On Making New Friends

First off, I apologize. I had 2ish somewhat "regular" posts and then nothing for two weeks. Anyway, I'm back now and have a few life-changing concepts staring me in the face, so hopefully I'll get my act together one of these days, and hopefully one of the positive offshoots of these life-changing concepts will be regular blog posts. You best keep your fingers crossed.

Anyway...

Have you ever thought of how you actually made friends? Like what moment or common appreciation bonded you with another being? I have been thinking about this a lot lately:

1. I had the one-year anniversary of meeting a now very dear friend of mine at Bastille Days a few weeks ago. I remember the exact moment I first saw her come into my line of sight (and the day about 6 months earlier when she warned me not to go into a treacherous closet). We now have regular discussions of cat-lady-ness and trips to Target, not to mention a shared love of Buffalo Mac (mac and cheese spirals + buffalo sauce + some variation of meltey gooey cheese product).

2. I distinctly remember the first time I met a second now-dear friend, which was supposedly the same night that I met the friend listed in #1 above, though neither he nor I can remember meeting on night #1. Instead, we both remember meeting a week later at The Garage, where I attempted to cast him in a movie, but he refused to take off of work.

3. I told the story earlier tonight of how I should have been serial killed (yes, this is a verb) by a third now very close friend whom I met on twitter. Please note that I am not currently, nor have I ever been a zombie. Buy me a beer sometime, I'll tell you the story.

So what brought all of these thoughts and memories about tonight? I was invited to a very lovely Girls' Night by a great person who had decided to plan a monthly get-together as one of her New Years' resolutions. She knows a lot of people, and thinks they're all awesome, and decided to get them all together and rock out. It was awesome.

You know how you meet new people, and you go through the formalities, like where do you work, and are you originally from here, and strain to find some common ground? I did not strain a single bit to find conversation topics with these folks. They were all AWESOME. I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to hang out with them tonight, and will be patiently waiting for the next 29 days until the next Girls Night. yay.

As far as updates on the rest of my life, here goes:

Vegas is HOT. It's a desert. Yes, really. I was there during an "Excessive Heat Warning." That meant that it was hotter than normal in the desert. Why people willingly go here in the middle of summer (which is fairly pleasant in most other parts of our great nation) is beyond me. I liked it, but I will not go back until November, when it is palatable (and the overnight low is less than 89 degrees).

Goals: I'm bringing these up again. Not so much to bore you all, but more to nag myself. I had my wellness assessment today (annual health screening that my company gives us for free) and I'm not terribly thrilled with the results. The diet [re]starts tomorrow. Seriously. Monroe Cheese Days might get skipped this year. I have 1.5 bottles of ranch dressing that might find a new home in the garbage. Deep fried cheese, I love you, but we may have to take a break. This week/end is a wash (mostly because of that ugly pile of wash that keeps growing), but next week I will make my triumphant (?) return to the Downtown Y. (If you want to see something funny, watch how red my face gets after I work out...). I'll also be attempting to do at least a few push-ups every day. Today I did 15. Yes, they were the girlie ones.

Other than that, all seems pretty good for right now. Bridgi touched down at O'Hare today from Deutschland and I'm more than a little excited to see her. I bought hazelnut coffee and Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce to welcome the ex-pat and her bf back to The Good Land.

Speaking of The Good Land, I'm still pretty much infatuated with this city. Are two Milwaukee tattoos too many? I'm beginning to get a very vague idea of what my next tattoo will be, and kind of want to incorporate "The Good Land" into it somehow. Maybe. Putting that one back into the circular file.

Looking forward, I'm going to be in DC for the weekend. I'm pretty excited to see my friend Joe and to (finally) check out the Newseum, and may also have an impromptu reunion with my old car dealership boss from 2004. That's a looong time ago. Still looking forward to it.

As for now, I need to go to bed. I hope I don't have any crazy dreams about trippy 90s triangle carpeting like I had last week.

Any ideas on how to avoid deep fried cheese and ranch dressing are welcome, as are any thoughts/memories on making new friends.

Zombie Target

To put an end to an already excessive weekend, JB and I stopped by the Target on Miller Park Way in hopes of acquiring a pair of galoshes (for me, not for him). Mainly because they're so fun to say, and also they will be great for walking to work in the spring/summer rain.

We parked and were confronted by a security guard on a three-wheeled Segway-esque thinger with flashy lights. He told us that the store had lost power so they were closed.

So, to continue with the weekend-long theme of bad decision making, we stopped by the Chili's that was nearby and were seated with a waitress named Rozy who had a squirrel nest atop her head, and so much makeup on her face it could probably be scraped off with a spatula.

After going over 3 different menus (one 'regular' menu and two 'special' menus), and noting that everything was 'fried to perfection,' JB ordered a crispy-chicken-glazed-crisper thing and I got these buffalo chicken burger bite things. (I just pointed at the picture when I ordered.) After 4 or 5 soda refills and a serious discussion about dessert, we left. When we were in the parking lot, we noticed that folks were once again entering and leaving Target, so we ventured back....

The three-wheeled cop was now standing at the door with his Segway thinger parked nearby (flashing lights still on) and told patrons that all of the power was on except for the lights. Associates were posted every 20 feet or so with flashlights, and if you wanted to venture down and aisle, they escorted you and were actually quite helpful and pleasant. I located some galoshes (that are pink and plaid) and then wandered down to camping supplies (because, after all, spring is in the air). After attempting to look at the little mini tents, we decided it wasn't working well and started to head out.

AND THEN!!

THE LIGHTS MAGICALLY CAME BACK ON!!!

So we ran back to camping supplies! And saw a lovely pink camouflage sleeping bag. (Can it really be called camouflage if it's bright pink???) Anyway, we went through camping supplies and a few other sections and then the lights clicked off again. It was at that point that we were in the very far back corner of the store, where it was the darkest. JB ever-so-kindly pointed out that this would be the perfect setting for a zombie movie, and proceeded to attempt to freak me out every possible chance he got. (I hate zombies.) So I decided it was time to leave.

This was probably the strangest and most surreal Target experience I have ever had (and, honestly, that I ever hope to have). I give them props for triaging the situation and helping customers, but SO much could have gone wrong at that point (looting, pillaging, people finding ways to hurt themselves, people hurting other people, etc...). If you don't have lights in a giant warehouse with no natural light, just take the loss for the day and close your doors. And stock up on anti-zombie apparati (whatever that may be).