A little over a year ago, Katie, Matt, and I made our rarely-trekked trek to Broad Ripple’s Alley Cat Lounge. I had too long sequestered myself up on the northeast side of the city, had just broken up with my live-in boyfriend of 3+ years, and had declared 2009 “The Year of Friendship.” I was determined to surround myself with the fun and fascinating.
“I texted Glasses. He’s meeting us,” Matt had declared on the cab ride up.
See, we’re always meeting “characters” in the various hipster hotspots around Indianapolis. We’ll have these brief, random run-ins with these personalities and immediately give them monikers for future reference: “Knee-Knocker.” “The Kid.” “Poop Guy.” “Eyepatch.”
In Spring of ‘09, “Glasses” was a new character, one Matt and Katie had met a weekend earlier at the same bar. Naturally, he was sporting a pair of plastic frames at the time - hence the name (hey, I’m not saying the nickname has to be ORIGINAL, just MEMORABLE.) The two of them went on and on about how cool he was, so every time the door opened, someone would inevitably whisper, “Glasses?…Nope.”
Finally, Glasses - or Jordan, as we now know him - walked into the Alley Cat and INTO. OUR. HEARTS.
They were right: He was a cool dude, who seamlessly became one of The Gang. Throughout that summer, we found ourselves saying, “Let’s see what Jordan’s up to!” By Autumn, he spent most Saturday nights on our couch and spent most Sunday days drinking with us on Mass Ave. By Winter, we were Secret Santa-ing and taking weekend trips to ring in the New Year. By Spring, he was coaching me on my boy problems and introducing us to his new love.
I thought about all of this last week, as I watched Matt meticulously insert 27 neon candles into a cake we had just made.
“Just over a year ago, he was Glasses,” I said. “And now we’re baking his birthday cake.”
I’m so happy that we get to.
Happy Birthday, Jordan.
Matt, walking with our cake through Lockerbie on our way to The Ball and Biscuit.
Dapper Birthday Boy and the Ever-Lovely Sarah D.
Indianapolis' Coolest Came Out to Play
Cake Blur, because I can't hold my camera still and sing at the same time, silly.
Happy Birthday. Love, Chief.
