One of my favorite things ever, seriously....

Ok, you know I love kids, and dancing, and blah blah blah.

But what the world really needs is more little guys like Seth. Seriously.

Click on his name, watch the video, and prepare for your mind to be blown.

Oh, and the temptation will likely be strong to watch the "Party in my Tummy" related video on the side. Buddha gave in to such temptation, then told me to watch it. It is scary. Be careful, and view it at your own risk.

I do not think that my children will watch much Yo Gabba Gabba.

Ok, they might. It's kinda weird, and I love weird. Plus, I don't think that anything that I raise really has a chance of turning out normal. Anyone met Refugio? Puh-lease!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. I'll be blogging about that, soon.... And finishing up that one I started on 12/7. Tomorrow (well, technically today), I am going to Madison, and my mom is coming to Milwaukee on Thursday, so there will be a chance for new material coming soon as well!

Sneaky Vulture Tricks, Volume III

I'd like to start this blog out with one of my new favorite quotes.... It's from the Raccoon Whisperer, about me.

"The notion that someone could keep you in line is absurd. They'll find bigfoot first."

Love it. I think I need a t-shirt that says that.

Anyway.

Apparently, I have no blogged in awhile. The other morning, I got an email from my mom that said "Good morning. November 24th, Really? Love, Mom."

The next day, I got a gchat message from the Prince that said "I know I've been slacking on emailing, but I also noticed that you've been slacking on blogging."

Bru-tal. If the prince and my mom are demanding blogging, I suppose I had better get to it!

That said, it has been a long time since I've touched upon the topic of vultures.

Firstly, I'd like to share that there is a new species in town. Not exactly in the bird fam, but a parasite nonetheless.

I'm talking about cockroaches.

Cockroaches are individuals that scurry about in odd and frenetic manners. Of course, this was written with a certain individual in mind, but since his status as a cockroach was discovered, we've noticed cockroach-like tendencies in other individuals.

If you haven't already, you really need to read Sneaky Vulture Tricks Volume I and Sneaky Vulture Tricks Volume II.

The worst type of vulture, the velociraptor, or king of the vultures, is even worse if he has cockroach blood in him. That makes him much more likely to partake in the first vulture trick on the list.

Anyway, there is something that will soon be in my repertoire, and I can almost not wait for it to flourish. That is the VV or vulture violation. Vultures will be given citations for using the sneaky tricks. It's still in development. I am looking forward to handing the first one out, and I think I know who will get it!

Swoop swoop.

I also want to remind my readership that when a good-intentioned man does these things (well, before most of volume 3.... volume 3 is pretty much pure heinosity), it's glorious. But when a vulture does them, it is straight shitttttaaaay!

Without further ado....

22. Being cute, nice, or friendly to our friends. "Oh, I am in love with your friend, make sure you take care of her." Shut up. You are not. You are a fricking vulture. Don't use my friends to get me to fall helplessly prey to your damn charms? Get out of my father's Lexus (my father does not have a Lexus, but one time whilst shopping, LL heard an interesting man say "get out of my father's Lexus" to another guy in a story about failing his driver's test. Hi-larious. Had to steal it.).

Numbers 23-25 are all in a separate sub-category I like to call "secret women."

23. Having a girlfriend. What in hell? If you have a girlfriend, why are you talking to me? Are you so amazing and so much to handle that you have to have more than one woman? I doubt it. If you want me, get rid of her first. I shouldn't have people giving me shirts that say "I'm his mistress" because of the way that I've been attracting boys with girlfriends almost exclusively for over a year. What in hell, I say again, what in hell?

***Note added 5-7-09****

This has been SO prevalent, that I have been given TWO shirts to commemorate this - one that says "I'm his Mistress" and another that says "Tell Your Boyfriend to Stop Texting Me." Lawd.

Ok, back to the old blog!

*************************

24. Having a wife. This one isn't anything I can speak of from personal experience, but I have friends who can. See #23, but someone should also slap you, douchebag.

25. Having secret children... Having children is fine, but why not be proud? That's cute. Unless you are just pretending, and doing that whole sneaky vulture trick from volume one, like with being good with kids or animals. I should not know you for several months and then find out you have a litter somewhere, that I still know just about nothing about. Fiff. I suppose things could be worse. This isn't that bad, just bizarre. I wanted a round number, which isn't very normal for the girl who sets her alarm and microwave clocks for times like 6:41 or 2:32 and so on. I hate round numbers! Ah well.

So that's that. Been a little sick lately, but am getting over it, I think.

Was in a couple fashion shows a couple weeks ago.... You can see pictures on www.myspace.com/milwaukeestreet in the slideshow for "Fred/Red Heel Fashion Show." There are also pictures from the one I was in the next night, which you can see on www.themilwaukeescene.com, if you go to Gallery and then to "NEWD one-year Anniversary/MOCT" or something like that. Good times. I was hammmmmmmered. Part of the payment for the show was a free bar tab. Dangerous! I ended up trying to steal a male model's shirt from off of his body, in front of his parents. I then ran into him a week later at Nad's birthday party, and didn't recognize him, and was a little surprised when he proposed, told me he loved me and was infatuated with me, and then invited me both to Christmas with his family, as well as on a roadtrip to Florida. Hmmm.... Brut brut!

P.S. He was smart. He asked if I was married, and if I had children. Why don't my friends and I do that??

Well, I think I am going to go back to watching Coming to America now. Had to get into the Randy Watson spirit, since tomorrow is Thursday!

Still trying to think of where we wanna go on NYE. I want a kiss at midnight! Fiff. Any vultures free? Ah-ah-ah-ah.

I'll try to blog again soon.... I started one on Ousmane's birthday (Dec. 7th) but have yet to finish it.

NYC, LA, LV, KC. Wait, WHAAAAT?!?

This blog was started on December 7th, and not finished....

First of all, I want to take a moment to wish a Happy Birthday to two basketball greats of our time: Larry Bird, who is 51 today, and Ousmane Barro, who will not likely be celebrating his 23rd birthday, which is also today. It's ok, Ous, I will celebrate for you!

Anyway, this blog is LONG overdue. Lately, I haven't experienced much that has been blog worthy, so I thought I would go back to some things in the past that I didn't blog before but should have.

Last year, we were having meetings at school to talk about how to increase the language proficiency of students in our school. Apparently at a meeting that I did not attend, the principal decided that it would be a good idea to send Lers and I to a conference on the topic.

Whaaaaaaat???

We wondered, has she met us? Does she know what we're about? This is an absurdity.

Lers and I, the dynamic duo of drunkeness, were to travel to Kansas City to attend a conference, and our airfare and hotel would be paid for by none other than our lovely school district. Holla!

I don't think it's even possible to describe how excited we were for such and adventurous voyage!

We were to spend three nights and four days in good ol' KC.

AC volunteered to drive us to the airport, and as usual, Lers was runnin' late, which caused AC some serious stress. It ended up working out perfectly, though, and we just didn't have to wait as long.

We got to the airport, checked our bags, and enjoyed our flight.

We arrived in KC, which my grandpa had informed me was the City of Fountains. There was not a fountain in sight.

There were, however, signs that said such things as "NYC, LA, LV, KC." As though Kansas City is on par with New York City, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. Come on now....

To our dismay, we found that there were many other teachers flying in from all over the central states for this conference.

In case you didn't know, I think teaching is the least fashion-savvy profession. Almost every time I see a group of teachers together, it makes me want to call the boys from Queer Eye, or Stacy and Clinton from What Not To Wear, or someone who has the ability to take away my eyesight.

You can spot these women a mile away.

The regular teachers are pretty bad.... Our school doesn't seem like THAT big of a struggle to me, but that could be because I'm used to it. I went to a district Math meeting last week, and that made my eyes bleed. There was a teacher with a medallion that was the symbol that used to represent Prince's name during his time as "The Artist Formerly Known As 'Prince'." No, I am not kidding.

But let me just tell you, foreign language teachers are the worst dressed people in the United States. Someone should call Mr. Blackwell right now and just let him know to look no further than a foreign language conference.

By the end of that week (which we kept calling a weekend, because that is what it felt like!), I was ready to swear that if I saw another woman wearing Eiffel Tower earrings, or carrying an Eiffel Tower totebag, or wearing socks of the same design, and so on, that I was going to stab myself repeatedly in the eye with an Eiffel Tower pencil topper (which I am sure were available in the room with all of the vendors).

Anyway, we spotted thesse 50-something's a mile away, and tried to avoid them as much as possible.

We got to our hotel, which was the Hyatt Regency Crown Centre. Big pimpin', for us teachers!

____that was where I stopped on the 7th.... Continuing now! _____________

So we check in and get our keys and such. We decide to ask about where the best places to go are for food and drinks and so on in KC so that we would have good recommendations. So I asked the guy at the desk, and he gives me a map of the city, which he marks with about 1500 different x's and circles. It was beyond overwhelming. And we were quite hungry.

What made the hotel we stayed in more than just a regular hotel was the fact that it was attached to this giant building that was a mall with a lot of restaurants and such.

Lers and I decided to check it out....

This gigantic mall was attached to the hotel via a skywalk thing that was entitled, "THE LINK."

This would become immensely important to our lives during our stay in KC.

We went to a place that made subs and pizzas. Since we were starving, we each decided to get a slice of cheese, and another slice. Lers went with pepperoni for her second slice. I was less decisive, and then ended up with a slice called "Da Bronx," which was also the name of the restaurant.

Wow.

Da Bronx was a slice of pizza that was about three inches tall. It had sausage, pepperoni, canadian bacon, hamburger, onions, peppers, mushrooms... I feel like I am even forgetting something. Black olives? It was a lot.

We decided that a picture was necessary. Unfortunately, we decided this after I had eaten a lot of it and smashed it down. I had wondered why the people in the restaurant were shocked by my order, and making comments about how I must be hungry... Until I saw my twenty pound pizza. Here it is.

After our very large meal, we decided to check this mall out. There were lots of cool stores, like the crayola store, where we drew pictures on easels, and the chocolate factory store, where they make fudge and all kinds of delicious treats.

We also went to a dog store. So far on this pattern, you may think that they sell dogs, but you'd definitely be wrong. However, they did sell merchandise that celebrated every dog breed imaginable. I deeply offended the clerk when I suggested that Lers buy AC Gilman a pair of Bichon Frisé socks, and he more or less asked us to leave. It was hilarious.

And don't worry. Cat lovers, don't fret. There was a cat store as well.

Freaks!

Anyway, the time of the trip, as I may have mentioned (I started this blog over a month ago, and don't feel like re-reading it all now), was during the Big East Tournament. So we knew we'd have to watch that, since Ous and MU were in it.

But where? The possibilities were completely overwhelming. And of course, we were going to want to drink.

SO, we decided to ask the wise woman at the cat place where we could get some alcohol. We had come to the conclusion, as poor teachers, that we should watch in our hotel room, and relax. After all, the flight had taken quite a bit out of us.

The wise (freaky) woman at the cat place told us that what he needed to do was go to The Apothecary, which was a drug/convenience store in the basement of the mall. Jackpot! We bought some cat cards from the kind crazy cat lady for us to play some games in our room whilst enjoying the game. And since we were so tired, we ordered room service to watch the game.

We thought we should take a picture of our array of tools.

You can see clockwise from top left... The captain, of course, courtesy of the Apothecary. Next, the bucket of ice we'd use to put in our drinks. Then there's the program for our conference, and a bottle of diet coke. Next is my glass, which is proping up my nametag and lanyard. Then is the coupon book, which included my coupons for the shops in the mall, including what we used on the cat cards, and at the Apothecary. This coupon book is, of course, leaning up against a lime green cat-shaped case for the $7 cat cards... Then Lers' nametag on her lanyard, and Ler's glass. Looks like a good time to me, no?

Well, to make a long story short, Lers and I would get quite reliant on "THE LINK." In fact, we would never even leave the complex, until on our final day.

You may be wondering, "Why does she keep putting 'THE LINK' in the weird quotes and all capital letters?

That would be because of the signage and labeling.

Check it out.

Yeah, it's blurry. I took it on the last night of our trip. I was hammered.

I know, I went straight from the first night of the trip to the last night.

It was almost a year ago. Also, honestly, we really didn't leave the hotel at all. We watched basketball and SVU every night in our room, and ate at restaurants that we could get to through the link. We honestly did go to the conferences we were supposed to go to. And let me promise you, we spent a great deal of time laughing hysterically, and making fun of our colleagues. We also hid our lanyards all over the complex, as there was a pharmeceutical sales convention going on at the same time, and all those people seemed normal and dressed all kinds of fly. We didn't want to be associated with the whack job foreign language teachers!

On the last night, we still had a fair amount of the Captain left, and a decent amount diet left. So, we decided we'd have to finish off the alcohol, as we'd certainly not let it go to waste.

I asked Lers to make me a drink whilst I sent Ous the obligatory "good luck" text.

Here's a picture of it prior to the addition of the diet coke....

Note to all reading: If you desire to maintain sobriety, do not ask Lers to make you a drink.

Chi hua hua.

Another thing you might've been wondering is what this link situation looks like.

Here's "THE LINK" in all its glory, as seen from our hotel room.

That snakey lookin' thang is "THE LINK."

So Lers and I got hammered, and watched the MU game.

We were alarmed when we saw that they pictured a hispanic man in the starting lineups for Ous. This was actually the second night we were there, but I had set the games to DVR at home in case we wouldn't be able to see them in KC. I took a picture of the absurdity on our tv at home.

Here it is!

That is definitely not Ous!

Anyway, so I texted Ous that night and asked him when he turned into a Latino man. He called me after that game quite confused! I explained, and we thought it was hilarious.

When we were contemplating what to do that last night, over drinks, we had decided that we were going to stay in again, at first. Seeing the way that Lers mixes drinks, we determined that we needed more alcohol. So we bought a couple bottles of wine from the Apothecary, and a corkscrew.

Then, we had a change of heart. Decided to go out. And decided that we'd go to one of the nicer places on the other side of the link. But, we were hammered, as I mentioned in the explanation of the picture of the labeling.

Fortunately for us, we ran into one of Lers' professors en route, and spent time with her in the elevator, hammered. Bru-tality.

Then we got to the restaurant. Hammered. Ordered a bottle of wine to share.... Just what we needed! That'd make three, in addition to the remnants of the captain we had just downed.

The waiter was something else. I guess we were, too.

He asked us if we were high!

We drank more.

Ate lots of bread, which came in round loafs. We wanted another. We asked the waiter for a shenanigan of bread.

Yes, a unit of bread is also known as a shenanigan.

We were reminiscing about all kinds of things. We called Meams. She was afraid for KC with us on the loose, since she had known that we had been asked to leave the dog store, and other interesting parts of our trip.

We wanted to text Zak Attack and ask him if he had a small map of this place, in the style of "Staff" from the camping trip (yeah, I know, I keep saying I am going to blog that). Since at that time, I didn't have his number, I instead texted a completely different Zac, and asked him instead. He was very confused, whilst Lers and I were very amused.

We ended up immensely enjoying our meal, going home, and going to bed. We got up and went to our conferences, and came home, mostly without incidence.

One thing, though, that we noticed both during the trip, as well as waiting in the airport to leave, was that KC has completely brutal news! It's obscene! There were babies kidnapped, elderly people beaten in an atm vestibule (yes, I thought of the Friends episode with Jill Goodacre), weird stores catching on fire.... All types of heinosity!

I was pretty sure that armegeddon was taking place, but clearly we're safe. Phew!

All in all, amazing trip. We even brought back chocolately treats, cat cards, wine (yeah, we didn't drink three bottles in one night) and I got my three rings that I usually wear on my right hand. Great trip!

Mom, this blog was for you and Clarence. Thought you could use a laugh. Love you!

Ten Historic Drunks, A wet cat, and letting your soul glo!

It's official. I am one of those crazy cat ladies. I decided to take some time off from going out. Decided to stay home last night and watch movies and such....

One of the things I have been meaning to do awhile is give Refugio a bath.

So here he is. My little man. Look how angry he looks! He's so soft and fluffy now though!




Also, the other night, the night before thanksgiving, I went to Decibel for the Thanksgiving Eve Throwdown, which was a lot of fun, and before that, I went to Tangerine for Fred and Favio's party, which was a good time.

The Lakers were there, but I left before I had the chance to talk to any of them (which was sad, as I would've enjoyed a reunion with my main squeeze, Derek Fisher, but oh well, haha).

I did, however, get to meet Eriq La Salle. You probably recognize him from ER, which he is apparently on.

Not me, though. I recognised him from Coming to America. You know, he was Darryl Jenks, the Prince of Soul Glo!

Here we are....



And there he is in his younger days!




I'd say the years have been pretty kind, wouldn't you?

Anyway, I'm going to close out this absurd blog with an excerpt from a book that I got for my birthday present from one of my best friends of all time, Al.

Here it is....

"Ten Historic Drunks"

1. Noah. According to the Old Testament, Noah was the first person ever to get drunk.

2. King Scorpion I of Egypt. The Pharoahs loved their wine. In 3500 BC, his royal highness's cadaver was entombed with seven hundred bottles of resin-infused hooch to help ease his journey into the afterlife.

(Wow, must be nice!)

3. Socrates (469-399 BC) The great philosopher had a legendary ability to hold his liquor and would continue to philosophize when everyone else at the symposium had long since passed out or gone home.

(I've known some people to do this!)

4. Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) The Macedonian king who ruled an empire stretching from Greece to India was in his lifetime as famous for his marathon drinking sessions as for his military conquests. During one of Alexander's drinking contests thirty-five men died; during another he killed one of his best friends with a spear. His close friend Hephaestion expired after drinking half a gallon of wine for breakfast; Alexander dropped dead after drinking contest at the age of thirty-two.

(Makes me feel a little better now about just simply falling and scraping up my knee!)

5. Pope Benedict XII (C. 1334-42) The pontiff was such a hardened boozer that the expression "Drunk as a pope" became popular in his lifetime.

(I have never heard of this expression, but I'll be damned if I don't start using it!

6. Selim II, Sultan of the Ottomans (R. 1566-74) Also known as "Selim the Sot," he could drink a bottle of Cyprus wine without drawing a breath. When he ran out of his favorite drink, someone suggested he capture Cyprus to replenish his stocks. Selim agreed and massacred 30,000 Cypriot Christians in the process.

(Wow. Seems a little extreme.)

7. Empress Catherine I, Czarina of Russia (R. 1725-27) Whiloe shuffling through her two-year reign in a drunken haze, she once survived an assassination attempt, too drunk to realize that anything had happened. She was reviewing a Guards regiment when a bullet flew past her and struck an innocent bystander dead. The Empress moved on without flinching.

(I don't even know why that was in the book. Who hasn't that happened to?)

8. Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827) The composer died of hepatic cirrhosis of the liver as a result of alcoholism at the age of fifty seven. Before he expired, he cheerily announced, "Wine is both necessary and good for me."

(At least he was cheery!)

9. President Andrew Johnson (President from 1865-69) He was apparently drunk at his swearing-in as vice President to Lincoln, and his acceptance speech was rambling and largely incoherent; he claimed later that he ahd been taking alcoholic medicine prescribed for a cold. He didn't make his own inaugural address. When the U.S. Chief Justice was sent to tell him that Lincoln was dead and that he was now president, they found him trying to shake off a terrible hangover. Johnson took the oath of office as required, but then fell asleep and had to be dressed and carried to the White House.

(Wow. Just wow.)

10. Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) Britain's great wartime leader began each day with a glass of Riesling with his breakfast, then kept himself topped up with whiskey until the early hours of the following day. A doctor attending him after he was knocked down by a cara in New York in 1931 actually issued a medical note that his convalescence "necessitates the use of alcoholic spirits, especially at mealtimes," speficying 250cc per day as the minimum. Although it wrecked his health, he liked to brag, "I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me."

(My doctor specified that, too. Oh wait....)

Have a great rest of the weekend!

New (Old) Blog

So I finished a blog that I started in July. It is pretty much the longest blog in the United States.

Your highness, if you print it, it will be 24 pages.

Everyone else, if you are reading it and it's cold out, make sure you grab a blanket so your rheumatism doesn't act up. And be sure to stretch out every so often, because this is a long one, and and you wouldn't want to suffer from crippling lameness as a result of hip dysplasia!

Anyway, without further ado, here it is!

Thriller!

Check out this video of Broseph and his brother performing the Thriller dance! Remember him from my Halloween blog?

Aloha & Manastacia: Reunited & it Feels so Good! (And the History of the Armanian Empire!)

This past Saturday, I had a pleasant blast from the past.


My Junior and Senior years of college, I lived with two girls, Laura and Amie. I knew Laura from highschool, and Amie I met through Laura. I am going to take this moment to mention the fact that both Amie and Laura are married now, and that makes me feel weird, because I still feel like I am 19 years old with a fake ID.


Anyway, this past Saturday, Amie came up to visit. I hadn't seen her in almost a year, and we hadn't necessarily done an amazing time keeping in touch.

We were absurd in college. We'd go out a few nights a week, and once went about a month without spending more than two dollars the whole month on the drinks we'd imbibe. Holla.

We liked props. We'd bring out a tape recorder, and interview people. Or perhaps a microphone, and pretend Amie was an on-location reporter. "Back to the studio, Stacy!"

We also liked aliases. I know that Amie had been Leslie a few times, and many people were calling me "Mandelicious" even then. But our best aliases came about from the purhcases of some really tacky initial necklaces. When we wore the necklaces, she became "Aloha," and I "Manastascia." Yes, I am aware that my alias sounds like the stage name of a drag queen stripper. Deal with it. You'd be surprised at how many people believed that shit!


After she arrived, we discussed the plan. We were to go out to eat, go to the Marquette game, then go out to a few bars.... This presented outfit challeges. Amie likened what she was to be doing to superman changing. I called it awards show changing. Either way, we were going to have to change our outfits a few times. I wish we would've taken more pictures! We should've captured all of our outfits. Oh well!


So we put on our dinner outfits. We met Danielle outside of Murphy's, where I left my car. Danielle then drove us to the restaurant.


Let me just tell you that the freaking waitress had to have thought we were crackheads. This cute little girl had to come back at least four times before we could even decide what crazy drinks we'd like to enjoy over dinner. I had to tell Amie the Vegas story and the story of my interactions with the terrorists (which Danielle helped me to tell). Plus, the drink menu was written in a fairly humorous manner, so we were enjoying that too much to focus on what the actual drinks were, and what we wanted. Poor girl!


We ate our meals and drank our drinks. Amie drinks like a damn fish. I have never seen someone inhale a beverage in such a way. She drinks sooooo fast! It's absurd. She finished her first drink within five minutes. It was an impressive feat. Unbelievable, really.



After dinner, the cute little waitress returned to tell us that our desserts were being paid for by one of the owners, and that the special was "vulture cake with swoop swoop sauce." I felt so bad for this girl for having to come and say that to us! I almost died laughing. My face hurt by the time we left the restaurant because I had been laughing so hard I was crying the whole meal. I barely even ate because I was cracking up the whole time. Made for good leftovers!



Next event was the Marquette game, so we changed clothes in the car, and Danielle dropped us off at the game. Time to sober up a little! Our seats were great (Thanks, Ousmane!).... Section 200, Row D, seats 9 & 10. That's half court. Amie was hilarious. She mentioned that she had seen video clips of Tom Crean yelling on tv, and now she could hear him!



Game was entertaining, as usual. I was quite disappointed, however, that Ousmane didn't start.... I love hearing "At 6'10" from Dakar, Senegal.... Oooooooooousmane Barrrro!" Maybe next time. He's in Maui now. I am jealous.



Anyway, after the game, we took the bus back to the Annex, and walked across the street to Murphy's, where my car was parked. I knew that Buddha was supposed to be working, so we thought we'd pop in.



To our surprise, Parker from Decibel and his friend Matt were standing at the end of the bar. Fancy that! And Joe, the manager, was working as well. It was practically a Tuesday night at Decibel, except.... Well, it wasn't really like that at all. Haha.



Anyway, Parker informed us that we had been on the jumbotron at the Marquette game. Awesome. I hope that I wasn't doing anything stupid. I really have to be cognizant of the possibility of jumbotron action when I am sitting in the family section!



We had a couple drinks and did a couple shots, then Buddha showed up, and we had some more. Buddha was Buddha, and it was hilarious. Amie showed again her striking abilities of being able to pound drinks. Joe even remarked - "damn, girl, you thirsty?" Hilarious.

After Murphy's, it was awards show/superman time again. We went home and spiced things up, spruced up, if you will (and I know you will!).

Next stop was Cush, which was a good time. That place is starting to grow on me, I think. It was here that we were informed that we drink high-maintenance drinks, because they stop the flow of drink-making because they are bizarre and out of reach of the bartender.

44 North and Sprite and Malibu and Coke? Really? Bizarre. When you see me coming, move the bottle into the flow! Haha.

Anyway, after our drink at Cush, we of course moved on to Decibel.

By the way, I am having an almost impossible time focusing on the task at hand, which is blog-writing. I'm pretty sure it's the third day I've come back to it. Fiff. I need to lock it up.

Decibel was a glove as usual. We said his, and I made about a billion introductions. We met up with the Prince.... There will be more about him and such later.

We did some drinking, obviously, and did some shot-taking.... You know the deal.

At one point, in VIP, we were talking to Hen (see the blog about the wifebeater bar crawl) when suddenly Amie pulled out her recorder. Yes, that's right, her recorder. And no, I don't know why this whole thing is a link. I only wanted it to be the part that is in the parentheses. This is pretty damn intense.

So yeah. Woohoo! No more link! I never claimed to be a computer genius.

Yeah, so Amie pulled out this recorder and just starts playing right in the club. Hilarious. Hen was agog. Just loved it.

Back by the Prince.... Picture time!

Here's Amie and I....





When I introduced her to Dustin, he said that he could tell that we caused a lot of trouble in college. I have no idea what he is talking about. Look at us! We practically have halos! Just beeming with innocence (ignore the fact that I look hammered).

Next it was time to take a pic with the Prince...




Wow. That is a... really nice picture. Umm... Notice the green star on his left shoulder? I had decided that since I am a teacher, I was going to bring out foil stars and give them to deserving individuals. Amie kicked it up a notch and more or less covered some people, like Scooter, with them.

Whilst the camera was out, Amie suggested that we take a picture of the fine fellow with the nice abs. I think the point was actually to capture the abs themselves.... So back to Arinze we went....




For the love of people with functional eyes, Arinze, would it kill you to do a crunch or sit-up now and then? I mean, come on. That is just shameful. Haha.

I think poor Arinze is blushing here.

Moving on.... When I came back from taking the picture of Arinze, the Prince told me that Shawn had refused to pour us the royal shot. He was quite disappointed, so I went to go see what's up.

When I walked to the bar, before I could say anything to him at all, Shawn said, "Mandie, I am not pouring six shots of triple sec."

Shawn, I do not blame you. Also, I must say that it is entirely too funny to me that every time I try to type your name, I accidentally type "Shaqn" because I am so used to typing about Shaq, apparently. I need to pull my life together.

Anyway, I really don't know what self-respecting bartender would just pour a bunch of shots of triple sec. Especially without a good explanation, which is what Shawn asked for.

By the way, I am considering just leaving the name wrong here. Haha.

I promised Shawn that I would explain the story to him. Obviously it wouldn't have been easy to do in Decibel on a Saturday night, so I figured I'd put it in a blog and send him the link.

There wasn't a whole lot to the rest of the night. We met up with LL after the bar was closed and went to Ma's where I threw a lil fit because I couldn't enjoy any Cream of Chicken and Rice soup.

So here's the story. The history of the Armanian Empire, and how Triple Sec became our royal shot.

My sophomore year of college, I began dating Mike. He was a bit of a bullshitter. Totally made up absurd things. For example, I recall a scenario in which he convinced a friend that he was allegic to ice cubes. This went down whilst he stood in a swimming pool. What?

Anyway, the summer before junior year, he moved from the dorms into a shithole. I mean, into a house. He had 6 other roommates. I knew most of them, either from having gone to high school with Danielle and Mike (I met Mike through Danielle, so I knew a lot of these people for awhile), or from hanging out with them when I visited Mike in Milwaukee in the dorms.

There was, however, one roommate that I did not know at all. That was Matt.

Matt's grandpa lived in the Philippines, and apparently was a big deal. I'm told he is like a Hilton over there, and that when Matt visits, he is treated like a Prince.... They iron his socks and underwear and such.

Anyway, I still swear to this day that Mike told me that Matt WAS the prince of some foreign land. I take full credit for having perhaps forgotten which land he mentioned, and just deciding at some later point that it was Armenia.

So life moved on, and I just was kinda scared of Matt. I was a little more shy at this point than I am now. I just observed.

The types of things I observed were that Matt rarely went to class, wore expensive clothes, did not seem to have a job, did a lot of poker playing with serious amounts of money (to my poor ass, haha) both online and in casinos, and that he spent money like it was his job - buying shots and rounds of drinks like crazy, buying me food at Michael's and Omega in the middle of the night, etc.

Anyway, a year and a half goes by, and I barely talk to Matt. The entire time, I think he's the prince of Armenia. Absurd, yes, I know.

I just figured it was like... Coming to America. My favorite movie! Matt just wanted to live in a rat-infested (no, that is not an exaggeration) shithole for a couple years while he did the college thing and checked out America before he went back to Armenia to rule on his throne.

Oy. I'm sounding like a moron here, aren't I?

So I'm talking to Mike, like a year and a half into these guys living together, and I confess that I thought that Matt was the prince of Armenia. He just started cracking up, and he told me that this was not the case, and he denied that he had ever made such a claim. I'd like to say for the record that his claim that he didn't make the claim is an erroneous fabrication. Wait, what?

A couple nights later, I am down from Madison visiting, and I drunkenly start confessing to Matt, who I am practically talking to for the first time, that I'd been thinking that he was the prince of Armenia for almost two years.

Hilarious.

So the night rolls on, and when we're driving from the bars to Omega, Matt is yelling out of Steve's (who would later be known as Oha, just like the guy from Coming to America. And yes, we do tell him to do stuff and say Oha and then clap twice) sunroof to his people. Saying "Helloooo!" in a regal way to passersby on the sidewalk. Absurd.

Later that night, Matt and I would bond by me sitting on his lap in Eric's room and me seeing my first few seconds of porn, the Paris Hilton video, whilst sitting on his lap. Yeah. Kinda weird, but whatever. Also notable is that at Omega, we bet Eric that he couldn't eat everyone's (there were like 8 of us) garnishes in under three minutes. He did it in like thirty seconds, but was fooled into believing that he was just a little too slow and that he'd have to buy lunch for everyone. He was so sad and disappointed! Hilarious.

Anyway, that's about all there is to the story of that night.

Months lated, a bunch of us went to Florida after we all graduated. One of Mike's roommates, Frank, had a timeshare in his family, and for graduation, he got it for a week for us.



There's a group picture of everyone that made the trip, minus the goat (Winston) that was purchased and returned after it made horrible noises all night. The prince is the second from the left, Eric (we'll get to him in a second) is front and center with the red hat, and I am all the way to the right, with my ex, Mike. I was pretty much accustomed to being the only girl (or in this case, one of the only girls) in a group of a billion guys. I guess I just get along well with boys. Don't know why. Because I love basketball and hate drama? I dunno.

The trip was an absurdity. We were quite focused on one thing.

And that thing was drinking.

Here's what the refrigerator looked like when I arrived.



As you see, the only food in it is a can of parmesan cheese. Don't get me wrong, we definitely ate, but that was not the focus. Funny how I don't remember where the food was kept, though, ha. Also, keep in mind that things such as Tequila were in the freezer, and that several trips were made to the liquor and grocery stores on St. George Island that week.

It was just before one such trip that a big change was made. We were all sitting around, when I hear Matt say something. He said some sort of name at the beginning of the sentence that was not mine, so I didn't really pay attention. It was at that point that Mike said, "I really don't think you should ignore the Prince when he is talking to you."

Whaaaaaaaat?

Matt repeated himself, and said "I asked if you needed anything from the liquor store, Princess."

Princess?

I am not really a girly girl, so I am pretty sure that I had never been called princess before, by anyone except for my grandpa. Matt said that since he was the Prince, I'd be the Princess. Works for me, I guess!

Anyway, over the course of the week, we developed a royal family. We decided that Eric would be our jester, because he is hilarious. He re-named himself the Butt Jester, because one of his nicknames is Buttram, because of his last name.

The three of us became pretty close, as though we weren't already. We just were kinda all on the same page. The Butt Jester and I had a weird relationship that involved a lot of cuddling. Yes, I cuddled frequently with my ex's roommate, and my ex didn't care. Like I said, it was weird. He was a good cuddler, though.

Anyway, when the last night of the trip rolled around, many people were tired. Their need to party had been met. They did not have the insatiable desire to party that Matt, Eric, and I shared. So the last night, when everyone was trying to sleep, we were trying to make sure that no alcohol was left behind. Isn't that some kind of legislature that Bush has been trying to get goin'? Oh, no, that's No Child Left Behind. And, for the record, it's stupid. But I digress.

We had been going through the alcohol, and finally, we were almost done. Our game of "Drinking Dredle" (Which is AWESOME, and really needs to be played again) had done a serious number on the supply of alcohol, as did the casual drinking of the week. Guess what was left?

Triple Sec.

I was really into Margaritas at this point (yes, it is supposed to be capitalized), and we had nothing left but triple sec. During our poker playing, the Butt Jester made us special cups (giant styrofoam ones) that said "Prince," "Princess," and "Butt Jester" on them. Awesome.

And, as the night went on, he kept pouring giant "shots" of triple sec into them. We were the only three people doing it.

We then decided that that would be the royal shot. There were three of us, hence the triple. And, well, we didn't have a choice.

So there it is. The story of how the Armanian (we changed the spelling) Empire was formed. The story of how I became the Princess (and yes, it still catches people off guard when they see on Matt's phone that I've sent a text and find out that it's not his girlfriend, Cari, who is one of my best friends, but rather me who is called "Princess" in his phone). And the story of how Triple Sec became our royal shot, and a little justification as to why I got so many bottles of triple sec for my graduation party (and why my mom bought a couple bottles of it for us to drink at said party). There's still a bottle on the party cart!

No, it does not taste good. No, it does not really have much alcohol in it (less than wine, haha). But yes, it has sentimental value. And yes, it almost always illicits a hilarious reaction from the bartenders we ask when the whole group of us needs to do the shot. Usually, people don't even know what to charge us, then they get the managers and ask them, and we usually get it free because it's so weird.

"I'm gonna need eight shots of triple sec please...."

This is the most...

beautiful commercial I've ever seen.

Why can't ghosts have babies?

Because they have hollow weenies!

Ok, that was one of the Halloween textes I got on Halloween.

I suppose I should finally explain the whole bizarre pluralization of "textes."

Actually, maybe not. I just thought of several ways to do such things, and determined that the whole textes thing was one of those "you had to be there" type of deals. I think you'll live just fine without knowing why the plural form of "text" has two syllables. Just a guess.

Anyway, without further ado....

Before I get to the Halloween story, I wanna take a minute or two to talk about my mom's visit to the Mil to go out with us.

She came on the Thursday before Halloween, and I had off school the next day, which was perfect.

She had asked me if it would be ok if she wore jeans out, and I told her of course it would, she just needed to wear a cute shirt and not wear tennis shoes.

Apparently, she discussed this with Marv, who came up with the brilliant idea that my mom should go to a second-hand store and purchase an outfit for the occasion.

So, my mom evidently set out to buy the ugliest shirt ever made, as well as clown shoes.

She struck out on the clown shoes, but I am pretty sure that she hit the jackpot on the ugly shirt.

She got to Milwaukee, and we parked her car in the lot, and she came upstairs, and we hung out and talked. Danielle recounted the story of the night of my knee wounds (update below on that bad boy). Since my mom is not accustomed to our schedule of going out at like midnight, we made a compromise and were going to hit VI Degrees around ten, after going to the sale at Fred and Red Heel (Martini night, holla). My mom tells me she needs to change, and takes a bag into the bathroom. I thought it was kinda weird that she was going into the bathroom to change instead of my bedroom, because my mom is not what anyone would call shy. I just dismissed it to proximity and continued to try to pull my life together and get dressed.

Next thing I know, my mom walks out of the bathroom wearing this getup....

Ugliest shirt ever made?

Check.

Rolled up jeans?

Check.

White heels well after Labor (Lobor) Day?

Check.

White tube socks under said heels?

You got it!

I had to take the picture. Just had to.

Notice Danielle spitting the contents of her mouth into the sink. Or maybe vomming because Mamalicious' outfit is the ugliest thing ever made?

Obviously we had a good laugh at this getup....

Mom said that she asked the lady in the store if the shirt was ugly, and the lady didn't know how to answer because she didn't want to offend my mom if she actually liked the shirt. My mom then clarified that she was looking for ugly, and the store employee said "You found it." Ha.

She didn't stay in this outfit long, because the shirt was made of a fabric that she said felt "creepy." It's true. The fabric did feel creepy. And I have proof if you don't believe me, because my mom gave me the shirt. Lucky me. Perhaps I will raffle it off like we did Humphrey the Humping Dog.

Unfortunately for Mamalicious, we didn't take any more pictures that night, so we have no proof that she doesn't ALWAYS go out wearin a goof ass ensemble. I guess that just means that Mamalicious is going to have to return to the Mil for another night of absurdity!

However, while she was in this shirt, she did take the time to tell me that she holds me responsible for ensuring that should she be unable to dress herself, that she would never be wearing cltohes like the ones she had on, or anything else "doofus."

She told me that if anyone else dresses her in such garb, that I should kick their assses.

And if I do it, for any reason, that I can rest assured that when she dies, she'll haunt my ass.

Oh Mamalicious. Hilarious.

Anyway, mom was very well-received at the usual Thursday haunts, and a great time was had by all. To those of you who were out and showed Mamalicious kindness, thank you. Much appreciated!

And yes, as usual, she made an impression. People (including, but not limited to, the busboy at Ma Fischer's) are still asking about her and commenting on her youthful appearance and attitude. =)

Oh, and here's the picture I took of my knee the next morning, one week after the first images were taken.

Aren't I healing well? I didn't take a picture last Friday morning, but I will tomorrow to update you. You'll be quite impressed methinks.

So Halloween.....

Halloween for me started on Saturday night and ended Tuesday. Yes, I am aware that actual Halloween was Wednesday, and I did quasi dress up for it at school, but I was so sick of it already by Wed afternoon that I was done. Plus, my hand had been cold for a long time, and I didn't feel like going out. I was actually briefly considering a hiatus from going out. Yeah, as I said, my hand was pretty cold.

As you know, I enjoy puns. And, as I would hope you would have given me credit for, I am not the type of girl who goes out dressed as something like a slutty corrections officer or slutty airport security person, or slutty janitor or something. On second thought, a slutty janitor might me so ridiculous it'd be funny. I need lots of keys.....

Anyway, I am not saying that I hate girls like that, I'm just sayin'. Not my thang.

So we decided that on Saturday that we would be party animals. We would dress in party-ish clothes like an animal and sport party hats and noisemakers.

Here I am in my costume with Refugio, my son. Don't we look alike? He's definitely a party animal himself!

Look, he's sayin' hi!

Anyway, Saturday night was when we were fortunate enough to have been invited to Fred and Favio's Eyes Wide Shut party at Tangerine.

But unfortunately for us, due to several things (including, but not limited to talking Drunky McDrunkstein into not driving - success! Go me!) making it difficult for our lives to get pulled together, we got there when it was packed to the point where moving was impossible, and where many of the attendees were quite hammered!

Also unfortunate was the fact that LL had left her wallet at home. We were quite nervous that getting into such a place was going to be an impossibility.

But again, of course there is a fortunately.... Don't you see the pattern?

Fortunately, I was able to text Kevin, who is a big deal and knows people (and has a new appreciation for Anchorman) who was able to get us in.... even without waiting in line! Holla! Love you, Kevin! (and not just because of this, as you know!)

Since it was so crowded, we decided we'd just get one drink, say hi to the hosts and people we know, and then go to North Ave.

This was a good idea in theory, but we had to abort mission before we got to say hi to a lot of people, including Favio.

I don't know what was up with the guys there, but I don't think I have been hit on so frequently and brutally in my life. Just rude. It didn't help that my hand was already cold and that we were on a mission. I just had no patience at all. So we pretty much briefly saw Kevin (sadly, this was pretty much just when he let us in), Fred, Marcellus, and someone else I am forgetting. Fiff.

I was just being a straight-up bitch to any guy I didn't know that tried to talk to me, so we decided it was best to just get the h out of there.

We stopped at Cush and said hi, and then moved on, as it was just super late already.

For the record, no one hit on me there, which was wonderful.

Our final stop was Decibel. Whew. It was already like 130, and I was crabby as a mo-fo, so it was time for a drink. Let me tell you, we pounded drinks like it was our job!

We had Parker (who was on rollerskates and hilarious!) take a picture of us. Aren't we cute little party animals?

We saw a dude from behind, who was clearly white, and clearly wearing a wave cap. Either Danielle or LL guessed that this man was a ninja. I guessed that he was Kip from Napoleon Dynamite. Holla! Correct I was! And he took a picture for us. Check him out!

Next, I almost died. When I was a little one was when Cabbage Patch Kids first came out, and they were the most sought-after toy ever. Pretty much like tickle-me-Elmo was a few years ago. So apparently a lot of trouble was gone through to get me Ty Abbey, who was one of the first CPK's. Well, imagine my surprise when I saw Ty Abbey in giant form!!! Here we are, together again at last after all these years!

Moments later, we saw another amazing costume. This white kid had on a red leather jacket, red pants, a Michael Jackson tshirt, and scary makeup and dark hair. He was Michael Jackson from Thriller. It was completely amazing. So much so, that we actually discussed it amongst ourselves!

Moments later, after he had passed us to get to Shawn (who was the evil spiderman) to get a drink, I hear a voice behind me.

Mandie?

I turn and look. It's Michael Jackson. Yes?

Who is it???

BROSEPH!

Amazing costume, Broseph. Didn't even recognize you at first! Here's a picture of us party animals with Broseph.

We made Cute Little Seth, or CL Seth, take the picture. He is a youngster, at 18, and is a "Glassware Liason" (barback) at Decibel. He was a football player for Halloween.

Here's a picture of me with CL Seth!




How cute is he? And how weird is it that he sees me hammered, and I could've been his teacher if he went to my school? He graduated last year. Weird.

Anyway, that pretty much covered it for Saturday night's festivities. We drank a serious amount in a seriously short time. Three doubles and two shots for LL and I. Less for D, who is considerably smaller and who was driving.

Cut to Tuesday. As you know, Decibel is the place to be on Tuesdays (Einstein!). So that is why they had their Halloween party that night.

Danielle had already turned into a pumpkin. It was time already for her to go back to life at the library. I don't think I've seen her since. Just kidding. But I bet that it has been cumulatively less than two hours. Bru-tal!

Anyway, so LL and I had to think of something else to be, just the two of us.

Once again, I am a lover of the pun.

Here we are.

Do you get it?

Read our necklaces.

That's right, Salt N Pepa. I'm Salt, and thus wearing all white, and she is Pepa, and wearing all black.

Heehee.

Of course, shortly after arriving at Decibel, we were greeted with a big smile by Dustin, who was dressed as himself for Halloween. He wanted me to take a picture of him and his friend, so here it is.

Don't they both look all kinds of surprised? I don't know what they are so surprised about. They asked me to take the picture! They should've expected it. Haha.

Soon after this, we said more hellos and went into the Decible side, where it was Mayhem. Many of the people from Saturday were there, wearing often times the same costumes. Good times. But there were also a lot of people there in different costumes.... This included one of the most amazing costumes I have ever seen in my life.

Ok. Aside from the fact that he is clearly a regular-sized person, this is pretty damn true to life. Er, true to the movie. And you can't tell from the picture, but that lollipop had flashing lights inside that looked really phenomenal inside the dark club.

Another thing that you can't tell from the pictures is that he was handing out everlasting gobstoppers! Saweet! I definitely enjoyed that action.

We went back to Deep Bar, since we often wander to and fro, and talked to Buddha for a bit. We asked him to take a picture, since we wanted to have a full-length picture, without the Oompa, of our costumes.

Here's what we got.

Apparently I wasn't clear when I said why I wanted it to be vertical. Haha. However, if you look closely, you can see that I have a curl stuck to my face, in the style of Salt N Pepa in the "Let's Talk About Sex" video. It was a chore to get this to stay, and I ended up using surgical adhesive to do it!

Since our mission of a full-length picture sans Oompa had still not been accomplished, we asked Buddha to try again....

Thanks, Buddha.

By the way, I am the heaviest I've ever been. I know my stomach doesn't look great. Back up off me! It will soon. I promise.

Anyway, I can't really end this story without attempting to describe one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life.

You see, a couple months ago, Latrell Sprewell began coming in to Decibel on Tuesday nights. He stands in this little corner, and for the most part doesn't really move the whole night. That is, until the Cupid Shuffle comes on. Man, oh man, does he love that song! He knows the dance, and he does it. We always laugh. Always.

Well, Halloween was no exception, but it was exceptional! This is due to the fact that Spree dressed up like Darth Vader, complete with bright green light saber!

Let me tell you this, and please believe me.

There are very few things funnier on this earth to watch than a 37-year-old man who is 6'5" and has absurd hair and an absurd reputation (choking folks, boat repossession, etc) doing the Cupid Shuffle with a light saber in hand. Words seriously cannot describe it.

And finally, on Dunce Day, I'd like to ask you..... Why is it when you get a #1 combination at La Fuente (I went out to eat with my cousin the Thursday after Halloween), they put a random pile of meat in the middle of your plate? Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it thoroughly, but still. Kinda weird!

My Sweet Sixteen +10!

Time to blog my birthday. It has been less than two months! Not a ton less, but less...nonetheless. What? How absurd is that sentence?

Anyway, Cari came up for it, which was nice. It's always wonderful to see my nexus. And in a little bit of hilarity, she had taken the train, and since she had a bbq to go to during the day, she borrowed my car. She told me she was going to put gas in it. I jokingly told her to vaccuum it while she was at it, because I had spilled trail mix in it when I was on a road trip for a shoot in Michigan that week (and by "that week" I mean "several months before, but I don't want you to know how lazy I had been by not cleaning my car over a six month span"). Anyway, she did it! She said she wasn't sure if I was kidding.... But I definitely had been!

Anyway, we got a late start getting ready, and then the four of us went out to eat. It was supposed to be a much bigger group, but people Darryled out and were running late, as usual. No big thang, though, we still had fun!

We went to Pizza Man, which is on North Avenue. LL had always wanted to go there, because apparently it is run by gay men, and the sign is shaped like a giant erect penis. I don't know about the gay men, but I definitely see the penis.

Anyway, I had been craving Fetuccini Alfredo (macaroni and cheese for adults) for a while, so that is what I ordered. I don't remember what the other ladies ordered, but I remember thinking that mine tasted weird, and that LL's what the best. The cheese bread was phenomenal, though.

We also ordered wine for all of us to share. Cabernet Sauvignon is my favorite, and since I was the birthday girl, and since I probably like wine more than the other three ladies, I got to pick the wine we got.

Little did I know I was ordering wine from a box! Like a giant juice box, but filled with Cab. It was yummy.

Here's Danielle and Cari with their cute haircuts and with the box of wine....



And here's a closeup of the box itself. I love that it is called Bandit. That makes it fun, too!



After dinner, we went straight over to Decibel, which was really weird. Decibel itself wasn't even open yet. I would say that I had never been to such a place that early in my life, but that is definitely an untruth. When I did the Drambuie Den promo, I was there at like 1 on a Sunday, and then the days of the promo itself, I was there at like 6:30 pm. Bru-tality!

Anyway, so we just kinda sat around in the Deep Bar side. The Badger game (vs. UNLV) was on tv, so we kinda watched that and talked, enjoyed a cocktail, waited for people to arrive. You know.

We had arranged for the party to start at 10, to make it a reasonable time for people who aren't like us who go out at times of the day other than post midnight, haha.

A photographer that I shot a jewelry catalogue with knew my birthday and party were coming up, since we are friends on myspace, and asked if he could come and take pictures. He also works for themilwaukeescene.com, so he kinda speciailizes in event and bar photography. I thought it'd be nice to have a bunch of candids from the night, so I was excited to have Rafal there.

In the first picture, you see me talking to Arinze. Arinze works security at Decibel. I met him when I did the Drambuie Den promo. He has an amazing body. He is a personal trainer, and his abs and torso are ridiculous! Whenever I introduced him to my friends that night, I told them that Arinze doesn't know how to shake hands, and that you are just supposed to rub his chest and stomach, haha. Also, he gives the best hugs ever. Seriously. LL and I get the hugs every week, and the phenomenon is spreading! Apparently that first night I met him, he gave me a hug, and I enjoyed it so much I proposed to him. Whaaaaaat?

Totally didn't remember it. So the next time I saw him, which I am pretty sure was right before I went to Vegas (like the night before, when I was at Decibel until forever, and time warped to Vegas), I proposed again, and he told me that I had already proposed, and that he had already said yes. Who does that?

I don't know if I am having deja vu, but I feel like I may have blogged the Arinze proposal story. If so, I apologize. I just think it's funny.

And, it's relevant. Because here's a candid of me talking to Arinze! You can also see part of Joee's smile, and Cari (in my dress and bracelet, haha) on the right, watching the game.



And here's Arinze and LL, having a serious conversation about SOMETHING. Haha. Arinze sure does wear a lot of wristbands!



Next is a shot of the little group that was there so far. LL, then me in Arinze's arms, then Arinze, then Mara (who came from Madison) and Danielle, then Cari, then Jamie (also in from Madison). Fun times! I love my legs and shoes in this pic. Haha. Sexy shoes!



When we were planning the party, we were going to get a table or two in VIP. Then people were not really responding, so we cancelled it. Then Dustin made us an offer we couldn't refuse, so we took it. In the meantime, however, Drew booked the table we had reserved in VIP to someone else, which was totally fine. One of the reasons that I was ok with cancelling our table anyway was that I tend to be flighty and all over the place anyway, especially at Decibel (I've been known to disappear for a half hour when I go to the bathroom because I end up talking to thirteen hundred people en route), so I wasn't at all upset about this news.

Dustin, however, wasn't having it. Here he is discussing it with us.



The solution would be to kick people out of a certain section in Deep Bar and give us our bottle for even cheaper than initially planned. We agreed.

Here's a shot of Jamie, Cari, and Danielle in our little VIP section.... Something good must've happened in the Badger game, haha.



As usual, since I get service sometimes in the Deep Bar section, I had many texts coming and going. That started to get old fast. I just wanted to hang out with all of my friends who were there! LL, nice facial expression! Haha.




Ugh. Looking at pictures from this night kinda make my hand cold. As I am sure that I mentioned in previous blogs about Vegas, I was lacking my luggage at this point still. That means that I was wearing reject make up, and I didn't have my precious flat iron. I should name that thing, it's my baby. Anyway, though, looking at pictures from this night.... I look straight up rough!



Good. I am not the only one caught texting. Cari had to talk shit to her brother, because the Badgers won, and his team lost. Haha! Go Badgers!

Then, as you can kinda see, Jamil, Ous, Broseph, AC Gilman and Lers arrived. Lers rolls deep with an entourage (almost all of whom were my friends as well, and you'll see pics of them soon). Here's another candid shot of us enjoying ourselves, because it was a celebration, bitches!



Wow, I am sure being lady-like here. Bru-tal!

Almost every time Ous and I are out in public and around other people, I feel like a picture needs to be taken. It just cracks me up to be next to someone who is 6'10". And Jamil's smile is a hand-warmer. Rafal, the photographer, wanted one of me between them for humor's sake, so here it is! It cracks me up how many pictures Ous takes where he looks hammered. Then man has never even tasted alcohol!



Thoes two gentle giants borrowed my car to come to the party, which was hilarious, because the next time I went to use it, both seats were back all the way and reclined. Just how I like it! Ok, I only like that when I am sleeping in the passenger seat on a long trip, haha.

Next is a picture of LL and Mara. Awww. So cute! And in the background, you can see Broseph on the left, and then Cari and Joee on the right. Smiles all-around! And Badger game watching. Haha.



Next picture, we have a candid that was taken right after Lers' arrival. The pictures got a little out of order when I put them on facebook - please accept my apologies!

Here, on the left, is Lers' sister's friend. Then LL, then Juj - Lers' sister. Next we have Lers, whose shirt I love. Then me! What an absurd face! Next is Meams, then AC Gilman, then AC's brother. Quite the group!



And again, all the same people, but I look a little less absurd.



By the way, a comment about my dress.... I bought in May at Fred, which is a boutique on Water Street that I often love. I hadn't worn it before, because I didn't really have occasion to, and it's a little on the scandalous side for me. I love the cut, (which is a little scandalous) but am not really crazy about the leopard print. Not really my thing. It was when I was a freshman in college, but I am over that! Anyway, when I was at Forever 21 yesterday, helping Danielle shop for her Halloween costume, I saw about a billion of those dresses on the rack there. Whaaaaat? That makes my hand so cold. Now a bunch of stupid girls are going to be walking around wearing a dress that I thought was kinda unique. Damn.

Anyway, as I said, I am more fond of the Decibel side than the Deep Bar side. Plus, I was getting mightly tired of texts. Normally I love them, but there were all these people with all these issues with getting there and getting in. I had never known that people had problems getting into Decibel, but apparently that was not the case the night of my birthday celebration. I was sick of running upstairs to talk to the bouncer, and getting Dustin to sort things out, and blah blah blah. And, apparently, the bouncer was acting like he didn't know what was going on. Blah blah blah. Lame. I found it amusing, though, that one of my friends who came down from Madison went across the street to Cush, where they knew of my birthday party, but the bouncer at the door at Decibel pretended like he didn't. Lame.

Anyway, we were kinda stuck in the Deep Bar side until our bottle was gone. So, we started giving drinks away like they were candy. Then LL decided that we should just make it rain and pour it into everyone's mouth to get rid of it in a hurry. So that is what we did. LL did most of the pouring. This first pic, though, is her getting it poured into her mouth. As I said, they are not in proper order!

Getting ready....

Make it rain!

Joee's turn....

LL again, this time with Cari pouring instead of Mara....

Then Cari thought it appropriate for us to do our obligatory body shot. This occurs almost every time we see one another, and definitely is a birthday tradition! Holla at ya uncle pat ron!

More texting. Ugh. And my hair is so bru-tal!

AC Gilman thought that the photographer situation was hilarious. He kept telling Lers that he couldn't believe that my birthday party had paparazzi. He wanted the paparazzi to take a picture of us, like I did with Ous (who Gil LOVES and dreams about and is constantly trying to recruit for his intermural bball team) and Jamil, so that's what went down.

Then I went over by Meams, and gave her a hug, which apparently surprised her. She just looks pumped! Haha.

Awww, cuteness!

I think this should've been the first picture of pouring the pink into our mouths, because I am pretty sure I went first, but seriously.... Will this bottle ever end? Come on!

Lers' turn!

Now it's Cari's turn!

Apparently, it was a little messy! Haha. And look how cute LL looks with Ous, with him practically kneeling to talk to her, since she's so short.

It was also messy when I poured in Jamie's mouth, as she freaked out and got pink vodka in her eye. No pictures of that, though!

Next we have a super cute picture of Lers, Nads, Jerry, Juj, Juj's friend, and Meams. Awww! I'm so glad they all came out! Wish they could've stayed out longer and that I could've hung out with them more!

And next we go to the middle bar.... I wasn't over here at this point. In fact, I refuse to go to this bar in Decibel when Alleged Marcus is working, because I don't want him to know I see him back there, haha. Silly Alleged Marcus.

Then the photographer left, and it was my camera the rest of the night.

Sharif popped in for a couple shots. We went to HS and college together, and he did a stint of playing for the Badgers. It's always a treat to see Reef!

Is it me, or is he kinda doing the shocker with his right hand? Whaaaaat?

Of course I had to take a picture with Curti, who came down from Madison with Rob and came with a bunch of other chicks I don't know.

Wow. I must've been really sober, since I don't remember this picture being taken, and since I look like Samara from The Ring (LL's old roommate). You have seven days.

And I don't know why I was so worried about Reef's hand, because look at mine!

Ok, that picture's a little better, but what is up with my hand again? Seriously? Is that bracelet arm, or what?

And here I am with Broseph too. Still have weird hand action. Am I fondling my upper chest and lower shoulder area? What the hell? I just wanna know!

Here's Broseph with LL and I. Awww. Those two were both in for the long haul that night. LL was because she after-partied all over and left her phone on the stoop at Bayou, which I would get a phone call from each twin about the next day, which was funny. Don't those two talk or communicate telepathically or something? It was also funny because LL would leave her phone at six degrees exactly one week later. She should get a leash for that thing or something!

Broseph was in for the long haul because he ended up sleeping on our love seat, which is far too small for him. I'm pretty sure that when I woke up, and went into the living room, that he was laying there with his ass in between the two cushions, which had separated. Too funny. Couldn't have been comfortable! What a sweetheart, though.

There he is with Jamie and Cari. I loved Jamie's shirt that night! So cute!

Cari, LL, Jamie, and Danielle. I love those ladies!

And the ladies in black.... Mara, Joee, and LL. How cute! I always thought that LL was a few inches shorter than Mara. It's nice to have confirmation, though!

Haha.

Oh, for those of you not in the know.... LL and I always make fun of eachother for being short. I always talk about how I am three feet taller than her. In reality, though, it's only a couple inches (;-P) or, we're exactly the same height.... Haha.

Anyway, there you have it. My sweet sixteen plus ten. Other people were there, but didn't get pictured, like Joe and Terrail, who came from Madison, for example.

I don't know if I am going to be doing many more birthday parties for myself. Although LL did most of the organization (thank you, LL!), it was still really stressful, because it was I who knew everyone there, and who people called or texted when they had issues. I think I will just stick to celebrating birthdays of my friends and random celebrities in the future! =)

Alright.... More to come. Still gotta do Summerfest and Danielle's birthday and the fourth of July.... The last few days might be blog worthy, with my mom's visit, and Halloween.... Plus, there are still a couple more Halloween parties to attend..... Fiff.

Time for me to go have a romantic candle-lit bubble bath. Always nice to have romantic evening.... With myself. Haha.