Flashback Blog 2

Sorry for the delay. Now, sit back and relax as I tell another story of my life.

Ah Chilifest...

20,000 drunk people, 10,000 cases of Miller Lite, 5 musical acts, and 30 port-a-potties. Once a year in April people drive out to Snook, Texas - a town 15 miles from College Station to get drunk and hang out with their friends...or complete strangers.

Usually I don't remember all that I say or do at Chilifest. One year a Chilifest team had one of those little kiddy horses that you put a quarter in and ride for like 2 minutes...yeah, i rode it. It was free! Another year after Chilifest, I ended up at the Tap after drinking all day and Lea and I did the running man at the bar all night. Wow.

But two years ago, I was driving Brooke and I back from Chilifest. Now I feel that I was in decent shape to drive. that doesn't mean I wasn't a little nervous about the possibility of a police officer pulling me over just to "check" to make sure I was okay to drive. After Chilifest gets over every year, there are usually cops lined up and down the highway pulling people over. This particular year, I had even heard that if anyone's appendages (i.e. a leg, an arm, etc.) was hanging out of your vehicle, the cops were going to pull you over anyway, as if an arm out the window indicates drunkeness. So I had that idea in my head somewhere. Well, as I'm on the highway driving back from Chilifest, I look in my rearview mirror and a cop is following me. So I'm already stressed. Thankfully he never pulled me over or anything...but once we got back on the main road leading into College Station, the cop went around me and was up near this truck of a few guys who had also been at Chilifest. The guy riding shotgun had his leg HANGING out of the window. And so me, trying to be the nice Chilifest friend, wanted to get these guys' attentions so I could tell them to put their legs back in the car. But the cop is in front of me. I don't want to draw attention to myself by honking the horn at these guys. So instead, i decide a bird calling tactic (??) and I scream "cuckoo, cuckoo" out the window. Because that is normal. Anyway, i finally get the guy's attention and i kind of make this motion for him to put his leg in the car and i point at the cop car thinking he's going to completely understand what i'm telling him and he's going to thank me. Um, insted of that, he looks at me like i'm crazy and then make s a rude gesture that is NOT flipping me off...one might describe the gesture as something a guy might do when he's "bored".

So much for trying to be nice.

Radio jingles, ET and pixies

This weekend I went to Chicago to meet Beth's parents and hang out in Chicago. I will admit that I never thought Chicago was all that great, but it's definitely been good to get back and realize it's a great city.

Lots of crazy antics happened this weekend. Friday night when I arrived we ate dinner at Portillo's, which I haven't had in probably 7 years, and it still tastes amazing. We were in downtown Chicago and of course Beth asks this guy where she can find parking close by...he tells her to park on the other side of the building (on the left side of this picture to the left) in the loading zone and put her flashers on. haha. So we do that. We almost got ticketed by the cops, but they let us go.

Friday night we met out my friend Amber and a bunch of her friends along with some of Beth's friends at a bar called Roscoe's. Great fun. Amber asked me to do the Peanuts dance...you know, the guy who just turns his head left and right while he dances in place and the rest of his body doesn't really move...and of course we took that to a new level and tried to do that dance to rap music. We were kinda tipsy! And then the Britney Spears dance showed up and made my night. You just have to see it to understand it. Amber also timed people at the bathroom in this bar. Okay, it was a gay bar for men, but you should still have more than one stall for women. Anyways Amber apparently has a timer on her phone and was telling people how long they took in the bathroom. It ended up being a race, I think. There was also some part about how when Amber went to the bathroom and got done so fast, someone in line accused her of not washing her hands. Amber held up her hands and made the girl smell them to see that she actually did wash them and that they were clean. So we finally decided to leave. It was cold outside and we were trying to leave there and find another fun bar but ended up just heading back to Amber's apartment which was a few blocks from where we were at. I made the mistake of saying (on our walk) something bad about the Cubs. Amber turned around and slugged me right in the gut with her purse (which i think contained an anvil). After whining for a minute, we were to Amber's place where some of the others from the bar had already been for a while. Jen was there. Jen is one of Amber's old roommates and all i can say is that she was making me laugh so hard because she kept singing the Menards jingle. It goes "you save big money, you save big money when you shop Menards" and she did this little ho-down dance with it that i can't get out of my head. Then we got to see Matt do his impression of Lord of the Dance. It was hilarious. Jen paid him 5 bucks to do it, thinking he was ACTUALLY a professional riverdance person. [Personal side note about Menards...the guy who did the commercials was hilarious and scary at the same time...if you click on that link from Menards you can see a pic of him.]

Saturday we got up and walked around downtown Chicago. I also ate at Weber Grill which was really good. Saturday afternoon we went to Beth's house and I met her parents. They're so much like my parents, it's kind of funny. We chatted with them for a while and then we had to get ready and go out with Beth's twin friends who were celebrating their birthdays. We went to this hibachi steakhouse place which was really fun. Her two friends, Leslie and Michelle, are hilarious. They talk in high voices when they get excited and they just love Beth. It's funny to watch. So she calls them pixies. They kind of are. There were 10 of us at dinner. At the end of the night they bring out cake and fruit to the birthday guests and Leslie told the waiter that it was also my birthday (when they found out it was my birthday, Leslie and Michelle got so excited in a pixie kind of way) so they got me involved in the free dessert too! The waiter takes Polaroid pics for each of us with the group, so I have a little memory of the night.

Sunday morning we got up and went to church...me, Beth and her parents all went. This lady walked in with a terrible outfit on and Beth's dad leaned over and said "Easter BOMB"...haha. There was also an orchestra from Wales (who does that??) visiting and performed for Easter. They were probably in high school I'd guess...anyway, this one guy's hair was puffed up so much and he just looked a little crazy. Again, Beth's dad leaned over because the guy had disappeared for a bit then reappeared. He said "I think he went and smoked a joint and came back." hahaha.

After church, we went back to Beth's house and ate lunch. Sooooo good. I was so full. We chatted again and then I remembered that I had to prove a point from the E.T. movie to Beth. If you watch near the end, there's a part where E.T. (well, there's another part too where Elliot says it) says "I'll be right here." and he says it to Elliot. Well, Beth and I inhale and talk and that's what i say (well, I also say "i'll be alright" because that's what I originally thought the line was from E.T.). She thought I was making up the E.T. part so when I knew they had a copy of E.T. downstairs, i plopped it in the VCR to prove I wasn't stupid. the best part is that when I was trying to find the part, I stopped RIGHT at the right spot. So it was like, "PLAY" and there E.T. was, saying the line. Don't question my memory.

I left Sunday night after a lovely 3.5 hour delay. I got back to College Station this morning at 4 a.m. Good times...but "I'll be allllright."

Flashback Blog #1

When I was a kid, my dad wanted to make a huge burm (that’s a Bob Buzz Word) in our backyard. So Bob buys a big truckload of dirt for the back yard and dumps it in our front yard near the curb.

We were a middle class family, but Alex and I did our best to make ourselves look like white trash. So when the big dirt pile arrived, Alex and I saw it as a playground. We each had “dirt clothes” that my mom decided we could wear every day and not wash. It was gross, but it made sense then and I really think it’s hilarious now. One day we even made a throne out of the dirt and took turns being dirt royalty.

I am totally going to go to Salvation Army or a garage sale someday and buy my kids crappy old clothing so they can play out in mud whenever they want.

Indiana

I got back from Indiana earlier this week. I went to visit Beth in Terre Haute, somewhere I've never been. I really had a blast while I was there. I miss the Midwest!!!

The first thing I ate when I got there was a shake and fries from Steak n Shake. YUM. You just can't find fat like that anywhere else.

The first full day I was there in Terre Haute I met all of Beth's friends. Or at least some of them. She had to work so I got to see her office and meet some of the people she works with. Me and Beth went to dinner at a sushi place (soooo good and sooo overdue). Then later that night we went and met some more people at BW3's and drank and stuff.

Friday, me, Beth, Gina and another friend who shall remain nameless (long story) went to a winery in Bloomington. Gina never drinks and actually tried some wine! Impressive. Then we all met up with Jen who works at IU and we went to a great restaurant in Bloomington.

Saturday was the big PAR-TAY at Beth's. Apparently letting Tory be in control is a dangerous thing...there was a "blending station" for the frozen drinks and if you didn't want to pay for the keg, you had to dress up as something to get in for free. There were some tourists, Paul Bunyon made an appearance, there were some people in their pajamas and Beth dressed like it was St. Patty's Day. haha.

Um, Saturday's party basically lasted until 6 a.m. and so we didn't get up til like 2 p.m. on Sunday. The day was spent eating dinner and watching women's basketball.

Monday we went to Indy to go to Broad Ripple and shop a little. Then we went to Jillian's downtown and met up with Amber and some of her friends who were in town for the Final Four. We were going to go to the game, but Beth and I really didn't care about spending the money for two teams we didn't much care for. But it was fun to hang out w/Amber...we bowled at Jillians and spent some money on games at Jillian's.

The trip seemed really short, actually, but it was a good time.