Steamrolled

It had been years.  I didn't even know what a steamroller was.  Dave had
once tried to explain it on IRC but you kinda just need to see one.  Dave's
all about corrupting people, so re-introducing me to weed was a cool thing.

I picked up Scooter at his place right off the waterfront in downtown
Chicago - cool location.  Scoot was taller than I'd expected but otherwise,
yea, it was Scooter - cool.  We parked in the alley at Dave's place and
buzzed in.  He had been napping and his basement apartment was dark as all 
hell.  He was talkin on the phone to some whaked up, paranoid guy, Joey,
who was looking for Dave's absent roommate, Calvin.  OK - lights up.  
Dave was shorter than I'd expected but otherwise, yea, it was Dave - 
cool.  His apartment was cool too - low ceilings, many small rooms, punk
posters on the wall.  Dave's space had a small, glass-block window facing
the alley and the center block had been replaced with this mouse-hole-sized
little door.

Dave had scrounged up some pot scrappings; enough for the three of us to 
get baked.  He had also procurred a 6-pack of Natty Ice.  Whoa - what a 
perfect host ya are Daveo!  Ok so now that we all had our beers, he demo'ed
the steamroller for me (Scoot was an old pro I guess ) - hand over the 
end, inhale, remove hand and suck in all the smoke from the chamber. Tight. 

On the drive over, I felt like shit.  Dunno why but like fever and 
fatigue - blah.  So I'd decided against lighting up but, umm ok, sure .. 
one bong hit .. well, ok, 2 then ..  Yea that was enough to at least be
sociable.  Hmmmm .. did i have a 3rd? maybe.  Dude .. it DID hit me like a 
steamroller - whoa.  Memories of being high before came back like tomorrow's 
yesterday.  The paranoia thing tried to sneak in early on but unlike my 
earlier days, this time I was able to recognize it for what it was and talk 
myself out of it.  It kept creeping back but I'd deal with it.  

Dave was telling about his friend from back home, Scummy.  Unlike me
(IRC nick 'scum' if ya didn't know), Scummy really was.  There were times
during the Scummy stories that I thought Dave was suggesting to Scooter
that they repeat the same on me - like the scene where a bunch of Scummy's
friends wre giving him so much shit and trying to convince him to fuckin
kill himself. whoa. The pot weirded me out on that one.

Dave sat on his grafetti-littered sex chair (for lack of a better term) 
and fooled around with an exacto knife thingy, "carving" shit into his
arm.  That kinda freaked me out and I was like "Dude - don't fucking
cut yourself" - but he was just playing.  He bought out the weapons
collection - a cool knife and  a gun.  He pointed the gun at the
wall and fired it.  A tiny blue flame came out the end, but not enough
to light the next bong hit with - I guess the gun needed more lighter
fluid.

Dave told some story about some dude playing around with that gun as
if he was killing himself with it.  Turns out what he actually was
talking about was an AVI that he made but I was to out of it to 
concentrate on such minor details. I told them about how some dude
wanted me to take a picture of myself sucking on a gun barrell.  They
laughed and Dave got all serious for a split-second, pointed the gun
at my face and said "suck it".  It was a joke.

At one point Dave went to his room and yelled out, "I got something
for you, Durwood."  "Oh cool," I thought, "I like presents."  He came
out and handed me a small folded piece of paper.  I opened it up to
see this picture of a dude's cock.  Dave said, "Now you can say you 
got some dick in Chicago."  Raping your porn collection to give a
friend some dick is sweet.  Thanks, Dave.

Nothing was going on in Chicago. This was verified by a phone call to
Becky, Dave's cool roommate - a Sandwich Artist at Subway.  I was
too wasted to take the L down to the Southside but when the high had
mellowed out, we were all about going to The Golden Eye Waffle House
for some late-night breakfast.  We took the L even though it wasn't 
too far to walk - just so I could say I rode it.  The food was
good and the atmosphere perfect.  

Scooter and Dave traded old BBS and ansi-art stories, having both 
been into those scenes at one time.  I told BerZerker stories
(BerZerker being my pseudo-public linux server - the zine didn't 
exist yet) and we all, of course, talked about cool and not-so-cool 
#punk'ers and the whole dynamics of IRC.  We'd all 3 recently made 
independent decisions to take some form of break from IRC.  Reality 
checks are cool and, besides, summer apporaches.

The night with Scooter and Dave was sweet.  Scooter said it was one 
of the best times he'd had in Chicago.  Neat. 

k plz thx.