November 26, 2012

• What Goes Around Keeps Going Around And Around And Around And Around.....

  I'm on vacation right now and I was trying to come up with a good place to go. Because my OT got slashed at work though, I decided to keep things fairly local and only go away for a max of two days. I've always really liked going to Ho-Chunk Casino in Wisconsin so I knew I wanted to spend some time there. I also knew that Kelly (Shamrocklover) lives in Appleton which is not really close to Ho-Chunk but presented an opportunity to actually meet somebody from Xanga. And as timing worked out, her sister Casey (Pennylumpkins) was visiting her so that meant two Xangans for the price of one. Now I live about three and a half hours from Appleton and we decided to meet up in Oshkosh which is about a half hour away from Appleton. I guess its a good half way point for us. Is that half way? Meh, hell if I know, I've never been good at math. But I digress.

  I had a class on Saturday afternoon until 4 so I was  not able to set out until then. I was STARVING even before I got on the road but I didn't want to get a full meal just yet so I stopped off and got a big ass fucking pretzel. I wanted a garilc pretzel so the dude put garlic powder on it but when I started to eat it, the damn powder went all over my coat. It looked like I had slide into home plate except instead of dirt being on my coat it was garlic powder.

  I quickly got back on the road and started to race my way up to Oshkosh. Race being the key word here. Now I've been having some issues with my car lately in which the check engine light has been going on. Well it went on again and when it did it disabled the cruise control which normally I have set at somewhere between 10-14 miles over the speed limit when I'm on the expressway. But with it not working, I got a little more careless with my speed which is probably why the fucking cop pulled me over doing 80 in a 65 and gave me a motherfucking ticket for $200! Fuck me. I've known for years that Wisconsin gives some outrageous fines for speeding and it was a holiday weekend so I'm kicking myself for not being smarter.

  Kelly and Casey were nice enough to pick me up at my hotel but I just had to get there. For some reason, Wisconsin is having a love affair with roundabouts. Have any of you driven through a roundabout? Well Oshgosh has a few of them and unfortunately I could not figure this damn thing out. My plan was to stay at the La Qunita and although I could see the damn hotel I was unable to get onto the road that it was on because of this stupid fucking roundabout. Around and around I went, meanwhile I had to piss like a fucking racehorse. So instead I just went to the Holiday Inn Express which was more money but had the added bonus of allowing me to piss sooner. Ahhh, the things we do when we have to pee.

  I know this sounds kinda weird but I was actually kinda nervous about meeting them. Having Xanga known them for about three years now and read all about each other's lives, it was almost like we already knew each other very well. But it was almost like meeting a pen pal that you have communicated with for years. I tend to get a little bit weird around people when I meet them for the first time and sometimes try too hard to be likable. I've already got a pretty crazy personality and this sort of thing only enhances it.

  The girls picked me up about 8:40 or so and we headed over to one of Oshgosh's two gay bars. We were in for a real treat. Turns out that BOTH of Oshgosh's gay people showed up. One of them was a very friendly lesbian bartender. The other was a lesbian who seemed rather annoyed with us. Other than another guy and girl there the bar was empty. So we played a little bit of pool and then went to another bar across town that was not a gay bar. We had some drinks and ordered up some burnt pepperoni pizza. Mmmmmm burnt pizza...............still 100 times better than Pizza Hut.

  They dropped me back off at my hotel about midnight. It was pretty cool to meet them. Kelly is about as sweet as they come very friendly and sociable. I got the sense though at one point that I might have been annoying her a little bit on the account that she asked me if I got more annoying the drunker I get (the answer is yes). Casey is very open and just all around cool. I think she might be the only person I have ever met that is more attracted to guys than I am. She is tons of fun though. In a way they are opposites but seem to have a lot in common if you understand what I mean. They certainly have that great bond that only sisters could have and you can see right away the amount of love they have for each other.

  Sunday morning I woke up and asked the lady at the hotel where I could go for breakfast. She recommended a place that was actually literally right next to the La Quinta. Although it was only supposed to be a two minute drive, of course I got lost and it took me about 20 minutes. Turns out I went the wrong way on a road and yadda yadda yadda next thing you know I'm on the highway. I did eventually find my way and I realized it was of course much easier to find during the day.

  Because I had the added cost of a $200 ticket I had to pay, I decided not to go to Ho-Chunk Casino but instead stopped off at the casino in Milwaukee on the way home. This would save me the cost of having to actually pay for a hotel room. Plus, going to Ho-Chunk is out of the way, but Potawatomi in Milwaukee is on the way home. I wound up spending probably four or five hours there, much of that time playing Casino War which is, well, remember the card game War that you played as a kid? It is the exact same thing except for money. Part of my problem was that the dealer was really cute so I spent more time there than I should have.

  One thing I've always wanted to do was to take highway 41 from Milwaukee to Chicago. For those of you that don't know, Hwy 41 eventually turns into the amazing Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. Since I had the time, this was the route I took home. Sure, it was totally out of my way and made the drive home much longer, but shit I had time and nothing to do. Hwy 41 snakes almost along Lake Michigan as it goes through Illinois on the way to Chicago, however unfortunately it was dark out so I wasn't able to see the lake. But it as a cool drive and neat to watch it build from a non scenic plain highway to the stunningly beautiful one of kind scene that is downtown Chicago. If you ever get a chance to go to Chicago, do yourself a favor and drive down Lake Shore Drive at night, there is really nothing quite like it and something I can never get sick of.

  Now if you'll excuse me, I have to write a $200 check to the fucking state of Wisconsin.

   

  • 1:18 pm
  • 4 Comments