Law

I soon learned that almost everyone that lived in the Halfway House had at least a police record, and many were in the process of some form of adjudication. Megan and Jim were on probation as was Clint. Clint was charged with destruction of federal property after being caught four-wheeling on a closed National Forest Road. Jim took a DUI for Clint one night, and was also involved in an identity theft case in which he presented his brother's ID on the DUI arrest. How one can “take a DUI” I’m not quite sure, but rationalization is the lynchpin of friendship I guess. Megan had done jail time for dealing pot and was currently on probation for DUI. Sam got a DUI the day before he moved to Creede. I myself had been arrested on three occasions. Needless to say we were a little freaked out about the possibility of a search warrant being served at the house. Although my house, my roommates, co-workers and I all had a mixed reputation with the law; we had a tie that bound us all together and that was our ability to party hard night after night, and the necessity of rules in the house. Because two underage girls lived in the house and we were paranoid at the prospect of police involvement; there were a series of conditions on who could be at the house and if you disrespected the house you would be shown the door. I wondered what sort of relationship I would have with the local law enforcement this summer.

Tommies

My first night partying with my roommates was spent barhopping between OMI and Tommies one of the other bars in town. After some Jager and a lot of beer, we went to Tommies. Tommies was a bar right around the corner from the OMI owned by a couple of Okies from Stillwater. I quickly became friends with the dudes that worked there. That night our bartender Megan got fucking wasted and couldn’t even walk she was so drunk. She went into the bathroom at the bar and locked herself in the toilet. After about 30 minutes we had to grab the keys to unlock the door as other people were banging on it trying to get in. Jim and I carried Megan two blocks back to the house. She stumbled the entire way at one point tripping and twisting her ankle. When we got her home the underagers were partying hard and drinking whiskey. Megan fell in the middle of the floor and demanded some whiskey. Alesia poured her a shot which she inhaled. Once we got inside where it was light we realized that Megan had sprained her ankle pretty bad and had a cut that was pouring blood or what would pass for blood with the amount of alcohol in her system. Jim cleaned her up and Alesia took her to bed. Those of us drinking had a good laugh and knew that this would set the stage for some crazy nights the rest of the summer.

...the next installments are where it gets really good!