March 4 2006: Three Dog Night – Main Ballroom, Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington DC

Didn’t plan on seeing Three Dog Night at this place and time. Didn’t really plan on seeing Three Dog Night, ever, anywhere. But sometimes the spirit moves. In this case, moving in ways I don’t quite remember entirely.

What I do remember is this: myself, friends Ryan and Heather from Virginia Beach, and friends Terry and Floch from Montana, all got ourselves a classy $180 room for the night because (a) we never go classy and figured why not, we’ll give it a whirl this time, and because (b) with five people to split the cost with it’s like the Marriott’s actually paying US to stay there. So we got a room and figured no point in going out when there’s a liquor store right across the street and big comfy chairs all over the hotel. So Ryan and I split a fifth of Maker’s, Terry goes for a fifth of Evan Williams solo (to his credit he’s not just an alcoholic with no taste buds, he’s also a pretty big guy. So it takes a lot of booze to get his blood flowing to begin with), Floch goes for some beer, and Heather some weird amaretto drink that Ryan makes for her. So believe me when I say that good times were pretty much a given from the start. And then someone, I think Floch, finds out that there is live music and free food and free booze down in the ballroom. Shit!, we all think, that’s kind of what we’re all about! To the ballroom!

And long story short, it’s Three Dog Night playing, at a benefit for some abstinence-in-our-teenagers promoting organization, some guy gave me his purple-and-white-striped blazer, we got free booze and free food, heard “One is the Loneliest Number,” grinned amongst ourselves at our outrageous luck, and got ourselves kicked out not once but TWICE. I later passed out in the lobby and Ryan and Terry had to carry me up to the room. We definitely got our money’s worth out of the Marriott. Fuck yeah.