One of the most confusingly enjoyable nights in recent memory.
It was an absolutely GORGEOUS Spring day. Temperatures were in the 60's and I was going down to spend time with most of my favorite people in the world.
I left Cook around 2:30, after cashing my check and doing all the neccesary car maintanence checks and what not. I was on such a natural high from the spring weather that I rocked out to Dispatch for the entire hour and a half ride, which meant screaming at the top of my lungs and driving way too fast. I only had their Silent Steeples cd in my car, so I had to listen to it like 2 times to get all the way to town, which was fine by me, because I couldn't think of anything else I'd rather be listening to. I also couldn't think of anything I'd rather be doing than arriving in Duluth.
Before I even found a parking spot, I stopped to talk to friend, Neal, who was just getting ready to head out to set up a party he was throwing. We had one of those "I'm gonna stay in my car and you lean in my window and talk to me" conversations. It was good times.
Then, just as I was exiting my car, I saw my friend Beth exiting Health Services, which is where I parked, cause there were meters there. She had been in for an appointment, and the sight of her caused me to become distracted, so that I had to go back to my car to get my phone and then I had to go back AGAIN to plug the meter. She waited patiently the whole time.
So I walked and talked to her, and then just as I was reaching the dorms and was about to split with Beth, I saw my friend Strange. Her last name's Strange...I'm not sure what her first name is. Just kidding its...umm...
Anyway, I talked to her for a while, this time I was the guy leaning in the window of her Jimmy and she was the cool chick on the inside that I could pretend I was mackin on. So, time in Duluth: approx 6 minutes. Number of hot chicks I knew that I saw? Two. After getting her cell number, I finally made it into the dorms and up to Mel's room. Mel, to my surprise, had just gotten out of the shower and was in her bathrobe. I think it's a testament to our friendship that even though she is an extremely attractive woman we were both comfortable with the fact that she was standing in front of me mostly naked.
So I sat and chatted while she put on her makeup and did her hair. She said she only does it about once every three days, so when she gets all dolled up she likes to to go all out. We were headed for Happy Hour and were to meet some others in the lobby, as per Mel's idea. Our friend Rebecca came over so Mel could do her hair...Reb's hair done, I thought we were almost ready to go. Mel said "Okay, Chris, you don't have to leave, but you hve to turn around so I can put on some clothes." I told her that, seeing it was 4:00 , I'd head down to the lobby and meet the people we had called.
After waiting for 10 minutes in the lobby for everyone to show up, Mel still wasn't ready. I'm just raggin on her, cause it's fun. No offense is meant. So I called her to tell her we were still waiting, and she was like "Umm...how about me and Reb and Ted (who had just gotten into town) will meet you down there?" I said okay, and we all went our seperate ways. Pete, Amelia and I took Pete's Pimped Out Yet Slightly Damaged LHS down to Timberlodge in Canal Park...we left a good 5 minutes after other people, and still arrived first. I've always found it an anomaly that people who can plan an event for 100 people without batting an eye can't figure who's going to drive downtown and that, even when we do divvy people up, no one arrives at the same time. It boggles the mind.
This is where the drinking begins, and also the confusion. The two aren't even neccesarily linked, believe it or not. So I had a few beers, whatever, and everyone else arrived and we sat and caught up and drank for a couple of hours. It was fun.
Then came the time when we had to figure out tickets to the Mason Jennings concert. I didn't have mine on my person, because I was planning on meeting yet another friend at the concert and transferring the ticket at the door. She wasn't supposed to hit town until about half hour before the show, so I wasn't worried at all. Rebecca had one ticket, Mel had one ticket, I had one ticket coming...Ted had zero tickets and Rebecca's sister had zero tickets. Do the math...5 people, three tickets. Tix were sold out, none were to be had. Rebecca, after some grief counseling, decided to sell Ted her ticket so she could hang out with her sister and Ted and Mel could go to the concert together. Sweet, isn't it?
So we're walking the avenue and what not, 40s in hand and looking for a place to eat. We put our name in at Fitger's, but after waiting 1/2 an hour for a table that was supposed to be ready in 15 mins, we decided to jet down to Sir Benedict's, a pub/restaruant just down the street. This, for me, is where the REAL confusion begins.
We unexpectedly meet some of the people we were with earlier (Josh [hereby referred to as Nutter], Nutter's fiancee Aimee, Andy and Chris). Ted and Mel stand in line at the counter for far too long, waiting to order, and I went outside to sit on the porch with the rest of the crew. It's about 7:30 now, mostly dark, a gorgeous night to follow a gorgeous day. Nutter pulls out the traditional Blackwoods Sweet and Aromatic (I'll never smell that scent without sweet pangs of nostalgia watering my eyes) cigars, and it is up to me to read the story on the back. It starts "Back in the old days, when a man wanted a good cigar, he'd have to roll his own. These cigars didn't look the best, but they sure tasted smooth and smelled sweet." The rest isn't that important, just how they make the cigars yada yada yada...So Andy and Nutter and I smoked our cigars, and it was good. I told Nutter again how sorry i was that I was missing his wedding, as I'll be in the Peace Corps at the time. He understands, of course, but it's still bitter.
Mel and Ted finally emerge from the pub, and it doesn't appear either of them really got anything to eat. We decide it's high time to head down to the NorShor to see the concert, which supposedly started at 8. It's a bit past 8, so I call Liz and to tell her we're on our way. I had tried calling her earlier, to no avail. This time, she picks up, however. I ask her if she's at the theater and she says "Well, no. Long story short, I had to go jail." She tells me she called the theater and told them I'd be coming, and that they should let me in because I bought a ticket and she wasn't around to deliver. So I get to the NorShor, more than a little confused as to what's going on. The man at the "gate" asks for my ticket, and I begin to tell him the story. He looks at me and says "Friend got pulled over?". I say yes, give him my name, and he gives me the nod. I felt cool...I was on THE LIST. That's right, bitches.
So, at this point I still don't know why Liz is in jail. Mel and Ted go into the main hall as I spot Tyler, who is one of Liz's friends and who was the one who actually purchased the tickets. I make my way to him, and just as he's about to give me "the nod" I'm crushed in a hug by my dear, dear friend Heather, who i don't get to see nearly as much as I'd like to. Turns out, she knows Tyler, and happened to be talking to him as I spotted him. After all the excitement of unexpectedly seeing the girl I'd had a deep crush on for many years wears off, my cousin Tina walks buy, and I get another hug. So I'm feeling good, I just got hugged to two attractive females (albeit one of them was my cousin) within the span of 2 minutes. I'm starting to look like a King Stud.
So I try to get info from Tyler on what exactly happened to Liz, but every few words I'm interupted, happily, by either Heather or Tina or Mel or Ted or some random person I know. Tyler, though I know him only a little, seems to be a very patient man, and he keeps on reiterating what little he knew. Liz was driving way too fast, got pulled over for speeding and apparently had a warrant out for her arrest. Tyler thinks it's because she got a minor consumption ticket when she was a H.S. senior that she never paid...so she was planning on being out fairly soon.
it's now about 9 o'clock, going on 9:30, and the opening act has not yet begun. I go into the main auditorium with Heather. She introduces me to her boyfriend (slight stab of jealousy, not nearly the heart wrenching destroyer it would have been 6 months prior). I meet up with Mel and Ted again. I'll spare you the boring details, but we waited for a little while longer and talked and waited. Finally, Haley Bonar comes out and warms up the crowd. She's a local artist, has a very sexy voice and, even though my vision was blurred partly by distance and partly by liquor, it appears to me she is an extremely sexy woman, in a very subdued way. You know the kind.
Between songs, Mel and I head back up to the bar. She insists on buying me a drink, and I'm not one to pass up a free drink, so I of course accept. She wiggles her way up to the bar. She says she's getting a vodka tonic, and I say I'll take whatever she's drinking. I then retreat to the bathroom to empty my pathetically small bladder. There's a bit of a line, and by the time I get back to the bar Mel has gotten our drinks. I step through the crowd as she turns and hands me my drink, and I say aloud "Awesome." Three people in the immediate vicinity suddenly crack up laughing, and they say "Man, you must be someone of you can just walk up to the bar and an attractive girl hands you a drink. And all you say is 'awesome'." So, naturally, I humbly bow. I'm feeling pretty cool at this point, as you can imagine. First, I'm with my great friends, and then I'm on THE LIST, and then I get hugged by a bunch of girls, and then I walk up to a bar and get a drink in my had as soon as I get there, earning the grudging humourous respect of people in the area. Awesome.
So, I wiggle my way around and see Liz talking to a mutual acquaintance, a Mr. Joe Shingen. We chit chat, she tells me she was arrested for like a 7 dollar park fine she never paid, and blah blah blah. Liz likes to talk 
So, agian, we head downstairs. Haley finishes a few more songs, and there is of course a waiting period before Mason takes the stage. The people go ecstatic, and I feel a little left out. I'm sorrowfully unfaimiliar with Mason's music, I'd only heard one or two songs, and those I didn't even know very well, but I knew I liked them. My main incentive for going to the show was to hang out with friends. Anyway, he put on an amazing, relaxed, very groovy show, and then we were on our way home. I was to ride back with Ted and Mel, naturally, and Ted had stayed parked in Canal Park. We had walked our way all around Canal Park and a good part of Superior Street. So we head back to the car, and my cell (actually, it's my mom's, I don't own a cell phone, and though I admit they do come in handy I don't think I'll ever own one unless it's absolutely neccesary) rings. It's Liz. I had forgotten that we were supposed to go back out after the show...I was tired, it was late (past 12:30, because the show didn't start when it was supposed to) and I had to work the next afternoon at 12:30. I told her that I wasn't going to go out, that I was in fact going to drive home and go to sleep. I was no longer even buzzing, because I hadn't had a drink in about 2 hours, so I was no danger to myself or anyone else on the road. She got snippy and told me "Well, you owe me money for the ticket". I told her that I had paid Tyler the money, and she was like "Well, it was nice talking to you for a bit anyway. Bye." Yeah, she was the one who put me in mind to come to the concert, and I was maybe going to stay with her and Tyler and a bunch of her friends at a hotel, and it was no doubt great to see her...but she's never really been an extremely close friend, and these others were. I feel that she's a bit upset at the moment, but I've been trying to accomodate people my entire life, and for once I decide to be just a little selfish. Is that so wrong?
And so I drive home. I get back to cook around 2:00...roughly twelve hours after I left it...and what a twelve hours it was.