God, do we really have to go back to work already tomorrow?
I shall begin with photos:Our table at IDS
Jane setting up
Delayed flash is made for snow Now, this may come as a surprise to you, but this weekend was about HOCKEY. Really! Friday noontime, we headed over to St Paul to watch UND beat Wisconsin. Afterwards, Kaye (aka the birthday girl) came to pick us up, and we went up to an Irish bar called the Happy Gnome for St Patrick’s revelry and dining. We had put down a drink and a shot of Jameson apiece by the time Matt, Julia, and Jessica arrived to meet us for the later game. We had even more revelry, lots of stumbling towards the bathroom, and still nobody believes me that bagpipe man had a dead animal for a fanny pack. I SAW the dead animal, and the dead animal looked at me! Kaye dropped us off near Xcel and we ran to see the faceoff for the Gophers/St Cloud game. As I’ve mentioned, we didn’t want them to play SCSU, because they played a lot better than UMD. Alas. The game was nervewracking. Insanely high-scoring. Lucia pulled Kellen after the first period because he let in five goals; defense was terrible. Seeing him sitting on the bench looking upset was heartbreaking; Stephanie was almost crying. The Gophers came back strong halfway through the game (supposedly, the theory behind pulling a good goaltender is that it sends a message to the rest of the team that they suck, and better work harder); they were at 5-7 with three minutes left, and then scored two goals to tie it 7-7. I was shaking so hard I had to sit down. We were all high-fiving everyone else in the surrounding seats, and we were screaming our heads off. About ten minutes into sudden-death overtime, SCSU scored, and we died a little inside. SAD. We met up with the birthday partiers (‘partiers’ used very loosely, because when we arrived, they were all laying on the floor or on the couch watching TV) and headed up west 7th for more hot St Pat’s action. St Paul is somewhat lacking in the nightlife department, but we figured the holiday would provide the inspiration for something. Shamrock’s was packed with white people, and we had to stand at the bar for what felt like hours to get drink orders, but it was a good time. We met a guy named Trevor (COINCIDENCE??? I THINK NOT!) who told us an elaborate made-up story about his heritage, that seemed to make a lot of sense at the time. Something about his real name being Miguel, and being adopted from the Dominican Republic, and that’s what made him a Red Sox fan today? I dunno. We helped him make it up as he went. His friends also helped augment the story during the times they took a break from pretending to ass-rape him. Ah, St Paul*. We were hoping to end the night at the NASCAR bar, so we headed back the other direction. It was maybe 1:30ish? Anyway, the NASCAR bar was CLOSED. ON ST PATRICK’S DAY. WHATEVER. The next morning, not surprisingly, my head hurt a lot. Also, I was out of coffee beans, which isn’t normally a big deal, but somehow it took me more than an hour to do my hair and get dressed. Every time I sat down, I’d sit there for 20 minutes. The solution to this, obviously, was more revelry. We went back to Xcel to see the consolation game versus the Badgers, which the Gophers also lost, but we were pretty numb to it by then. I’m pretty sure they still hold the #1 seed in the NCAA, and there’s some popular myth that states that a WCHA loss is actually more likely to lead to an NCAA win. I guess we’ll find out. I didn’t want to see the championship game since my favorite boys weren’t playing in it, so I gave my ticket to Stephanie’s friend Rob, who happens to be UND’s biggest fan ever. I picked up Kaye and we went to Luce to continue celebrating birthdays and general awesomeness, and everybody was happy. Afterward, we went to see V for Vendetta, which was completely awesome. My favorite line was, “A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having,” because OBVIOUSLY he’s talking about DDR. When they got to the part with the hardcore knife-throwing, I decided it was time for a new hobby. As is our tradition, we went to Gameworks around 10:30. We went right to my #3 favorite game, but it was broken and all we could do was skate into the wall, which isn’t half as fun as it sounds. Instead, we retired to DDR. There was a boy there playing by himself with a really weird technique that looked a lot harder than it was. Yes, I totally critique DDR-playing, shut up. (I also practice while other people are playing.) Kaye and I played one game (me on standard mode, which I can manage pretty well when sober, but not at all when drinking), and I could hear the girls who were watching us talking about how they’d never be able to play. When we finished, we hopped off and I told them we’d show them how. While they stumbled through their game, I talked to one of the dudes in their group about the Final Five; he was there to watch UND’s victory. Having gained an understanding of just how passionate people can be about their sports loyalties, I appreciated the fact that he was not a total jerk about his team winning. The DDR-boy asked if I’d play a game with him, because it’s easier to play with someone (if you don’t clear a higher level but your lower-level partner does, you can keep playing). We got to talking while we were waiting, and he told me he was from Japan, and had come to Minneapolis for spring break. I was incredulous; I asked him why he would want to come here. He yelled, “FOR THE MALL!!” He had been in town for a week, and was leaving the next day. He told me that it was really hard to play DDR in Japan because everyone was so good at it, it was intimidating. He also said that our machines here are like antiques compared to theirs. So funny. We played a couple games, and a few of the songs were really hard. We finally said bye, and Kaye declared him my gay Japanese DDR boyfriend. We hung out at the bar for a while because we love Joe, of course, and ended up talking to the people next to us about tattoos. Dante, who was sporting giant dollar-sign bling, showed me a bunch of his tattoos, then scribbled Billie’s number on a napkin, because she’s an amateur tattoo artist. I said I’d give her a call sometime, thinking there’s no way in hell I’m going to leave the hygienic confines of Tatus by Kore or Uptown Tattoo. All the while I was turned around talking to Dante, there was a guy leaning against my back. It took me way too long to figure out that he was super-drunk, and leaning over me to tell Kaye something VERY IMPORTANT, which was this: he was in town from Wilmington NC for a bachelor party. He’d been there drinking since they opened at 11am. At 3pm, he decided to start his own reality show, but without cameras. He was going around the bar asking people to pick drinks for him, and he’d drink whatever they suggested. He was Drunk Drew. Stephanie and Rob showed up in the midst of all that, and we played DDR some more and drank some more and talked to Joe some more (Joe knows stuff about hockey, and has started giving us free drinks, which hereby earns him 500 bonus points) and when we weren’t playing DDR, I spent much of my time demanding that SOMEONE play DDR with me. Kaye and Stephanie both played and then declared their doneness, so eventually I was solo-DDRing, while Kaye and Joe pondered an intervention, but I am not ashamed of this addiction. I love it. We talked to Drunk Drew some more, and got him to drink a Colorado Bulldog (my sister is convinced that I think this is the name of a hockey team). I think Kaye fell in love with him when he started talking about the filming of Dawson’s Creek in Wilmington, because she nearly climbed over me in excitement. Seriously, dudes. They booted us out at 2am; Kaye and I went to Luce because I didn’t want to leave Chico in the ramp overnight. So here’s the thing about afterbar at Luce: DO NOT set foot in there if you are sober. You will hate it and want to kill everyone in the place. If you’ve been drinking, however, it’s the best thing ever. Everybody is sitting or standing around eating big pizza slices, and downing water from the big container near the kitchen. There are all these girls in insane club clothes, and dudes trying to get their last-minute mack on. Kaye was dozing off in the booth, and I was feeling better as soon as I ate; once they turned the lights up at 3, we decided it was time to go. As we got up to go to the bathroom, a couple of the dudes who’d been sitting with us in the booth but not talking decided to say something. One of them asked if we had to go so soon. I said yeah. The other guy asked if he could give me his number. He assured me that it would even be his REAL number. Haha. I told him we had to go. I got home at 4am and fell asleep in a pile of cats, because if I’m not home early enough, they refuse to save me a spot in the bed. I got up at 9:30 and felt surprisingly OK. I showered and headed to Wendy’s supersecret surprise birthday brunch in Woodbury. All of Team Awesome was in attendance except Sean, who is down with the sickness. The four of us spent way too much time having intense (read: offensive) discussions in the bathroom and bathroom-lobby and out front of the building after everyone else left, partially with the intention of seeing just how irritating we could be. Unfortunately, we failed at getting 86’d from Woodbury, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop trying. The rest of today, I’ve been useless in a completely awesome way. I made three kinds of scones (cranberry-orange-flax, chocolate-orange, and cinnamon chip); once I got done baking them, I had no interest in even trying the one kind I could eat, so I’ll take them to work tomorrow. I ran errands and worked on house-stuff and started knitting a robot. Not just any robot, but a robot wearing a red tshirt. Clearly, this is going to be the coolest shit ever. And now, it’s time for me to drag my tired ass to bed and prepare for the return to responsibility tomorrow. It’s such a challenge sometimes. GOOD NIGHT, and fond wishes to you all.
Jenni *In St Paul’s defense, Trevor II actually lives a couple miles from me in Minneapolis. But he was partying in St Paul, and that’s what matters. Also, St Paul really needs to hurry up with that smoking ban.