I’m three cups of coffee and one bottle of Diet Pepsi into this fine Monday, and my eyeballs are starting to twitch. I am, however, awake.
Last Thursday, which feels like three weeks ago already, Matt and I took a walk up to the Tangletown water tower to visit the guardians of health and lounge in the sun. It’s very quiet there, apart from the planes on approach; by the time they’re right overhead, they’ve got their landing lights on and gear down. It reminded me of how my dad used to take us out to the parking lot on Post Road to watch planes taking off and landing at the airport. Eventually, we had to get up and remove the grass from our hair to go over to Rock Bottom . Kris and his friend were meeting us there before a show at First Ave, so we were going to dine there and then go to Town Talk after. They didn’t show up until we were getting our tab, so we hung out with them for a bit, then decided to stay nearby. We crossed the street to the Chambers Hotel bar, and were immediately impressed by the looks of the place, if not the sparse crowd. We were doubly impressed by the bar, which was stocked with a few things we’d never even seen before. Cindi was stuck working overnights all week, so she asked us to come over and visit her before we left. We did so after a stop at Sex World to get her a very special present, and maybe a few other things. We presented it to her, and headed home around midnight. Friday, we went to Gasthof zur Gemutlichkeit for Maifest, which is exactly the same as Oktoberfest, only it’s warmer and still light out. Matt and I swing-danced to a couple songs (wearing flipflops and after a large mug of beer? Not recommended!), and then Cindi and I polkaed. I tried snuff, and liked the oh-god-minty-in-my-brain!!!! sensation far too much. The Jagermeister girls passed out glasses for two-for-one shots, which of course was a terrible idea. Before leaving, we all played hammerschlagen, and I won. That was highly unlikely. We mosied on to Stasiu’s, quickly followed by the Northeast Palace (it seemed more important that we get to both of them rather than actually enjoy them, since they’re a couple of the bars we’ve surprisingly never been to up northeast), and found karaoke and an unidentified blue drink at the Palace. The former was excellent, because Matt got to sing three times. The latter was horrific, and one of the reasons I was pretty sure I was going to die the next morning. Saturday afternoon was the flip-cup tournament at Brothers. It was organized by our teammate Tina, and it was both a nice break and massively disconcerting to have no involvement with the planning of the event. The team raised over $2,000, and nobody puked on the floor; things seemed pretty touch-and-go by the time the leading teams got to the final rounds, and had to slam entire glasses of beer in rapid succession. Bill and Katie came down to hang out, and my boss and her husband stopped by later, too, which was awesome. After the fundraiser, Bill and Katie came with us up to Grumpy’s Northeast to see the Arrivals, who were there playing in the backyard for Art-A-Whirl (we missed Chooglin, because their set got bumped up unexpectedly). Katie promptly fell asleep on Bill’s lap, and managed to sleep through half their songs, which was remarkable. After an awesome set, we headed back downtown to drop them off, and go have dinner at the other Grumpy’s, as it was not awash in hipsters. Also, they have tots. We rescued Cindi from the depths of hangover and went over to Lee’s for the Ramones tribute show. We heard ‘Do you Wanna Dance’ from two bands in a row, and I kind of wanted it to just be a show with as many bands as possible, all playing that song. Tell me that would not be awesome. On Sunday, we convened for chicken and waffles. Or some of us had chicken and waffles; I had macaroni and cheese and hash browns, because that is the glory of Betty Jean’s Chicken and Waffles. Matt and I went over to check out some of the galleries at Art-A-Whirl; we walked through the Northrup King Building and the Grain Belt buildings, and I bought this print (in the center) from Sean Tubridy. And then? We found a rocketship. It was then time to drive to Brooklyn Center while making big plans: 1) for stealing said rocketship, and2) for Toast-A-Whirl. Because who doesn’t like toast? We arrived at Pete and Klein’s house, and I was introduced to the institution known as Sunday Family. Klein and Missy were watching the Twins game, so we claimed spots on the couch and I started working on my knitting. We then watched hockey and two movies, after a trip to Blockbuster and Chipotle. I wished I had brought my puffin pants, because there was a previously unknown level of chillaxation going on there. Also, Oscar is the funniest animal I have ever seen. He’s simultaneously the cutest and dumbest dog on earth. This morning, we had to get up a little earlier than usual because Matt has a class, but that’s not enough to explain the fact that I felt like I was napping until lunchtime. I believe this is the phenomenon known as Awesome Hangover. Not that I’m complaining; it’s 100 times better than the ordinary kind of hangover, and indicative of the best weekend ever. WIN! And speaking of weekends, holy crap! Here they are, from now til Labor Day:
- Memorial Day camping
- visiting Matt’s parents in South Dakota, Jumi’s birthday
- my birthday, Brother Ali, Wis-can-sin
- 3day garage sale, light rail pub crawl
- Hiphop and Harmony in southern MN (more camping!), pride
- Roughrider Days in North Dakota
- [July has three unclaimed weekends: GOING FAST]
- Chicago/Milwaukee baseball trip
- Hobo Week in IA, Twine Ball Day in Darwin
- The weekend before the 3-Day, which means lots of walking
- 3-Day
- Seattle to see Steve and Colleen, and Bumbershoot
Jenni