Vacation hangover

Today was the first day back from vacation and I was a negative five on the ready-for-it scale. The trip to San Francisco was, for the most part, great fun and if you want to read more about it, you'll have to head on over to Red's blog. She kept on top of that shit while we were gone and, therefore, remembered all of the juicy details. Or at least most of the juicy details. I think she forgot to include that part about her first lesbian encounter at the Castro block party, or as I like to refer to it, Tuna's Big Gay Nightmare. A post from me would have matched hers pretty closely, except that mine wouldn't have been as well written. I will say that the journey progressed a lot more smoothly than I thought it was going to when I got sick in the airport, ate a whole roll of Tums, and had to deuce in public for probably the second time in my life.

When we flew back to Minneapolis, Nic was waiting for me at the airport. It was a surprise, which means I should have expected it, because Nic is addicted to surprising me. In fact, there are times when I want to pinch his cute cheeks and explain to him that it's sort of become more suprising when he doesn't try to surprise me. This one was cute though...I didn't see it coming at all and he looked absolutely adorable. I don't know why I didn't buy that kid some gay, dark, Bret Michaels denim sooner!

The morning after we flew back to the cities, we wasted no time heading up north for the annual Iron Range Independence Day celebration. Mom made a ton of delicious, fattening food, as usual. We mostly rested up (and played with Taylor!) our first day home, but on the fourth we stuck to our traditional parade-beer tents-fireworks-more beer tents schedule.

I'm a bad person and I didn't go to Nic's family's party at the cabin, but of course he still made it up to Tower for a little fourth of July action. Shortly after he arrived at Good Ol' Days, we said goodbye to Marie, Nate, and the Rolfsons, and we piled into the truck and headed to Buddy and Katy's for their fourth of July party. The whole damn Morley family was there at the same time twice in a month. What the hell?! After years of my mother alienating herself and trash talking the rest of the family to these people, it almost feels like a reconciliation. Katy is super grateful and insists her day has been made every time (all twice) we attend one of these family functions, which is really sweet. Betty leaves the room every time we show up and, to be honest, I wouldn't have it any other way.

After leaving the Popesh household, we headed back to Good Ol' Days to watch the fireworks and fight our early hangovers with some more beer. Good Ol' Days was a hotbed of legal activity that evening. We actually got to see a police chase on foot! It shouldn't surprise you to hear that this was a bigger spectacle than the fireworks, with people chasing after the cop to get a better view of the action and screaming "tase him!" I'll admit I was among those who jumped up and down and cheered when another cop tackled the perpetrator from behind. Good times.

Later in the evening, Christina showed up with some guy I don't think I've ever met before. He looked just like Jeff, but I don't know...I've never known Jeff to be so easygoing and fun before. I'm still not convinced it was him. Kidding aside, I was happy for Christina, especially after getting her text proclaiming this the best fourth ever. I doubt she felt that way the next day.

Speaking of the next day, we all mostly napped it away, until Taylor came later in the evening. I swear she is a better hangover cure than Gatorade. We spent a few hours playing with and being entertained by her. Afterwards, I headed back to Duluth and I'm so happy I did. It was delightful to sleep late yesterday in my own bed. Nic and I spent all of Sunday hanging out. We had lunch at Burrito Union (they continue to not live up to the expectations they set when they first opened), went to a movie (would not recommend Wall-E; for all its wonderful reviews, it was the first movie I ever dozed off in the theater for--maybe I'm just not intelligent enough to get it?), went grocery shopping, and grilled some hot dogs. Then we (FINALLY--I've stayed with him an entire year in anticipation of this!) picked some rhubarb, which I snacked on for the rest of the evening. It made me miss Gram.

When Nic and I got back to my apartment yesterday, he immediately mumbled a few words about getting something out of his car and then disappeared for an hour. The silly boy just couldn't handle the moist heat in my apartment anymore (not as hot as it sounds), so he took matters into his own hand and bought an air conditioner. It took him almost two hours to get it all situated and running but when he did, he cranked that bitch up. This morning when we woke up, we were still sweating like whores in church. Needless to say, he's very frustrated and, at this very moment, returning the offensive unit to Walmart (Hello! I'm embarrassed about his lack of judgment in the first place!) and getting a (hopefully) better one at Best Buy. Personally, I could tough it out. I've done it for two summers already, one of which was the hottest summer in Duluth's recorded friggin' history. I'm going with the flow though, because I do very much enjoy falling asleep with him almost every night.