High School in Pittsburgh!

I just got back from a weekend in Pittsburgh, and boy, was it a doozy!

Friday night I went out with my S.H.I.T. House Boys, Eep and Stoner, to a bar in Station Square.



Little did I know that before the night was out, I'd have seen two former Susky classmates, been complimented on my dancing by no less than three strangers, and dragged my friend, Scarecrow-style, down the sidewalk to a cab, only to be rewarded by having him steal half of my Reese's Peanut Butter Cups after we returned home.

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If you're A Faithful, you know that I try to keep names somewhat un-googleable here on The Tauz Blaug because of an incident I inadvertently caused once. So, in keeping with that policy, I will avoid using full names here. Maybe it's a nickname. Maybe it's a last name. Maybe it's a first name. Or maybe I just make all of this shit up and nobody in my stories are real....
***End Sidebar***

So Eep, Stoner and I call a cab to get to this huge, multi-room bar. We wanted to get there around 10, but the cab company said they were going to send their first available car over to pick us up. The problem with that, though, was that it was only 9:10 when we called. So we showed up to the bar much, much earlier than we wanted to. So we're a bit miffed about this, but what seemed to us like a timing snafu would end up being a total bonus, in the long-run.

So, annoyed to be there so anti-tardy, we go in, buy our first round and discover that we're so early, the fuckin' drink specials haven't even started yet. Sheesh. Drinks in hand, we decide to walk through all of the different rooms in the place to kill time and scope the scene, so to speak. We stroll through each room and get even more peeved by the fact that we are there at the bar equivalent of the asscrack of dawn. But by the time we had done the full circuit through all four(ish) rooms, our drinks were gone. In search of a remedy, I leave Eep and Stoner at the island counter in the middle of the room where we'd been chatting, and head to the nearest bartender.

En route to the bar, I look down to get my wallet out. Expecting to see the cute blonde girl who was there before I looked down, I was shocked when I looked up to see my former classmates from high school, friggin' Stiffler! I freak out, but he maintains his trademark cool. I immediately realize just how little he has changed, in a good way.

This dude and I go way back! I mean... as far, if not farther than Molyneaux and I! He used to ride my bus in elementary school. When I was probably 9 years old, he was the one who told me who Elvis Presley was. He was in Marching Band with me (he played trumpet). I ate lunch with him and a few other friends every day during either my sophomore (or junior?) year. I partied with him at PSU when he was dating Gretch. The list of memories goes on and on...

I probably haven't seen him since his graduation, which was the year before me, so this was kind of a big deal! I was really excited to see him, and the feeling seemed mutual. So he served up some "Stiff" drinks for me and my boys all night while we were at his superb establishment, and in between our random excursions over to the dancin' room, I stopped by and had a few chats with good ol' Stiffler.

During one of these catch-up sessions, he mentioned that he'd just served Oni, another Susky Alum who was a couple of years younger than me. I was blown away! Even though I had recently become friends with Oni on Facebook, and, hence, knew he was in Pittsburgh, I hadn't seen him in a damn long time, either. Not ten minutes after I'd been told he was in the building, Oni swung back around and we got to hang for a bit. It was really cool to talk to him and see what he's doing with himself. I noticed that he said "word" a lot, which was funny. But he's going to have his doctorate, so it's cool.

Later on in the night, while we were over in the "I Just Wanna Dance" Room, some girl requested a dance with me and asked if her friend could snap a pic of us dancing. I totally said yes, of course. So, somewhere out there on some random chick's Facebook or MySpace page is a picture of her dancing with some skinny, bearded white guy with serious moves and a goofy face. Kinda like this, but with a chick in it, dancing and laughing...



If you ever run across it, send me that shit, pronto. (She was wearing a red shirt and black pants, if that helps your search.)

So my impromptu reunions certainly added to the never-fail recipe for a sweet evening: Start with three crazy boyz from Wallace Hall (R.I.P.!!). Add in some random Susky nostalgia, some total strangers, and some crazy-juice. Shake well and serve cool.

Works every time.