Dancing in the Rite Aid with a Case of Beer

This year for Christmas my/Trish's friends and I decided to do a book exchange, instead of buying each other presents. The idea was proposed by our friend, Carol who now lives in San Diego. We would each pick a book we liked, for whatever reason, write a little note in it (why we piked it, Happy holidays), wrap it up and we'd all get together and pick one out. I have been so excited by this. What a great idea! Until I realized...I'm not a profound, life-altering-moment, kind of person (no matter how much I wish I were).

I like reading books by Jeffrey Deaver, Jonathan Kellerman, Grisham and other whodonit types. I also like the YA-YAs....but which one of us hasn't read them?!?!?! (Especially since I gave it to 2 or the other exchangers as a present years ago.) I like the Harry Potter books, but again, most of us, if not all have read them. Hmmm....

I finally decided I'd check out an author Kare sent me a few years ago, Laurie Notaro. I had already read Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club, so I decided to try a different book. So far, I haven't been all that impressed. This has led me to Half.com the Idiot book again to see if I liked that one enough to share it. Anyway, the book is We Thought You'd Be Prettier. It's mostly her post-married life, but quips about her life which seem real, but not entirely as funny as I remember Idiot being. Tonight, I began reading a chapter on her favorite bar closing and the memories of all the things that had happened there I had to close the book and write (lest I finish the chapter and forget what I wanted to say about it) about the first thing that came to mind.

The conversation spurring the nostalgia went like almost like I'm going to write it. I can't really remember WHERE it took place, for some reason I want to say Kare's house, but it really could've been Memorial Day in Ocean City, MD. I DO remember it was "the Lisas", Kare and me and for all I know a few other people could've been around. Lisa B opened her mouth and said, "They're making it a Rite Aid." WHAT?!?!?!? (we all said that in unison, does it need quotes?) "Yep. A Rite Aid."

I really couldn't get my little brain around the idea the bar of legend and then of reality (once I turned 21) would be a drugstore. There was the first time "our bar" impacted my life when our R.A. came home from there late one night with stories to tell of a smashed window and his roommate's separated shoulder, followed by a late night run to Dunkin Donuts. The nights when we lived together that Kare went there and came home to talk of who was seen, what took place and (most importantly) who was missing or "disappeared" together before "last call".

The first time I entered into the bar "with the airplane sticking out of the roof" for Beat-The-Clock Friday nights (and later, Beat-The Cover-Charge). Me dancing with Mitch (our football player) after learning my ex-boyfriend had a new girlfriend; an Athletic Trainer symposium post-mortem where "Gobble, Gobble, Gobble" took on a whole new meaning and old crushes extinguished. A new relationship (and the "best" one to date)began at the hand of a friend talking to a guy about me, inspiring the guy to talk to me about me (Thanks again Beck! :) ) and then him helping me to win a case of beer from our friend, Penny (Ah, competition bonds people like nothing else! :) ) at the Back Bar. The Valentine's Day Trish came down to Salisbury to witness the above mentioned R.A. propse to me at the main bar and wax poetic to everyone who would listen (his friends, Trish, the bartender, Beatnik guy, random others) about how wonderful I was. And who can forget (beside me trying) the night our basketball team lost in a playoff game at Towson and our friend Earl drove Beck and I straight from the game in Towson to The Flying Club?!?!? Earl had the "magic" touch and somehow got me a plastic cup that was never empty. I only had that one drink all night! I also made up my own sign language so I could communicate with Aim, met Jay, Earl's roommate (after I figured out there were not two Earls)and missed my new relationship's lacrosse game because I had only managed a 1/4 inch turn on the couch at Beck's by 2 o'clock Saturday afternoon. I'm also pretty sure, but not positive one of my friends saved another of my friends from non-oncoming cars on the way home from there one night.

"A Rite Aid? Lisa, they can't make it a Rite Aid! You just can't have the same memories from a Rite Aid. I say on our next visit we buy a case of beer, go to Salisbury, hit the Rite Aid, find the spot where the old dance floor was and dance up a storm."