Wine Tasting Part 2

I feel like I've been slacking recently. I know that I told you all I needed a few days break and then the car fiasco happened and blah blah blah, I appreciate all of your understanding. But still, there was a portion of me that screamed out in the back of my head "You fool! People get busy everyday! People get overwhelmed EVERY DAY. Why must you be so special you can quit what you do when they can't quit what they do?"
and I'm sorry.

I also feel like I've been apologizing a lot recently. It's just a vicious circle of guilt and confusion, much like family planned events at my house. But those are tales for a different day!

Where did I leave off? OH THATS RIGHT. Wine Tasting in Traverse City many moons ago. I think that we had just departed from delicious wines at Brys Estate and headed straight over to a place called The Jolly Pumpkin after a joyful jaunt in the car to some Lady Gaga.

At The Jolly Pumpkin, we each got a sampler of beer. In case you might be thinking that a sample of beer times eleven people isn't a catastrophe, you would be wrong. Because it looks a lot like the lush table at your local Bingo Parlor where Estelle and her ladies are gearing up to bring home the final prize. Gearing up takes a lot of booze.

As seen here. And this isn't even half of it! This was only four of the eight little beers in and you're so unsuspecting as they come one at a time. "Oh look, a lemon flavored pale ale! Delightful. Oh and here comes an IPA! Excitement abounds!" until suddenly you're elbows deep in everyone else's sampler screaming out, "ATTENTION. ABORT. MUST PEE IMMEDIATELY. MOVE THE BOOZE ASAP."

It would appear that I am suddenly uncouth and without class while out drinking beer and that's just not true. It turns out that I'm actually quite the lady as are Beth and Sarah, the two delightfuls I spent the majority of my time with. Because even when chugging a beer, Beth can hold her own. I believe if you look closely, her pinky might even be up in the video below as she kicks both boy's asses in a slamming contest.



From there, relatively beer'ed out and ready for more fun, we headed back to our lovely hotel. We promptly flopped down onto our relative beds in adjoining but separate rooms where we could call out to one another "What are you doing in there?!" all impatient sounding so that someone could reply "Get ready!" without actually being seen for the nappy napperson they were. This carried on for roughtly half an hour until about thirty seconds before we had to head out the door to our next destination, tapas. This means that the last thirty seconds was spent with items of undergarment thrown into the air calling out "Are these yours or MINE?" and then, after a rough go-ahead trying them, deciding they are in fact, someone else's.

We ended up at Firefly, a lovely tapas restaurant where I had far too much spicy food and Ahi

Tuna of Matt's. However, it was so nice to be somewhere where we could just enjoy food and one another's company. I'm pretty sure this was the kind of stuff I looked forward to as a kid when I went out to my family. Something like "I can't wait until I can go out with people I actually like and order something that's not on the kid's menu."

Little did I know then that the most exciting thing NOT on the kid's menu was wine, and not grown up chicken vs. chicken fingers. Thus, we live and learn the real lessons of life.

After dinner we meandered over to the one busy street of Traverse City where we had EVEN MORE BEER at Mackinaw Brewing Company at the urging of my good Alanna from work. I must admit, they can brew a mean beer. And we played something called The Finger Game which, trust me, we'll talk about at a LATER DATE. It's not as dirty as it sounds. Alright, it might be. But you know that just got you excited rather than nervous. Yes, that kind of excited. Oh and they also offered a wide variety of reading material, as seen below. Clearly we had to take full advantage of that.

After The Mackinaw Brewing Company we hopped into the cab and told our driver "Back to the Holiday Inn Please!" to which he said "Oh you're headed to the club for a little bit?"

What? No. It's na-night time. We would like to put pajamas on and find something fantastic on television to fall asleep to. I've been drinking copious amounts of liquor since eleven am. Turns out, that in silly small towns, places like your local Holiday Inn can house the most hopping venues and we found ourselves standing outside the doors of Shimmers...that's right, they named the downstairs club SHIMMERS, around midnight not sure what to suspect inside.

Looking back, I couldn't tell you what I ended up actually seeing there. I'm pretty sure I saw a lot of terrible dancing that is not even really describable at this point. We saw far too much fondling of one ugly person on another. A little bit too much butt crack and leather on heavy people. Oh and drinking. SO MUCH DRINKING.

I think I lasted about half an hour amongst the Night Of the Living Dead that is Traverse City's night crowd before I called it a night and passed out next to Rob's feet while they watched JackAss into the wee hours of the morning.

It was fantastic though, in every way

that I thought it might be. I love

road trips and can't wait for the opportunity to go on another with those that I hold dear. It has helped me to realize, even with small weekends and events with a only a few people such as these, that I truly am thankful for my friends. They are entertaining and intelligent and good people and every day that I spend in their company is one more day I spend becoming a better person. They make me want to be as great as they are. Thank you Martin Sisters for such a fantastic weekend I'll never forget. Well, that's not entirely true. Thank you Martin Sisters for a weekend I might not have already forgotten if not for all the booze you helped to supply. Thank you, indeed.