My Latest Visitor: Michelle

My most recent visitor was Michelle. Michelle and I met in 1999. I was a Resident Assistant and she was a resident. We were both sophomores. We lived together (with another roommate) our senior year. In 2002, we graduated. I went to Fargo to work and Michelle went to Arizona to retire.

Actually she stayed with her newly retired parent until she got a job in Boston. This year, Michelle is on the west coast, getting her MBA. Before school started, she came to visit. The story of her trip will be a hard one to tell, since there are no pictures from that weekend.

I know, I'm usually really good about taking pictures but on that particular weekend I did not have a camera. Jesse took it to Minnesota for Adam & Amber's Wedding. I had planned to go (even though Jesse didn't want me too - go ahead, ask him why) but then I planned my trip to Fargo and told Michelle to visit that weekend. So Michelle and I were sans camera. But that will not stop me from giving you all of the details you didn't want to know.

Actually, there isn't that much to tell. Jesse would have certainly called me a bad host, had he been around for this visitor. Michelle arrived Friday, August 11th. That, you may recall, was not the best day to travel because of the brand new high security put in place on August 10th. But she arrived in one piece, with her checked luggage. I brought Michelle to work, gave her the tour and let her loose on the strip. She came back around 2 with lots of bags and ready to eat. We had lunch at Gordon Biersch, where we both had the Southwest Chicken Sandwich. Delicious.

After work we went to the Barbary Coast. Here's a not so little known fact about the Barbary Coast, or BC as I will forever call it: during the summer, the drinks are $2. And I'm not talking about draft beer or well drinks. I'm talking about everything at the bar. Long Island Iced Teas, Martinis, daiquiris, the whole enchiladas as they say. It was a promotion they ran until the last weekend in August.

Better than the booze, is the band. There are bands that play the BC from 4 pm to 5:30 am. For Jesse and I, the real show is what you get when you mix the booze with the band. The result is something like this: *Note: Michelle and I did not see this dancing machine. I saw him later in August, when Heather and Scott came to visit.
*Picture provided by HMS.

This particular guy had a thing for much older women. He was bopping around giving them all his mini striptease in hopes they would dance with him and let him grind up against them. Few took him up on the offer.

Anyway, Michelle and I saw our own inappropriate dancers at the BC. We also gambled a few dollars. My advice to anyone gambling with Michelle: her advice is good. So it'll seem natural when she says "bet it all" to do just that. That's when you'll have to snap out of the fog and say "woah Michelle, that's crazy." Otherwise she won't stop until it's too late. We got it in our heads that we has to see the Sirens of TI that night.

We rushed ourselves and sloshed some drinks to get to Treasure Island for the last show. Ten minutes before showtime the show was canceled because of wind. Looking at the trees, we saw no wind. But we know little of the sensitivities of pirates and scantily clad women. Maybe it was too windy for them. It was certainly too late for us. We went home and went to bed.