Laughing Luigi’s was right on water street. Smack dab in the heart of the drinking district and student ghetto. In my college days the drinking district was a 3-block stretch of water street that contained 11 bars.

Luigi’s, affectionately called loogies, was a tiny little hole in the wall. There were 8 yellow booths and a counter where you ordered your food. The menu was painted on a yellow board with paint the color of dried blood. The board was nailed to the left wall that led to the counter. The right side of the counter was dominated by a pinball machine.

At 2:30 on Fridays and Saturdays there was no place on earth I’d rather be. ‘specially in the winter. Luigis was a warm, toasty haven stuffed with drunks. The lines were long, the windows fogged over in the dead of wisconsin winters, the food wasn’t all that great. . . but god I loved that place.

Luigi’s was the first point we hit after the mudhoney concert on campus. I was starving, drunk on 80¢ beers and had a few hours before smoked my very first joint. Four of us rushed into luigi’s ears ringing, laughing, demanding beer and pizza. Ohh, sweet beer. An ice-cold pitcher of leinie’s was a mere $1.99 at luigi’s.

Remember now, we had just escaped from the mudhoney concert. Our ears were ringing. As shelley went up to the counter to demand beer and pizza, I went to the bathroom. Upon coming out I discovered that behind the counter was thatcuteguyfrommycreativewritingclass. His name was really tom or tim or something like that. I can’t really remember. He was more commonly known as thatcuteguyfrommycreativewritingclass

I was smitten with tcgfmcwg. the moment I laid eyes on him. He was dark-haired and dark-eyed and just head-turningly gorgeous. My crush on him was quite a dilemma because johnson was also in my creative writing class. But really, ol’ meathead didn’t stand a chance against such a dark-haired beauty.

So, back to luigi’s, shelley is ordering pizza. I think this was all some vane attempt to sober me up before heading out to the bars for the rest of the evening. Let’s back up for a moment shall we? let’s remember, ringing ears, 80¢ beers, stoned for the first time. . . ok?

As I return from the bathroom I see shelley at the counter ordering pizza and beer. I rush over to her and whisper to her, ‘hey the guy working is tcgfmcwc! I love him. He’s totally hot.’

Shelley turned, handed me a pitcher of beer and gave me the look of death. Being drunk and stoned, I didn’t care much. I took the beer and toddled off to the table. Shelley returned and pinched me hard.

‘what on earth are you doing?’
‘what?’
‘you just shouted about how cute he is and how much you like him.’
‘what?’
‘are you deaf?’
‘what?’

she leaned in close and said in my ear, ‘he knows that you like him.’

‘how?’
‘you just shouted it up there at the counter.’
‘I was whispering.’
‘no, you weren’t.’

the rest of our friends laughed and agreed.

‘I heard you all the way over here,’ whitley said.
‘oh well,’ I shrugged, ‘pour me some more beer.’

When one is drunk on 80¢ beer and stoned for the very first time, she doesn’t much care about what she shouted to thatcuteguyfromhercreativewriting class at luigi’s.

But that all changed in creative writing class on Monday (or Tuesday or whenever the class met). Tom (or tim) and I were teamed up to perform a play in front of the class. I cannot remember the name of the play for the life of me. it was blue something, am I blue? maybe. About a girl or maybe it was the boy character. One of them was maybe getting engaged and was a virgin.

I don’t remember the exact storyline, I just remember that at one point in the play the girl says to the boy, ‘well, you could just make love to me.’

Yeah.

When I came across that line, I blushed furiously and the memory of the whole shouting debacle returned to me. I mumbled the line. He looked me dead in the eye and grinned this wicked little grin and said ‘what? I didn’t hear that last line.’

I am pretty sure the entire class knew something was going on. I mustered up every little bit of courage I had, looked him straight in the eye and said,’you could just make love to me.’ I think I impressed the hell out of the both of us.

We actually became pretty decent friends, thatcuteguyfrommycreativewritingclass and i. Of course, I have no idea what happened to him. He graduated a year before I did. I think there was some sort of overseas trip. Nothing ever happened between us. There might have been a drunken smooch once. But there were so many of them to so many faceless boys, I am not sure.

Wow. when I was listening to cheap trick’s ‘surrender’ and the memories of luigi’s started flooding my brain, I didn’t expect this story to come out. See, the very first time I’d ever heard that song I was at luigi’s. it quickly got stuck in my head, only I could never remember the name of it or who sang it. I’d always turn to my friend trish and ask her ‘who sings that mommy’s all right song? She’d sigh wearily every time I asked and say, ‘it’s surrender by cheap trick.’ And I’d always say, ‘ohhh yeah, I always forget.’

I had other stories I wanted to share. But this one seemed to fall from my fingers onto the keyboard. Remembering this sure beats the hell out of writing about resizing images.