Life: Next Chapter – CliffsNotes

So this weekend was pretty big. But I can’t just overlook Friday. Friday J and I went to the Brewers game. The Brewers played the Twins and these tickets were one of the sets of Beer Pen tickets that I bought on in the beginning of the year. The Brewers picked up the victory and we met some nice people in the parking lot tailgating before the game.

This brings us to Saturday. So this was the big day as was previously mentioned. I had this day planned for a couple months but it almost didn’t come together. The day kind of snuck up on me and I booked the hotel and the dinner cruise the week before. It was tough finding a hotel and my original cruise was sold out. But it all turned out in the end. We woke up early and drove to our hotel, the Congress Plaza in Chicago, at about 11. We weren’t able to check in and I had the ring (which I bought online at bluenile.com) in my bag and wasn’t about to let Jose throw it in the corner of some room. So I told Jocelyn that I didn’t want to check my bag because my watch was in there and I didn’t want it to get stolen. She didn’t buy that so I told her that I had to go to the bathroom. She kept on yelling to leave my bag but I just ignored her and kept walking. I got down the corridor a bit and ducked down a hall where I took the ring out and put it in my pocket so I ended up having to walk around with the ring all day in the cargo pocket of my shorts. Once we got our bags dropped off we headed across the street to the Taste of Chicago. The Taste was a good time. It’s a big food festival and they have a “taste portion” at eat food stand which is a sampling of the food of the restaurant. Some of the taste portions were actually a good size and we had plenty to eat. After the taste we walked to Navy Pier and around Chicago a bit. Wired NextFest was going on at Navy Pier and I really really wanted to go. If it was any other weekend I would have probably put up a stink and went but it really wasn’t on my mind this weekend. I did get to peek in the entrance doors and I did have a little “doggy in the window” feeling. After Navy Pier we headed back to the hotel to check in and get ready for the night. We got back and I was getting ready to shower when I realized I grabbed the wrong the shirt. I grabbed my light blue short sleeve one when I wanted my long sleeve one. Then I realized that I had NO PANTS! I had laid out my outfit the night before and hung my pants on the hanger with my long sleeve shirt. So I started to panic a little and off we went to try to find some pants at 4 on Saturday. Luckily we were in Chicago and there was a Carson’s about four blocks down. We got the much need khakis and I was able to relax a bit. So back to the hotel we went. We both got ready and then cabbed it to Navy Pier for our dinner cruise. The cruise I ended up booking was the Odyssey dinner cruise. Since it was a special night I also booked the “special occasion” package where you get a souvenir picture and I got the champagne special where you get two souvenir glasses. So we sat down and had some drinks. We walked around the boat and checked out all the decks. Then we had our dinner. We both ended up ordering the same thing. It started with a tasting appetizer. Our first course was seafood in a puff pastry bowl and our main course was filet mignon with some potatoes and delicious creamed spinach. Our waiter was very nice and part of the special occasion package was a special dessert. I told him that we were there to celebrate Jocelyn’s birthday which was over a month ago but that really was what she thought we were there to celebrate. But never-the-less they brought out a special dessert with candles on it. I have neglected to mention that the weather was sweltering which made for some interesting weather on Lake Michigan. It was very hazy when we left the pier and continued to be very hazy throughout our cruise which actually kind of stunk. You couldn’t see the skyline too well which is a big part of the cruise. Then all of a sudden the haze lifted but it didn’t stay that way for long. It was crystal clear for about thirty minutes. You could see the entire city of Chicago for thirty minutes and then the haze got doubly worse. So after dessert they back the boat up to Navy Pier so you can watch the fireworks but it was so foggy that we could barely see the fireworks. It was kind of cool but there was no way I could give Jocelyn my jacket with the ring in it so she was forced to tough it out. After the sub-par fireworks we headed back to our table. It was kind of strange again because no one really came back into the dinning area until about twenty minutes after the finale, so this was my time to act. I told Jocelyn, ‘are you ready for the real grand finale,’ a funny pun on the fireworks, get it. Then, after that, I proposed. She was quite shocked and surprised and couldn’t stop smiling, it was great. After that we danced to a couple songs and waited for the boat to dock. Once back on land we tried to go to a couple bars but they were closing so we ended up going to the Hard Rock hotel. It was a very modern trendy type bar. It was nice and we sat down and had a couple beers. It was a long day in the sun so we headed back about oneish and called it a night, a very special night.

Sunday we woke up and went to Cosi to get some lunch before we checked out. After we finished eating we checked out and headed over to my cousin Steve’s in Lincoln Park. We went there and checked out the remodeling he’s doing on his condo. Then we went over to a bar with an outdoor eatery and had a couple beers and enjoyed the Sunday sun. After that we headed home. I being the computer geek stud that I am will have a wedding website. There will be some cyber invitations, cyber confirmations and information for the wedding. The website is not built yet but all the information you will need be able to be found at http://www.ryanandjocelyn.com.

Is That a Pre- or Post-Chili Glow

Saturday was the start of our weekend this week. Adam came over to watch the basketball games and drink a couple brew ha has with us. After the games the three of us went to the Metro for a couple drinks. I actually skipped the martini special this week and drank only beer. The last time I was there was the night we drank hurricanes and I got gut rot from all the sweetness of the drinks. After that we headed over to My Office and finished up the night there.

Sunday J, Adam, Stacey and I went to the chili cook off being held at Lakefront Brewery. They had a bunch of different kinds of chili from all over the MKE area. It was $3 to get in and then a dollar for a cup of chili. I forgot my chili tastin’ spoon at home but that didn’t prevent me from eating upwards of twelve cups of chili. It was a gorgeous day so we finished up our chili eating adventure on the outdoor patio at Lakefront and soaked up some of the spring sun. It was pretty much the consensus in our group that Koppa’s had the best chili of the competition. There were many other good chilies including Philly Way, Soup Station, Soup Shack, BBC’s, and the official winner Q who made their chili with BBQ brisket and gave you a tortilla with it. We all ate way too much chili and we rolled home and basked in our chili glow. Maybe a chili glow isn’t a good way to describe what we were basking in. Either way it was fun. Since a good majority of the Jocelyn’s family went to Illinois I have to give them my condolences for Monday’s hard fought loss to North Carolina for the NCAA basketball title. You’ll get ’em next year tiger!

Pickled Easter Egg Hunt

This weekend is Easter weekend. Friday after work I watched the Badgers play NC State. The Badgers comfortably won which was a refreshing change as opposed to their normal play. I met Luedke after the game at BBC’s on North Ave. I had a beer to celebrate the big win and headed home and got some sleep.

Saturday was a lot of fun. Luedke and Anna joined me for the Riverwest Pub Crawl. The crawl consisted of 19 bars and you could consume one free beer at each bar. The crawl was $30 and more than worth it. We got our free t-shirt and map and off we went to explore the Riverwest area. Riverwest is actually kind of a sketchy part of town but there were hundreds of people on this bar crawl and there were always groups of people around. All the details of the crawl would take way too long to explain so here is a bulleted list of the highlights.

  • Ate a pickled egg
  • Met two old ladies on the crawl who were wearing plastic cups on their heads and said they were so hungover after last years crawl that their hair hurt
  • Saw memorial to some guy that got killed in front of one of the bars
  • Saw Peep art
  • Saw crazily dressed band at a couple bars
  • got buzzed in through buzzer door by the bartender/doorman at a sketchy bar
  • Purchased old records from a yard sale
  • Ran into guys from Random Lake
  • Met Spike “the mayor of Riverwest”

The whole thing was very fun and I must thank L and Anna for going along with me. I had a good time and made it to 18 of the 19 bars. Easter I just stayed at home and watched basketball. I didn’t feel like going to Chicago with J so I just stayed put. I made a good ham and will have enough ham to eat for the next couple months. Unfortunately the Badgers lost to North Carolina. They played really good but didn’t have quite enough in the end. Happy Easter!

The Skipper Too… Was Wasted

Friday after work I went to state fair to do the whole eating thing. J picked me up and we parked outside of the grounds so we didn’t have to pay for parking. We got in to the fairgrounds for free too because you could use a Cubs v. Brewers ticket stub to get into the fair for free. Since we went to every Chub game we had a stockpile of free tickets so we got a couple for Deli and Steph and we met them at the fair. It was really crowded and we really didn’t do anything but eat. I had my pork chop sandwich (best food at the fair), a Swiss n’ rye, a big pickle, a couple glasses of flavored milk, and a couple ears of corn. We went into the main expo hall but I really didn’t feel like listening to all the Brits pitch their wonder mops. We also signed up for the dream home again so I have my fingers crossed on that one. We spent a majority of the night in the micro brew tent. They have different beers from the micro breweries in WI. If you kill a keg there you get a “keg killer” t-shirt with Paul Bunyan on it. J and I tried for about four hours to kill one last year but we didn’t get one. This year was different and she killed a keg on her second beer and received the coveted t-shirt. We hung out there until elevenish. My brother was there so it was a good time hand by all.

Saturday we took the Milwaukee microbrewery boat tour with Chad and Emily. For $18 you go to Rock Bottom, Lakefront, and the Milwaukee Ale House on a pontoon boat. The boat tour started at one at Rock Bottom. We had a good time sampling the brews and being stupid. A word of advice if you take the tour, don’t have the Ale House as your last stop. You only get one beer there and after having an unlimited source of brew up to this point it is tough to scale back to one beer an hour. Once we were done with the boat tour we headed back to my apt for a bit. After relaxing briefly we went over to Chappy’s apt and joined them for a cook out. I, being the manliest of all the men, took over the grill and cooked up the brats and chicken. We chowed down and played some darts. Chappy and his crew were going to hit up some of the bars but I didn’t feel like going out yet. So Chad, the girls and I headed back to my apt. We had some brews and watched Aqua Teen Hunger Force on DVD, funny stuff. Then Chad got a call from his brother Paul and he was at a house party just up the street from us. So we headed up there and spent the rest of the night there. It was a lot of fun being at a true house party again. We headed to Mykano’s at midnight, ate our gyro fry and called it a night.

Color Me Exhausted

I believe I left off on the Tuesday of ‘fest. Tuesday J and I were going to go see the Midwest Operas stirring rendition of Pink Floyd’s The Wall and then go to see Kenny Wayne Shepard. We made it down to the fest ground in plenty of time and got a good seat for what we thought was going to be a cover band doing Floyd. Instead it was absolutely the worst thing I’ve seen in my life. We weren’t the only ones that thought that this “rock opera” was going to be worth watching because there were tons of hippies waiting to see them as well. Since the hippies had their senses dulled/heightened they couldn’t process how much this rock opera sucked. J and I as well as handful of people were able to determine how awful they were in about two minutes. So we left which really threw a wrench into our plans because now we had 3 hours to kill before KWS. So we decided to walk to get a beer and I ran into my good pal Gregory. He and his woman were down for the night. In the process of getting the beer we learned that you didn’t need a wristband to get into the main stage. J and Greg’s woman both loved Jessica Simpson so we did what any whipped man would do, take them to their free concert and then hold it over their head that we went to the JS concert. We sat there for a couple hours and watched the concert. I think Greg and I were watching different things on stage than the rest of the audience so we were able to block out the music and prepubescent screaming. After that was over we headed on home.

Thursday was our next day and was going to be the last. I biked down to the grounds and got wristbands to see The Bodeans and Steve Miller. We headed down to grounds pretty early and grabbed a bite to eat before the show. We went in and got some pretty good seats for the show. The Bodeans put on a really good show. I’ve seen then a couple times at Lakefest in Sheboygan but I can honestly say I don’t “remember” seeing them there. We then stayed for a handful of the Steve Miller songs. It was getting late so we headed out of the concert. On our way out we got to check out Paul Oakenfold. We watched him for a bit, admired the trance scene and glow sticks, and then started home again. On the way home we ran into another stage and heard Peter Frampton doing “Do You Feel Like We Do.” No true rock n’ roll fan could pass that up so we had to stop and listen to that. Finally we got out of there and made it home.

Friday I went to a house warming party at my buddy Chappy’s new place. It was going to be a “couple beers” night. Then we got playing darts, drinking beers, and talking stupid so I ended up going to Rosie’s with the entire crew. We got to check out some crazy dude with wings on that was completely out of place in the Rosie’s. I guess that are no real good bars in Milwaukee where you can walk around and wear your wings.

Saturday J and I woke up early. We had to drive to Rockford for my college roomie Harv’s wedding. We got to Rockford and the weather was just awful. Lucky for us the wedding was outside. We dropped our stuff off in the hotel and met up with the rest of the clan who was also staying there. We all hung out in the hotel room for a couple hours and had a couple CCs. Once we got ready, gathered the group and got going we realized we were going to be a little late. Lucky for us a humongous thunderstorm delayed the whole wedding. The wedding was supposed to be in a botanical gardens area but instead it was held in a tent. Lucky for us we all got poured on and got to sit through the entire wedding drenched to our nether regions. The wedding was nice but none of us could hear any of it because the rain was hitting so hard on the top of tent. After the wedding was over and we were on our way out, it cleared up, of course. The whole crew headed to Oscar’s Sports bar for a drink before the reception. After that drink we all headed to the reception. It was a nice reception, small, but nice. The meal was also very different than most weddings. The meal was six different types of pasta dishes. They were very good. Not as good as the merlot though. I myself accounted for at least three empty bottles of merlot, one of those glasses being on the front of my shirt. Towards the end we tried to get some shots of Jameson for the ol’ college buddies to salute our fallen soldier. The damn place wouldn’t sell any shots so instead we got a couple tumblers of whiskey and some cups (it wasn’t that easy but for the sake of me typing it it was). So we had a toast to Harv our man, congrats buddy! From there some of us went back to Oscar’s while some of us went to Culvers (a whole story behind that one but I want to keep it PG). We then all eventually made it to Oscar’s. A couple people were only there in person and really don’t remember it, I was not one. We had a good time. Drank some liters of beer and acted dumb in our dress clothes. From there we headed back to the hotel. I know we were up late but I really don’t know what we did there. I remember Adam jumping on the aerobed from a chair. Actually I remember pushing him off the chair onto the aerobed. I know we acted like rockstars until 4:30 in the morning and the hotel room looked like it when we woke up. It was so much fun though. It was great to hang out with the old college roomies again. We woke up Sunday and drove home.

We got home Sunday and it was going to be a nothing day. Sleep, sleep, and more sleep. I had Monday off for the holiday so I was going to recoop from the craziness of ‘fest. So when we got home I was biking to Chipotle to pick up burritos (it was closed for the dumb holiday) when I happened to run into the old Evans Scholars. For those of you who don’t know the scholars I can describe them as this. Golf Caddies who got full rides through college; they live the frat lifestyle when they aren’t in an “actual” frat; they’re all drunks; they travel in large packs; I always run into them, even in different states, and I’m an honorary member. So on my way to get a burrito I ran into them once again a block from my house drinking and partying. My relaxing day went from sleeping to getting drunk again. I went home dropped off my bike and went down by the scholars. I spent the better part of four hours playing lawn darts, drinking beer, doing jello shots, and acting stupid. Most of the scholars were heading down to the last day of ‘fest to see Tim McGraw. I not being a country music fan took the scholars’ fearless leader Boyd and we went down to ‘fest to see Pat McCurdy. So once we got down there there was one little problem. McCurdy plays every day of Summerfest but the last one. So we just sat around and watched the water video show which was actually very cool and amazed the amazing Boyd. Finally it was late and I was too tired so we headed home. J and Boyd met the other scholars for a drink but I went home to lay down and actually rest a bit. The weekend was finally over. Little did I know I had three Brewers games to go to the next three days, but more on that later.