The last couple days have been really fantastic. I got to see a lot of old and new friends from all over the state. On Saturday afternoon Brian and Martha drove up from Lake Geneva and met up with me at home, then we headed over to Jon’s place. He dinked around for ages and we finally got going about an hour later than intended.

After stopping briefly at Culver’s for some lunch, we zipped up to Green Bay to spend some time with Jeff and Erin. Melissa met up with us at their place and we all played a couple rounds of this card game called Bang!. Then we all drove back down to Oshkosh and reconvened at Jon’s place where Melissa deposited her vehicle in his garage. After Jon dinked around a little more, Melissa, Jon, and I piled into Jon’s car and Brian and Martha in Brian’s, and we caravaned to Madison to meet up with Peter and Don.

It was getting close to 9PM by that time, so we had to zoom off to a grocery store to pick up some booze before they stopped selling (stupid Wisconsin liquor law.) By this time Brian and Martha were getting hungry and impatient because of all the indecision so we got our drinks and snacks and eventually ended up getting subs from Cousin’s for supper. We ate at Don and Peter’s place (well, actually, technically it’s Don’s own condo! o.o) and got to know a couple hippy friends of Peter’s who were over for the party too.

Since there were so many of us we split up into a couple groups to play games like Boggle and Uno and Trivial Pursuit and eventually I broke out We Love Katamari (which we weren’t very far into since Jon had left his memory cards in California and we had just begun a new game.) We toasted the new year, then Peter’s friends took off, followed soonly by Brian and Martha. The rest of us sat around enjoying each other’s company, gaming, and drinking. Peter passed out on the couch and had to play DDR to wake up. Just after he and Melissa decided to go to bed, Don came home with Guitar Hero so he and Peter demoed it for us. Damn, it looks hard. I can see how someone who’s played guitar before would be okay with it but I think I would screw up majorly. Then Peter and Mel actually went to bed and Jon and I stayed up talking to Don for awhile, which was nice. Eventually he went to bed as well, and I was getting really sleepy by that point so I curled up on the couch and went to sleep. I had a pretty restless sleep because all I had to rest my head on was a medium-sized fish pillow. Jon’s laptop fan kept coming on like every 15 minutes and it was really loud.

In the “morning” Don made some toast and eggs for people for breakfast, and I only ate toast since I don’t like eggs so considering it’s now suppertime I’m rather starved. Anyhow, they showed me this hilarious British show called Look Around You (which I hope to see more of) then we said goodbye to Peter and Don, had a bit of a scare as we thought Jon had gotten a parking ticket, but it was only a warning, and took off for Oshkosh again.

On the way back we stopped at my parents’ place so I could get a change of clothes and then headed off to Jon’s. Melissa transferred her things to her car then took off for Green Bay. Huuu, what a weekend of traveling!

It was so lovely to see everyone again. It’s been a long time, and it’s interesting to note how people have changed in subtle ways in the time that I’ve been away. It’s these people who make me actually want to visit Wisconsin. *smiles*

Happy New Year.