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- Over a week ago, for the first time since that stuff from the summer of 2009 happened I talked with the other people who were involved in it who I hadn't talked to since it went down. I let them know where I was coming from and they did the same with me. The bottom line is that we talked it out, cleared things up, settled things and now we're moving forward as friends again. I believe there were more than a few people who have been waiting for the "drama" (their words, not mine) to be over and I think they'll be happy now that we've put it behind us. I have to tell you...I'm very thankful to not have that hanging overhead anymore. Because of this, I did something I hadn't done in a very long time which I will reveal...in the next blurb.
- Over the past couple of weekends, I did something I hadn't done in over two in a half years...I went out. I don't mean I left the house and went to the store or went walking in downtown Cuyahoga Falls (one of my favorite things to do, BTW) or just visited a friend. What I mean is that I hit up the bars and the nightlife. I have to admit I was rather nervous because I hadn't been out in so long and I really wasn't sure what going out was going to mean to me (I'll talk more about that in the next blurb). On that first weekend I went out to the bar Johnny Malloy's at Chapel Hill for my friend and former neighbor Heather's birthday. I saw some other former neighbors there that I hadn't seen in years, some since high school. Understand that back then, being the socially inept person I was, I don't believe I was capable of adequately connecting with people in general. I probably lost out on actually getting to "know" people, for lack of a better word, during high school due to that so I didn't know what to expect. Thankfully, it's not the high school years anymore and I got in some real conversations with people that even eleven years ago I wasn't able to have (I graduated HS 22 years ago so the 11 year benchmark serves as a halfway point here). We all caught up with each other and had a good time and Heather seemed to enjoy her birthday celebration. Last weekend was when I did the thing I alluded to earlier that I hadn't done in ages...I went out dancing. I went to a place called the Red Fox in Cuyahoga Falls with my friends Kevin and Jay. The Red Fox is a pretty nice spot and it's set up for an older crowd, meaning not college-age folks though there were a few there. I was still rusty and stiff with my dancing since I hadn't done it in forever but I did seem to have more stamina since I'm 30 pounds below where I was when I regularly went out before. As the night wore on I was starting to get more of my groove back as well as some of the old dance routines I used to do back in the day and I felt a sense of myself there that I hadn't thought I was missing until it came back. It was a weird sensation but one that was welcome. I had a great time the last couple of weekends out on the town.
- After the last couple of weekends, I am now anticipating going out much more often than I have been especially since I have been a hermit for the past couple of years or so. I might even become competently social again...who knows? However, going forward there is one major personal change regarding my going out regularly again that might not be all that relevant to most of you but I wanted to note it here for myself as a personal philosophical benchmark. As I've talked about many, many, many times before, going out to clubs has been a major part of my life in terms of meeting a lot of my friends, showing off my dance moves and having a lot of things happen that were good for me there. All that stuff I talked about was comparatively an understatement to what the clubs truly meant to me and my life overall. There were outright entire years where it served as "the" lifeline and the main go-to option when things weren't going right for me in my life at any point. If I had problems at home, there was always the club. If school was getting to me, the club was there to get my mind off of it. If I had drama or issues at work, I'd go to the club for relief. If I was lonely or badly wanted company, I would look forward to the club. As much as it served as a benchmark, it also served as "the" getaway from whatever I might have been dealing with. I don't think any of you know how many times having the club in my life actually saved me. It's a lot. Before I go on, for those of you who worked at the clubs whether it was as a bartender, a bouncer, a manager, a deejay or whatever, those of you who still keep up with me and consider me a friend from when I went wherever you worked...you guys and gals helped me through some of the toughest times of my life, sometimes with comforting supportive words, sometimes with simple gestures or just with a little acknowledgement. It means so much to me and I'm as thankful as ever to have you still as part of my life.
Getting back to the lifeline aspect, there were times where I would worry more about getting to the club than, say, my long-term future or something that I may have needed at some particular moment. I wasn't a drinker most of the time, but the overall club or bar atmosphere served as my escape many a time. Whenever something came up that threatened that lifeline, such as some jerk bouncer with a fragile ego treating me like crap or mean people hassling me or a club I was going to was on the verge of changing or closing, it would automatically get to me and I would get all out of sorts which was pretty noticeable if people paid attention to my reactions to those things or events. Generally, the clubs were my stability and my "be-all, end-all", even when the clubs themselves were unstable in some respect. However, somewhere along the line (probably starting around late 2008 or so...that's just a guess), having the clubs serving as a lifeline stopped working for me and in some cases started working against me. It wasn't doing for me what it had done for me for so long, being the effective lifeline it had been. I was still going out and enjoyed being with old friends while making some new ones but I started going out less and less until around mid-2010 when my last regular hangout in Columbus, Martini Park at Easton, closed and I pretty much stopped going out altogether. The last time I went out before a couple weeks ago was to the old Screaming Willies where I twisted my ankle. After that I thought my time in the clubs was pretty much over.
Fast forward to recently. I don't know if you all could tell, but I've been making an effort to get back to my roots because I felt I was getting away from them. As a result, a lot of memories from the clubs have been resurfacing which I have talked about in the past few editions of DJRT. I was starting to get the itch again to go back out but wasn't sure if I should. For some people, that may be a no-brainer but with what I just talked about it wasn't that way so much for me. When I got the initial invite to that birthday celebration, I decided to take a chance and go for it and head out to a bar for the first time in ages. I did that and then I went out again last weekend, this time going dancing. While I was out there in particular, something hit me while I was in the middle of one of my dance routines, something big...the clubs and nightlife were no longer being a lifeline for me. More importantly, I realized it no longer needed to be one. It hit me that I didn't need the clubs to be that lifesaving apparatus I needed it to be in years past. I was simply dancing and having fun with my friends and the weight of that apparatus was not there at all, probably for the first time since my freshman year in college when I initially started going out to the clubs. It doesn't comprise the majority of my life...it's just simply a part of it. It was a shock but a welcome one and I'm rather thankful for that "lightbulb" moment. I think being away from the clubs helped me actually get to this point but because that weight is gone now I feel free to go out again. It might not be obvious just looking at me at a club...it might even look exactly the same as some points in the past...but in terms of my approach to nightlife in relation how I'm living my life now and where I want to take it, it rates as a big internal philosophical change for yours truly. It's a milestone, for sure, and one I wanted to note here. Ultimately, I'm hoping to be going out and just having fun somewhat regularly again whenever possible...not because I need or absolutely have to but because I want and choose to.
- Before I move on from the nightlife stuff, I've got one more thing to say. Last weekend we were doing the Booti Call line dance and we had forgotten about half of the callouts we used to do. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, we call out a different move to do at a particular point in the line dance and it's a different move every time. If you ever see it, you'll know that is what I'm referring to here. Well, in light of that forgetfulness, I went and dug up a master list I made a few years back of all the callouts we do in the dance. Those moves will not be forgotten again...this I swear!!! (I'm laughing rather loudly as I type that...I think I'm freaking my parents out)
- I have a phrase I have used many times that is very apropos for what is going on outside right now that I think a lot of you might share this sentiment with me: Let it snow...let it snow...let it snow...SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!
- I don't have any clue what I'm going to be doing for New Year's Eve this time out, though I seemingly have many options as of now. I don't know if this will be on my agenda, but First Night Akron is one of those options but it might be a rather cold one. Like I said, I'm not sure yet but for those of you who might be considering that particular option, you can check out the First Night Akron website for more info on that.
- According to Business Insider, out of the 25 most hungover cities in the United States for 2013, Ohio has six cities on that list. Akron is tops as the most hungover city in OH clocking in at #6 on the overall list. Here is the article with the list: Business Insider - The Most Hungover Cities In America 2013. You know, for some reason, even though I'm not a drinker that little factoid rings very true to me for some reason...hmmmmm...
- In this years local elections there was a major shock as Don Robart, the Republican mayor of Cuyahoga Falls since I was in junior high, lost his re-election bid for the office to Don Walters, a Democrat and president of the City Council there. I'm generally supportive of Walters but he did express his desire to open up Front Street to traffic again. As someone who likes to walk about and around that area, that is one major area of disagreement I have with him. I would like there to be more active businesses there but I prefer the way it's set up now as a walking area rather than a potentially high-traffic nightmare it would likely become. I don't live there but if someone there who does agrees with my sentiment, please don't let that happen if it's in your power. Pretty please?
- This week is rivalry week. The Browns completely blew it against the Steelers and probably lost the season, but the Buckeyes are on deck this Saturday against the Michigan Wolverines. The only thing I have to say at this point is "Go Bucks!!!" Oh yeah, OSU is going to play in the Big Ten championship game, so there's that too.
- Song on Repeat: "Miles Away" by Winger. It is a classic hair-band hard rock ballad. A little background about this particular song in relation to DJRT: One of the first CD's I ever got was a sampler 3-CD set I got from my sister, the kind that record companies would send to retail stores to help promote upcoming albums and provide background audio for said stores. This particular sampler set included songs like "Elevate My Mind" by the Stereo MCs and "Rope-A-Dope Style" by Levert, but this particular song was one of the first ever songs I put on repeat on my first real CD stereo system. I only had tape recorders before then so it was always a chore to have to rewind to near the spot where I would want to hear a song again. Most of the time it wasn't even close and I would overshoot most of the time. When I got that first CD player, it had a repeat function that was just a revelation to me in that I didn't have to rewind to play a song. This was one of those first songs I did that with and thus "Song on Repeat" was born...for me at least.
- Shoutouts: Cory, Giff, Heather D., Bob, Lynn, Jennifer S., Daryl, Aunt Sue, Ron, Todd, Chad, Jamie, David S., George, Dave M., Cheryl, Scotty, Kevin, Jay, Stan, Jenny K., Anna, Paula, Marcus D., Sycho Bill, Micah, Kristin, Jim B., Tom R., Debbie, Maggie, and Leslie
That's it for this edition. I will have a preview of the new DJ/DJRT Logo in the next edition so keep an eye out for that. I'm hoping to make it out to the Red Fox in Cuyahoga Falls again this weekend, so if anybody wants to see me actually dancing...or maybe looking like a fool, I don't know...come on out. Just remember that with Black Friday tomorrow to be safe though with some of the stores that are open today (who should qualify for Grinches of the Year IMHO for making that happen) it might not be so bad tomorrow. Besides, you'll get better prices after Christmas anyways...take it from someone who's worked in retail. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your Thanksgiving and Hanukkah holidays. With that, I bid you adieu. Until next time, folks...take care and God Bless.
DJ
