Two weekend recaps in a row - does this mean I have a life?

Bah! Somehow, the weekends keep getting shorter! Where did my Sunday go?

Red made my Friday afternoon at work bearable with a surprise courthouse appearance. We had a nice little visit before she moved on to lunch in Duluth and her weekend in Lutsen. The rest of my Friday was extremely uneventful. I cleaned a little, read a little, and went to bed early. I had a sneaking suspicion that the following night would be a late one. Oh boy, was I right.

At around noon on Saturday, Aurora arrived in Duluth, her car stocked with at least seventeen varieties of alcoholic beverages. The girl means business. We began our day o' fun with Brian, over lunch at Red Lobster. I'd only met him once or twice before and, though everyone sings his praises, I wasn't really sure what to expect. Funny kid! He won our waitress's heart with a polite "Thank you, Captain Marshmallow." If not for him, we would not have gotten lobster beads, that extra bag of biscuits to take home (which we forgot), or more information than necessary about what the woman's ex-husband lacked in the sack. It was here that Aurora began the drinking. Her volume increased, as did the frequency of the f-bomb in conversation.

After lunch came shopping. After shopping came drinking at my apartment. Soon, it was time to make our way to UMD for the dance thing (like my technical terms?). Holy nostalgia. At intermission, I took a walk through the quiet, nearly-deserted School of Business and Economics. Nothing has changed, and being back there really made me long to return. MBA keeps randomly popping into my thoughts. For now, I'm just trying to remind myself how much I enjoy my nights and weekends of complete freedom. Homework fucks shit up.

After the dance thing, which was entertaining in its own tree-rock-church kind of way, we returned to my apartment to change clothes and reignite our buzzes before walking to the bars. First stop? The Radisson! It's a miracle that I can't seem to meet any Duluth guys, right? We settled in at the bar and, almost immediately, the bartender's glares were making me fear for my life. She was the only woman in the place, and Aurora figured the old hag was probably pissed that we were narrowing her market. She did kind of have that "find your own corner, bitches, this one is mine" look in her eyes.

Within minutes, we met Steve and Rich, a couple of lippy firemen from Connecticut. They showered Aurora with praises and free drink coupons. We hadn't been there for more than half an hour when the troll announced last call. She closed up shop at midnight. What the hell? She turned so many people away. Many drunk Hawaiian-looking credit union employees were thrown out onto the cold streets of Duluth to fend for themselves. Fortunately, they left this behind:

After closing, we invited everyone we could find to join us at the Pioneer Bar. We were like a caravan of fire-fighting nomads, stumbling across the vast plains of downtown Duluth to reach our destination. When we arrived, I spent some time getting to know Steve. I'm not going to lie to you, I fell in love. The man's accent was unbeatable! He gave Aurora some "rechahgeable" batteries and called the bar a "bahnyahd." So good! I think I proposed once or twice. I hope this doesn't mean I don't have standards. He tried to lure me up to Room 1100, assuring me that I could just lie on his bed and listen to him talk until he left for the airport in the morning. It was a hard offer to refuse.

We wrapped things up at the Pioneer Bar (where neither of us spent a dime, yeehaw!), and made the journey home, leaving our firemen behind. It was bizarre to walk to and from the bars with somebody who didn't need to be picked up off the ground at all. In heels, no less! On the trek home, Aurora solved my 4am Wednesday phone call mystery by pretending to be me and returning the call. It was, in fact, Troy from Majors. It seems the boy talks like he drinks...in excess. She was on the phone with him for at least thirty minutes. He's asked me to be his Valentine. Oh joy. Oh bliss.

We ended our night with breakfast at Perkins. There was some drama on the way there when Aurora was stopped by the popo (please tell me I'm not the only one who's never heard that term before) for her missing headlight. Thankfully, the officer was an angel in pig's clothing. The incident only resulted in terror, and understandably so. Aurora's car spent the night at Perkins. Thank goodness for large, smelly cab drivers without change.

We finally made it home at about 5am. No arrests. No injuries. See, Mom...no need to worry.

More pictures on flickr...