Dudes, there is muchmuchmuch I want to talk about, and very little time to do so. Therefore, I will abbreviate some words, and remove some others completely.
Last Thursday, I went to the doctor for my very first insurance-funded appointment in four years, hooray! We had pre-greenie dinner at Suzi’s, a restaurant whose past service abuses I was all ready to forgive, and then! Well, they sucked a lot. Man, I wish that place would deal with their staffpeople’s shitty attitudes. They have two nice servers and twenty who suck. We crossed the street to Jaros’ to join the festivities already underway. There was a group of eighteen of us within an hour or two, and great strides were made towards the millennium: we’re over 10% of the way there! All the new people were introduced to the naked lady matching game, which didn’t break once over the course of the night, and it was awesome to hang out with people I hadn’t seen in a while. Once the greenie activity dwindled, Matt, Cin, Wendy, Willis and I went over to the Double Deuce. Every time we’ve planned to go there recently (because Matt hadn’t been, and that needed fixing), something has occurred to prevent it. We decided to not plan to go this time, and managed to end up there for some real-life naked ladies. We hung out for a bit, said bye to Willis, and mosied on to the Northeast Palace for karaoke. I like that place a lot! Also, I wish to exclaim over Wendy and Cindi’s extreme dedication, as they both had to work the next day. I hear Cindi spent the night on her bathroom floor. COMMITMENT. Friday was gorgeous, so Matt and I spent the day fine-tuning our relaxation skills; we had a picnic on the hill in Gold Medal park (one of the presents he got me was an oldschool picnic basket, exactly what I had been trying unsuccessfully to find earlier this spring!), laid on a blanket in the grass until we nearly dozed off, and then held the First Annual Ultimate Extreme Bocce Showdown Cage Match Tournament To The Death. Surprisingly, we both survived, so we went to Spoonriver to celebrate on the patio and wait for Wendy. When she arrived, we headed First-Aveward. We had some time to kill before the show, so we walked over to Sneaky Pete’s. It was mainly a joke, because it’s next door to Dream Girls; however, we soon discovered that it was quite awesome. The crowd was as expected, but the bartenders were really great, and so was the band. It’s possible we may even revisit it sometime. We got to First Ave in time to see Psalm One, and Brother Ali was up next. I didn’t even care that the place was packed full, because the show was fantastic. On Saturday, Wendy, Jumi, Cin, Matt and I caravaned eastward to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, home of the Leinenkugel Brewery. We went on the tour, spent a very long time in the store, partook in our complimentary beers (the Summer Shandy is awesome, dudes), and were on our way to find some lunch. We did so at a roadhouse made of logs just south of town called Loopy’s. Matt and I played pool, and then the place was invaded by the first wedding party we’d see that day, but not the last. We headed to Eau Claire (now known as the Eau-C), checked into our hotel (dear Cin: it’s a double-bonus having a friend in the hospitality industry; did I mention we need reservations in Chicago and Milwaukee, too?), had a pillowfight, went to Shopko to look at everything, and placed bets on what time Willis would actually arrive. My optimism earned me five bucks, and we headed off to Water Street, because we’d heard it was the place for the bars. Only we couldn’t find it, so we drove around in two cars for a long time, with Wendy and Cindi hurling Pop-Its from the windows (hey, they were a dollar), until we finally gave up and asked some locals. We later saw those same locals wandering Water Street themselves. We started at Dooley’s Pub (promptly renamed Douchey’s, though it didn’t really merit the name at all), then went down to the Grand Illusion, which I’m pretty sure is the awesomest dive ever, due to the bunk beds (really bunk booths, but whatever). We played naked ladies for a very long time, until it was necessary to go find food. We quickly located the Santana’s of tha Eau-C, and I’m pretty sure that place is the reason we all managed to survive the night. We stopped at the Pickle mainly for the name, were terrified by the brightly-lit, collarpopped interior, but had to have their signature shot, the Brett Favre. Like its namesake, it was overrated. We quickly bailed and headed to the place the entire city seemed destined to end up at that night: the dance club known as She-Nanigans. SERIOUSLY. I knew we had won the day when we found ourselves dancing to ‘We Like to Party’ on the tiny, sweaty dance floor. We also ran into the same wedding party from Chippewa Falls, in addition to another party that seemed absolutely identical, just in green dresses instead of blue. One of the green-dressed girls tripped and spilled her full beer, managing to get at least half of it down the back of my jeans. And this did not bother me at all, because you’d be disappointed if something like that didn’t happen every time you were in Wisconsin. The next day, we left our hotel long past check-out time, went to a middle-of-nowhere resort south of Menomonie for brunch (it was excellent), and headed back towards civilization. Matt and I spent the rest of the day either on the couch or floor, trying not to die of heat. Apparently it’s summer now! Yesterday I dozed at my desk til 3:30, then went to Uptown Tattoo. I needed this, and now it is mine! Matt joined me at the appointment, and afterward we had cocktails and grilled out on the patio. (We’re pretty awesome at Mondays, in case that wasn’t obvious.) My arm is still pretty swollen, which means I have a fancy red spiral around my forearm, and embossed lettering. I kind of dig the effect. Today, I have Neosporin all over my desk. Happy Tuesday! Jenni