Another tropical storm passed through last night and is still active today. Which has made me inactive. Too wet and wild for walking, and the power went out a few hours ago. So, I’ve been lazing on the couch with the sliding glass doors wide open, watching the trees dance in the wind and letting Mother Nature blow me.
Last night saw me filling in the hours in the usual way. I started out at IDM and had a nice visit with my pal Chris over a couple of beers. The waitress crew has apparently figured out that I’m not inclined to buy lady drinks there anymore–good service but not friendly or chatty these days. That’s okay; you get what you pay for.
My next stop was Cheap Charlies, and I had my usual gals there happy to keep me company in exchange for lady drinks. I was hungry, so I bought some food (chicken fingers, lumpia, and pancit) in a large enough quantity to share with most of the girls. I didn’t stay long there, though, because I had promised my Whiskey Girl girl that I would attend their Halloween party last night.
Anyway, as you can see, Halloween is a big deal in these parts, and the girls really seem to get into the whole costume thing. Nice seeing them have some fun at work.
When I left Whiskey Girl, I was planning on heading home, but there were no trikes waiting in the usual locations. So, I walked to the trike stand at the 7/11, and seeing as how I was right there at Snackbar; I popped in for a nightcap. It was as busy as I’ve ever seen them, and it got even busier during my visit. So busy, in fact, that I started feeling claustrophobic inside, so I retreated to one of the few remaining open seats at an outdoor table.
Once I sat down, Jenn (what is with all the Jens and Joys in my bar life?) pulled up a chair to join me.
My other favorite, Lydell, I had left inside when I was fleeing the crowd.
Actually, I enjoy them both, and since I’m buying the drinks, I don’t have to choose. Which is good because I’m not sure who I’d pick. I appreciate that Lydell comes hiking with us, though. And I’d really love to see more of Jenn, if you get my meaning. Oh well, that’s part of the fantasy life in my retirement town. None of it is real.
Speaking of crowds, I’m sure my readers have heard about the tragedy last night in my old hometown of Itaewon in Seoul. Halloween weekend has always been huge there, and frankly, I’ve walked the street where the stampede took place on a Halloween long ago and swore I’d neve do so again. Last night was the first post-scamdemic gathering, and I understand the crowds were even larger than normal. ROK Drop has a post with several chilling videos of the nightmare if you can stomach them.
I checked on my nephew Justin and several of my friends who still live in the area, and thankfully, they are all okay. Justin said he was in Itaewon but stayed safely inside of my old hangout, Shenanigans, all night. That’s how I used to roll too.
Shit, my laptop battery is about to go! Gotta run. Hopefully, the the power is restored here soon!
I deemed this the creepiest costume–it struck me that she wasn’t trying to hide her true nature.
I interpret “true nature” to mean “glutton.” She’s the heftiest (or maybe second heftiest) of the bunch, and she’s got “blood” smeared all over her mouth as if she’s been gnawing voraciously on some corpses. Yum.
I didn’t notice until I looked at my photos this morning that she had come outside, maybe looking for me. Based on her expression, it could be she wasn’t happy to see me drinking with Jenn.
Lydell is the foreground girl in that pic? 2 girls are looking your way, and I can no longer keep track of who’s who.
The mamasan is still hot for an older gal.
Ah, the ambiguity of English! The above means one of two things:
(a) The mamasan is an older gal, but she’s still hot.
(b) The mamasan still pines sexually for a gal older than her.
Itaewon death toll got updated to 151. I’m torn between “this would have been preventable with better regulations” and “death is sometimes the price of freedom and government non-intervention. People should be allowed to be stupid.”
Wasn’t so torn about the Sewol disaster in 2014. I wonder what the moral difference is, if any.
” I had promised my Whiskey Girl girl that I would attend their Halloween party last night.”
Are you woking up your pronoun considerations or is Whiskey Girl an ambiguous tranny type? Or is their a reference to the organizers’ plurality? You see I’m confused now.
No offence, but Halloween has always struck me as over contrived American bullshit, even though its ancient origins are from elsewhere (goes without saying there aren’t ancient origins of anything from America, the country is only ten minutes old.) Halloween seems to go of a piece with the zombie cosplay craze. Apart from little kids of course, those who wear black lipstick and paint organs on their bodies most enthusiastically tend to be middle class mummy and daddy haters. Read somewhere that in the US Halloween used to be a real tear up in which much property was seriously damaged. Then the insurance companies, who were kopping the fees for all this depravity, got together with the candy firms to turn it into a literally saccharine children’s event in which no one got seriously hurt. What am I driveling on about? But it’s true, look it up.
Anyway, awful tragedy in Seoul.
Dan. I guess I have a way with words–a bad way! 🙂 What I meant by “my Whiskey Girl girl” was the gal I usually drink with when I’m there, Jen. Definitely not a tranny!
Halloween was never that big a deal to me once I outgrew the trick-or-treating stage. Dressing up as an adult is something I rarely do. In the photo of Eun Oke and me, that was all her doing–she came over with costumes she had purchased and left me no other option. I guess when I was back in the states, the pumpkin carving ritual was my favorite part. I’ll have to read up on the history of the holiday, but it really does seem to be a big deal here. And, of course, you saw the tragic enthusiasm back in Seoul.
Kev, Ha! Yes, the creepy girl doesn’t miss many meals; whatever it is she might be eating. She just had a look about her that conveyed that putting on the mask was taking off the one that hides her true nature. Or something like that.
Yep, that’s Lydell in the foreground scratching her head with the “WTF?” look on her face. I got a picture of them both together last night that I’ll post later.
Regarding the mamasan, (a) is what I was trying to say. I don’t know much about her, though, so maybe both are true.
I guess, in hindsight, you could have had the police attempt to disperse the crowd, but that may have triggered a similar stampede. For me, the Sewol disaster was the direct result of the Captain’s incompetence, and the only fault of the passengers was in being good little sheep and following orders. I don’t think anyone foresaw their peril in Itaewon until it was too late. I recall walking through those crowds and being annoyed at the inconvenience but never considering the potential for a stampede.