Felix Meijer

RAW

The stage:

Eskilstuna, club RAW

The cast:

Most of Kattis’ friends and her mother.

The plot:

My first encounter with abovementioned.

The theme:

Bloc Party – The Prayer

The scene:

Sissela, a friend of my girlfriend, was to celebrate her birthday by throwing a big party – inviting friends near, far and dear.

She had rented parts of the club RAW and decided on a dress code for the evening: Black. I would be lying if I were not to admit my (justified) nervousness for the evening which was to come, as I had not met any of the people invited (and they were supposedly all very curious to see and meet Kattis’ new boyfriend).

I had a lot of expectations on me.

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I had been looking forward to going there though, make no mistake about that. I had heard good things about the people I was to meet and it would also be my first time in Eskilstuna, the hometown of my teenage idol band KENT (which I’ll admit liking these days as well, even if I’m not fully in tune with the choices they made for change on their latest album).

I was thrilled.

On the train there we ran into a pair of the “men in black” (only the were not men, nor dressed entirely in black) and I got a chanse to get an idea of what the company for the evening was gonna be like.

Again; I was thrilled.

This was gonna be great.

Upon arriving we waited at the station for a moment to meet Kattis’ mom, who was in town. I did not accidentally nor intentionally knock her unconscious and the encounter went about as good as it could. She seemed like a good mother, judging from the 120 second impression I got (and all the good things Kattis has had to say bout her when telling me about her family, which is plentiful).

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We then went on a brief walk home to Masja to meet up with another bunch of friends and prepare for the actual party. Another pleasant, albeit not wholly unexpected, surprise when it turned out they were all kind and interesting people as well. Masha had some nice window-glass glasses à la indie which I had an instant crush on and got to borrow. We drank cheap wine of varying taste and color and listened to Nouvelle Vague, April March and Chick Habit, amongst others.

Then we went out for some

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Obviously it was awesome.

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I had a lot of fun upon realizing how most people at RAW got their first impression of me while I was wearing those borrowed glasses.

Some of Kattis’ friends decided to have a bit of a questioning with me. They are all very concerned with her wellbeing and of course I do not blame them for it, considering how her past relationships have been and ended. It felt easing to know she had such caring friends.

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After all the dancing (and the dancing was plentiful, as I had been starving for way too long and couldn’t bring myself to stop even when my body was telling me it had had enough) we proceeded home to Sissela and Martin’s place, who were our hosts this fine night. We ate, freshened up, talked and inevitably slept. In the morning I effectively nullified all the friendship and trust I had struggeled so to build up by more or less throwing a wrestling technique on our soundly sleeping host and hostess. I’m not sure why I made that clearly-not-optimal choise, but on the other hand: Why not? At least it gives me the chanse to re-do the whole thing, right? (smiling).

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Feb’ 14. Valentine’s day. Sun was shining and we were trying to enjoy it with our hangover-gaze.

Feb’ 14. Niklas’ birthday. He would have turned 27, if I’m not mistaken.

I felt very malplaced, but tried my best not to ponder the somewhat bizarre situation too much. Resulting in me nearly passing out while looking at an exhibition. I then went back home to Örebro, while Kattis stayed in Eskilstuna to eat with her own and Niklas’ parents at a local restaurant.

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Later in the evening she came home and we took a warm bath, feasting on chocolate.

A good end to a good weekend.

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