.jpg)
- I was going to do this edition last week but I caught that norovirus that was going around. It really knocked me for a loop for several days and was the biggest thing sick-wise to me in probably six years, my vertigo bout from last year notwithstanding. I want to thank those of you who wished me well as I dealt with it. I hope I don't feel like that again for a long, long time.
- The inspiration for this edition's subtitle comes from a recent edition of WWE Monday Night Raw. On that show, the manager Paul Heyman was begging for his job and made a very interesting proclamation about himself. He said he wanted to tell the truth that he was a liar. Now here's a random thought that popped up for me as I was watching this: if someone says they are a liar, do you believe them? I mean, they could be lying about that...or are they? Anybody see the conundrum here? Thinking about something like this could drive me nuts for days...if I actually cared about something like that. I thought it was interesting to note nonetheless.
- A couple weeks ago I watched my favorite WWE match during any given year, the Royal Rumble. There were a couple of really good moments, specifically Chris Jericho's surprise entry at #2 and the entry of Goldust to the surprise of his brother Cody Rhodes (quick note: I got to see Goldust a couple of months ago in MCW...it was cool to see him in the Rumble after seeing him there). Outside of those two things, I don't think this Rumble was as good as the last two. I thought it could have been better and a lot more suspenseful. I hope next year's is better.
- Usually, the month of February is an in-between time for yours truly. It's after Christmas time but before the good weather of the spring and there's a lot of dead time in-between for me. That doesn't mean things don't happen...for instance, I did become a follower of Jesus six years ago next week and went to my first MCW show last year in mid-February. For the most part, it's a slow time for me. Starting next year, however, it might start ramping up if a particular football-related announcement scheduled for next week indicates what I think it's going to. I'll get into more about that in the next edition, but if the announcement is what I think it's going to be, all I can say is that it might be an exciting time for me and potentially for some of you as well by this time next year, especially for those of you in or around the Akron area or surrounding region.
- The next few blurbs are going to be about some of my history and me waxing nostalgic on some bygone eras of my life. The first bit of nostalgia I wanted to talk about was when I used to go to the East Drive-In during my high school years. I would usually go up there with my friends Bob and Todd to hang out and watch movies late at night. It used to cost $5 just to get into the place, so it made for a reasonably cheap outing. I remember watching my first lunar eclipse, with the moon turning pretty red, while being at the drive-in. I also remember taking my chances after my wisdom teeth were pulled out, eating food for the first time while at the drive-in before my sutures were pulled out. All I can say about that is I got lucky. I remember the smell of marijuana coming from the restrooms that you could smell from a good distance away on any particular night there. To this day I never understood how people could get the munchies from smoking that stuff because I would always get nauseous just from the stench. Like a lot of places that used to have drive-ins, the East Drive-in was replaced by a shopping center but I never forgot the fun I had there and hanging out with my friends. There aren't many drive-ins left in existence (only one, maybe two, in this area) but it made for interesting times when I went to one.
- Another nostalgic part of my past is my time at arcades. When I was younger, I would go up to either Chuck E. Cheese at the mall or the arcade at the old (now torn down) State Road Shopping Center and play games in the arcades, including video games, skeeball and pinball games. If you've been to an arcade, which is now exclusively in movie theaters, bowling alleys, or places like GameWorks and Dave & Busters, you know it's a different experience than playing video games at home or on a portable system. It was something that got me out of the house on those boring days either in my teens or in college. My most memorable times were playing Tecmo Wrestling at the State Road Shopping Center arcade, playing WWE Wrestlefest in the old Ohio Union at Ohio State, and playing whatever pinball machine would be in the lobby of either Stradley or Jones Towers when I lived in the OSU dorms (I know dorms aren't really arcades, but I did use them a lot while I was there). Given the rising prices of such games now, I don't do it as often as I used to and haven't for some time, but I'm open to indulging in a little nostalgia every now and then.
- The one thing I am most nostalgic about these days is my club-going days. It's hard to admit those days are behind me now but it doesn't hold the same magic for me that it used to or give me the same thrill it gave me just from thinking about dancing, going to the club, or just hanging out, which is a change that's happened only in the past few years or so. It doesn't mean I might not want to go out to one again, but I've changed a lot since those times and it'll be a different feeling when I go into one again. In any case, I did take a lot out of it and made some amazing friends from those times. I was never really a bar "hopper" because I preferred the stability of hanging out at one place and not having to worry about going everywhere regularly just to do my thing. That did get to some of my more bar-hopping buddies and some of the staffs of those places...some more than others...but I liked the stability it gave me knowing there was someplace I knew I could go for certain.
There are six distinct eras, or "stints" as I occasionally call them, of my club-going time. The first was the Park Alley era, which encompassed my first year of college. I met my friends Cory, Tommy D, Mike Tutt, and Roger Byrd (may he rest in peace) and it was the first time I got to show off and refine my dance skills. In the greater scheme, it was one of the most awesome times of my life. None of the other eras would have existed if it weren't for that one. It ended because the bars closed down due to the owner's legal troubles with that and other bars he owned. It took me a while but the second era truly started after I broke up with my fiancee around 1994, which I call the Flyers era. I met several people at that time who I'm still friends with to this day including Dave, Holly and Ron. It felt more like a transitional time than anything but it ended when I transitioned over to a new hangout called Club Dance near the end of 1996 at the suggestion of...and maybe some pressure on my part toward...my friend Roger (I can be known to be pushy). That was the start of the "Bourbon Street" era, because the bar was half country and half hip-hop and the hip-hop side was called Bourbon Street. I met so many people and made so many friends from that time that it's hard to list them all here, but it was yet another awesome time in my life. That ended when I moved back up to Akron near the end of 1998. It was an extremely heartbreaking thing for me to do to leave there because it meant so much to me going there and, though it might not mean as much to some people I know now, it affects me to this day.
The next era started around mid-2000 or so which I call the "Banana Joes" era, which encompassed my time at Banana Joes/Margarita Mamas in downtown Akron. Despite meeting people like my friends Roger Booth, Lawrence and Jay, it really was one of the saddest times of my life. I did less dancing and more drinking during that time and even went to some more "adult" establishments in trying to get some light back into my life back. I would also find myself around people who really didn't give a damn about me and treated me with a lot of contempt during that time. That era thankfully ended (and my time around those particular people who didn't give a crap about me) when Margarita Mamas closed and I started going to the club across the street called the Harry Buffalo in the beginning of 2003. That was the start of a personal renaissance for yours truly, the era that I call the "Harry Buffalo/Big Easy" era. I've written in length several times about that era and the people I met then, but I do want to note that it was the first time that I tried to get my friends in the two different places I lived (Akron and Columbus) to hang out together so we could all have a greater time together than separately. It definitely was a life changer and, honestly, after those first two weekends of road trips to Columbus and the Big Easy (formerly Club Dance) from Akron, I didn't expect it to be a regular thing for the following three months after, but it was a lot of fun. That pretty much encompassed the calendar year 2003 for me, but it may have lasted longer for others I knew. The last era for me started around April of 2005, which I call the "Outside Corner/Club Polaris/Martini Park" era, and lasted the longest time except for a break in 2007 when I was dating a rather spiteful girl for several months. Anyway, that era was where I had a lot of friends from past eras come back to one of the three main clubs I went to in that timeframe (the Outside Corner in Gahanna or Reynoldsburg, Club Polaris in the Polaris shopping area in north Columbus, and Martini Park in the Easton mall area in NE Columbus) and I met up with a lot of new friends that I keep up with to this day and will continue to do so. I had a lot of good times in that era but as time wore on, a lot of aspects of the clubbing life I led no longer held the charms they once did and by the closing of Martini Park in May of 2010, I knew my time as a club regular was done.
I've lived about half of my life as a club regular at one club or another. There have been so many blessings that have come from them that I couldn't stay away for too long when I was a regular. From the crushes I've had on several women who would eventually just be friends with me to the dance moves I learned and taught as part of a bigger group of dancers to those days I had to take care of those friends who got a little too intoxicated to those nights where a big group of us would go to a restaurant after the club...it's been a hell of a ride. As I slowly build this new post-club chapter of my life I will be taking a lot of what I got and learned from the clubs, from those life lessons to social etiquette to especially the friendships I made, along with me as part of the foundation for what is coming for me.
- Before I move on from the club stuff, there is something important I need to address about my club-going days. This doesn't affect 95% of you folks from those days but there are a few people I need to say this to...and I think some of you in that 95% might have wanted to say something like I'm about to to several of these folks yourselves. I want to start off here by saying there are several people from those times, some who weren't that fond of me and some who are friends...that 5%, if you will...who have questioned or outright criticized or done so through others how I saw or remember those times that we had at the various clubs over the years. They criticized how overzealous I would be in remembering the good times, remark that I overlooked the "bad things," whatever that meant, say stuff like I wasn't "who I thought I was" at the club and, here's the one that gets me, that things didn't actually happen the way I remembered them. This is the first time I'm going to defend myself in such a forceful fashion on this subject because of how much those times meant to my life and how much those particular people need to hear this and get a proverbial kick in the pants whether they want it or not. To those folks in that 5% I say the following:
Going to the club encompassed a good chunk of my life. It's had its ups and downs and maybe we don't always see the same things or see eye to eye on stuff. If you're going to continue to come down on me about stuff, let me tell you something you need to know...and I don't care whether you like it or agree with it or not but at least you'll know where I stand. Those days and those times at the clubs, even when I was around you if or when you weren't fond of me, meant and will always mean the absolute world to me. The club was where I was first able to be socially competent. That type of stuff has always been a challenge for me, but I was able to be that way there more times than not. The club has changed all of us in some way or another. Some of us have wives, husbands, or families thanks to the club. Many of us have our best friends and confidantes thanks to the club. A few of us have had the directions of our lives change because of the club...some for the better, some for the worse, but change has happened. We all have our views of what those times were like. Was there bad or troubling stuff at times? Yes. Were there times when our issues were brought with us to the club? Of course, and I'm definitely no exception especially in regard to stuff that happened in the summer of the year 2000 and also other stuff I've talked about in DJRT before. If you're going to let whatever negativity the club has apparently brought to you affect how you see the past or even how you see me, then so be it. But understand that I will no longer allow you to figuratively beat me over the head with any contradictions to what I know to be true nor will I accept you acting toward me as though you've got your heads up your asses. Understand that all you see when you have your head up you ass is crap...that's all there is to see when that happens, just crap. It's not a pretty picture. If you want to continue seeing the crap, that's on you. I may not see how you see things, but I will not let you screw with memories and feelings I know to be true from those times. If you have stuff that's messed with you or haunts you from that time, maybe it's time to forgive and let go. For many of you in that 5% I've had to deal with, it's been at least a decade or more that you've held on to such stuff. There are so many blessings from those times, so many lessons learned, so many friends made and so many good memories to remember and hold on to that it should easily drown out the crap and I feel bad that it hasn't happened for you. I've already moved on from that bad stuff because those times are in the past now...maybe it's time you did too. To sum up: it's your choice how you choose to remember things from back in the day whether it be positively or negatively but I also have that choice too and, even though I've been respecting how you choose to see things, you will no longer disrespect mine.
- One last thing: to the 95% of you that last blurb doesn't cover (that means most of you), I want to reiterate that those times and my times with you have meant the absolute world to me and will stay with me the rest of my days and beyond. I just needed to finally set my foot down on this ongoing issue and on that select few who have or will use their own issues regarding the club as a hammer to beat on me with whenever they felt like it. Nobody deserves that treatment and I needed to address it.
- Changing the subject, as many of you know I have had issues with mental illness, having to deal with that stuff for most of my life in some way or another. As such, I've had to deal with a lot of stigmas regarding what I've had to deal with. I'm fairly certain many of you have had to deal with others who have had such issues, especially those who are our elders. I'd like to share with you an article that my friend Lynn, an RN, recently wrote about the stigma of mental illness in the elderly. Those of you who've had to deal with this type of stuff might be interested in reading this. Here's the article: The Stigma of Mental Illness in Older Adults.
- It's a couple months early but my birthday is coming up in April. Yes, I know I'm getting old but unlike last year I do want to celebrate this year. It's on a Tuesday but I have something of a general gameplan I'm working with. On the Sunday before which is the 7th, I am planning to go to a Pizza Hut restaurant around here (I do the Pizza Hut thing for my birthday...it's a me thing) and then afterward go watch Wrestlemania 29, which takes place that day. If anyone wants to join me or has other ideas that might make for a good birthday this year, I'm open to other ideas as well. Just let me know before my birthday (and not a week after as one person tried to do a few years ago...it was hilarious listening to her reaction once I was able to tell her it had already passed after not being able to get a word in edgewise).
- Song on Repeat: "My Town" by the Michael Stanley Band. I used to think my town was Columbus, but that time has passed. I'm considering another one but it's going to be a while before that comes to pass if it does. In any case, when I think about that I think of this song.
- Shoutouts: Bob, Lynn, Scotty, Aunt Sandy, Debbie, Stacy, Holly, Mike L., Tony, Ron, Ernest, Dave, Zach, Mary K., Katie, Jay, Jim B., Cheryl, Kristin, Aunt Sue, Carl, Michael C., and Maggie.
That's it for this edition. I didn't expect to go so long specifically with the club stuff, but I had a lot to get out that came off the top of my head. Anyway, I will take my leave now. Until next time, folks. Take care and God Bless.
DJ
