This weekend I made the trek back up to Missouri, where I spent my all-too-short college years, for the annual border wars game versus the University of Kansas.
It’s one of those games every year that every alumnus in the continental United States comes back for, and I knew it was going to be OOC — that’s out of control. I was totally prepared to be nursing a mean hangover on my flight back, but I wasn’t expecting having to deal with actual battle scars.
I was seized from behind during Saturday’s tailgate with an overzealous embrace from one of my sorority sisters. I hadn’t seen her in quite a while, and I guess my homecoming combined with her Screwdrivers overwhelmed her sense of propriety and depth perception. I did a near face plant in the asphalt, but was able to get my hands down to save my sweet mug.
As we rolled around in the Arrowhead parking lot, proclaiming our mutual adoration and attracting the perplexed (or aroused, it was difficult to ascertain) attention of onlookers, I realized I was bleeding. Profusely. From my elbow, where a twin-set of inch-diameter gashes had appeared. Moments later I was on my feet and proudly showing my wound off to my classmates, trying not to drip on my own shoes.
Not wanting to risk getting parking lot grime in my cut, I grabbed the nearest antiseptic (Ketel One, it stings), doused my elbow in it and kept on trucking.
It wasn’t my first rodeo, and it wasn’t my first experience with accompanying injuries. Below are some of my favies:
Zick Nick – A “Zick Nick” is my term for any alcohol-related head trauma, whether it’s bonking your head on the toilet, closing it in the cab door or, as my friend Julie Zick did, toppling off a retaining wall at formal. Julie’s poor little noggin was especially badly served; she suffered a mild concussion and now has a half-dollar-sized bald spot (only visible when her hair is pulled up). No elegant up-do on her wedding day.
Stiletto Splints – I wish I could say that the shooting pain up the front of my legs was from religious jogging around Rice University, I really do. But the truth of the matter is that when my calves are sore, it’s not a dedicated workout program that’s at fault, it’s my four-inch platform Calvin Kleins.
Crouching Tiger Throbbing Quadricep – I don’t know what kind of crazy would subscribe to excruciating wall sits when I get the same workout every Friday and Saturday night. Ever since I learned to “drop it like it’s hot” at my senior lock-in, I can count on having trouble sitting down the next day. It seems I just can’t say no to getting low.
Beard Burn – I got a text message this summer from my best friend’s mom demanding, “Have you SEEN Mimi’s chin?” Beard burn, the peeling that comes after a voracious makeout sesh with someone sporting five o’clock shadow, is no new phenomenon. It may have been a while since Mrs. D suffered it herself, but she wasn’t buying her daughter’s over-exfoliation excuse.
Booze Bruises – Discovering those unexplained and oddly placed (what did I sit on?) bumps the next morning is like trying to unravel the mystery of Stonehenge. You don’t know who or what’s responsible, it lasts forever and it can attract hordes of curious onlookers.
My elbow is healing up nicely, and I’m expecting to be scab and booze bruise-free by next weekend. I am slightly embarrassed, but I’m definitely not sorry I party.
telling stories
Black-owned Houston bookstore opens new home in historic Third Ward space
Even though its grand reopening will be held this Saturday, May 17, Third Ward bookstore Kindred Stories has already begun a soft opening at its new location inside the Eldorado Ballroom at 2310 Elgin Street.
Since September 2021, the Black-owned bookstore was located on Stuart St., one of many businesses that came to life thanks to Project Row Houses’ Incubation Program. Last year, the nonprofit informed Kindred and the other business that they had to vacate their premises at the end of this month to allow new businesses to occupy the spaces.
Thankfully, Kindred already had its eye on the Eldorado location, next to neighborhood eatery The Rado Market (which has a collection of cookbooks curated by Kindred). It’s a space previously held by Hogan Brown Gallery, which abruptly closed in December. “I had caught wind that this space might be available,” Kindred founder/owner Terri Hamm tells CultureMap.
Hamm turned the moving process into a fun little event for her and her loyal customers. “Last Tuesday, we invited about 20 of our top community members that, you know, are always in the store and have really supported us all of the year,” she says. “We packed up all the books in the space in an hour and, then, we moved everything in an hour. So it was like the beautiful way to close out that space in the midst of the community that has really supported us throughout three-and-a-half years there. And we spent the last four days kind of unboxing and just getting all set up.”
Hamm says the new location is certainly roomier (around 1200 square feet) than their previous spot, which was only 450 square feet.
“There's more room to just spend time in the store,” she says. “I feel like that's the ideal bookstore experience, when you can go in and really take your time. I feel like in the other space, it was so small, people kind of felt like they were in a rush.”
Although Kindred is open and ready to welcome anyone looking for Black-and-proud literature, Hamm insists they’re only 90 percent done. More light fixtures need to be installed. Plants and furniture have to be brought. They even have custom-made wallpaper that needs to be installed.
“So, we have a few little things that need to happen,” says Hamm, “And, then, I feel like the space will be really, really ready – probably in another six months.”
In the meantime, it’s business as usual. This month’s calendar of events includes various appearances from authors as well as a couple of book clubs. Hamm is looking forward to new bookworms coming in and discovering what Kindred Stories has to offer.
“The bestsellers are selling,” she says, “But I feel like, in this space, people are going to get to discover a lot of under-the-radar titles, just because there's more space to see the books and explore.”