No, Really, I Am an American

So this past weekend wasn’t anything like I expected.

On Friday, Melany and Denise came over to have dinner with me before I left for England. Even though I have no idea when I’ll be leaving and for all I know they just came out to play, it was still great seeing them. I’m glad we stayed in touch, and as far as my friendship with Melany is concerned, I’m glad Aaron was wrong. (That reminds me, I totally have to e-mail him.) And to think, she and I became friends because a pencil sharpener fell on me.

Usually when the three of us get together, we go to Friday’s for whatever meal it is we gather for. This time around, I had a brilliant plan. I think this was the first time we were able to gather for dinner (it’s usually lunch) and knowing that it would be a Friday night at like prime dinner hour, I proposed getting Portillo’s and coming back to my house instead. That way we’d save a little money and we wouldn’t have to worry about being in an incredibly crowded restaurant. Also, it was a decision made long before gathering, so that saved us from spending valuable hang-out time trying to decide what to eat.

One of the thing that amuses me to no end when the three of us get together is the fact that we always end up talking about our soaps. I used to watch General Hospital during the summers and then when I was in college, I fell into Pine Valley; Melany and Denise watch both respectively. Although, none of us have really watched our soaps with as much enthusiasm as we did back in college, but it’s still nice to rage about something no one else in the group can really savvy.

It was a nice visit that ended too soon. Then again, I’m used to staying up and playing until the wee hours of the morning.

Thereafter, I ended up being kidnapped by the Holtzmans and taken to the Settlement for some board games. And by board games, I mean Peanuts, which I’m trying to get better at playing. I think I got out of the negatives after a while, but it was like for a score of +1.

Saturday was exciting for me ‘cuz my mom and I had Lou Malnati’s for lunch. I know we had Lou’s for dinner a few weeks ago, but still, my family eating anything other than Asian food is incredibly impressive to me.

That evening, I finally got to see Bottle Shock — oddly enough it was playing at AMC 30. I think Bert, Toni, Mike, and I were the only ones in the theater under the age of 30. The movie was all right, there were things about it that kinda bugged me, but I was still way happy to have seen it. And come on, Eliza Dushku was in it! And she wasn’t trying to kill anyone and she wasn’t being chased by mountain men; now if only I could see frickin’ Nobel Son I’ll be good to go.

There was gonna be bowling after that, but I eventually backed out. For one thing, I don’t really do bowling so much and the only reason I went with the Slices gang on New Year’s Eve was because I was all kinds of lonely and needed to be around people.

I ended up at the Halfway House after the movie. Jamie, Lynny, Dee and her husband John Paul were actually in Schaumburg and I haven’t seen any of them in a while. There had been a time back in the day when they were The Group. I can’t recall exactly what it was we used to do, but we definitely got together a lot. I mostly remember going over to Jamie’s house or Kris’s place when he used to live on Beech.

John Paul is a big board game fan, like goes to conventions kind of fan. He brought over a box full of games to try. Unfortunately for me, I missed out on the newer games; I don’t remember the name of the game I walked in on, but it involved a court, and I think wenches were mentioned. Mark apparently really liked the game. By the time I joined in the fun and games, we played Ticket to Ride with the expansion and the most destination cards rule, Fluxx, and Citadels. We decided that it would be awesome if Dee and John Paul moved back to Illinois, not only ‘cuz it’d be nice to have them home, but also ‘cuz their collection of games is like the Settlement and Grant’s stuff combined. (The box was only a portion of the games they had.)

Sunday was a day full of computers. Mark was kind enough to help me make Jon Snow into Jean-Luc III. (Oh, I just thought of another name I coulda gone with “Trey” — I vaguely remember that being a nickname for people who are “the Third”. For the record, Jon Snow is so much better.) We also had an impromptu dinner which was quite freaking awesome, but really, when am I not happy eating at the Halfway House. Well…there was that one time Mark said the gnocci resembled something incredibly unappetizing, but other than that, everything else has always been awesome. (I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat gnocci again…)

So yeah, this weekend wasn’t quite what I expected, but it was still a good weekend. And at the rate things are going, it was more like my penultimate weekend at home.