Monday, January 30, 2006
Draft #48
Weekend Review:
Friday: I ate a cheeseburger.
Saturday: I could look back on Saturday from two different perspectives. I could look at things in a negative, pessimistic light OR I could see things from a joyous, uplifting angle. And since I can't make up my mind when it comes to just about everything, I'll do both.
Glass half full: Saturday, we were scheduled to head to Madison for a day of binge drinking, fine dining (pigging out on greasy bar food), and some Badger hockey. And gosh darn it, mission accomplished. We arrived in Madison around 10:00 am, checked into the Concourse right away and Haus had the homemade whiskey old fashions fired up before you could say, swizzle sticks. I felt very distinguished drinking whiskey (Kessler in case you're curious) from a coffee cup, a very regal feeling. After a couple of drinks, we exited the room and headed to the elevator to find a bar (because that's where most bars are). Upon leaving the room we noticed that it was very quiet in the hallway and I noticed we had left the door open and that anything we said within the last hour probably could have heard by anyone who happened to be outside of our room. And then I noticed that about three different cleaning people were outside of our room and they were all giggling as we passed them on our way to the elevator. I'm still not sure if it was because of something we said, or if it was because one of us had attempted to make music without the use of voice, instruments, hands, armpits, or a stereo. I'm not going to name names, but he attempted this about six times with great success, much to the delight of us and apparently the cleaning staff.
Around eleven something o' clock we arrived at State Street Brats to watch the Marquette/Pittsburgh basketball game. Surprisingly enough, we were not the only ones in there. A young Marquette student and his girlfriend were there, for the same reason I suppose, to drink and watch the game, which they did. Except this fellow, was living and dying on every play, good or bad. He would shout out in a loud voice whether it was a made free throw or a TV timeout was called, just a very, very intense young man. His lady friend could stomach his behavior to a certain degree, so long as not too many people were in the bar. But once the place started to fill up, you could see her slowly slumping down in her seat as if to say to us through body language that, "Yes, I may be with this person and yes I may have sex with this person from time to time, but his actions do not represent the both of us, I have almost nothing to do with this person, Oh my God, who is this guy in my booth?" It was a nice visit, I ate a red brat and waffle fries and drank three gin and tonics.
We headed back to the hotel for more Kesslers in a coffee cup, and now that I think about it, this is when we made the cleaning staff giggle, not that the timeframe really matters. We watched the first half of the Wisconsin/Michigan game before heading out to the Nitty Gritty at halftime for lunch (the brat from before was just a snack, hell I even split it was Haus, sorry for misleading you). Last year, was the first time I had ever been there, and I recognized some of the staff on my second visit, one year later, particularly the girl who waited on us last year, the one we tipped $25 on a $75 tab. Naturally she didn't remember us, but a couple of us remembered her, despite one member of our party swearing that this wasn't the same girl. But it was. We had a different server this time, an interesting tyke named Courtney. She brought us our Monte Cristo's piping hot with a smile, so she's OK in my book. She even rubbed my shoulder/back for a solid 3-5 second count after I complimented her on her headband, that's just damn good customer service. The wedding will be in June. After two pints of Harp, two pints of Miller Lite, and two Vodka Redbulls, it was off to the hockey game, but not after asking the hostess if I could call out the next party's name over the microphone. I absolutely love talking into a microphone, I wish she would have let me. Instead she told me, "No, do you know how long it took me to able to do this?" I said, "A couple years." She shrugged her shoulders as if to say I was right. So I put my hands in my pocket and paused for a bit, still standing next to her. After 30 seconds or so, I chimed in, "Not even a Johnson or a Smith, you don't have an easy one for me to do?" She just giggled and told me "No" again. So I stood there for another 30 seconds, hands in pocket, and chimed in again with, "It's not like I'm asking you to let me do a Grabowski or Shimboweitz." Another giggle, and I exited stage right, at least I gave it a shot.
So we made it to the hockey game, great seats, courtesy of Stackhouse. The atmosphere was electric for most of the game. We saw a kid almost fall backwards as he was trying to go up the stairs because he was completely wasted from head to toe. Some pointed, many laughed. After the game we headed over to State Bar, a joint near the capitol. We drank, some more than others. Four MGD's for me.
Glass half empty time: So it was midnight and half the group was ready to head back to the hotel. I had a big decision to make; I could go with them and eat some pizza or try to find the girl of my dreams who I was previously playing phone tag with for the last two hours. So I decided to find the girl. When we last talked around 10:30 pm, she said she was at a friend's house near the Kohl Center and that she would be going out in an hour or so. We decided that whoever left their respective gathering first, should give the other a call. So at midnight, having noticed that she didn't call yet, I gave her a call but only got the voice mail. Haus and I decided to walk down State street a ways until we were halfway between our hotel and the Kohl Center. Still she hadn't called. Haus was kind/drunk enough to wait with me for an extra half hour in the pooring rain while we waited for the callback, but alas, the clock showed 1:00 am and still no response.
So in closing, I never got to see the girl, didn't get to eat pizza, it rained the entire time we were there, every team we rooted for that day lost, my brother-in-law came down with the flu and felt like crap the whole day, but other than that it was a really good weekend. Any day that involves me not working and me drinking for the majority of that day, is a good day.
Sunday: Checked out, ate breakfast at Perkins, went home, took nap, ate an orange.
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