...Wicked Ways

After a busy night (Can't Touch This) and very little sleep, I wasn't really in the mood for another show. Ira and I had made plans to see Life of Agony at Starland Ballroom on 13 December, however, and I wasn't about to disappoint him!

Once again, we met at the Hillside house, then headed down to Sayreville, NJ, about a 40-minute drive. The show started at 4 or 5 in the afternoon, I can't remember which. We met up with a couple of Ira's friends from work, Pete and Cheryl, and Cheryl's friend Billy, and just hung out for a while. There were five different opening bands, and I had heard of none of them! We took lots of silly pictures, Billy and I chatted cars over cigarettes, and I watched everyone but me get seriously wasted, haha. Some other friends of Cheryl's showed up, and we all split up for a bit.

When I looked for the group of them later on, Ira was all by himself on the right side of the stage. He was all the way up against the rail, and clearly wasn't planning to move until the show was over. I hung out in his area for a while, and suddenly someone yelled at me, "You're from Waldwick!" Apparently, this girl was a few years younger than me and friends with some people that I had graduated high school with. She didn't look even vaguely familiar, but she knew all about me. She was very excited and introduced me to all of her friends. I stayed there for a few minutes, feeling extremely uncomfortable. Then, her boyfriend's brother spilled his entire beer all over me, and I took the opportunity to get away.I moved over to the left side of the stage, and found Pete, Cheryl, Billy, and their other friends. The other girl and guy were extremely drunk, and were getting pretty pushy with everyone around them. I could only handle that for a little while, so I wandered up into the bar area and sat down for a little while. After two days of shows, my feet and knees were killing me!

Just before LIfe of Agony came on, I headed back over to check on Ira, who was in the same spot and finally sobering up. Pete, Billy, and Cheryl were also in the same place as before, but their other friends were gone. When I asked where they were, I found out that Billy and Cheryl had gotten into a fistfight with them because they were being violent, and had gotten security to throw them out. Hmmm, ok?! Anyway, the band we'd come to see finally got started, and they played an excellent show.

As the place cleared out, Ira and I got separated, and he headed to the car. Fearing that the other girl and guy might assault me if I walked alone through the parking lot (wait, what did I do?!), Cheryl, Billy, and Pete walked me to the car to meet him. Overall, it was a long, strange night, and I was exhausted by the time we made it home.