"I'm liquored!"

-Gambino's mother at roughly 11:30 Saturday night.

Life can be strange. One weekend I am in Vegas drinking it up, playing poker with a group of new friends. Next weekend I am sitting around a campfire, passing a bottle of Boone's Farm around, drinking with old friends.

Ain't life grand!

That is the thought that ran through my head as I sat in a glorified outhouse at 5:45 am yesterday morning. It seems appropriate. You can live life to the fullest, taking advantage of the time you can spend with old friends, new friends, going to different places, experiencing new things, or you can stay home, go through the same old routine, and live life top the minimum. You either shit or get off of the pot. As you can tell, I give a shit!

I knew the weekend would be a good one, but I didn't realize how fantastic it would be. Coming off a short work week, I was ready for more drunken debauchery. When I met up with E, he was yapping with his old 70 year old neighbor. I back in to the driveway brushing up against the bush first and then the neighbor's lawn. Damn skinny driveway. Thankfully the Mustang didn't take a scratch from the bush. I put the top up, and got my stuff out. E comes over to mention the neighbor likes my "pussy car".

We head off to the Bong Rec area. Yep, the name of it is Bong. E mentions that they others have been there since at least 2 so they are probably well on their way to being liquored up. The days have been quite warm lately around the Milwaukee area. High 80s, feeling like the low 90s. What better to do than cool down with an ice cold beer?

We arrived to find the party on it's way. The cast included Gambino, her hubby, her parents, A and Ernie, Di and Paulie, Randy and Jodi, Brian, Nicki, and child. They had their pop-ups set up already, with Paul and Di having pitched their tent. E and I got the tent up after having a couple of beers. You know with the heat and all, one should work only when hydrated. Once the work was done, we pulled out the chairs to sit by the fire. Or what little fire there was. The debate was on as to whether a fire would be needed or not considering how hot it was. Ok, it really wasn't a debate as this group really likes to burn things. Every bit of garbage ends up in the fire pit. Plates, forks, cans, anything. Once the sun had gone down, it cooled off enough that a good fire wouldn't make a difference. Everyone was already sweated up from the sun and had a good amount of beer in them that they wanted to see stuff get burned.

Before the festivities got truly underway, I pulled out the phone to give Al a call to return his Dial-A-Shot. Instead I got the lovely MrsCantHang. I talked with her briefly getting the lowdown on what they were up to. Roughly a half hour late, I would get a call from the man himself, including a score on the Brewers/Phillies game. I popped down some nice Cabo Wabo from the flask and went back to the gang. I passed around the Cabo for anyone else to enjoy. Seconds later it was gone. Good tequila will disappear quickly. Later that night, I would get a second Dial-a-Shot and would have to grab a bottle Seagrams 7, pour it into a makeshift shot glass (a measuring cup) to raise one with Al again.

As I recall, we played some poker that night. Was the bubble boy there. More drinking was done as more logs were tossed into the firepit. I am sure some ridiculously stupid things were said but nothing sticks out in my mind right now. Around 2:30 I decided to get my contacts out and call it night.

I think it was about 9 when I crawled out of the tent, still sweating. The morning was cool but not cold. With the sun out, you could tell it would be a hot one again. And it was. Slowly the gang would get up, stumble back to the firepit and get back into the groove. I decided not to make the same mistake as last year when I thought that Mike's Hard Lime was the equivalent of orange juice. I drank water for a bit first. Then I joined E with a Bloody Mary. Not a big fan of them, though in the right setting they are quite good. This was one of those settings. I got my BM making skills out from the back of my brain and concocted one that was not spicy enough. After draining half a bottle of Tobasco, I was satisfied. Once the production line was set up, the pudgy pies were produced, cooked and consumed. Ken does such a damn good job cooking them puppies up. Us porch monkey sat back in the cool shade watching the poor guy work, along with E, sweating away in the heat of both the sun and the fire.

Just before noon, I knew it was time to jump back in and cracked a beer. Pete would show up, the boys would get the Captain out to reunite him with his old buddy, Coke and we would get the latest on where our new bar would be. Seems finding a bar to buy is a pretty damn hard task. The next couple hours would pass by quickly. Good company has a way of making that happen. So will the rain.

Or some rain. Ernie and K have a tradition while drinking camping. If it rain, the Jack comes out and the consumption of Jack and Coke begins. This happens only when it is raining. When the wind suddenly picked up, we thought we would get hit hard. But there was a smattering of drops when the Jack was called for. I sarcastically protested, just for the sake of some drama. While Gamino stood waiting to feel another drop, Ernie showed me the hood of the truck. Hey, he had proof. Who am I to stop them. A little rain would fall, lasting maybe a minute. Then it stopped and the sun came back out. Later, it rained again prompting Jack to say hello for a second time. The Jack and Cokes were distributed once again. I thought about doing my rain dance but I was quite comfortable two fisting the beer with the J&C. I may spill something or fall on my face so there was no rain dance to be had.

Randall decided to get another poker game going. This time I was first out when my 9 9 ran into K K. I thought I may have the best hand so I pushed. I should have paid more attention to Ken's quivering lip. Oh well, back to drinking. I sat around talking with Gambino's pappy, waiting to see what else may happen. He talked of camping years ago with his buddies and getting a fire so hot it would melt bottles. So of course we stoked the fire up a bit and fed a couple bottles in. They don't melt down like the aluminum cans do but they will slowly fall apart.

Dinner came along so their was a brief halt to the poker game. Drinking continued as the sun went down. So it was dark and had cooled off considerably. It was damn comfortable now. The poker game would end and the gang would sit around goofing off. When sat around trying to figure out what the hell was going on at the other site through the trees. It appeared to be a Hispanic group mixed in with some Asians. We knew this as they kept trying to park in our area. Normally it wouldn't be a big deal but it appeared they would either be sleeping in their cards or leaving early in the morning. Either way, we didn't want to be woken up by this. Of course, it the girls in the other camp site needed a parking spot, I am sure I could have moved E's truck somewhere until I heard that they were with some guys. Anyway it was nice eye candy from a distance. Up close they were as attractive but that wouldn't have stopped me from pitching a tent with one of them. But I digress.

Back around the fire, the bottles came out again. A couple people would disappear, calling it a night. Funny how little glow sticks become such fun while drinking. Numerous beers and chugs of whatever crap they put in front of me, I called it a night just after midnight. Twelve hours was enough for me. Last thing I wanted to do was pass out like Paulie did the night before.
But I did get to hear Gambino's mom utter that priceless line. Hearing her utter "I'm liquored" will stay with me. Too funny.

Sunday was Sunday. After 2 days of sitting around in the heat, I wanted to get home to take a shower. My phone had died, I looked scruffy and wanted to brush my teeth. After pulling up stake and eating leftovers, we were on the road home. I recall doing some laundry after taking a shower. I watched Breaking Vegas (the one on McManus which make him look like a pussy) which wasn't even about cheating and fell asleep. I slept for a number of hours. Not quite sure how many.

But I woke up on Monday morning feeling pretty good, smiling about the memories of the weekend. As I read this, I realize this writeup doesn't even give the weekend justice. Maybe a beer would do the job now.