starts talking to me and introduces me to his white girlfriend and I’m thinking, the fuck’s up with this. Maybe they’re looking for some freaky-ass three-way Benetton-ad action. I shoot the shit with them but keep a wall up, because I don’t really need an asshole the diameter of an ashtray.

The crowd is mixed pretty evenly, white, black, latino and Asian. There are cute girls of every race represented. One who catches my eye is an Asian girl with braided pigtails sculpted into some type of gravity-defying structure on her head. I’m a sucker for unusual hair.

Shady goes over and chats her up. A few minutes later I run into him at the front of the bar.

“Yo you should go talk to that girl Zoey, she’s interesting,” he says.

“Who’s Zoey, the girl with the hair?”

“Yeah man. She’s young though, still in college.”

“Ah, fuck that,” I say. I can’t fuck with semesters.

“Go talk to her anyway,” he says. “She’s standing by herself.”

I initially refuse, then realize I am getting complacent and fucking lame. It’s true that she’s too young for me, but mostly I don’t want to go over there simply because I’m scared to make an ass of myself. So I go over there.

I don’t waste more than 30 seconds on small talk (“been here before?” “do you know the birthday girl,” etc.) before I cut to the chase and get her story, and it’s a pretty interesting one. Korean but adopted by a Jewish family. Her siblings are black and filipino. Turns out we even went to the same college (I went to three). The difference is I was there ten years ago and she’s there now.

I spend the other half of the time talking to San Francisco Irene, who’s extremely cute and hot. Usually girls are one or the other (or let’s face it, neither) but she manages to be both.

Last time she was in town I detected something like flirting but failed to follow up on it. Even now I can’t get the thrusters up to more than 75% because of the intel I received. According to Annie, Irene’s always got guys on her shit but she’s clueless about it. I find that when that’s the case it means the girl is accidentally giving off a vibe that makes all guys think she’s interested in them when in fact she’s not.

I get Zoey’s e-mail address then Shady and I jet ‘cause it’s getting wayyyy too fucking hot in there. We roll over to the bar where Megumi works.

The next spot is fairly packed but I spot Megumi at the bar with a tray. I approach and say what’s up. She stares at me blankly. Takes me a second to realize...love doesn’t recognize me.

“Er, it’s me, Rain, I met you the other--“

“Ohhhhh shit, Rain!” she says, finally coming around, and she gives me a big hug like we’re old friends. “I didn’t recognize you! Last time you had glasses, right?”

How could she not recognize me just because of no glasses? I’m gonna put up two photos here. The first is the way I looked when I first met her, the second is how I looked on this night. Is it me or is she crazy.

We shoot the shit for a little but the bar is crowded and I can see she’s busy, so Shady and me bounce again. We head around the corner to Verlaine, where Shady knows the owner, then Seiji swings by. It’s drinks on the house so an hour later we leave a fat tip.

Around 4am I call Annie to see if she needs a lift home.

“Nah, I’m gonna stay out,” she says. “Irene got sick though, she went home early.”

“Where is she, at your place?”

“Yeah,” says Annie.

“I’ll check up on her when I get home,” I say.

“Dude you’re disgusting. This girl is probably vomiting and you’re still trying to get a piece,” says Seiji.

“Shuttha fuck up,” I say. “Just gonna check on her, see if she’s okay.”

I let myself into Annie’s apartment (I got the key) and check Annie’s room. Irene ain’t there. Later I found out she went to a different friend’s place. I go back to my place, lie down and stare at the ceiling.