People still do this?!

We went to WonderFoods and got paninnis for breakfast. I got to watch people going to work…such a diverse city. Everyone had such intent looks on their faces. In the restaurant cashiered by a girl entirely too big for her own good, we saw a shitty music video on, you guessed it, MTV. “Don’t Ya” by the Pussycat Dolls might be an ok track, and I stress “ok”, not “great” or even “good”…….but the video was SUCH crap it reaffirmed my not watching television.

After our friends arrived in town, Friday was pretty much like this after walking out the door via the CUTEST doorman…with my name, by the way, to which he actually said “right on”. I say that!!!! Anyway…giant strawberry margarita with an extra shot, giant mango pina colada with an extra shot, shopping, cigarettes, shopping, drinking, shopping, back to the hotel to change and go out again. After having a horrible acid stomach attack on the way to the subway, I had to stop at a CVS and basically down Tums and Pepcid for the next 20 minutes to get myself goin again. One of our friends went with me into the CVS and got a kick out of my register experience…which consisted of them ringing up open packages of antacid and me using my finger to scribble a messy line on the signature pad. I was like scribble-scribble, button, done. Pop, pop, fizz.

That night my boyfriend took me to Tao….an asian-fusion restaurant with a GIANT Buddha statue and the best steak I have EVER had. Wasabi encrusted yumminess!!! The best part about it was that we sat NEXT to the statue. Such a beautiful restaurant. So peaceful. A total contrast to what lays outside its doors.

Later that night we visited a really neat bar…name I forget. Then at Splash I danced for what seemed like hours. My boyfriend and one of our friends had been tired and went back to the hotel. After playing the “I miss you” text message game, I got sidetracked by the DJ playing Holiday and the night went from there. Some really odd laughing man tried to go in for a kiss…and lemme tell ya getting licked when someone misses isn’t fun…unless it’s this one friend of mine who does it on purpose. That’s funny. When the lot of us got in a cab to head back to the hotel it was only 1145! Amaturish, I know…but Saturday would be the late night. We were tired from travel. I came back to the hotel room and caught the tail end of Fantastic 4 with my boyfriend. It was a horrible movie and anyone who sees it will be disappointed. Nuff said.

SATURDAY…what can I say? More shopping!!! And the Museum of Sex. I would post the pictures, but Blogspot would ban me. Lemme tell you I have never seen a more historical and educational approach to sex and how sex is in this country. Who knew there was such a thing as an automated internet driven sex machine? My boyfriend and I went back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit before meeting another good friend of ours for dinner at Viceroys. Drink after drink after drink, we got a lil tour of a friend’s part of the city…and got to see Ground-0 from his apartment window! Wow! We eventually left from there to hit the Roxy.

Roxy. Highlights of the evening besides drinking and dancing my ass off more than ever: seeing my boyfriend dance. I don’t see it often. At some point I was in the bathroom tryin to piss…and this guy looks down at my stuff and says “well I really hope you’re a top with that thing, my goodness”. Flattery got him nowhere but it was certainly appreciated. I walked out of the bathroom laughing to myself and stopped outside the door to light up. And this other guy comes running up to say hello and see if he could give me a little kiss. So I’m like sure. He gives me a little peck. He’s like ‘you are so cute can I kiss you again?’ I let him have another lil peck. Then he asks my name and of course I say the first thing that comes to mind. At this point, my name is Brad. My boyfriend and his ex come running over to save me: hadn’t sooner cuz they were waiting to see what else the guy would try to do. Sickos. Exactly something I would do. LOL Later, one of our friends from DC shows up at like 1:30am and dances with us…the place is packed, the DJ was awesome…and we eventually got back to the hotel to sleep before packing the next morning.

I wake up and my boyfriend has already packed everything. What a perfect weekend this has been and how disappointed I am to go back to DC. I woke up and ate leftover pasta and drank warm beer. Mmmmm…..beeer. When we were finished, we realized that we had to buy another suitcase to fit everything. So after doing that we meet up with my cousin for breakfast and get to stepping out of town.

To everyone who made it into my birthday: you contributed to THE PERFECT BIRTHDAY which I know I haven’t done well describing in words here. But then if I told you everything that happened, that would be telling

M.I.A. meets my friend in line before her concert. I am kicking myself, but life woks in mysterious ways regardless.

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking with a few friends regarding use of the word “sketchy”, what it means and how it is used. The goal of this inquiry was to display how inconsistently it is used. Below are some examples in quotation of what they said…and my comments.

[Friend 1] Someone who allows their actions to go uncontrolled, usually by the addiction to a drug.

[Friend 2] [Someone who is] inherently questionable and/or deceptive.

[Friend 3] Furtive or shady..someone who cannot be trusted to be genuine and forthright and will do anything to seek his own pleasure and not willingly admit or own up to any of it.

[Boyfriend] An all-encompassing term denoting [one who is] shade, mis-direction, dirty, deceitful.

[Friend 4] Let’s say that 1 was having a party at his apartment. 1 has been 2 for a long time. While 2 was in the bathroom, Sketch tried to force his way into the bathroom to see 2’s goods. 2 had to physically hold the door shut to keep Sketch out. Sketch then continued to hit on 2 even after 2 asked him to stop. 1 is a little upset that Sketch has caused [such] unpleasantness.

[Friend 5] Sketchy is a term used to describe one who has indulged in michievious activities, so much that those activities could be looked at by society to classify him/her as trashy.

[Friend 6] Any situation in which I am feeling uncomfortable because I’m expecting one thing and I’ve been informed it will be what I’m expecting only to arrive and find that this is not the case. If I’m at a park to play a sport, but it is more like a hook up spot. Or if i’m at my gym to work out and it is more of a cruising ground. Or if I’m on a date for coffee and it is more like a devious plan to get in my pants.

[Friend 7] I would say that it is a combination of shady, selfish, and unreliable, with a hint of ignorance.

[Friend 8] Dodgy; a person you kinda don’t want to hang around/be associated with; comes from a questionable socio/economical background…unless you’re talking about sketchy as in flaky, [which is different].

And finally, Dictionary.com states that sketchy means “not good”, “superficial” or “lacking completeness”. So based on the definitions and the input given by my friends and boyfriend…it appears to be consistent despite what I thought. But I suppose the inconsistencies could be seen when the explanation is not complete itself…a sketchy definition of sketchy, if you will. So let’s take the dictionary definitions and apply them to our friends.

Friend-1 hit the nail on the head when it comes to the world of addiction. It is the classic example that someone addicted to a drug will display behavior considered to be incomplete to what is considered normal. This is displayed in the level of incomplete thinking used by someone addicted to a drug. Some of the things that come out of their mouths may be audacious, incoherent or unfinished thought.

Friend-2 went into another area of sketchy: deceptiveness. People who are deceptive may leave details out as to turn situations to their advantage. It is also the possibility that such will be done on accident. It is still inherently deceptive to leave things out for any purpose. If it is incomplete, it begs questions.

Friend-3 made me look up a word. I didn’t know what futive meant, but it works. It means to be characterized by hidden motives or shiftyness. Again this is consistent with the going idea that something would be afoot, so to speak, with a sketchy individual or situation.

Boyfriend-If anyone had a more interesting figurative use for the word “dirty” as a synonym to sketchy, I wouldn’t likely acknowledge it. The thought of Lisa Simpson saying “feel dirty….can’t get it off me…” while trying to wipe her arms of an invisible evil comes to mind. The use of deceit to explain his feeling on sketchy people is good too, as we both had experience with a particular case of one who omitted information as to avoid directly lying to us, who were obviously revered as respectable enough not to lie to. *takes a breath…..doesn’t hold it…*

Friend-4 had me laughing my ass off, as he related a story for which I was actually present. Names excluded, of course…we can see here that sketchiness may not necessarily be inherent, but induced. Alcohol was indeed to blame in this case and the character Sketch has since apologized for his actions.

Friend-5 speaks of a figure who would have earned a reputation for their sketchiness. So it seems that their definition would seem to hold the word as a deemed title and an adjective.

Friend-6 brought the conversation as it stands to a new direction. Where everyone has been speaking of it in terms of behavior or people, this definition gives the phrase to a variety of situations in which one would feel the effect of sketchiness directly via instinctual reaction. This skill is not available to everyone, as it is earned and tempered.

Friend-7 gave a recipe for sketch that couldn’t be closer to the truth, specifically the hint of ignorance. It is my experience that sketchy people really do seem to be ignorant in the whole “forgive-them-for-they-know-not-what-they-do” sense. But it is important to note that this appearance could be one of cunning. And for those who don’t know how to tell…wait until the other parts of the recipe take hold. Phone calls not being returned, important details becoming inconsistent to the point that lies are easily exposed, a “me” complex being displayed to match. A song I knew growing up had the words….”anything you can do I can do better, I can do anything better than you”….

Friend-8 is the last person I asked because it really summed up the blog nicely. It proved that I was right…that the word is inconsistently used in place of other words sometimes. I was never out to prove something with this blog, but more to discuss playfully the use of a word. Words are great and powerful things that when used properly can create and destroy. Here, Friend-8 made a distinction no one else had when he brought in the cultural aspect and pointed out that a people may generally consider another people sketchy by the make of their societal rolls, whether imposed or inherited.

This PROVES that sketchiness is in the eye of the beholder, and that everyone has it even if just a little bit. But Friend-8 added a compounded definition – “sketchy as in flaky”…which, as I added IS different. I touched on it a little bit with the word cunning. Some people and things are sketchy because we all fear to some extent what we do not understand. Other things are sketchy by deliberate design…and it is those things we must defend against and look out for.

I am starting to wonder where this turned into a rant, so I’ll stop now. Neat discussion though, even if just with myself.

After a whole WEEK of being prevented from ingesting alcohol to kick a nasty food poisoning, we can DRINK again!!!