‘I know to you, it might sound strange, but I wish it would rain’ – The Temptations

Not just lyrics to one of the all-time greatest songs by Otis Williams and the boys (although, as my old neighbor and musical guru showed me, their later psychedelic stuff rivals any), but something that I had forgotten how much I enjoyed.

This, from obviously a drunken afternoon a month or so back, was found scribbled in the back of one of my favorite novels:

Is there any greater day than one spent exiled from a thunderstorm in a place where the spirits are served almost as strong as the conversation they interrupt?

Fine, it’s a well-known fact that after a few drinks I consider myself quite the writer, but it did bring me back to one of my best days I’ve ever had. See, I’ve got this friend named Tracy, who will forever be my favorite gal pal, even though we’ve only hung out 4-5 times. We first met the week before I moved back to the U.K. from Central Florida, which made me sad, as there were very few girls in Orlando worth hanging out with and she possessed what can only be described as a ‘it’. It made me nervous and I acted nervous around her. I still do. It’s weird. Anyway, she asked me for my mailing address which I also found to be both cool and intimidating. A few months later, having come home from my dish washing job at the pub, I had a package waiting. It was a diary, complete with pictures of her life, words of her own and loads of blank pages for me to do the same.

When I say it was the most impressive present ever, I mean it. I’ve gotten some good ones in the past, some generous and thoughtful ones, but this one just…oh, I don’t know. I freaked out. My next year or so after that seemed based around ‘How can I make this into a page to send to her?’, which worked for both good and bad. I tried to hard at times, much like I did when I first came back from Europe moaning about the coffee in America, playing up my Irish anscestry, et al. Hang on, I’m way off base – damn these island cocktails…

Anyway, this was the beginning of my ‘friend-crush’ on Tracy. I got a few occasions to see her after she first sent it and it was great, we hit up the old antique stores in downtown Orlando and I went for my old faithful ‘Bachelors Casserole’ when it came time to have a dinner party at her home. Good times, but deep in the heart of my ‘trying really hard to impress everyone with my previous year spent traveling’ mentality. I suppose I still do try to impress, but not as much. Your 30′s help you laugh at the asshole you used to be and help you come to terms with the one you still are. Anyway, last year I had my one-month whirlwind trip to see everyone and flew into NYC to stay with Tracy’s sister Amy and meet up with the both of them, which you can see here:

[You can catch a glimpse of said vibe at 0:47...it's like, 30's cool meets a coffee commercial - I don't know]

After that, Tracy and I took a train to Philadelphia, where I met up with her boyfriend Justin (you thought this was leaning towards romanticism, yes? No. It’s weird, thus the ‘friend crush’. She’s stunning, you can see that, and…she’s got something, I’ll call it ‘moxy‘ for lack of a better word. You just want to be around her. She’s…enchanting).

Anyway.

That day, T and I took a bus tour around Philly and were about to go see something important (the Bell? Constitution? Forgot), but it looked like it was about to start pouring so we made our way to this little dark pub, parked ourselves down on the old wooden benches and divided our strong drinks with a game of Connect 4:

We were stuck there for hours with nothing more to do than drink and talk – thus, the fond remembrance of rainy days in pubs.

Goodness, I could have just showed the video’s, couldn’t I?

Take 2:

I like it when it rains ’cause I can sit in the pub with a friend. That’s nice.