do u remember...the 21st night of september

i think it was like 4 and half years ago. i was working for a company called 'fraccenture' out of tampa, florida. there was a fairly large project team working on an electricity de-reg thingy for the state of texas, and it was captivating work. let's just say i did not become dependent on coffee that year. there were kids of all ages. it ranged from 23-year old me all the way up to mike c. rounding it off at 50 something. it didn't matter what your age was though, you worked until midnight or 2am just like everyone else. when new nerds were added to the project, the project manager expeditiously planned a night of dinner and drinks so that everyone could get to know each other over several dozen spirits. it was also customary to do the same when someone's time on the team was scheduled to end. that's what this story's about, sd's roll-off party.

we all headed over to moon over something/tampa for moroccan fare and just about every specialty beer/wine/liquor in existence. those were my white russian days so i was all lit up on the vodka. which by the way, i may revisit very very soon. there's nothing wrong with lovin our colorless, odorless friend. i digress. so sd was rolling off the project and onto something else. he was a fun-loving crazy guy that was always the go-to for the scoop on after hours fun. he looked like a cross-between two famous guys. (i can do this with any guy by the way.) picture jonathan silverman with hints of kenny loggins . not at all bad looking and not at all heroin skinny like k-log. i know that's an odd description but go with it. we ate the moroccan food for hours and then a bunch of people cabbed down to st. pete beach. sd loved this obscure little place called 'captain kozmoko's' and i might have just made that up. it was on the second floor of some weird florida beach dinner club and basically housed a dim-lit dance party for the elderly. and when i say elderly, i mean heads full of silver hair attached to saggy, saggy parts stuffed into a wide color spectrum of fancy, tight leather pantalones. these crows were ancient and out to get some. we were all really drunk and sd was starting to dance with the roll-y chairs, which meant that it was probably 2am and the kids were hammered. so this 74 year old lady heads out there and starts it up with sd. she was all about him. he was 28 and not as playful as luck would have it so he deflects the game right back at old marge. here's a bit of advice; the 600 year old ladies do not like to be shut down. he was probably 28 at the time and she was actually 600 so the pairing was hideous and not at all fair. we kinda thought she would end up taking him down. so there we are watching a rumble take shape among generation x and a bobby-soxer. at first we were a little worried, but then as the commotion cleared and the music slowed, it was obvious that sd did just wanna dance with his new lady friend. they ended up dancing uncomfortably close for another 2 minutes. and obviously we took pictures in horror. then he essentially passed out right into that roll-y chair and moldy old 600 limped away into the night. it was like something out of a movie from 1937.

poor kid. he was just trying to get his salsa on.