“Jeeeellllly GIll!!!!!”
This is a phrase I have heard at least 10 times a day since I moved in with Charley Meyer (goes by chuck, former slot wide receiver at Va Tech/currently dating a 47 year old mother of 2.) He just kinda says it for no reason. I’m coming home from work, I’m getting out of bed, I’m trying to fall asleep, I’m looking at my phone, anytime he did not have 100% of my undivided attention, I would hear “Jeeeelllly GIll!”.
At first, I responded to his antics. I’d just say “hey man” or “whats up chuck” and he would just kinda enthusiastically ramble on regardless of my response. I actually have grown (shrunk?) to kinda enjoy it. Now, I just look back at him with a blank stare (my usual)and throw my phone to the nearest padded landing strip out of arms reach and chime in for Chucks next rant. These rants usually went something like this:”Dude today I woke up and fished the pier at 5 then worked all day at Bob’s (bait and Tackle), everyone asks the same questions! I talked football with some dad though and all these girls told me I was hot so its cool hahaha and then I face timed Brewer for a couple hours, do you have a spare beer?” (Sidenote I went fishing with him off the pier at 5am before work a couple times and it was electric. Rough looking bearded men with plenty of miles on their odometers’ enjoying supple busch light breakfasts, chuck and some dude named pepper talking each others heads off about Tech Football for hours, me just standing there watching the sun rise and pretending like I know how to catch a fish.)
But overall, Chuck was a superb roommate. That 47 year old gave us great discounts at Chilli Peppers(superb hole in the wall coastal dive bar we could walk to). I even became best friends with her 10 year old son (probably because we both have the hots for the ocean and the same maturity level).Somehow I always got roped into babysitting him while Chuck and his mentor were out of sight all of the sudden.I digress.
We actually found Chili Peppers the first night we moved in. Me and Austin Meyer (current agriculture student,avid sports book capper and formerly the heart throb of most of Richmond’s female high school student population). We didn’t have cable yet so we ventured to find the nearest destination to watch Lebronald Palmer battle against some team from the bay area who has a guy who tweets pictures of his family jewels and religiously complains about EVERY SINGLE FOUL CALL. If he drives to the basket and misses a lay up he’s yelling at the ref, if a foul is EVER called on him he yells at the ref, I can’t remember his name but he also likes kicking/hitting people in the very organ he chose to tweet a picture of.I digress.
Anyway, we catch a ride to this big sports bar we saw on the ride in. Immediately upon entering, we know we see ominous signs that we have made a mistake. First, they are actively advertising 5$ Budweiser tall boy special (this isn’t a good deal?) and their wings resulted in Austin having a violent trip to the bathroom. Naturally, we high tail it out of there at halftime and catch an Uber home. As the driver turns onto our street (East Archdale, practically beach front NBD).Then,seemingly in unison,My buddy and I’s eyes locked onto a truly beautiful sight. Our pupils beheld an old sign that sported chipped paint and simply read “Chilli Peppers Coastal Grill” .We ventured inside this magical mecca and are greeted by a bartender who looks like Jimmy Buffet on Heroin. He proceeds to tell us they have 1 dollar miller high life bottles (!!!) and a couple minutes later shares that he doesn’t have air conditioning in his house but it stays cool because it is on top of a hill (???)there are a lot locals like that.
I don’t know where this blog was going but I had a wonderful summer. I only showered inside once.Long hard days at work driving boats and riding jet skis, only to come home nightly to Austin sitting on the porch listening to nights with Alice Cooper and handing me an ice cold yellow pepsi. Days off were spent at the beach, indulging in magical Spotify playlists,fishing, minors asking us for beer (and being denied!!!!!!),Kan jam and borderline cut throat semi-professional body surfing competitions. Nights were spent on the porch or covered in sweat “dancing” on the famous Kelly’s dance floor . (our “dancing” consisted mainly of me crawling around the floor sucking my thumb,up downs and violent unrythmic shaking motions) Oh yeah and Corey Smith played a concert there in front of like 15 people. Life comes at you fast man. Great concert, pretty sure his base player wants to either kill me or bang me (I hope both!!!) but thats another story for another blog. We even found one of our roommates on Craigslist and besides doing cross fit he was a really nice guy. Thats when you know the good lord was smiling down upon your summer in the sun. See you soon, Huntington Beach!
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