10 June 2008

Golden Evenings

Friday night I was out working at a coffee shop and my parents called me and asked me to meet them at Acapulco's Gold for dinner. Which was awesome.

My parents love Acapulco's Gold, which is sort of weird, because it isn't really a "parents" kind of place. But they have (according to my mother) great chicken nachos and the strongest, cheapest, and most easily drinkable margaritas I've ever had. The margaritas taste sort of like lemon-lime crystal lite, but with a kick. That sounds disgusting, but it is actually sort of marvelous.

Further, all the servers are heavily tattooed and pierced, there are always a couple of tables of gay boys, and the restaurant is all the way over in deep NW--a long drive from the Happy Valley compound.

But Bruce and the Kare Bear love it.

There are two strange consequences of this for me:

1. Many of my adult family memories actually take place at the Gold. My parents have taken all my out-of-town guests there (Laura has an especially good story about the night that we went there). We've celebrated family birthdays there. Dr. Awesome and I took our parents there together. AND, the Gold is where my brother and sister-in-law told us that they were having a baby. (Not just any baby, it turns out, but rather the lovely Lady E.)

2. Because so many of my family memories take place at the Gold, but also so many of my 20-something memories happened there too, I have some serious cognitive dissonance about the place. After all, I also have memories of going there with Anita and Katie (Katie got so drunk BEFORE dinner that she spent most of the meal outside throwing up). And of the time that I walked there with Emily after work at the pharm and we split 2 pitchers of margaritas (which could easily kill a horse) and then walked back to the pharm and, because I was still drunk, I had to take the # 15 bus down Belmont and call my dad to pick me up. And there have been lots of nights there with Qwanty (when she dated the bun-wearing guy) and Dr. Awesome and my brother and who knows who else.

I don't mind Acapulco's Gold as a crossroads for my youthful memories and my family memories, but shoot me if I ever start hanging out at the Space Room or BOG with my parents--it'll be all over then.

3 comments:

qwanty said...

I haven't thought about that place in a loooong time. Maybe it is actually the case that I haven't been able to remember that place in a loooong time, due to all the margaritas consumed there.

The bun wearing guy? You say this as though your readers are familiar with the bun wearing guy. Have you mentioned him? Have you mentioned WHY he wore the bun?

Wait. Of course you haven't. Bruce reads this.

Hi Bruce.

qwanty said...

And by the way:

cognitive dissonance.

hee hee.

Anonymous said...

You guys also took me there for my 21st, and then there was the other time when Kare bear hugged and kissed me a lot. Oh yeah and that other time when Bad Dog played there, and at the time I was too young to get in so I had to stare at the back of the band through the window.

I guess I have more memories there than I thought.