D Day

I woke up around 5am. An hour before MU and Jeff were scheduled to show up and drag me out of bed.
As the day approached I had envisioned Jeff hog tying me, throwing me over his shoulder and dragging me kicking and screaming into the car. But when the witching hour arrived, there wasn't much fight left in me. Fortunately, I have these three friends, who whenever we are together, no matter what we are doing, we are partying. Laughing, screaming, yelling, making obscene jokes, laughing, did i mention making obscene jokes. The middle finger gets flashed a lot. We all find this hilarious. And as if we are going to roll out of town on the road trip of the century MU, Jeff, JT, and I pile in Jeff's car. My car gets loaded with some of the items I had thought to pack. To be picked up later on mission "get jenn to wildwood"

JT and I crash in the back seat, repeatedly singing, T.I.'s "Steady chasing the paper, Oh oh oh oh, just live your life", instead of logical conversation. We make it around the block. I forgot my insurance card. We roll back around one more time, "oh oh oh oh , just live your life...." I jump out and grab my wallet. BW is still pulling away. I press my hand to the glass of the back window, much like those scenes on life time movies, when the girl next door moves away forever from her grade school crush. This is quite possibly the end of all that business, i think, maybe, who knows confusion ensues, but is over shadowed by more important situations. And maybe I'll talk KM into "feelin it" so he can be happy."

The ride there is laced with sexual innuendoes, more laughter. Its quite a drive, mostly because of the 40 shut down. But even still, to us deep city kids, Creve Coeur is straight up out of town. We are little early, so we stop at Starbucks. Of course, I can't have anything. But Jeff and MU needed a little pick me up to make it through the rest the day after I went in, there was still much to be done.

Funny thing about cancer. Is that stereotypically, its for old people. So the waiting room is quiet. Very quiet. Very somber and grave. Until we get there. Still laughing, still joking, still singing that blasted T.I. song (boy are we annoying with that shit). But how can one freak out when they are having a little pre-operation party in the waiting room. Giggling, I approach the counter. Sign here, sign there, pay this, pay that. My father shows up in a suit and tie. With his business leather binder filled with organized information. He joins the party. Probably a little confused as to why we are all having so much fun.

It didn't take long before a tiny Filipino nurse came to the waiting room with a clip board, and my name rolled off her tongue. "Jenn Carter."

"Oh wait, everyone just went outside. I can i go say bye?" I say, as i look at her and then look outside where Jeff and JT went to smoke. They should really quite that shit.

I walk outside, hug JT, tell him I love him, hug Jeff, tell him i want to sleep with him (this is our code for I love you in our little way) I got back in hug MU, hug my father. The three party people have to get going to work and mission stage two. So now its just me. And Dave is left in the waiting room until he's called back.

One of the first things the nurse asks is, "Is this your family?"

MU matter of factly explains, "We're her BFF's"

"Did she really just say that?" JT smirks.

Yeah, so um, they are like my family, labels aren't important. I slip through the swinging door, and everyone but my father heads out the front doors.

Nurse turns to me and says "Is he in a band?"

"Ha, no." I shake my head because this is common misconception. "He should be though, huh, but he's an artist. Similar, but without the band."

JT BW AND JC go to the pool.

I had been trying to go the pool for the past three days. For starters, its hot as bloody hell outside. And for more obviously reasons: I wanted to get wet and bask in the sun one last time. My new fitness center is in the first level of an overpriced apartment complex. There is a quaint but absolutely sufficient outdoor pool. If you go in through the front you can pretty much bring in whoever you want through the back gate.

We all woke up fairly early. Enjoyed some freezer pops. For some reason JT boiled a couple of eggs and pulled out some left over salsa and chips from the party the night before. JR woke up and I was reminded of his burlesque performance just a few hours earlier. For a moment there in my morning haze I had forgotten about it. JT and I polished off the rest of the beer in the fridge. I finished the bottle of wine in the the condiment door rack. JT kept magically coming up with PBR's. (they were in the cooler) And we rocked out to some whitesnake, journey, def lepard, a few other awesomely bad 80's hair bands as we got ready for the pool. BW graciously decided to join us. You never know with him, he's always got to run off and do something less fun than our typical J-days. But, turns out his trunks were in his car. We all three piled in my wagon and headed to the pool. Rocking out to the new Cage album. JT and I pretty much have all the words memorized. So BW was assaulted with our singing as we made the trek to union and lindell. Cage makes me drive fast.

"Are we in some kind of hurry?" BW exclaims in the calmest possible voice.

"Yep. its hot as fuck" JT and JC say in unison. Then go back to screaming "Its like god opened the sky and handed you directly to meeeeeee, i know it sounds crazy but so is life, i'm sinking...."

We enjoy the water, the hot bitches, the happy inner-tubed children as long as we can handle it. Since it was about 2 by this point and no one had really eaten. We decide to get out dry off and go to Guidos, a fantastic spanish italian spot on the shaw in the hill. In no position to be frugal as I assumed over the next couple of weeks I'd probably not be spending much money, we order calamari, caprese salad, vodka tonics, and that that expensive italian beer JT likes to drink. BW got a couple of Heinekens, and more carbohydrates than JT and I had consumed in the last month. We are the only people in the place, so are allowed to wild out as we saw fit.

"You know you have to spend the entire day with us, don't you." We both say to BW.

"Huh?" as if he didn't know.

"Yep." another unison JT JC response.

BW sighs.... But submits to our day of fun.

One hundred dollars later, and a twenty dollar tip, I sign my name, and declare that having to bf's is fucking expensive. A joke that is funny because its true.

We head to the apartment. Where JT takes his mid J-day nap. And BW and I decide to go take care of a few things in his new shit hole apartment. (ok actually its really really nice, my jealously is through the roof, and I can't move in to the extra units, one because JT won't move to cherokee, and two because then i'd feel way on the stalker side.)

Big skip in the details here.....

Fast forward to us hearing his neighbors rocking out on drums and guitars. BW's neighbors are the two hottest lesbian chicks. Period. In all the world. LS is an amazing painter (with work in LAIC) and her partner stephanie rocks it on the drums, but also the guitar. They switch on and off. Just moved in from Chicago. Knowing I wasn't going to be able to hang with them and forge our new lifelong friendship for a few months, I immediately pounded on the door. They offered us wine and a little bit of green party favors. And we hang out long enough to convince them to rock it out again for a few. "We haven't played in month's, we're just warming up." LS modestly says. Shut up bitch you know you kick ass. Damn.

Some how we convince them to come back to my place because i've got a friend stopping by and they were out of cigarettes. So we caravan to QT, BW grabs some keystone (asshole) and we show up at my place to find my friend SV whining on the deck with JT. I spend some time feeling up SV's rack, she pisses off the chicks, which was actually quite hilarious, and as 11:59 approaches (my expiration date) I put down my last beer for a month. Say bye to the ladies, and pull BW to bed, leaving JT alone to see if he couldn't tap SV's ass. (he didn't by the way, she's impossible to penetrate).