Michele and a few others of you asked for more... So here's the rest of the sordid tale... Enjoy your Sunday morning and don't forget that we have more guest writers coming up....
-finn

It was a Friday night in the usual spot with the kid. He seemed to enjoy hanging out and talking for a few hours after work. We’d discuss all sorts of things; music, programming and the job. But I think mostly it was the fact that he had a thing for the bartender.

I’d forgone my usual table this evening, as there was a different waitress on, one who cautioned me all too frequently on my carelessness with the drink. She was a nice girl, really and truly only looking out for someone she barely knew, but who was obviously in trouble. I would thank her for her concern, overtip her and go straight to the bar. I could sit with my back to her for the rest of the evening and not feel like I had ignored her advice. So, the boy and I sat at the bar, discussing the major aspects of a project we were working on. Trying to figure out how to get it done two weeks earlier than originally planned as we were almost consistently two weeks behind on something.

Continue reading "Dr. Stangelove Part II" »

Posted by thefinn at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (9) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

At about the midway point through my multi year bender, things started to slow down a little... I wasn't enjoying myself as much as I had been and I found myself just chilling out in bars as opposed to looking for a good time... This was one of those nights....
-finn

It’s a slow, dirty night. The cigarette smoke is hanging in the air, the bartender is playing CD’s instead of relying on the jukebox. It’s already ten and the bars got half a dozen people in it. It’s a Saturday and, even though I know there’s a shit show at the TLA tonight that’ll draw a big crowd (who I know will show up immediately afterwards), it still feels like it’s gonna be lonely…. I’d talk to the bartender, but I’ve seen him every day for the last three and he’s already seen the memorable bits of my late night shenanigans…

Continue reading "Even Drunks Get The Blues..." »

Posted by thefinn at 8:33 AM | Permalink | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

Inspired by Turtle and Michele’s post yesterday, I give you the following…. It’s not a story of love and betrayal (good story, Zarba… It sucked for you, but it was still a good story). It’s just a story and a fine example of the stupid shit that happens to me entirely too often…..

When I was in my senior year of high school, I dated a girl named Laurie. She was exactly the opposite of everything I had ever dated before (blonde hair, blue eyes, slim and a cheerleader), but in a school that only has about 300 kids in it (that’s freshman to seniors, kids….) we took what we could get. She was also very jealous and suspicious (you know the sort) and I guess, maybe just a little insecure. We dated for about nine months and during most of that time she would grill me about looking at other women and ask me to tell her how pretty she was. Which I did, mainly because no one else in the school was looking at me the way I was looking at her…..

Continue reading "It must be Thursday... I could never get the hang of Thursdays...." »

Posted by thefinn at 1:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

When you were a kid, there was always a thing…. It wouldn’t leave you alone, it came to you when you couldn’t go to sleep (stupid eight o’clock bedtime… It’s still light out for fucks sake! ), it made you pine when you saw the other kids playing, it whispered to you when you were in the toy store…. It was the one thing you had to have in order to make your small journey on this planet complete….. It was “The Toy”…. And 90% of the time, as soon as you got it, you played with it for three hours and completely forgot about it until it was time to pack up and move…. Or maybe it was just me…. There were a few, though, that you got and played with until they were completely destroyed…. Paint scuffed, arms falling off, parts missing…. But you still played with them every day… Until it was time to move and you had a 200 lb weight allowance and your clothes and furniture was 180 lbs of that…..

So that’s what we’re on about today… Toys you loved until they no longer remotely resembled what they used to be……

Continue reading "Sunday with thefinn:
Precious.... My Precious...." »

Posted by thefinn at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (14) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

In light of Turtle and Michele’s Thanksgiving announcement, I moved the story I’d originally decided to do here today. It’ll keep. I present you instead with a story that’s near and dear to me. I hope you find it entertaining and somewhat memorable and I'd like to say "Congratulations!" to them once again.....

It’s hard to remember the first time I met her. Most things about that time in my life are hard to remember. There was a steady drip of poisons running into my bloodstream, most notably the whiskey… Whiskey was the great eraser, nothing could blow out a bad day (week, month, year) like a bottle of Tullamore. We were cleaning the blackboard tonight and I was ten kinds of self imposed importance and bravado. I had been talking to this kid I was supposed to be mentoring for about an hour, slamming back doubles the entire time, hidden away in a little bar on the right side of Broad. I hadn’t eaten all day and the hooch was kicking my head in something fierce, making time with the kid that much more tedious.

He got up to go to the jukebox. I tried to the read the menu that the waitress had set down in front of me an hour ago, hoping that by at least glancing over it she’s stop shooting me dirty looks and just keep bringing me the booze. Tonight was not a night for southern comfort food. Tonight was a night to get rid of the kid, get a retard drunk on and hope that someone would kick my teeth in on the way back to wherever I was going to sleep. Then, maybe, just maybe, I’d feel a little better than I had when I woke up this morning.

Continue reading "Saturday with thefinn:
Dr. Strangelove...." »

Posted by thefinn at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

Did we mention thefinn is doing Sunday mornings as well as Saturdays? Maybe. I think we did. We'll be back later in the afternoon with something fun. Meanwhile, enjoy another great post from thefinn. We touced on this subject the other day but, believe me, the older you get the more it's on your mind - m/t

Sometimes you just get out of bed…. And everything creaks…. Knees, elbows, parts of your back that you weren’t even sure had bones in them….. It suddenly dawns on you, halfway through that first cup of coffee.... Dude you got old…..

You suddenly realize that you’re older than Darby Crash was when he finally bit the bullet. You’re older than Steve McQueen was in “The Great Escape”. You’ve got small flecks of grey in your beard, your eyes are a little more sunken and thoughts begin to harken back to your youth….

That’s when the reminiscing starts….
And that’s what today’s all about…. Things that were there… Something that played a large role in who you eventually became that just isn’t there anymore…. Whether it be through time, or death… A parting of the ways or simple decay…. It just isn’t there….

Continue reading "thefinn: Older But Not Dead" »

Posted by Turtle Jones at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (9) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

If it's Saturday morning, it must be thefinn time. Just a reminder to our readers that this is thefinn's regular spot now, so expect something from him here every Saturday morning. Probably Sunday mornings, too. We love his writing and he has some excellent, creative ideas for future stories and we hope you guys enjoy his stuff as much as we do. Thanks again to thefinn for joining us at FTTW. - T/M

There's a multitude of reasons why I hate the summer.... The humidity, the sweat that always drips in my eyes, the way the asphalt seems to buckle underneath my feet every time I take a step... Don't even get me started on the bugs and the fact that half of the East Coast was built on top of marshlands.... It's August and oppressive here in South Philthy…..

Continue reading "thefinn: Summertime and Music" »

Posted by thefinn at 8:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (21) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It

This weekend Michele and I would like to present you with the new addition to the staff that works here so tirelessly at FTTW. This place has gotten so busy lately, we decided on adding a new member to the team. This is someone who has both made us laugh and respect him from his stories in our comments. Sometimes they have been better then ours. Sometimes not. It works that way. So we both talked and decided. Let's give him a weekend slot. If he makes us laugh and stay interested, two of the blackest souls around, then he will surely make you laugh and stay interested.

Everyone please welcome thefinn.

We both think the story is great.

Ready?

Cause here we go!

The standby... The old familiar.... Breakfast of champions...

I've been smoking for as long as I can remember and drinking coffee almost as long.... I've been doing both for such a long time, that, when I met my wife, she told me I always smell like two things... Coffee and cigarettes and beer and cigarettes.... But the beer is a story for another day.....

The coffee must, without a doubt, be black. And I'm not talking about any old black. Midnight black, jet black, black black black. And strong. You have to smell it coming strong. I'm not a coffee snob. I don't require beans that have been slightly roasted by small albino virgins in a faraway country. I don't need a fancy cup. I just need it to be brackish and muddy and smell enough like coffee that it'll burn through my crap sinuses and tell the brain that it's time to start fucking moving.....

Cigarettes should be harsh, vulgar little things that stink like the French on a hot day and provide no pleasure whatsoever. Kings, preferably…. Firebomb the back of the throat, lay waste to the sinuses and take no prisoners when it comes to the lungs….. I want to see a twelve year old in coughing spasms if he tries one, maybe a little vomit as well…

Light up, sit back, inhale the coffee smell and exhale..... Smoke curling with the steam from the joe.... Ahhhh, yes.... If this it what it means to be alive, this isn't a bad way to start the day.....

It almost sounds like a solitary little ritual.... Smoke, cuppa, a little peace and quiet to start the day... I've never really viewed it that way... I've had all kinds of good times while looking for (or enjoying) a good cup of the black and a Camel.... There was the redheaded girl in the Avignon cafe that I was trying desperately to hit on with my horrible French, the Vietnamese cat who worked at 7-11 and was always reading Soldier of Fortune when I came in at 3 a.m., trudging through the piss hot rain on an August morning to buy a cup and running into an old friend I hadn't seen in years.....

The people may come and go, but the coffee and smokes.... and the memories remain.....

--thefinn

Posted by thefinn at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | Del.icio.us It | Fark It | Digg It