when the wheels come off ...

what the heck is this pretty thing supposed to be a photo of?

throughout the course of my first two drinks, i kept wondering when the wheels were going to come off. will the wheels come off? i wondered. or will this just be some sort of half-assed attempt at fun?

the wheels came off.


jcrew takes her first bus ride in duluth. i hope she puts this photo in her scrap book.

we started the night politely at the blue crab in duluth's understated west end. the fractals were playing some rockabilly music and an acquaintance leaned over and said: "i feel like i'm at a wedding dance." he proceeded to tell me how two 50-somethings had danced him into a sandwich when he was leaving the men's room. the fractals definitely inspire movement: i found myself contorting my elbow into a basic robot-dance maneuver, which i performed until it became uncomfortable for onlookers.

when the blue crab closed, we paraded down the block to curly's. we had picked up an extra friend by then, a man who seems to have forgotten that time at the pio when i spent an hour insulting him. he wanted to go to the bedrock bar -- he was looking for female companionship, but not the kind they sell at curly's -- but we talked him into stopping for one drink. he took one step inside the door, spun around and walked out.

"i can't do this," he said, and continued down the block.

curly's can be a little rough. i hold it near and dear because i had the best karaoke performance of my life there in about 2002. the song: borderline. the crowd: receptive. one man even slurringly tried to convince me he was an agent from las vegas who would make me into a star! [so that didn't happen]

we hung out there until i damn-near went fisticuffs with jcrew because she told me that she and bubbles would make better babysitters for my former landlord's little monkey than i would. this triggered a roid rage -- not sure why. i'm guessing that mich golden lite makes me think i'm mary friggin' poppins or something.

when i woke up, it all seemed very funny. but let's never speak of it again.


i totally forgot that chuck wrote "milk maid" on my knuckles.