Dear internet,
Do you ever get tired of the bulleted list-of-days? More importantly, DO I CARE? Let us discuss, but only after I wake up enough to be able to approximate coherency in regards to anything more than a bulleted list-of-days. Until then, this:- On Tuesday, I spent ye olde hour(s) of happiness with Kirby, then repaired to Town Talk for the usual entertainment. Nathan is becoming more awesome by the second, and he’s totally fine with me yelling I LOVE YOU!!!! at him all the time.
- Wednesday, I went to the Times for dinner and Jitters for Hipshakers with Cindi, where we were intimidated right out of the place by a birthday party for a professional dance troupe (although we ended up talking to one of the boys outside, and he was quite awesome, and a recent fan of the Mpls). I went home and was preparing for bed around midnight when Kirby insisted I come to CC Club, so I did. It’s weird to walk in and recognize half the people in a bar, even though you haven’t been there in a couple years.
- Thursday, I accompanied my sister shopping (how it works is this: she goes looking for stuff, I end up buying many things myself, while she finds nothing she likes), and then we congregated at Gameworks for DDR and Joe. Some dude gave us a bunch of prizes just for being awesome (that’s my take on it, at least). The four of us paid $8 for probably $50 in drinks. I missed one step on Butterfly and it gave me a B. I am never going to make money as a DDR professional.
- Friday ruled because I got to wear my Gophers hoodie and my Gophers pajama bottoms together in a supreme feat of maroon-clashing and dorkiness; I shopped and talked and baked cookies and brownies for the folks around town. Later, Bill, Cindi, Jumi and I had dinner at Gluek’s and then went to see Atmosphere at First Ave. I’m kind of in love with Psalm One (and the guy in the giant gold Tupac shirt), and moreso in love with my city in general, especially as it relates to music in these later days. The show was sold out and sweaty and I accomplished my #1 goal, which was TO ROCK. Afterwards, we got our mosey on to Town Talk, and found many of the regulars in attendance: Sean got me to try one of the pickled mustard eggs in the giant jar at the end of the counter (it was actually good!), Ryan had an ants-on-a-log martini, talk of which then prompted Aaron to make us a platter of the best ants on a log ever, and in general/as usual, awesomeness was afoot. Upon return to my car, I found a flyer for Chingo Bling‘s Halloween show, and cursed my existing plans for denying me that experience. Well, not really. But still!!
- Saturday began the weekend of the most perfect fall weather ever. Chele and I had brunch outside, and then I went for a long drive in the middle of nowhere with the windows and sunroof open, music loud enough to cause structural damage to buildings as I sped past. In the eveningtide, Cindi and Jumi and I went to Oktoberfest at Gasthof zur Gemutlichkeit. It was polka-tacular; we did stupid German shots, danced on a floor dangerously slippery from beer, played hammerschlagen, and Cindi even braved the snuff. To this, I say: holy crap. When the tent-polka was over, we found the downstairs bar packed full of college boys loitering in a stinky haze of testosterone, so we decided to head elsewhere. And, oh, elsewhere was funny. At various points, we found ourselves at Grumpy’s, some random bars we’d never noticed before, SuperAmerica on Broadway, playing percussion on office desks behind Erte, yelling at a dude who was staggering down the street because he hated the sidewalk, and trying to steal a party bus outside the Double Deuce. So, basically, best bizarre-conglomeration of Oktoberfest-related activities ever.
- Sunday was Kaye and Jumi’s work event at Valleyfair, so a bunch of us headed there to scream our heads off on rollercoasters. The weather was perfect, even slightly too warm; we got sunburnt on October first. I was a little sad that the Power Tower freefall was nowhere near as exciting after skydiving, but I had enough speed and flipping upside-down on other rides to make up for it. Later on, I went downtown to find Bill and Katie talking to some of the members of White Light Riot and the Alarmists outside First Ave, and the awesomeness that was the Minnesota Music Awards began. For a mere $10, I got to spend much time in close quarters with vast quantities of local musical talent, and enjoyed the novelty of just being a fan amongst a crowd of people far too concerned with their industry connections to be rocking out sufficiently. Aaron and Bill were both alerting me to Slug-sightings; when he walked right past me in the main room, I considered trailing drool after him, but managed to control myself. The hiphop awards presentation was awesome, and I kept seeing P.O.S. everywhere. We sat and watched a few bands in the Entry, and then went into the main room for the final show: I was sad to miss the Alarmists, but DOOMTREE! And, um, I can’t really explain how fucking great it was. It was something on the order of 50 people, in the main room at First Ave, with all the members of Doomtree. Sims jumped off the stage and danced with us on the floor. At one point, he crouched down and rapped to me, a foot away. I might have swooned a little. I got back into the Entry for the last two songs in White Light Riot’s set; it was easy to find Bill and Katie and Jumi, because they were the group dancing the most enthusiastically at the front. SO AWESOME.
- This morning, I realized that yesterday was probably the worst time to put the new, most comfortable sheets ever on my bed, because the combination of that plus the weekend plus 2am last night? Equals nearly-impossible to get up. I set my alarm on 5-minute snooze intervals just to irritate my sleepy ass out of bed. So now I am upright and marginally functional, and that’s probably the best I can hope to achieve this Monday. Thankfully, it’s still beautiful outside, and I plan to go wander at lunch.
Further notes:
- OH HELL YES.
- You can polka to Sweet Caroline, but it’s not advisable.
- The pain of the return-to-workweek this morning was mitigated somewhat by the large Zappos box lurking under my desk.
- Dear Slug, you were wearing a cardigan and polo shirt. I love you anyway.
- NTS: Don’t play hockey with Canadians, even if the hockey only involves a plastic bottle and a schoolyard basketball court. You will get hurt.
- I’m in a log-band now. We’re big in Northeast.
- I have handstamps three deep, and am working towards critical mass; I figure eventually my hand will start generating a permanent black splotch of its own, and then I will have it sanctioned miraculous indeed, at which point I will begin welcoming pilgrims from around the globe to El Misíon de Nuestra Señora de Fiesta.
Jenni