My weekend in a bubble

So, my weekend in Minnesota. I considered making this several posts but hell, let's get it all out.

Pretty damn great, I have to say. Caught up with some, just plain visited with others. Great. Here it is in a nutshell.

Friday

Overslept. Didn't get on the road til a little after 9 (I had intended to leave at 5 to skip the morning traffic out of the city). Small matter, still made pretty damn good time.
Got to St. Paul around 3.

The plan was for me to meet Daphne at Saji-Ya, our favorite sushi place.
Back when we both lived in Minnesota and both worked at the University of Minnesota Veterinary Teaching Hospital, we used to head over there pretty much every other paycheck and indulge, oftentimes with our additional friend and coworker Erikka, who you'll see in a bit.

So, as always, I'm early. Checked into my motel, unpacked a bit, hung the skirt up to let the wrinkles unwrinkle and walked out the kinks a little.

Heading out, it was still only around four-thirty, so I went up to where Saji-ya is anyway. The building is connected to a restaurant/bar called Dixies.
Now, Dixie's is a decent enough place to eat, but they did at one time have some questionable advertising campaigns. They boast southern food as their specialty but, at one time took it a little too far. They had an add in the local Reader/City Pages/whathaveyou that read, "Dixies, serving food ever since your wife was still just your cousin." But I digress.
Had a beer, sat outside and relaxed.

Finally, Daphne showed up, looking pretty much exactly as she had the last time I'd seen her three years earlier.

So excited to see her. We just picked up where we left off and that was that. I was laughing like an idiot ad infinitum, and that was before we even started drinking sake.

None of the sushi bar guys that used to work there were there any longer, but it was fine. Back in the day, we'd go in there and they'd recognize us and we'd get started. We both tend to get a little emotional over good quality sushi. I actually tear up sometimes, it's so damn good. One of our former sushi chefs, upon our arrival would say - "Oh, I remember her, she's the one who cries." Hey, no shame there. I love it.



So many cups of sake, and many rounds of hamachi, unagi, tuna, whathaveyou, I was downright chipper and giddy.

It was still early, so I drove Daphne to Minneapolis where she was staying with a friend and then I went out some more. Hit an old stomping ground, had a few more beers and then very happily went to the motel and slept. Hard.


Woke up hungover, and woke up about three hours earlier than I had wanted, but what can you do?
What did I do? Showered, dressed and headed out to take advantage of some tax-free clothes shopping, forgetting of course that, in the area mall, stores don't open til 10. It was 8:30. So headed to Dunn Brothers Coffee Shop, just across the street from Macalester, my alma mater.

Time passed, read the paper, did the Sudoku and the crossword and I was off.
Had myself a couple of hours being a typical chick, bought some clothes. Hey, tax free sure beats the 9% in Chicago. Moving right along.

I then met up with my friend Lorien, who I know from college. We didn't go the same college, mind you, but we had mutual friend that overlapped.
Anyway, she took me to this place called the Dirty Pig for lunch. Fun name, for a pretty damn spiffy bar/bistro type place.

Just as a preface, here's Lorien.



Lorien has always been a very vocal, pretty wild child. Love hanging out with her. She always seems to bring out the fun in Jess. Don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly capable of being fun, she just gets it to show up a hell of a lot faster than most. Bottom line, she kicks ass. She's now married with a kid in kindergarten, but she's still pretty much the craziest fun type person I know. Suffice to say, she has not mellowed with age. Thank God.

So, we walk in, promptly order two spicy Bloody Mary's and sit down. And before you ask, yes, it was a very inebriated, liquid lunch. But hey, life is short.
Had myself quite possibly the tastiest sandwich ever, the Rachael, like a Reuben, but with turkey instead. Super damn tasty.

A pretty wonderful thing happened during lunch. As with Daphne, I found myself laughing uncontrollably with Lorien as well. This time I realized what it was and was able to verbalize it. Basically, I told her, that over the last two days, I have suddenly found myself ensconced in a bubble of contentment. "I am in a contentment bubble!" I exclaimed. She was a little confused, but ultimately understood. I had been in one the evening before but realized too late. But by that afternoon I had fully understood it. When one is so unhappy for so long, and suddenly finds themself so happy, for two days straight, it's a little bit of a shock on the system. I'm certainly not accustomed to that extended a period of happy. It's been great. Ah, the beauty of a change of scenery.

Post Bloody Mary's, Lorien decides, it's only right for her to get me fucked up before I head off to a wedding with an open bar. Such a bad influence. Love her. And so the Irish Carbombs began. Seven of them and two more beers later, went back to the motel. It was only 4 by now, so I had a little time to sober up before Daphne showed up for us to head to the wedding.

She showed up around 5:30 and we were off. Off to the Nicollet Island Pavillion, a really pretty spot in Minneapolis, under the Hennepin Bridge and on the Mississippi River. Very nice and tranquil spot in the city.

The ceremony itself was fairly short and sweet, not too much God involved, although it was awfully awkward when a friend of the groom got up and sang. Daphne and I tried, really we did, to be good sports and stifle our giggles. But man, it was hard.

Ceremony. Now, reception. Oh boy, more booze. First thing we saw leaving the wedding tent was a martini bar set up. Chocolate martinis to be precise.
Yum!

Then inside to the bar, then to the dinner tables. Now, here you have your garden variety wedding reception. Speeches, toasts, chocolate fountains, and a nice slide show of the lovely couple coming of age.

Oh, here's Erikka (the bride), Daphne and myself at the reception, by the way.



One of the coolest things I've ever seen at a reception was there that night. They had one of those black and white photo booths set up so people could have their pictures taken and then glue them onto pages that would ultimately be turned into a scrapbook. Daphne and I pretty much went apeshit and made far more than the minimum four pictures on the strip. We made two strips for the scrapbook, some simple smiles, some mugging to the point where we wondered how we could make ourselves just that hideous, them four more strips just for us. I have two as does she. If I get around to it, I'll take pictures of them and put them in here too. It was just fun as hell.


Cab to the motel, passed out, and drove back yesterday. Made pretty good time too, considering I was feeling so far removed some human after the night's festivities. Missed most of the noon football games, but had plently of time to catch the Vikings winning in overtime and the afternoon New England victory over the Jets. Go Pats!

That's it for now. My fingers have now overtyped. Sorry if I rambled too much but hey, my blog dammit. More later. Although I think I summed up the weekend over all.

Oh, and the Red Sox won three of four against the Yankees. A little too little, a little too late, but still pretty sweet.