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…and still manages to blog the next day. Wow. I know, right?!

I went out last night after work with lovelypersons Amanda, Megan, and Scott. We started out at the Court Avenue Brewing Company, where I tried their IPA (pretty good!), hefeweizen (not as good), and a honey ale (nice!). We also shared some appetizers, since they were half off for happy hour and all. I had a couple of crab-stuffed mushrooms and a bready pretzel coated in the leftover grain from some brew, which was surprisingly tasty.

After a bit or two (it might have been three bits… I was feeling the alcy at that point) we headed to the Raccoon River brewery for a bit more beer (their IPA is more subtle, but I prefer the CABCo brew), a bit more food (I split a raccoon burger with Amanda (you could really taste the raccoon…)), and some pool. I sucked it up majorly at pool, so I guess there’s a reason I tend to stick to mass-produced domestics whenever I’m trying to play the game. :) After a while, I thought to check what time it was, only to realize it was already 11pm and I needed to head back to Ames. Sadness ensued. Well, ~I~ felt sad anyway. Can’t speak for anyone else.

So anyways, drove back up to Ames, texting with Dana every few minutes because her phone is broken (and texting while driving in traffic on the freeway is ~not~ easy. Or recommended, for that matter). I got back to A-town around 11:45 and hung out with Dana until 12:15ish, at which point I was fading in and out of consciousness, so I headed homeward.

When I got home, I was walking past my old apartment, when the door opened. I have new neighbors! Well, neighbor, at the moment. I’ve already forgotten her name, but I think it starts with an “M,” and she’s a friend of Robert, the guy who lives across the hall (he’s Robert, and I’m Rob, so that we don’t get confused). She seemed pretty cool, so I think I’m going to be okay with this whole “having to share the building again” thing. Her roommate will be moving up at a later date from Des Moines, so I’m hoping she’s equally cool. The best news about the new neighbor? She’s a fan of the bar and mini-fridge I left in there. :) She also took my excess barstools off my hands, which means I’m no longer cluttering the hallway with them. Score. She and Robert were talking about having a whole-floor party at some point, which sounds like a lot of fun. Yay, social neighbors!

So I sat around for a while, chatting with the new neighbor, the new neighbor’s friend (A-something, I think), and the old neighbor. They were drinking wine at the bar and offered me some, but I decided that probably wouldn’t be in my best interest. Around 1am, they decided to head down to Olde Main for some beer, and invited me along, but I decided 1am was really late for a work night and that three brewpups in one evening might be pushing it even for me. So, I headed to my apartment, praying they didn’t think me lame for skipping out on the fun.

And then, today, I went out to lunch with Amanda to the Drake Diner, adding yet another cool little restaurant to my burgeoning list of Places What Feed Me Well. So in other words, I’ve been nothing but a little social prostimatute for the last 24 hours or so. And I still have racquetball with Dwight left to look forward to yet this evening. Dana’s going to be spending the evening in Des Moines tonight, though, so I guess I’ll have to entertain myself after 9pm or so. Maybe that’d be a good time to start thinking about what I need to pack for Colorado, eh? EH?!?!

I started thinking to myself recently about what I was doing at work around this time last year: getting ready for the Graduate College’s New Student Reception. I had a great time at the reception, and I noticed something interesting: although the students coming through the grad college seemed to appreciate all the information they were picking up, what they were ~really~ interested in was what Life in Ames was all about. Many of them had moved hundreds or even thousands of miles to attend ISU, and many had only been in the area a week or two. I was asked dozens of questions about life in Ames during the brief two-hour event, and it was by far my favorite part of the day.

So, since it’s that time of year again, I thought I’d write up a few tips about Life in Ames for the Uninitiated. If you’re familiar with Ames, there might be a thing or two I’ve written that you disagree with, but the good news is, there’s an equitable solution: you’re wrong. No hard feelings.

1. The speed limit on Highway 30 around Ames is 65 MPH. Sixty-five. Miles per hour. Seriously. Do yourself a favor, and go at least the speed limit. You are not being a rebel if you’re rocketing down the pavement at 57. And besides, tooling along at 50 MPH while everyone around you is trying to go 70 is no way to make friends. In fact, if I find you going anything ~less~ than 65, I will not like you anymore and might stomp on your cat. (can you tell I spend too much time in my car these days?)
2. You are obligated to go to Hickory Park within the first three months of moving to Ames. It’s just the way things are. If you are vegetarian, go for some ice cream or something. If you are lactose intolerant ~and~ vegetarian, they make some pretty good baked beans—go nuts. If you are anorexic… well, I suppose you have bigger problems, but you should still try to go within the first year. Without Hickory Park, you and your fellow Amesians will have nothing to talk about. Nobody is interested in your stories from back home. Nobody.
3. Nobody goes to Hickory Park for the barbeque. They go for the price, the atmosphere, the experience, and the ice cream (and not necessarily in that order). The chicken is pretty good, and I’ve had the occasional lucky strike with a pork rib or two, but really… it’s more about the place itself than the food. Except the ice cream, obviously. If you are strangely insistent on getting good barbeque from your barbeque joint, check out Battles.
4. There are two* real “main street” areas in Ames: Downtown along Main Street and Campustown along Welch Avenue. If you are new to the university, you will probably spend a great deal of time in Campustown, which is perfectly understandable and acceptable. However, you should do yourself a favor at some point early on in your Ames-centric life and check out the Downtown district. There is a lot of cool stuff downtown. Spend some weekend evening checking out the fantastic window displays on the 200-400 blocks, sharing a pizza at Great Plains or grabbing a bite at the Downtown Deli, relaxing in the breeze in one of the little garden areas, browsing the wares at Firehouse Books, or playing some pool at the Corner Pocket. There’s even a Farmer’s Market to visit on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings throughout the growing season.
5. If you go out drinking on the weekends during the school year, make use of the Drunk Bus. Some people will call it the Moonlight Express, but we don’t talk to those people. The Drunk Bus runs from around 10:30pm until nearly 3am on Friday and Saturday nights. Back in the day, summoning the Drunk Bus required a drunken phone call to Cyride and an extended, sobering wait. Nowadays, the Drunk Busses (plural!) run shuttle routes on a regular, 20-minute cycle. Look for the little blue signs featuring Cy, a bus, and a crescent moon: standing below one of these on a weekend night can only yield good things. You’ll meet all sorts of people en route, have a lot more fun than you would have had walking or driving yourself, and you’re being “responsible” to boot. Killer.

Thus, sadly, ends part I of Life in Ames for the Uninitiated. If you live in the area, feel free to send me some tips, and I’ll see what I can do about adding them to future segments. Assuming, of course, you are not wrong.

* Once the Somerset Village area becomes better established, it will probably constitute a third main street. Also, the West Street area is fantastic, but not quite so large as to be considered “main.”

Two in a row! Can you handle the excitement?!

Dana and I watched The Notebook last night. It was my first time seeing it, though I get the feeling she’s seen it a few times. Oh em gee. Talk about a tear-jerker. I spent the last ten or fifteen minutes of the movie crying and trying to act like I wasn’t. I’m a little afraid to check, but I think I might be a woman now. For those of you who haven’t seen it yet: do. It was worth sprouting the girlie parts.

I forgot to mention in my last post that I’ll be spending all of next week, from 7/29 through 8/5, going to, coming from, or being in Colorado what to visit Dana’s friends and family. This will be my first trip to Colorado, so I’m pretty excited. :) ColoFriends (Debs, JJ, Kami, Klocke, Amber, etc): I will be in the Denver/Boulder area 7/31 - 8/4. If you’d like to see me (and let’s face it… who wouldn’t?), email/call me and I’ll try to set something up. Though, I hear tell Dana has us pretty booked already. Colorado’s her turf, so I’m letting her plan the events.

I ~also~ forgot to mention that my birthday is fast approaching on August 6th! You know what that means, right? Pretty much nothing. :) I’ll be turning 25 this year, despite my best efforts to prolong my early twenties indefinitely. I’d like to say that I’ll be spending my birthday partying like a 21 year old (though my 21st was pretty sedate), but in reality I’ll be recently back from our Colo-trip and I have work the next morning, so I don’t know how realistic that is. I think I accidentally grew up a little bit. :) In case you’re the buying-me-presents type (not likely), I’ll try to update my Amazon wishlist over the next couple of days.

Think I’m gonna give up on ever finding my camera’s battery charger. Time to start looking for a new charger. For the last two or so months, any photos I’ve posted (and they’ve been sparse, I’m sure you’ve noticed), were taken either by someone else or using someone else’s camera. This. Must. Stop. Too many fun times are going entirely undocumented, or at least undocumented by yours truly, and my friends don’t share their pictures with me nearly often enough. Even that picture I posted of Alicia and I was taken by her camera. She was just nice enough to send it my way and I was just rude enough to post it without permission. :)

Oops… looks like I missed my now-traditional weekly posting. I’d even promised Alicia (to be mentioned) that I’d start posting more. I am a bad friend, a worse blogger, and my hair is too flat and straight today. I don’t know how that third one is related, but honestly, it’s bugging me more than the other two right now. :)

So two weekends ago (7th - 9th for those with memories like mine) Alicia was up from Alabama to visit me. Okay, she was really here to visit lots of other people and I was probably an afterthought, but I like my version better, so that’s the one I’m choosing to remember. :) Picture right is proof we existed in the same general location at least briefly over the weekend. We had a great time bowling, drinking, tanning, swimming, and watching of the movie-ing. In fact, the only part of the weekend that wasn’t fun was the saying of the goodbyes. I nearly cried, and she did cry a little (which didn’t help my near-tears one bit), and then I was sad the rest of the night. Hanging out with her all weekend reminded me as to how much fun I used to have when we used to hang out on a regular basis (Oct. 04, for those counting (I was funny back then!)). I’m already vaguely planning a trip down to Tennessee sometime yet this year to visit, though I don’t remember when she’s moving from Tenn from Alab in the first place, so vague thoughts of plans are the closest I can come. It’d cost me about $175 to drive down and back (assuming I do it all in one go and don’t stop to sleep at a motel anywhere) and $220ish to fly (assuming I plan a few weeks in advance), so the difference is really close enough to be negligible, especially when considering it’d be around 24 hours travel time round-trip to drive.

The week twixt was also pretty nice from what I remember, which isn’t much. I went bowling one night, I remember (Wednesday, maybe?), and hurt my arm. I celebrated this by playing volleyball and racquetball on Thursday evening back-to-back. I was pretty tired by the time I got home, but I was proud of myself for playing acceptably well in two of the three racquetball games (the first and third). On Friday, I had lunch with Megan (Vietnamese cuisine) and dinner with my parents (pork chops and stuffing (Iowa cuisine)).

Friday night Dana, Kate, Yusuf, and myself went to the Corner Pocket to play pool, which is always a good time. I don’t remember how well I did, which means it was probably really no better or worse than usual. Or that I did so poorly I’ve chosen to forget it. I’m content either way.

Saturday, I went camping at Saylorville with Dana, Kate, Steph (SAJ), Anya, Damir, and two of Kate’s Turkish friends whose names I can’t currently remember and which I’d probably obliterate regardless. :) I’ll get them eventually. My tent got its first real trial, with six people sleeping in it overnight. It was plenty roomy and comfortable-go tent! Anya and Damir brought kebab-makings, and we all stuffed ourselves with grilled meat and veggies. Yummytime.

Sunday was Adventureland day for Dana, Kate, Steph, and me. I had a really good time, and ate WAY too much unhealthy food… so much so that I have an unopened bag of cotton candy in my apartment, because I couldn’t force myself to eat it yesterday. The Dragon was closed for repairs, but I got to ride the Tornado three times and the Outlaw once, as well as manyplus rides in-between. Kate and Steph left early, but Dana and I stayed in the park for a good 9 ½ hours, which was more an endurance challenge than an adventure, but still really fun. Then we came home and watched a movie, which I fell asleep during, so I headed to bed shortly after 11pm, which is fairly early for me.

At’ll do for now. Enjoy your lack of nothing today.

I’ve written a couple of emails so far today, and in doing so I noticed that while I’m having no trouble coming up with thoughts and ideas, I’m really struggling at putting them together in any real order or ensuring they make any sense. I figured thus it was the perfect time to blog. ;) So have a random thought or two:

Friends are like condoms—they have an amazingly long shelf life and are superbly useful, so it’s good to always have a bunch around, because you never know when you’re going to need one. I bet you thought I was going to say something like “you use them once and throw them away.” Shows what kind of friend you are. Ass.

I went out to the bar with an old friend on Wednesday: Matt McCue, of Parallex fame (notoriety? Obscurity?). Though when I met him in 2000 he was just of 7320 Wallace Lancelot fame, which was also cool, but would not be a very good band name. We were joined by Josh Lizer of similar obscurity, and a woman who is a coworker of Josh’s, though I can’t quite be sure as to her name anymore (Kim, was it?). It was a really great time, though I didn’t get to bed until almost 2am, which made getting up the next morning slightly tougher than usual.

I’m currently reading book 5 of the Harry Potter saga, and I got to see movie 3 last night. Once I finish books 5 & 6, I’m planning to read the draft of M’ris’s latest novel, then I’m hoping to read Christopher Paolini’s Eragon, followed by either Eldest if I’m lovin’ the trilogy, or Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell if I want to try something (slightly) different. I also tracked down an mp3 audiobook version of William Gibson’s classic Neuromancer (read by the author, no less), which I’m hoping to start listening to soon, since it’s always bugged me I’ve never read it. Plus, I discovered a few days ago that Ysabeau Wilce had another novella published in the July 2006 issue of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, but my subscription has expired [note to self: remedy] and I didn’t get it, so I ~neeeed~ to track a copy down. I love love love Wilce’s writing style. I’ve read “Metal More Attractive” a dozen times at least. I was supremely disappointed earlier this month when I went to check out Wilce’s novel on Amazon, which was originally due to be published this August, only to find it was no longer listed on Amazon, and a novel under a different title was instead scheduled for a January release. Still plan to buy it the second it comes out… but I was really looking forward to treating myself to a Califa-themed novel for my birthday (which is less than a month away… wow).

Yay geeky book rant! That might have been my first on this blog, and certainly the first in a long time regardless. I’m pretty much the worst English-degree(s)-holder ever.

I really hope I find the battery charger for my digital camera soon. I miss taking photos. And I’m sure some of you miss having different pics to snark towards on flickr every once in a while. I searched my apartment last weekend, but came up empty handed. Le sighs ensue. Much like condoms, digital camera battery chargers really cut down on the fun by their absence.