No, Really, I Am an American

So our usual Tuesday night gathering was postponed to some degree. Yoss Mike sent a text letting folks know that neither he nor Bert would be available for TV viewing, but people were welcome to come over and hang out with Toni if she saw fit. I freely admit to being a bit bummed about this. I mean, I don’t have a lot of constants these days except for this so yeah, I look forward to ‘em.

To my delight, Toni called about an hour later inviting people over to play Arkham Horror. I’d mentioned before how my mates hereabout are all about the boardgames — I hafta admit that I’m incredibly amazed at all the different kinds of games that we have to play. And to me, it seems to have expanded quite a bit in the time I was gone! People have talked this game up for quite some time, unfortunately for us, it’s quite a complicated game that requires a lot of time.

I’m guessing Toni figured since tonight’s TV viewing was out, we may as well make use of the four or five hours our usual gathering eve is wont to have.

Yay! Socialization!

A bit to my chagrin, I was the first to arrive. For some reason, this just seems a bit pathetic to me in that I’m so eager to be around people that I’m out the door right quick.

As folks were drifting in, I was starting to see why people mentioned this was the type of game we need to devote half a day to — it has quite the set up! GrAl were kind enough to bring me dinner, so whilst the three of us ate Panera, we started to try and get our bearing of the game. Since it’s all complicated and stuff, they don’t get a chance to play it lots so everyone needed a bit of a refresher.

Rich was also new to the game. He seemed a bit apprehensive about starting it ‘cuz like I mentioned, it’s quite complicated. There were multiple die and things your character needed; if one is unaccustomed to playing games such as this it can be a bit overwhelming. I’m generally pretty laid back about stuff like this ‘cuz the way I figure it, someone will tell me what to do until I get the hang of it.

It’s funny. Ever since I got back, it seems like all the new games I try that are complicated like this I play badly or do something wrong. On my first turn, a portal opened and I got sucked into a monster-type realm. That put me out for a lot of the game until I could do something. Rich wasn’t long after me in ending up in the same place as me. The two most inexperienced players weren’t really able to play much. I wasn’t overly miffed ‘cuz I could tell that despite my misfortune, this would be a game I’d enjoy. I mean, just from hearing the premise alone, I got it in my head that I should continue with Lint Wars. The portals and fighting and stuff made me think of Jumps and somewhere between turns I also thought to write down the events of our own playing to put to story. It’s a damn shame we didn’t end up finishing the game.

Whilst we played, we talked, as we are wont to do. It was discovered that GrAl would be unavailable for tomorrow night (Wednesday) and there wouldn’t really be any other time for them to watch our shows. Bert had also returned home from his “date” and I guess he isn’t a huge fan of Arkham Horror — in fact, he suggested that if we pulled out Dungeons and Dragons we still wouldn’t be as geeky as playing Arkham. Some time in all this, it was decided that we would go ahead and watch stuffs without Yoss Mike.

So that’s just what we did.

I didn’t mind doing what we usually do on Tuesday nights, I mean, as I mentioned before I look forward to this kind of constant. But I had just gotten out of the portal thingy when the viewing thing was decided and I kinda wanted to see what else I’d be able to do. I really hope we get a chance to play again soon. Maybe we’ll do like we said and dedicate a whole day to the playing of Arkham Horror.

Last month, I posted about attending Jamie’s shower and how I dragged my heels going to it. I’d thought my pre-wedding duties were done, but then there was the bachelorette party. Her friend from uni, Lynn, sent me an invitation to the shindig and Chris O, Al, and I were all invited to go. Chris said she would go but neither me nor Al should feel obligated. It isn’t that we dislike Jamie or her friends, but the combination of the group generally isn’t our scene. I did not really hang out with Jamie a lot during her college days, but from what I gathered, her friends were possibly the kind of people who make me nervous.

I think it was two weeks ago that I got a voice mail from Al saying she was an idiot and RSVPed to Lynn saying she was down as a yes when she intended to reply as a no. She said I was under no obligation to go, but she just wanted me to know she was going. Well, somewhere in my head, I figured if Chris and Al were going maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. I sent and e-mail to Lynn and told her I too would be a yes.

Genius planning on our part, me thinks. Again, I go back to the fact that Jamie and I haven’t really been close since about my second year at uni. I had an idea in my head about her friends and what this weekend would turn out like, and on the way up to Lake Geneva I was kinda wondering what the hell I was thinking.

On the bright side, the drive there was pretty wicked. Al used the Prius and the three of us got a chance to talk. I think Chris and Al decided some time in the beginning of the trip that we’d all share stories or something. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have any stories. I mean, most of my stories are published here so it’s not like they don’t know what’s going on with me and the inner workings of my insanity. In other words, I didn’t really say much ‘cuz I didn’t really have anything to talk about. I was more than happy to just hang out and listen though. I kinda missed that.

It didn’t take us long to make it to Lake Geneva. Somewhere in my head, I thought it would take like a bajillion hours to get there…it felt more like an hour or so. We pulled up to the Grand Geneva and checked in. We were rooming in Building 3 so we followed the signs to the parking lot and got settled in the room before trying to find the others. Al ended up calling Lynn’s husband John in attempts to find the rest of the party and it turned out they were rooming three floors below us.

We headed down to their room and like an apprehensive moron, I kinda hid behind Chris and Al and once again questioned my sanity. First sign of trouble was the fact that Lynn greeted us with hugs. I was like, “Seriously? I don’t even know you!” What the hell is it with people and hugs! I hated both Chris and Al (it’s funny to me ‘cuz I’m usually typing “Chris and Mark” or “Grant and Al”) for being so at ease about stuff while I was freaking out about the people. The occupants of the room were Jamie (of course), Lynn (from U of I), Amanda (U of I), Colleen (soon-to-be sister-in-law), Lynny, Sarah (UIC), and Nikki (U of I?). Lynny offered us food and drinks and um, festively shaped jello shots that weren’t so much shots as jello jigglers, but whatever…and let’s not forget the festively shaped straws.

The room the others got had like a living room area with a couch and two comfy chairs. I sat on one of the said comfy chairs while others moved about or sat down as well. For the most part, Lynny, Jamie, Chris O, Al, and I were catching up so it wasn’t as nerve-wracking as I anticipated.

Part of the bachelorette thing was buying Jamie underwear, this was apparently for a game involving Jamie having to guess who the underwear was from. I liked Mark’s suggestion of bring nothing. I thought it woulda been hilarious. In the end, I ended up getting stuff from Target ‘cuz I didn’t know what kind of stuff Jamie would want and shopping makes me nervous.

Jamie didn’t match any of the underwear to the givers at all! It was pretty funny. We went outside to take a picture thereafter. Midwest weather is ever so delightful. I mean, it was so nice the past two weeks and then the temperature dropped in time for this weekend. What’s that about?

It was near time to head out so Lynny called the front desk for a shuttle to take us into downtown Lake Geneva. She’d made reservations at a place called Carvetti’s. Chris, Al, and I had had this plan of ducking out if it turned out we weren’t having a good time and part of the plan was making some kind of excuse that we drove together so we had to go back to the hotel together. We ended up abandoning that plan and just going in the shuttle. ‘Twas all five-by-five ‘cuz so far, it didn’t suck.

In my head, Carvetti’s sounded like some kind of restaurant…and it was…kind of. It was more like Pub II or something in that it’s a drinking establishment that happened to serve food. I dunno how or why it came up, but Chris decided to say something to me about fulfilling a certain agreement. I do believe I scowled and maybe turned a little red. She figured, you know, there would probably be drunk girls at this place…

The server type folk brought us over to these couches to start out with ‘cuz our table wasn’t ready yet or some such. It was gonna be some kind of deal where we all pay a certain amount of money for a three hour drinking thing that included appetizers and food. One of the servers came around to take drink orders. I ordered a Coke ‘cuz I don’t like the taste of alcohol…she said something about a designated driver and I was kinda amused by that.

So I think Lynny was trying to embarrass me ‘cuz the straws I mentioned from before? Yeah. One was put in my Coke. Al said that I’ve gotten a lot better about things, but this wasn’t one of them if truth be told. I used the straw that came with the drink, tolerated the festive straw for like five minutes and then put it in Chris’s drink when we got to the table.

The food was pub food. Good ol’ pub food. I wished I drank ‘cuz then maybe I woulda gotten more out of my money some how. It was five-by-five though. I was sitting next to Chris and across from Lynny. It’s been a year since I’ve seen Lynny, so there was more catching up involved. I couldn’t help but laugh when I was talking with her. She had asked me why I came back, and I told her I was summoned home. She just kinda nodded and said, “Well, you have Asian parents.” Hah! It’s true!

After everyone finished eating, we went back to the couches. It turns out that our table was on the dance floor. I wasn’t really paying attention to the itinerary and I guess that Carvetti’s was also the place where we were gonna hang out and dance for a while. I was glad of the couches, though. I’m not much of a dancer, and I have to be in a certain mood to want to dance. Like after listening to RENT.

While the staff was setting up the dance floor, a bachelor party wandered in. The bachelor was dressed in a bunny costume and all his mates were wearing T-shirts that read “got phil?” in the milk commercial script. All night, Jamie was wearing this pin that had a spinner on it and there were different things like “dare me to do something” and “dirty dance with me and my friends”. Phil came and spun the pin…but I don’t actually remember what he got. He had his own list of things he had to complete too. One of them involved collecting business cards from five women with a good luck message written on the back. Al was the only one of us who was able to help him out on that one since none of the rest of us had cards.

Just about everyone went and danced. I hung out on the couches. I was happy to do so really. Chris came by and asked me what I thought about everything so far, on a scale of 1 to 10. I was honest with a 7, I would even say maybe an 8. I honestly don’t mind hanging back and watching everyone else dance. I was actually reminded of when my mates and I used to go to Fat Jack’s down at school.

We left Carvetti’s around 11 or so; the three hour limit thingy ran out by that time and there was another bar around the corner we were gonna check out. The second place was called Hogs and Kisses — and it turned out Phil and his party was there too! Unfortunately for me, Hogs and Kisses was much more crowded and brightly lit than Carvetti’s. Honestly, given the choice, I would have preferred to stay at Carvetti’s. The second place was a bit more smokey too, which I didn’t mind, but Al just had that Lasik surgery and Chris is asthmatic so it was starting to look like we were gonna duck out. As it turned out, everyone was kind of done for the night, so Lynny called the hotel and the shuttle came back for us. I was actually surprised. I really thought the others would drink and dance the night away. Funny thing about all that, though. We’re not in college anymore. Heck, half of the girls we were out with were married! I mentioned to Al that I think we all grew up a bit.

We went back to Jamie’s room for a spell. But honestly, we didn’t stay long ‘cuz all the other girls were starting to change into pajamas and comfy clothes and the like. Nikki lives in Wau-con-da, which was only about 35 minutes away from where we were so she took leave. She was a lot of fun — and she thinks there are mountain men in Wau-con-da too! (Take that VoW!)

I think it was around 12:30 when we went back up to our room. It was incredibly funny to me ‘cuz I totally expected to stay out quite late. I wasn’t really as tired as the others, probably ‘cuz I usually stay up until 3, so I read a little bit before falling asleep.

Dude. That bed was AWESOME! It was SO comfortable! Just sayin’.

Chris was the first one up the next morning, which made sense since she’s still on teacher-mode and her internal clock is all like “Haha! Thought you would sleep in did you? Muhahahahaha!” (I remember that clock well.) I was awake but totally went back to sleep. And while I was drifting off, I had this fake-dream that Al woke up and asked if she wanted us to turn off the alarm.

Man, I wanted to hang out in that bed more. I mean, my bed is pretty five-by-five, but that bed was fan-freaking-tastic!

Chris checked us out via speed-checkout or something so we didn’t have to go to the lobby at all. We got back into the Prius and as we were going to the lobby to see if the others were there, we saw them coming out of the building. We followed them up to the lobby and waited for directions to Kirch’s Restaurant at The French Country Inn where we would be having brunch.

It was a quaint little place right near the water. There didn’t seem to be a lot of patrons there when we arrived and we had this kind of section all to ourselves. It was really nice; they printed up the menus and they had Jamie’s name on them and stuff. The place served New Orleans style breakfasts as well, and I guess that made Jamie and her U of I friends smile ‘cuz they all went there together when the Illini were kicking ass in football.

I didn’t notice really, but I guess seeing everyone in the morning was a little different. Like I said, I had no idea, but both Chris and Al noticed a difference or some such. I think I wasn’t really paying attention ‘cuz the breakfast wasn’t brunch to me. I thought it was like brunch with like…brunch stuff. You know, with stations and stuff. And there were no waffles. I was totally hoping for waffles ‘cuz I can’t remember the last time I had ‘em. I did have wicked French Toast though. Dude. They almost made up for the lack of stations!

There was a mishap with the bill in that they charged us for two extra meals. I guess there had been some sort of agreement to bring so many people and since we didn’t they still had to charge us. Lynny went and tried to straighten it all out. It did go our way eventually, but the sitch kinda brought down the mood and stuff. Then when we were trying to figure stuff out with the second bill, we were still coming up short until Al pointed out that Sarah was paying with a card, hence the missing money. Go Al, being all observant and stuff. She was also the one to catch the fact that they charged us for two extra meals.

We parted company thereafter. This time, I got away with only hugging Jamie. (When Nikki left the night before, she came around and hugged everyone.)

We talked about how we thought everything went on the ride home, and it seems that we were all surprised and happy that we had a much better time than we expected. I’m hoping the wedding will go the same way to me.

So yeah. Good weekend.