I would wake up and make a concsience effort to not move off the couch.  It could have been three days since I had showered, and I’d be far more interested in playing more Gran Turismo 2 than furthering myself or, at the very least, attempting healthy lifestyle choices.  I was busy waiting the arrival.

By the time I woke up, it would be already 4 PM, and within 2 hours, my alcoholic Uncle John would kick down the door holding a 12-pack of Budweiser.  It was always Budweiser if he bought it.  And it was always cold.

My brother, whose name is also John, would be off work at some random time, but usually he had a 5 o’clock job.  He’d probably bring home some beers as well, but usually with him the alcohol choices varied from day to day.  He owned the place.

Around eight o’clock every day Jesse would appear.  He’d have at least a quart of beer for himself, and various other illegal party favors for us kids to enjoy.  He was commonly arriving with his goon squad of friends, which consisted of Steve, Jared, Eric, or Lucas.  All of them attended the local high school on the west side of town together. Good kids.  Good-hearted, anyway.  For each one of them, add one additional quart of beer.

By the time it was nine PM, the roommate of my brother, also named Jesse, would be off-work from his night-shift answering computer calls.  He liked industrial music, thus we called him “Industrial Jesse”.  His mother also happened to be the County Judge.  I guess that had a lot to do with the police never giving us trouble.  That, or we were fairly docile due to intoxication, and we gave them little bother.

So daily, it was me, John, John, Jesse, Jesse.  And whatever part of his crew.   Sometimes one of the guys had a girlfriend and they would be present, and in the case of “industrial” Jesse, it was Allison, and she would be around at random, although she had to be the quietest of us all.    Periodically the “dynamic duo” would arrive together, Austin and Kein, also friends of the Jesse high school squad.  I call them a dynamic duo because they were undoubtedly corpses for conversation while apart, and like heat, oxygen, and highly combustible material when together.