Blog Party 2006

I have to wait for Renee to send me the pictures (we won't be able to post them all because there are so many and, well, some are just dirty), but for now, here's a recap of the weekend. I'm sure Anna, Renee and Kish will all have their all viewpoints to add as well, though.

We left West Michigan around 9:30 on Saturday morning. The drive across the state was relatively uneventful until we reached the outskirts of metro Detroit and hit (what else) construction traffic. As par for the course in the land of asshole drivers, some drivers ignored the "lane closed ahead" signs and, rather than merging with the rest of us into one lane, continued to cruise down the now-empty lanes, effectively "cutting" ahead of us in line rather than waiting like everyone else. Renee alternatively shouted obscenities out of her driver's side window and propped her elbow up on the windowsill, giving the finger to every jackass that flew by. After traveling 2 miles in an hour, we finally snaked our way through the construction zone and were at Anna's house within half an hour.

The drinking commenced around 2 with the strawberry champagne that Anna had bought ahead of time. After the bottle was gone (at about 2:20), we decided to go shopping (a Blog Party Weekend staple). Now, due to my upcoming move, I am on a strict budget; I have to save every dime I can (which means no more cigarettes, but more on that in a later post), so I couldn't partake in the shopping activities the way I wanted to (both Victoria's Secret AND Bath and Body Works were having their semi-annual sales, so this fact caused me physical pain). Still, we had fun at the mall and I was able to make a very small, very frugal purchase that was SUCH a good deal, it would have been financially irresponsible NOT to buy it.

After the shopping and the massage chairs (OH. MY. GOD.), we went to the Pony Express for cheap dinner and drinks. The Pony is my FAVORITE Detroit-area dive bar; mixed drnks are like $2.40, the food is really good and the waitresses are virtually naked (that's not one of the reasons that *I* like it so much, but it's definitely worth noting). Kishelle almost got in a bar fight with an old drunk guy over an umbrella, but that's neither here nor there.

Next up: chick flicks and more drinking, of course! We rented Steel Magnolias, which Renee had never seen (quick shout-out to Mammoth Video Man, the best superhero ever), stopped by the liquor store (I think the clerk wanted to come home with us, after we went in there looking for "something for shots; we don't really care what") and returned to Anna's for the duration of the evening. After crying and sniffling our way through The Best Chick Flick Ever, we made our way into the kitchen for games and more--you guessed it--drinking. The games were Scattergories--which, by the way, is ESPECIALLY hard to play when you're a bit under the influence--and something called Tripoli, which is so impossible to explain that it shall hereafter be referred to as "cards." (This is where we took the majority of the weekend's pictures, so that gives you something to look forward to.)

In hindsight, we consumed quite the variety of alcohol this weekend, everything from the strawberry champaige to appletinis to chocolate martinis (or cosmos or some shit) to fuzzy navels to Liquid Panty Removers (which is what I'm now calling those drinks we made in the blender for our Steel Magnolias drinking game; next time, ladies, I don't think we need to dump in the ENTIRE bottle of vodka). We started doing shots of grape Pucker around 12:30, I believe it was.

We got up around 9 the next morning (well, that's when *I* got up, and we all know that nothing good happened till then anyway), made breakfast and resumed our game of "cards." The three of us left Anna's around 1:30 or 2 and got back to Holland around 5. As I mentioned in the comments section of the previous post, the cops got briefly involved around 5:20 or so, but everything got sorted out and Renee did NOT, in fact, have to post bail.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Thanks to Anna for being such a great hostess, and thanks to Renee for taking the most flattering picture EVER of my boobs. Oh--and thanks to Kishelle for the brilliant addition of those yummy-flavored stogies (yeah, the cigars came out around 10 or so. Good times).