Todd Stadler's blog

Fun + intervention = funtervention

Tonight was my last night in Richardson. Those of us who still keep in touch from high school hung out at a fairly low-grade pool hall in north Dallas. And yet, with the tame crowd there and a beer selection only an Oregonian from Texas could love (Miller, Bud, and Shiner...um, I'll have Shiner), it was a good time.

We flirted with the bartender - okay, mainly, that was Ajay. We played songs loudly with the bartender's help. We sang those songs loudly without anybody's help. And we even danced a little on the bar (well, Wendy did, and Ajay did until he hit his head).

And Ajay practically demanded we continue the evening at his house after they kicked us out of the bar at 2am. Of course, they only did so grudgingly - the bartender said we could come back any time later for 50% off drinks if it was her shift. These sort of things happen around Ajay.

Back at his house, it was chips and salsa and infomercials. And nothing else would have hit the spot like that combination. Most memorable was Univision, with its ever-present beautiful women in slinky clothes accompanied by a chunky Santa who couldn't assemble a Razor scooter, some woman in a scary reindeer costume, and a very scary, very unexplained cut to what appeared to be someone in a snowman costume.

We also saw a commercial for, and I wish I was making this up, Budget Casket. Yes, budgetcasket.com, even. I kept waiting for it to be a joke. But no. I suppose this is what late-night TV is all about.

Driving home, it occurred to me that all the trees were heavy and glistening with ice. The trees glowed very pretty in the sodium vapor lights, as unpoetic as that sounds.