The Relaxing Weedend That Wasn’t

I knew the relaxing, sober weekend was as fictitious as a unicorn. I was doing good Friday night on the start of my bachelor weekend. I was doing wash like most men do on Friday nights and staying sober and saving money. Then at 10 the phone rang and I answered, “Yes, I will go out.” So I met Wians and Chappy at My Office and watched them beat two real winners at darts. You should have seen these two. An older man and woman, seven sheets to the wind, yes seven. Well as much fun as that was we headed off to the Metro and wasted the majority of the night away there. When two came around at the Metro I drug Adam to My Office for the walk home night cap. Neither of us needed to go there but I insisted. Upon walking into the sketchball bar we saw Adam’s buddy passed out on the bar stool so we promptly woke him up and bought him a beer. I snapped a couple pictures of him and Adam with my phone and we shot the breeze with the guy until we got kicked out.

Saturday I headed to the Brew Crew game. I picked up Marti and we cruised to the park. I crashed my old high school buddy Digger’s bachelor party. It was a ton of fun. I got to hang out with a ton of my old high school friends and practice my old hobby of shot gunning beers. The tailgate was fun but the things really got jumping when we headed into the park. Everyone was just starting to feel the warmth of the brew come over them but some really felt it. The one person that really felt it was the two fisted slobberer Todd. The great thing about Todd is he really doesn’t have a clue how the game of baseball is played. It was his first game and my buddy Brad’s first game at Miller Park. So we were standing by the right field bleachers like we always do when the roving scoreboard chick comes over to us and asks reTodd if he wants to be on the jumbo-tron. I’ve been to about a thousand games and have never been on the scoreboard. reTodd is there about 20 seconds and he gets on the scoreboard spilling his two beers (he couldn’t decide between Sprecher and Capitol Amber so he got both) all over and looking blasted. Todd just got worse from there. He got jealous of my Corona beads and ripped them off of my neck. This craziness kept on the entire game with various people being the center of the melee. The game had tons of craziness caused by other people too. One person chucked an inflatable doll on the field. I happened to be in concourse for that and heard Uecker say, “I’ve seen a lot of things in my days of doing the games, but that is something new.” The game was topped off in the right field bleachers. Some guy had a little too much fun and with one out left, the fans on their feet, and the Brewers about to seal the victory, this guy cleared out a ten yard radius around him by puking his guts out. I have to say he has a keeper girlfriend because she stayed there holding him in her loving arms. I ran down and snapped a couple pictures of him on my phone to put in my picture section when I get one. Finally the little golf cart ambulance was going to come and take him away but the guy rallied and avoided a trip to detox. When the game was over I headed back to the bus, and after an unsuccessful kidnapping to me back to Sheboredom I headed back downtown. A shout out to all the boys from back home. Todd, Brad, Pat and everyone else. A special thanks and congrats to the bachelor Digger. That night, well, forget it. I’m sick of typing, talk to you later.

Brewers 2004 Opening Weekend – II

Saturday’s game didn’t have quite the craziness as opening day but that was expected. Since I was well rested I felt like a million bucks. I woke up around 7:30 and got ready for the game. We weren’t meeting until ten so I had a lot of crappy Saturday morning TV to watch (what happened to the good cartoons?). Once ten came I headed over to Adam’s apt. I was feeling good but everyone else in our group looked like a coyote ate them and crapped them off a cliff. It took a little time to get everyone going but that was expected for a group of 20. The tailgating at the park was pretty low key. I was the grill man and I have to give my props to Wians for setting everything up. He set up a bang up tailgate and he’s officially been elected the planner of all events from here on out. I did my fair share of beverage consuming and shot taking but in the end there was still half a half, yes a quarter, left over that went to waste, so much for hair of the dog. Once in the game we had a good time. We all sat together and there were these cool little kids and one of the dads next to us. The little tikes were all swapping cards that they were giving out at the gate. Scavenging the ground and people around me I managed to collect a set of 40. I was having fun with the kids trading them cards and I bought their best ones off of each of them for a buck, reminded me of my old card trading days. Well when the fun was over I knew the last thing I need was more crap like baseball cards so I divided them up amongst the little guys. Their pa was grateful and gave me some sunflower seeds in return. The game was a great one. Counsell got a hit and the Brewers won so the game ended up being a good game with great friends.

After chilling at my place for a bit and watching COPS, the Bone and I met Lueds and the crew at BBC. They were definitely a rag tag bunch that were unable to keep their eyes open. Most of the soldiers took off around 10 due to their inability to function. After that the lone survivors were Lueds, Bone and I. We were all in great not drunk shape so we headed to Patty’s to finish the night. Luedke’s woman met up with us and we just sat around telling college stories and making Luedke’s woman second guess what kind of guy she got mixed up with. It was a good time. We headed home around midnight and ended the weekend.

Brewers 2004 Opening Weekend – I

I had a pretty busy Easter weekend and it all started with an eventful Friday. I took off of work at about noon and headed to Miller Park where I crashed the Booze Inn tailgate party. Crashing this party is a tradition for me but I didn’t make it last year because I was 1000 miles away. This year was your typical debauchery. I shotgunned somewhere around a case of brews and washed it down with another six bottles of Mike’s Hard Iced Tea and then a couple more “social” beers. Part of the reason the day was so rough is that I didn’t have anything to eat all day due to Good Friday fasting. The tailgate was nothing more than your normal tailgate. It had your 35 year olds throwing up from too much foam in their beer bongs, it had people eating brats in grill ash off of the ground, you know, your normal events. After getting nice and “warm” we headed into the game. I went in with my buddy Feyer and lost him almost immediately when I refused to wait in line for the bathroom and ran around the stadium looking for a shorter line. Finally after that was over I somehow found Marti, maybe he called me? So the rest of the day was venturing from section to section talking to all the groups of people we knew there. I saw about 2 pitches of the entire game and missed the entire second half of the game because I was talking to people outside, but really, is opening weekend really about watching the games. So once the game was over we headed back to the Booze inn bus for a couple refreshments before heading home. Chad and I stayed there about an hour and then phase two of the story starts. Chad and I were heading back to my car (over by the Veteran’s hospital because the parking lot closed as I was getting to the game) when I saw some guy in a Yankees hat. Now the one thing I learned when I was living out East is that the Yankees suck. So like the knowledgeable baseball fan that I am I yelled to the guy, “Yankees Suck.” The guy that I yelled to kept walking with one of the friends but one of the turkeys piped up and asked what I said. So I told him, “Yankees Suck.” Well the little runt goes and cracks me in the face. Luckily I can take a punch (I owe this to my lovely brothers), and the guy hit like a woman, but I just got a little cut on my lip. That’s not a big deal but the kicker is we were in an intersection with about 25 people and 5 of those people were cops directing traffic. One of the cops comes over to the guy and grabs him by the collar and roughs him up asking him what he thought he was doing. So the cop dragged the guy over to the cruiser, slams him against the cruiser and cuffed him. Chad and I never got asked to stay so we just kept on walking when the light turned. One person that was by us turned to us and said, “That has to be the dumbest kid ever, look as all the cops.” So Chad and I made it back to my place safe and that guy was spending his weekend in the clink. So what did we learn from this kids? That the Yankees, AND the friends of people who like the Yankees, suck. That night I just stayed in. Chad and I had some brews and talked about old glories and I called it a night, after all I do have day the Saturday game tomorrow.

Adventures In The Second City

Jocelyn and I went to Chicago for the weekend with her dad and sisters. We stayed at The Drake hotel right next to the John Hancock building. The hotel was VERY nice. We checked in on Saturday night and then went up to the executive lounge and had a couple cocktails while we waited for Jocelyn’s dad to arrive. I have to say that this was probably the best time I’ve ever had waiting for someone. The executive lounge overlooks Lake Michigan and also has free drinks and hors d’oeuvres so I could have actually waited all weekend if I had to. After Jocelyn’s dad arrived we had a fabulous dinner at The Cape Cod in The Drake. Delicious seafood. I quelled my oyster craving which I’ve had since I was out East. Oysters, and surf and turf, need I say more. After dinner we headed upstairs to one of their fancy lounges and had a couple drinks and listened to the piano and bass players. They were good and we got a seat right next to them so it just made it that much better. From there we headed down to yet another bar in the hotel. There we pretty much conversed the night away until we decided to call it a night.

Getting up for our Sunday morning festivities wasn’t the easiest thing in the world due to our schmoozing into the early morning. I finally managed to get going and we headed to Soldier Field to watch the Bears vs. Washington. The new Soldier Field is actually very nice. It took a while to get to our seats due to the lack of signage (or maybe the overabundance of hangover) but once we got there I was quite impressed with the place. I don’t want to confuse anyone here because the place doesn’t compare to Lambeau field and the team doesn’t compare to the Packers, now with that said – it was a good time. The Bears won on a last second field goal and all the Bears fans were happy with their mediocre team. When the game was over we headed back to the hotel and relaxed for about 15 minutes and hopped in a cab to the United Center. We watched the Blackhawks vs. New Jersey. The game ended up in a 2 – 2 tie and from what I heard there were a lot of fights. I wouldn’t know because I missed half of the game. I was in the lobby most of the time lying down on the couch. Once again I don’t know if this exhaustion came from the schmoozing the night before or the footlong Chicago dog I ate at the game that had somewhere around 30 jalapenos on it, and of course I had to eat them all and drink any little bit of juice that ended up in the container. Overall though the day was TONS of fun, I have to thank Jocelyn’s dad again for it all. Monday we woke up and checked out. We walked around Michigan Ave for a little bit and then ate at Ditka’s Chop Shop. I had the “Fridge” burger which was tasty. After that we got the car and headed home. Back home safe and sound in the Badger State where I belong.