last night was my good pal benny’s birthday. i was at a loss for what to get him... i’ve never been a very good gift giver, and, as with the rest of my life, never very timely about it. so last night at about 9:30pm i said well, i should probably get the ol’ boy something. had it been his 21st birthday i likely would have bought him a drink and that would be that. it was not his 21st birthday. so i’m sitting there on the couch, the couch he regularly occupies for overnight stays, and i say ‘oh he broke his sidekick’s screen the other day. i should get him a new one.’ on i venture to the world of craigslist. i pointed out to sej how happy i was that the only clicked link on my craigslist was ‘casual encounters’. i’ve never gone through with one, but damn are they fun to read. no, this time i clicked on the for sale > electronics and searched sidekick. i emailed a few people, to no avail, even texted a dude (who promptly said he didn’t have it any longer) then finally i reached someone named artison. i checked all over google to see if this person i was dealing with was a fellow or lady, to no avail. so i explained the situation and that i wanted to get it tonight... luckily they were compliant. they were from providence, so i said we should meet at the burger king next to the ihop next to providence place (you know, somewhere neutral, well lit, etc.)... but said seller wasn’t down with that idea, as said seller couldn’t get there, because said seller didn’t have a car. so said seller gave me the address and i put it into googlemaps and found a picture of the house... 198 amherst st. give it a whirl, you might have a similar reaction. it seemed to be in the, excuse my language, the ghetta.

regardless, sej and i hopped in the car, sej armed with a tiny swiss army knife and a larger one and me armed with naught but my charm and gruff demeanor. i had asked said seller for their telephone number, but they said ‘no, my friend’s grandmother gets mad if people call late at night so i’ll call you in 30 minutes’. red flag? should be, for a less trusting person. or a normal person. me? oh no that’s fine, that’s fine. so off we go. we get off of 95 and drive down manton ave, had a small conversation about what ‘colortyme’ is, and eventually we pull up to the home, in olneyville. at eleven o’clock. sej and i sit there for a pretty long time, though maybe it wasn’t that long, it just felt that way. said seller had told me i could honk the horn but i didn’t want to make a disturbance so we sat there. eventually the door opened and a young man, probably 16-18 years old, walks down the stairs as i get out of the car. i had, for some reason, put the allotment of cash in my inside pocket of my jacket, a move i now regret a bit, because it was quite an uneasy look i got when i reached inside my jacket in front of artison. he was a nice enough fellow, handed me the sidekick and i handed him the money, trying to do so as nonchalantly as possible. then an awkward ‘thanks for the stuff’ moment and i was back in the car. sej had had his knife at the ready and had locked the door after i exited the car. i got back in and we sat there for a bit until we saw a car roll up behind us. then back down south we went. the phone wasn’t working, though. both sej and i are not well versed in the world of the sidekick so i thought i had been hosed, played, screwed, shisted, but apparently they just take a long time to charge a dead battery.

well, in the end it worked out and benny was really excited and blown away by the gesture. and he was even more blown away that we went all the way to olneyville at 11:00pm to get it. soon his thumbs will be dancing all over the keys on his new sidekick, though, and that’s all i could have hoped for.

hey, that’s just what i do for my pals.