This will always make me giggle... Or at least smile!

So last Tuesday, Danielle, LL, Dustin, and I all went together to the Marquette game to see Ous and whatnot. LL and I also had to give Dustin his birthday present, so this was perfect.

Since it is my New Year's resolution to blog more (oops, I am not doing well at that, due to the fact that I'm behind on my grading) and to take more pictures (doing a little better on this one, now that my camera batteries have arrived. Thanks, eBay!), I definitely had to capture the four of us at the game together. It doesn't hurt to give Dustin evidence of how much of a pimp he appeared to be, too.... Haha.

Anyway, so we asked whoever's family was sitting behind us to take a picture of the four of us sometime during halftime.

Somehow, in the picture-taking mayhem, Danielle tried to move her hair off her face or something, but elected to attempt this feat without the use of her hands. The photographer caught her at some midpoint, and this is what we got:




Look at Danielle! I am cracking up just sitting here looking at this picture. I mean, really? How hilarious is this? Not my best picture, but Dustin and LL look really cute. Danielle, though? Really?! Absurd. I swear, this picture will make me laugh for the rest of my life.

Best thing about it, is that the woman hands the camera back, and Dustin glances at it and says "It's good."

Whaaaaaaaatttt? Dustin! There are other people in the picture, haha!

SO, we decide to go for a re-do...



Clearly, Danielle and I are cracking up still from just having looked at the heinosity pictured above.... I don't know how LL pulled it together. Dustin, well... Dustin just wasn't really amused by the whole thing in the first place.

We decided to quit while we were ahead and stop bothering the people behind us, and just be done with the group picture idea. Danielle, LL, and I just sat and laughed hysterically for the longest time, when our #1 glove gave us some more dictuary material (he's so reliable for that).

"It's funny, but it's not five minutes later, funny."

Dustin, I still disagree. At the very least, it's even 8 days later funny!

I bet LL would agree, too, since she was laughing so hard she was crying, which Dustin thought was important to capture.

Niiiiiiiiice.

Anyway, that's all I got for now. Gotta go back to grading so I earn the Wii privileges back that I've cut myself off from until I'm done with all of my grading! Ugh. Just wish I could go home and play. Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!

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...."

Happy 25th birthday, everyone!

Now, could you please stop having birthdays and the celebrations so that I can survive this year? OK, thanks!

I want to start off by appologizing again that it's been so long since I last blogged. I've been absurdly busy. Even moreso than normal. You see, once it starts kinda being Spring, I have a bazillion things to do. It's ridiculous. Not a moment to spare. I have a list of like ten things that I need to blog! Bru-tality.

Anyway, here's the next installment.

I'm at a weird age. Twenty-five years old. I'm not a teenager, kid, and no longer am a college student, yet I would consider myself a helluva distance away from being a real adult. I have friends on both sides - college students (such as the rash of 21-22 year olds I've been dating), and real adults with families and mortgages and children. I have a real job, but I still act like I am in college.

A lot of my older friends tell me things like "Yeah, I feel like I am going to weddings every weekend this summer. All of my friends are getting married off and having children."

Well, such is not the case for this girl. Fortunately, my friends are, for the most part, immature. At least when it comes to marriage! I even have a few friends, when out for a birthday (coincidence) we all heard someone talk about marriage, and we all reacted with visible fear/disgust.

Anyway, I feel like I am constantly celebrating birthdays, specifically 25th birthdays. Actually, I feel like more often than not, I am telling a story and saying either, "Well, that day, I was incredibly hung over, because I was celebrating one of my closest friend's 25th birthday the night before," or "I was out celebrating my friend's 25th birthday, when...."

So here it is. Four friends. Four birthdays. Four stories, all of them absurd.

P.S. I am sitting in my living room on my "night off from going out," enjoying a glass of wine, which has made me tipsy, despite the fact that I am only about a quarter of the way through it! Straight brutality.

*****Birthday #1*****

Birthday #1 of 2007 is that of Nicole. You've read about her before. One of my best friends, and the woman behind my highlights and hair cut. She's beautiful inside and out, and she's become one of my partners in crime.

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the night that Marquette played Louisville. I was moving slowly, because it was a Saturday, and I had slept most of the day in preparation. Then I was listening to the game while getting ready, which certainly slowed me down! Nicole set up a house party at her place, which I showed up to, late. Fashionably late, of course, but late nonetheless, which meant that I had some catching up to do. Fortunately, they were playing asshole, so it made it pretty easy!

For Nicole's gift, I brought her Limon and Water - if you've read previous blogs (specifically the drunk diary one from December), then you understand why! And I also wanted to give her a tiara, but the tiaras were lame, so I brought party hats.

These came to good use immediately, when we put one on her new cat Roxanne. Spectacular, no?



That day was also the celebration of one of Nicole's best friends, Jes. Here's a picture of all three of them (Nic, Jes, and Roxanne) in their party hats!




And yes, we needed to take a picture of Nicole and I with her Limon and Water present. Why in hell is it me that is holding the Limon? It makes me look like the trouble-maker! Yikes.



Some of the people at Nicole's were just brutal. This includes, but is not limited to Jes' ex-boyfriend, Brad, who officially sucked at life. He threw jealous tantrums a few times, effectively leading poor Jes to have to re-do her birthday another night, since his fits made it brutal.

Anyway, after the houseparty, we went out to Buckheads, which is always a good time. Apparently Nicole had befriended the DJ, and got us some free admission cards or something. Sweet....

Here's a picture of Nicole, Carrie, and I. I have no idea what the hell is going on with me.... Apparently, something was going on to the left (*right) that made everybody (*me) happy.... And if you get that reference, you get an automatic 75 damn cool points from me.




Since I wasn't able to pull my life together and look normal in the first picture, we had to re-do it for the second one. And yes, Nicole decided that she wanted it to be a dress-up party, so I am wearing a dress. And yeah, I was going through a bit of hair boredom, so I curled it. I like the way it looks, but it is time-consuming to achieve such an effect, so it only happens a few times a year!

And there's your re-do.

Well, one thing that you may or may not know about me is that I am all about getting a body shot for the birthday girl. I don't think I have ever done a body shot with a guy. Now that I think about that, that's kinda weird. Hmmm.... Anyway, here are a couple fun shots of that going down.

This night was a few months ago, so I am having some difficulties with recalling all of the absurdities. I do, however, remember a few. I remember dancing on the stage with Nicole, Carrie, and Jes. I also remember somehow talking about how I was kinda dating Ous, and then having Jes and Brad (mostly Brad) somehow decide that I really like all Africans, and calling their African friend and getting him to come out. So then this approximately 45-year-old African man is hitting on me because he thinks that I have a thing for Africans, and I wasn't even trying to have anything to do with any males at that point.

OH! And I remember another thing! That whole Louisville business sucked. The game was super-close, and they are a huge rivalry. I somehow (drunkenly) saw online that MU had won, and congratulated Ous on the victory. Except, there was this whole thing about how they actually lost. Oooops! I had a lot of appologizing to do. Bru-tal!

Anyway, Nicole's birthday ended with everyone safe, and huge hangovers the next day... Just like any birthday should!

*****Birthday #2*****

Birthday #2 is that of Lers. She's my best friend at school - we teach together. I'm sure I've written about her and this group before. Always trouble, I say, always trouble!

We started out at La Perla. La Perla is similar to La Fuente in that they may as well be the same damn place.... A place that serves pretty good Mexican food (not as good as Racine, but better than a lot of other places) and has amazing blended margaritas - at La Perla, I recommend the rainbow (they're called La Perla there) margaritas.

What happens at both establishments is that you are hammered before your food arrives. Always. I have never left either establishment sober, and rarely do I clean my plate, which is ridiculous - I am a serious member of the clean plate club. I might even be an officer of the clean plate club!

Anyway, there were about 15 of us out, and it was great. We had our dinner. We drank some 'ritas. Then we decided to move on. We went to the HiHat/Garage. I opened a tab.

First thing that happened, that was a red flag (well, I guess it was the third red flag - the first being the friends I was with, and the second being La Perla), was that Vitucci met us out. Bru-tal. Shots (as usual)! Then Natalie shows up. She's notorious for ordering shots to the table at dinner. Again, bru-tal! I set up a tab. Greeeaaaat.

Then Mia introduces me to one of her co-workers. It was hysterical. "This is Meghan. Meghan, you're funny. Mandie is one of the funniest people I've ever met. You two will get along!"

Then Meams walks away, and Meghan and I end up getting into serious conversations, during which neither of us were funny. Ironic, eh?

Anyway, I don't think much more of HiHat/Garage was very memorable, and since there are still a couple birthdays left to cover, I am going to move on.

We all decided to head out and hop in a cab. We were trying to go to Flannery's, but in the middle of the ride (Lisa, Mia, Sarah, Rodrigo, AC Gilman, and I were all squeezed in one car), Big R projectile vomitted all over the place. This aforementioned vomit got all over the occupants, but I somehow managed to make it out unscathed, which was amazing, because I was sitting on either Mia or Lisa's lap, and I am pretty sure that they both got vomitted upon! Anyway, for obvious reasons, the cab driver kicked us out o fthe cab immediately. We were right by Victor's, which is right by AC Giman's (Lisa's boyfriend's) apartment. AY somehow convinced us that we should go to Victor's. So we did. We left Rodrigo and his vomit to fend for himself, because apparently Sarah was mad at him, and the rest of us were too drunk to focus or care.

Mia and I get to the door of Victor's, and they try to charge us $5 each to get in. We talk them down to $1 each, explaining that the place was pretty dead, and that it was like 1am. Go us!

Apparently, earlier that night at Victor's, there was a private party, with a few tables full of food. AC Gil, AY, and I were just all types of pumped. We kept trying to sneak the food, even to the point where I was texting friends to tell them that I had become a taco dip vulture! At one point, though, the dreaded occurred. We got caught!

This was not as bru-tal as expected. In fact, the man who caught us said, "Thank goodness, help yourself! Someone has to eat it!" YAY!

AC Gil took this to heart so much that apparently he took a to-go box home! Really, AC? Ridiculous! I didn't find this out, though, until a few days after the festivities.

Anyway, it was this night that we had an absolutely absurd snowstorm. That was trouble. We literally got over a foot and a half of snow in two hours.

Since Victor's is so close to AC and TJ's apartment, so we decided to walk home.

I would like to take this moment to pat myself on the back for two things. One was that I wore boots out, and not pumps. I mean, come on. It was late February, and we were in Milwaukee, WI. This paid off big in the trek through the arctic! The second was that I chose to stay with AC Gil on the way home. I don't know my way around there, especially when hammered, so I thought I'd stay with him. Plus, I'm a fast-walker. This helped. I was one of the first home. I just followed AC Gil's trail!

After we got home, we realized that we were alone. But moments later, Lisa and Sarah stumbled in. Apparently, it was a struggle. They were full of ice. Both of their shoes were full of snow. I was already wearing AC Gilman's silk long johns.

Then Meams comes home, with her shoes in her hands (she walked home BAREFOOT!!!), convinced that she has frostbite (likely). She told tales of laying down in the driveway of the Metro Market, telling Lers to go on and "Save herself" and such things as that. Ridiculous!

Here comes the punchline.

In the morning, I wake up, and have no credit/debit card. Since I am trying to avoid credit card debt, I only have the one card, so it's kinda brutal for me to not have it. Plus, I use it to make deposits to my checking/savings account because my bank is far away.

I'm not too worried at this point though. I am sure it is at HiHat/Garage. If not, the only other place I went was Victor's, so it can't be too bad!

Danielle has to stop at campus the next evening, so even though I called HiHat/Garage to see if they had my card, and they said no, I thought I would stop in anyway and see if perhaps they didn't hear me. Nope, they still don't have it.

Well, Danielle says that while we're out, we may as well go to Victor's and see if they have my card. So where's Victor's?

I have no damn idea. I mean, yeah, I've been there, but no, I have no idea at all where it is. So we just kinda drive around haphazardly until we find it.

Then I meet the men at the door to collect the cover charges. I am still hung over from the previous night.

I explain to the bouncers that I am not there to enjoy Victor's, but that I think that my debit card is there.

"You THINK that it is here? You mean you're not sure?"

Well.... Yes.

"Wow, you must've been faded!"

Yes.

So I go in, and tell the bartender that I think my debit card might've been left there the night before. He says,

"Are you Mia?"

I start laughing. No, but I was with her!

Apparently, she left her card there. Also, AC Gil left his card at HiHat/Garage. He got his. Mia just sent for a new one. I asked for a new one, and didn't get one for six long weeks. What a struggle! That was neither here, nor there, though.

***** Birthday #3 *****

The next 25th birthday celebration was that of Mia.

Curti came in town for it. And it was a surprise! A couple weeks before her birthday, Lers and Natalie sent out an email inviting everyone out. Little did Mia know that just before that, they had sent out an email telling everyone to respond with an excuse as to why we couldn't come out.

So we did, and then on her birthday, we all assembled at the Ale House for her birthday. There were about 25 of us, and let me tell you, Mia was surprised! Most of the people at dinner were the same as Lers'. Fun times.

After dinner, we went to the bar part and had some fun times. Shots, of course. Pat Ron, of course, because that is Natalie's specialty. I, too, am no stranger to tequila. For some reason, though, I didn't do any body shots with neither Mia nor Lers. And, as you can see, I didn't really take any pictures either night. Actually, I think my camera was broken for both of those birthdays. Sad!

Anyway, got hammered. Hung out with Mia's funny co-worker Meghan some more. Did lots of shots. Decided I felt bad that Curti was surrounded by a million people that I knew that he didn't, so I thought we'd check out Murphy's. Plus, I thought it would be good to be closer to home. AND, Curti had previously mentioned to me that when he visits someone, he wants to see what their normal lives are like, and not so much do something special. And since I've lived in Milwaukee, despite how lame I think it is, Murphy's has become a part of my normal life!

So, we said goodbye to Mia and all of the other celebrants. One thing that was memorable was that when she said goodbye to me, Mia told me, "Now go try out for SNL." Ha!

So we went to Murph's. To my surprise, almost all of the MU BBall players who were of age were there - Dominic James, Jerel McNeal, Dwight Burke, Jamil Lott, Wes Matthews.... No Ous. I talked to Jamil a little bit, which is always a pleasure. He's so nice!

It was weird to see all of these guys who I had watched from so close, yet so far away, in a non-basketball setting. It was like - I felt like I knew them, but definitely didn't since I had never talked to anyone except for Jamil. So I kept staring at them, like I was trying to figure them out. The night starts to get fuzzy here, though.

I remember that Dominic James was wearing this outfit that was almost entirely camoflage. A Camoflage hat and a camoflage shirt. I think that camo is silly most of the time anyway, so I remember laughing at such things.

Since I was staring at them so much, there was obviously a lot of eye contact made, which was apparently annoying to Curti. Anyway, we left, and as per usual, I was hungry.

So, we went to Jimmy John's. I love MU's Jimmy John's. It is amazing.

You know what(who) else I love? MU's Mike Kinsella. Don't know why. I just do.

Well, as it turns out, I had two loves in one night. I turned around in line, and who was there, but Mike Kinsella. Since he's seven feet tall, he's a bit hard to miss. I'd never talked to him before, but that certainly didn't stop me from walking up to him, giving him a hug, and saying "Congratulations on life." and then leaving.

Yes, that's right. I congratulated him on life, he said thanks, and I left.

WHAAAAAAT?????

I love it. I was actually awake for quite a while the next day before I remembered such absurd events.

Another thing that I hadn't remembered was sending Ous ridiculous texts from home. Here's a Cliff's notes version of oru conversation, from teh best of my ability.

Me: Dominic James blends in a whole lot better than you do.

(We've talked about blending in before, haha).

Ous: What are you talking about?

Me: His outfit. He blends.

Ous: Are you at Eve?

Me: No, I'm at home!

Ous: Are you drunk?

Me: No, not at all.

WHAAATTTT? "Not at all?" Who am I kidding? Someday, I really need to know what goes on in Ousmane's head.

Bru-tal. The next day, I played poker while nearly dead, but that's beside the point.

More on the Mike Kinsella interaction later, as that was certainly not the last we saw of eachother!

***** Birthday #4 *****

The next birthday is that of Cari. We call eachother our nexus. We are very alike in a lot of ways, but at the same time, very different. We met in college, had a lot of classes together, and dated the same guy for awhile.

She is now dating the Prince, and has been for nearly two years. He is also one of my best friends. I should probably devote an entire blog to our friendship. Hys-terical.

Anyway, Cari's 25th was the night before Easter. She currently lives in Naperville, IL.

I arrived there awhile before dinner. Shortly after my arrival, Cari sent the Prince off on an errand to pick up pictures at Walgreen's that hey took on their Spring Break Vacation to Aruba.

Matt (the Prince) came back with pictures. AND, the biggest chocolate bunny he could find.

Yummy! I love chocolate. So, I decided I needed a bite. I didn't know how to handle it. I didn't know if it was hollow or solid. Matt said that for $8, it better be solid! Turns out, no.

I love the eyes on chocolate rabbits. They are pure sugar. So I made quick business of those. Then I took a bite out of the ears (we're family, they are not afraid of my germs).

Then, somehow, we (Matt and I) came up with the best idea ever. Despite the disappointment that this chocolate rabbit was hollow, we decided to turn the negative into a positive. We turned the lack of chocolate in the middle to an empty space in which to put alcohol. The bunny became a receptacle for Peppermint Schnapps. Woohoo!

Cari, since it was her birthday, was first to go. She kept laughing, so it took her forever to get that first drink down! Here's some evidence....

Yeah, I'm fully aware that I look like a goof-ass douchebag poser in that shot. Oh well. I swear to goodness it wasn't intentional!

Next was me, da Prince$$ (as Matty calls me).

Yeah, like an old pro. Haha.

Obviously, the Prince himself wasn't exempt from such activities!

Anyway, post rabbit drinking (which also was partaken by Collette, one of Cari's friends from HS), we all went out to eat. We were quite the interesting crowd.

I've already explained Cari and Matt.... But a little more detail never hurt. Cari was the President of her sorority. She's one of the most responsible people I've ever met. A serious rule-follower, but with a definite fun/wild streak. Hey-oh!

I've described Matt as one of my shady friends. Matt.... Not so much the rule-follower. Possibly the opposite. Definitely irresponsible, but way fun, and awesome for sure.

Then we have Collette and her husband, who have a very young child. I honestly have only met each of them twice, including Cari's birthday, so I can't say much about them. I can say, however, that they SEEMED like a stereotypical perfect cookie-cutter new family. Very cute, very conservative. Collette got drunk off of one martini. That kinda gives you an idea, I think!

Then there was Tulin, who I had only met that night. She just seems like the most straight-laced person ever. She was super nice and very fun, but Cari seemed shocked that Tulin was doing shots. So yeah....

Then there is Sarah and Vanessa, who are a couple, and are both awesome. Sarah met me when I was hammered and had a lot of stories to tell, so somehow I have a reputation with her as a crazy girl with ridiculous things happening to me. Or maybe that is my reputation with everyone?

Then there is Melody and Gerardo. Melody is Cari's aide in class. Fun girl. Seems pretty similar to me. In fact, I believe that we were introduced in a similar fashion to how I was introduced to Megan, Mia's friend. Gerardo was Melody's cousin, and didn't have a whole lot of English skills, but was still tons of fun.

Then there was this other girl. I don't remember her name, but I remember her reputation. She had graduated from the Christian college nearby Cari's elementary school. Apparently she is very conservative. Everyone was worreid about who she was going to sit by, and saying that I was not the best person for her to sit by (nor were Matt or Colette's husband).

During dinner, Colette decided that she liked her martini glass, and we convinced her in her drunken state that it would be a good idea to steal such a thing. So she hid it, and ordered a second.

This other girl was far away from me, but I am told that she was visibly upset.

Colette mentioned something about having never stolen anything before.

I had to inform her of something that I learned long ago from my mother. Sometimes, you just have to take a "parting gift."

We convinced her to take the second one, so that she would at least have a pair.

When we left, I said goodbye to "Conservative Girl" who I didn't even speak to at all.

I mentioned the fact that I hadn't spoken to CG, and one of the best quotes of the night came out of Sarah's mouth.

"She's quiet, not rude, and doesn't drink. She's not your people."

WHAT? Haha. Hysterical.

Then we get to Feature's, some bar in Naperville.

We order our first drinks. I was feeling a little iffy, so I ordered what I always get when I am at a bar and not feeling well.

Some of you might think that would be soda or water. You would be wrong.

It's Bacardi Limon and water, bitches! Hilarious.

Tulin overheard half of my order. The second half. She was shocked. "You're ordering water?????!!!"

What? You've only known me 15 minutes! She said my reputation precedes me. Grrrreeeeaaatttt.

Then came Sarah's next quote in the one-two punch.

Out of nowhere.

"We need to find you some man candy. There has to be a huge black guy around here somewhere!"

What? Pigeon-holed. Oh well.

Here's all of us ladies at Features.

Then began the shots. Pat Ron, anyone?

Obviously, Cari and I needed to do them body-shot style.

So our birthday girl was sober.... HA!

Apparently, there is some sort of thing people do that involves shaking people's head and pounding on it after a shot of tequila. BRU-TAL! Here's the Prince in the midst of it. He was struggling after it, but said it was pretty cool. I was chicken. Too chicken to try it. Maybe some other day!

We obviously needed to take a picture of the Prince and I. It's debated whether those are bunny ears or devil horns over our heads. What do you think?

At some point during the night, I went to the bathroom, by myself. While waiting in line, I saw something absurd. On the wall at Features, in between the ladies' and mens' room, there was a metal sculpture of a martini. Ok, that is not absurd. What is absurd is that below it, on the floor, there was a piece of plexi glass mounted to the wall, with a few inches of space in between. In this space, there were several round stones - the kind that you'd find in someone's yard around their plants or something. Just plain old black rocks. I have no idea why they were there. I do know, though, that I couldn't leave the place without taking some home, especially since we had talked about parting gifts earlier, and how ridiculous they could get (Matt had recently taken a gate in our nation's capitol). So on my way back from the bathroom, I grabbed a rock in each hand and put them in my handbag, without telling anyone.

The night rolled on, and we ended up having a few guests back at Cari's: Titus, Eric (who looked like Pharrell Williams), and Batmobile (whose real name apparently was Kirby).

That whole scene was hilarious. We made the newcomers, including Melody, drink out of the rabbit. And Matt and I basically just kept texting eachother to discretely make fun of that Eric kid. It was ridiculous.

Then everyone except Titus and I went into the living room. The rooms are connected, but it's still kinda separated. Titus and I got into a conversation in which we were discussing religion. He had told me about how impressed he was with me because he is not accustomed to having intelligent conversations.

Then, in the religion discussion, he brought up the people who take the Bible completely literally. He referred specifically to people who think that a good punishment for a crime would be to stone someone to death. You see obviously where this is going.

So I says to Titus, I says.... "I know you were just talking about how wonderful it is to have intelligent conversations, but I am going to completely ruin that perception of me. I'll be right back."

I went upstairs to my room (Yeah, I have my own bedroom at Cari's condo) and went into my purse, and retrieved the two rocks that I had stolen from the bar.

I came downstairs, and made an announcement.

"Since we were talking about parting gifts, I thought I'd tell you all about what I got from the bar!"

And then I dropped the rocks onto Cari's floor, went back to Titus, and said "I'm sorry about that. You were saying?" And got back to conversation. How ridiculous is that?

Nothing else about the night is really that interesting, other than that I had a glass of Hpnotiq on the rocks, followed by a glass of Bailey's on the rocks. These weren't necessary, but I was somehow sober when I left the bar! That was fixed.

The best part (perhaps, arguably) was when I was talking to John (more explanation later), and told a tiny part of the story, and he responds "Who steals rocks from a bar???"

I do.

End of story.

Enjoy!

P.S. This is what part of the alphabet would look like if "q" and "r" were eliminated.

P.P.S. I gave one of the rocks to Cari, and the other is now under our love seat, where Refugio moved it.

HAPPY 35th BIRTHDAY, SHAQ!

Today's celebrity birthday is the best of the year. Shaquille O'Neal... He's my favorite celebrity of all time! That's us above... So yeah... I'll be celebrating that tomorrow night. And it's especially nice, because I won't have to go to school on Wednesday, since Lers and I are going to Kansas City, baby!

We are going to a conference about teaching languages in a digital world. So if anyone knows anything about the KC that you wanna share, lay it on me so I can enjoy it to the fullest!

I'm sorry that it's been so long since I've updated... I've been incredibly busy. I have a whole list of things that I want to write about (Lers' birthday, Nicole's birthday, things from long long ago... and so on)... But for now, I think I am just going to cover the past week or so.

Last week, I was in a lingerie runway show at a club here in Milwaukee called MOCT. Initially, I was just a model in it, but I ended up hooking up one of my best friends, Tia, who is a lingerie designer, with the girls who were running the show (Metro PR). So I ended up helping a little bit with fitting and with organization on Tia's end, as well. That also meant that Tia and a friend of ours, Brenda, ended up staying at my apartment. Ands through this all, I was still a teacher... So basically, I got no sleep over the course of several days.... Ok, "no" sleep is an exaggeration. It was closer to ten hours over three days. Still bru-tal.

Anyway the show was a ton of fun. I don't have any pictures from the actual runway, but I have some from before and after the show. It was funny, because after the show, this woman came upstairs and informed us that Eric Benet would be on his way up to take pictures with us. Oh really? Eric Benet? Halle Berry's sex addict ex husband, of VH1 fame? Hilarious. So yeah, we all took a picture with him afterwards, which is also shown below.

The makeup artist that worked on me did a look I am not quite used to. She put really dark lip stain on me, and I am used to lighter lips. The other makeup artist loved it, and he kept going on about how hot my lips were. And my makeup artist also glued darker feathers to my face by my eyes, which I found really distracting, since my hair and skin is so light. Ah well. It was different at least!

One thing that cracked me up... Among the models in the show (there were 13 of us), two were significant others of Milwaukee Bucks basketball players. One of them was Dan Gadzuric's girlfriend, and she told me that they've read my blog. How funny and cool is that!? The other Buck's wife (Kenya, Charlie Bell's wife) was probably one of my favorite models in the show. We got along very well. She was so funny, sweet and down to earth! We were the self-proclaimed "fat ones" and the only girls in the show who had an ass - haha.

Speaking of which, in my first pass down the runway, it was practically hanging out! I was wearing these boy shorts and a shirt from Fred. I can't believe it still! I've come a long way!

Here's a couple group shots from before the show...

That's me, all the way on the right, with the yellow, in case you don't recognize me amongst all of the gorgeous ladies with their perfect bodies who made me incredibly self-conscious. Haha.

The show went well. I felt like I rocked it, and I love the runway. I wish I were taller.

My last outfit was kinda crazy (in a good way). It was a mint green strapless band bra with a mint green tulle tutu. How fun is that? I walked in this coy, coquettish walk with my hands on my hips, all cute. Tia and Brenda decided that I had to wear my giant tiara that a photographer had given me... So here's the group after the show... First picture's with Tia and Brenda, and the second's with good ol' Eric Benet.

I'm... Well... The one with the tiara. Haha.

Anyway, after the fashion show, we partied a bit, which was fun. Apparently some photographer asked about me specifically, which is really flattering. Megan, one of the girls from Metro PR, is going to give me his information I guess. So that's cool.

Friday, I went and bought a shirt that someone else wore in the first pass on the runway. Not the exact shirt she wore, but the same style. I haven't worn it yet. Perhaps I'll rock it in KC. I love it. You'll see pictures... After buying the shirt, I just came home and napped.

Saturday, I pretty much was still recovering all day from the heinously tiring week. Then Saturday night I went to the last Marquette home game. Here is a picture of a sign that someone was holding in the crowd that just cracked me up. I swear I've seen it before.

I'm really going to miss going to all of these games. I don't know what I am going to do with my free time! It's been too long since I've been to Madison, so that is going to change. But I hope that I get to go to so many games next year! Anyway, back to Saturday... It was ESPN college gameday and Senior night. I've been to tons of senior nights. I cry every time. I cry during the intros (well, that's true of almost every game). And then I cry during the speeches at the end.

The speeches, by the way, were something to behold. Jamil talked for much longer than expected, since he seems pretty soft-spoken the few times we've met. It was hilarious to watch Ous. He was so antsy. Everyone else was standing still, listening to the speeches. Ous kept dancing around behind people, to music apparently in his head. Then he kept walking away from the group... Taking pictures with people, just wandering around. Then he started laughing at something Jamil said, and he put his jersey up over his face, like in Happy Gilmore, when Adam Sandler's character does it to Bob Barker and then punches him in the face! It was hilarious. Then, he goes and sits down by himself like 15 feet away from everyone, until Dominic James came and helped him up - made him get off the ground.

What makes all of this even funnier was that when he texted me later on, I asked him about his dancing, and he responded "hahaha, y everyone saw that?"

Are you kidding me, Ous? You are almost 7 feet tall, and you were in front of thousands of people. Everyone else was standing still but you. What a goof ball!

Anyway, after the speeches, I went on the court and got something I had wanted a very long time... a picture with Ous while he's in uniform! Unfortunately, though, it turned out very blurry. Bru-tal. Here it is.

I am the one who looks like a midget. Brut brut!

The saddest thing is, I think that might be the last picture my little camera took. It's broken. I called tech support today, and they told me that I can either spend $120 to have it fixed, $210 to exchange it for a refurbished camera with a 6-month warranty, or I can buy a new camera. I just don't know what to do. Any tips?

I'm off to bed. Lots to do to prepare for subs before I go to the KC!

Hot chick (or soup) of the day!

Lately, I have been doing a bit of reminiscing and reflecting. I don't know if is because I am sick... Or if it is from other things... I had to fill out a questionnaire that really made me think. I'll get to that in a minute. And then I read a blog, one that I regularly read (http://kingofbash.blogspot.com) about Valentine's Day, and that made me think also...

First to the questionnaire. I got selected to be "Hot Chick of the Day" on www.93x.com. I couldn't decide whether or not I wanted to do it.

On one hand, it would be great exposure. The website apparently gets 3,000,000 hits a month. But then I asked myself... Is this the type of exposure that I want? Being the hot chick of the day on some rock station's website? Would it really lead to jobs that I would actually want to take? Then I thought - it's possible. You never know who is a regular listener to a rock station, or a regular visitor to that site.

I was only mildly worried about my students finding it - the station is based out of Minneapolis, MN, and is a rock station - most of my students listen to rap.

On the other hand, I was thinking that "Hot Chick of the Day" sounds like the most onjectifying title in the world. Like "Soup of the Day" or something... I mean, seriously.

So then I checked out current and previous "HCotD's" to find that I had very little in common with most of them. I also checked out the questionnaire that came along with it. I thought that perhaps I could show that "hot chicks" have brains, too. I think that my answers to the questions would show that. But then that made me wonder - will that even register to the people who regularly go to that website? Or will it be lost on that audience?

I guess we'll see. Boredom won out. I'm the 93x.com Hot chick of the day from tomorrow, Feb 16 through Sunday Feb 18th. Apparently that makes me "hot chick of the weekend" or something. Ah well.

When I first set out to write this post, I thought I was going to delve into a V-day from the past... Yesterday was the second time that my Valentine's Day (although I am not a big celebrator of it - to see my feelings, you can pretty much go read that blog that the King of Bash wrote) got hijacked by MU Bball. Neither experience was bad, but it would have been better if MU would've won last night. I was going to tell the story about how the last time MU BBall owned my VDay, my ex ended up in the ER, but I am too lazy to do that now.

I was also going to write about the different loves of my life, complete with pictures - I think it would be a hilarious thing to read - there is so much contrast! But again... too lazy. I just don't have it in me, I guess. That'll be another day.

Oh, and for the record (because I know it sounds bad)... My ex going into the ER had nothing to do with me. I don't want anyone thinking that I whupped his ass because he made me go to a basketball game on Valentine's Day or something! Haha...

Brut brut!