Zella's Beer Garden, Dave and I...with a little Shannon in the corner. 

"Ya know, they say that 68% of all massages lead to sexual encounters..yeah well this is that other 32% Barry"

The weekend at the Belmont House started on Thursday night. We (Shannon, Barry, John and I), intended on grabbing a few drinks at the house and then going out to a Beer Garden...this did not occur. Instead we had very strong drinks, played drinking games, and initiated the now weekly "Thursday Night/Sunday Day Massage". I passed out on the couch, woke up confused wondering where everyone went then crawled...literally...into bed. At some point in the night Nirvana's "Rape Me" was played...and let's just say, there are some songs that shouldn't be acted out...but I did get some pretty funny pictures.
Friday Night- We met up with Dave, John, and Barry's cousin Chris. We went to the Beer Garden at Zella's where we met up with the remainder of our friends...Diana (best friend of Dave and John), Randy, Brian, Barry, and Vinny (boyfriend of Diana and best friend of Dave). We drunkenly left Zella's and headed to the new John BarleyCorn's that was up the road from Zella's. I do not remember much from BarleyCorn's except a shot, random people mentioning they were coming to our apartment for the party on Saturday, and a very very hot bartender. People slowly started to leave the bar and I was kinda ready to go myself as I knew we were drinking early on Saturday with Dan and were apparently throwing a big ass party....did I mention that John and Barry informed us of this party we were throwing on Thursday "hey girls we are going to have a party to get rid of your keg...we told ppl to get to your apartment around 5 on Saturday...sound cool?"
Anyway, Shannon, Dave and I left the bar splitting a cab with John and "The PA" whose name I now know is Katie...but I'm gonna call her the P.A.
Saturday afternoon began with a pitcher of Margaritas, Bloody Marys and the Cub/Card game. We met Dan at Tarascos on Clark and basically got drunk at 2 in the afternoon. We proceeded to stop into Tin Lizzie's for an additional drink as well as the random Martini bar on Diversey called Scully's (i think)...either way I downed a Martini in 3 mins as it was now 5pm and I was having a party at 5pm and I still needed to cook.
We called John to pick us up from the bar as he had the NEW keg in his drunk and Amber made a bad shoe selection and didnt feel like walking 5 blocks. I then drunkenly made some food...which everyone at the party raved about!...and proceeded to down glasses of water to prepare for round two of the drinking.
Next thing I know our apartment is pleasantly packed with people and we are playing Flip Cup Survivor at our bar....Shannon was the champion, beating out an angry Vinny...needless to say craziness insued, everyone did a keg stand ( I have pictures), my computer was hooked up to Shannon's speakers so we could get surround sound Itunes, shots were being made, and the kitchen floor was covered in beer. We all decided it was time to head to the bars. Shannon, Dave and I headed to AliveOne to meet some of Shannon's friends from Highschool who were in town....Shannon was plastered and I was pretty drunk, but had reinitiated the water drinking. The rest of our party had split up between a bar called Central and the 7 and 10 Pin. We had a meeting point set up at The GoodBar. I was quite certain that Shannon may not have been allowed in The GoodBar given her drunken state, however, she was able to maintain upright posture long enough to get out her id...seeing her negotiate the stairs was a different story all together.
We had been there all of 15 min when I had to sit Shannon on a couch, take her purse and pray she didnt get up as I tried to find Dave and all of our friends...She didnt stay down for long, but luckily I found Dave who then looked at Shannon and immediately knew it was time to get her out of there as she may vomit at any minute and she pouting saying "I need to home now, I just want to go home"...surprisingly, she did not vomit and we all made it home in one piece. I got a call from Barry at 3 am requesting the our apartment now be the "afterhours bar"...I declined as I was very comfy in my bed.
Sunday morning hangover....yup. We met up with John and Barry at the Bagel...Barry was still drunk at breakfast which made for interesting and confusing conversations and excessive giggling. We then proceeded to veg out at the Boys apartment all day watching The People Versus Larry Flint, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Elf. John made some spaghetti with antelope Italian sausage. Shannon and I finally got off of our asses and headed home around 7pm. It was the laziest Sunday in history...but to be expected given the high volume of activity in the days which preceded it.

Whirrley Ball

So Bryan is in town with four of his frat bros and so Shannon and I got a keg and lots of food etc to celebrate his 21st bday and invited Matt over to "help out". Fischer, Jay, and Kelly are in town as well as it is Cathy H.'s bday. We decided to paly whirrley ball...a new concept for me...at 12:30 until like 200 am....the game involves driving a bumper car while simultaneously manipulating a woofle ball with a lacrosse net/stick thing. You can hit the opposing teams sticks etc and you can touch the ball with your hands, but can't throw it in with your hands...in trying to hit your oppositions sticks..you will inevitable hit some hands...and because of the bumper car aspects, you will likely cause some whiplash or in my case lower back injuries. I left this game with numerous cuts on both hands, a sore ankle...as my foot was jammed in the front of the car as it was rammed by 3 other bumper cars, an aching back and a swollen and aching left wrist....however, despite all of this, I loved the game and it was addicting..although I do believe Jay was attacking me on purpose....
A wonderful game that I wish to repeat...but with some padding.

That's Dr. Kraus to you... 

Hit that nail on the head why don't ya....

So for starters it sucks having this huge thing to celebrate but no one to celebrate it with....put a little cloud over my "I passed the boards with flying colors rainbow"...It sucked. I got this great news and just hung out by myself watching Capote....seriously not a fan of flying solo anymore.
That being said, I was in a bit of a melancholy yet "at least you passed" sorta mood all day and talked to Kraus when I got home from work about many number of things but more importantly me and relationships and why I seem to go after the wrong ones and never know when to let go. I always seem to blame everything on my mom and though she is dysfunctional I never really thought that there could be some dad factors as well...which Kraus pointed out. I never considered underlying dad issues as a problem because I didnt really grow up with him so what's the problem...my dad was not readily available to me when I was young but I always loved him soo much, this man I never really really knew until recently and who I still love adore but...here's the points that Kraus brought up-
"if your relationships tend to be dysfunctional, it would tend to be the relationship you had with your father, not your mother."....hmm okay I'm listening

"would say most people let people walk all over them."....nuh-uh not me....

"kept giving the worlds biggest assholes extra chances for whatever reason. doesnt make sense."

And here's that big ole NAIL-

"guys that are sort of distant... or whatever. Are maybe attractive to you?".......

Now any suggestions on fixing this here problem? I have the mom issues fixed (as much as can be expect).. dammit whole new bag of worms....

Laura, Shannon and Amber at Shenanigans 

When you least expect it.....

When you least expect it a wonderful day develops. I had one of the most fun weekends since my move to Chicago. Friday was spent meeting Matt for a couple of drinks at "Bridget McNeils" a very conveniently located Irish pub and then meeting up with Dan and his work buddies at at "Sluggers"...we for once did not go to an afterhours bar which allowed and earlier rise on Saturday morning. Saturday morning started with finishing the kitchen painting/decorating then having some drinks with some med students and Shannon's friend from home Laura at Shannigans (we later realized we had been to this bar before after a vomitting incident with the dental students)...We also got home at a reasonable hour this night...however I was drunk dialed at like 5 am by a John who's last name will remain unsaid, had a conversation I don't really remember, but I'm sure was gibberish on both ends and then proceeded to fall back asleep. Sunday morning got up early made some breakfast and watch "Pay it Forward" and then headed to Michigan Avenue.....$500, 3 Sangrias, crab stuffed mushroom tapa, a Spanish lesson (an plans for future Spanish lessons from a nice Venezuelan) a Margarita, and a burrito bol later went to Barry and John's for our weekly Desperate Housewives/Grey's Anatomy Party...next weekend to be held at our apt with Sangria...Upon arriving to John's I realized I had drawn a diagram of my family tree on their fridge the last weekend and began to laugh for quite a long time. Then John said I talked to your boyfriend today and he's mad at you. To which I replied what? He said, Dave said you are a bad girlfriend because you don't call or write him anymore and he's hurt. To which I started to laugh again and say Ohhh Dave. To which John replied..you don't even remember your own boyfriend...I bet you don't even remember we are going to have babies...To which I replied, well we would have cute kids you're tall with blue eyes and I'm the complete opposite..to which John replied, that's what you said last weekend... To which in my head I thought, why do I speak when I'm drunk. The rest of the evening was filled with other enlightening tidbits and we all came to the conclusion that Shannon and I were very drunk in our "Board are Over" weekend celebration and any promises of baby-making or boyfriending will have to be reconsidered in a more sober state of mind!