I managed to survive my weekend with Betsy and her bridesmaids. In spite of the fact that I was at least four years older than all of them and a bit grown out of my party-girl days, I had a lot of fun. I dropped Abby and Perrin off at my mom's on Friday night and stayed over at Will and Betsy's as we were planning on getting an early start for KC in the morning. Of course, get a bunch of girls together and they'll stay up half the night talking (and drinking in our case). At least Jenny and Katie got naps in on the way down. We went to Oceans of Fun first thing. My feeling self-conscious in a bathing suit lasted less than ten minutes. I may not have a flawless body, but most of the women surrounding us at Oceans of Fun made me look like Jessica Alba in comparison. Okay, maybe not QUITE that good, but pretty darn close. There were even women with smaller breasts than mine. Seriously! I know, I didn't think it was possible either!
After a few hours of water play, we checked into the hotel and got ready to go out. It's a good thing we don't all live together. Four girls trying to get ready in one hotel room is a near nightmare. Especially when they all need showers to wash off the chlorine from swimming. We made it work though and it went better than I thought it would. Ever the pessimist. We went out to eat at this awesome underground restaurant called Boca. Italian, of course. It had I don't know how many rooms and seemed like it went on forever. The food was excellent and so was the bartender. I was all warm and fuzzy after two drinks. It made me a little unsure of my ability to keep up with Betsy, Jenny, and Katie all night. Turns out, after I actually ATE something, I felt better. Go figure.
After dinner, Betsy's parents dropped us off on Westport in the middle of the bars. Then the drinking REALLY started. Naturally, Betsy was all decked out in "bride-to-be" paraphernalia so we drew all sorts of attention. Not paying any covers was a nice bonus. We met a group of guys having a bachelor party in the first bar. I believe they'd already had a good start on their drinking. Each of our groups made up a list of ten things to do before the night was over for the other group. Of course, most of their list was about showing your boobs to six guys from Minnesota. Can you guess where they were from? Real original guys. It was also at this bar that we decided to use my permanent marker to keep a drink tally on each of our arms all night.
From there, we went to a couple of places we weren't all that impressed with and finally ended up at a place called "Dueling Piano Bar". It was fun. The best, by far. The guys on the pianos up front meant there was never a dull moment. They entertained the crowd with everything from Disney themes to "It's Hard to Say 'I Love You' When You're Sitting On My Face". In between drinks, we all got hit on by guys in various stages on intoxication. The one that we actually had a good time with was this older gentleman who Betsy dubbed "Rodney" because she thought he looked like Rodney Dangerfield.
He kept asking her to dance. Once he decided to give her a break, he turned his attentions to me. I don't dance. Only, by this time, I'd had enough to drink that I heard myself say "okay". Thank goodness I still maintained some degree of gracefulness. Not that I ever have much. I didn't step on his feet at all and followed his lead with only one minor mistake. It's not like it was complicated, but I'm still kind of proud of myself for remaining upright (except for the dipping) on my tall shoes. He was a sweet old guy. He kept telling me what a natural I was and that my husband needed to take me out dancing. He made me feel pretty though, and I thanked him for that as the bar closed. I told him how rare that was for me. It still makes me smile.Once the bar closed, Jenny and I were starting to feel the weight of the day and wanted to call it a night. It was just after two in the morning. Betsy wanted to stay out 'till three, but by that time, she had no idea what time it was anyway. By the time her dad got there to pick us up, we were the only white people (besides police officers on foot, in cars, on bicycles, on horseback, etc. I'm not kidding. They were EVERYWHERE) to be seen in any direction. It was a good time to head back. We made it to the hotel without anyone puking, although Betsy came close. If I counted the tally marks on my arm correctly, it's a wonder I didn't too. Guess I can hold my liquor better than I thought. Betsy had us all beat, though. She had eleven tally marks and most of them were shots. Needless to say, she passed out as soon as we hit the hotel room. At least she had a good night!
We all slept pretty much the entire way back to Des Moines. I really thought I'd be sick, but it was just tired. I napped a lot Sunday, but by Monday I felt like normal again. Boring old normal. Expect that I've had a lot to do this week. The cats had their big vet visit yesterday. They are now incapable of reproducing and have no front claws. They were so out of it all evening I felt kind of bad. They're much better today. Charlie even kept me up half the night licking my hair. Obviously, he's not mad at me.
I took Perrin to get his hair cut this afternoon. I made sure to have the lady leave it long enough to cover his ears on the sides since they tend to stick out. It sort of disguises them. He doesn't look so much like a girl now, although I liked his hair the way it was. I thought it might be nice for him to have a more boyish haircut for his stint as ring bearer. I'm still kind of nervous about the kids being in the wedding. I just KNOW they're going to do something embarrassing. Please, let me have a sense of humor that day! More importantly, let everyone ELSE have one that day!
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