The Visiting Locals **and** The Burgh

Even though nobody showed any comment love for the last entry, I'm gonna continue my saga on August 2007... Here's what happened the next weekend (17th - 19th).

Friday I was supposed to head to The Burgh, but I was waaaay too tired to make the trip so late in the day. So after informing the waiting crew of IUPartyers of my delayed departure, I gave a holler to some old Susky friends.

It just so happened that this particular weekend two of the best people ever were visiting home... so I called one of 'em up. Valerie was home from Minnesooooohta for a week or so, and Maureen was taking a break from her PeaceCorps work in Ghana. And Sarpen was home from New York for the weekend, too. I felt ultra-local when compared to their overall worldliness. When I called Val, she was waiting for Sarpen to go mini-golfing up in York. I decided to invite myself. So I got to spend some time with them on the indoor/outdoor greens off of Mt. Rose Ave. Good times. Val got a hole-in-one. It was sweet. Sarpen won a free game at the end of the round by making that near-impossible last shot that nobody ever makes, but everybody tries. Good times.

After that, we headed back to The Tauz Place for a few rounds of Whoonu. Then we capped off the night with some YouTubing, for the benefit of those who have been away from American society for a while. Under Sarpen's suggestion, we viewed and laughed a lot at the following clips.





Hilarious. And awesome.

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Then it was off to Pittsburgh Saturday morning to celebrate Tuna and Kevin's birthdays. We hung out at Stoner's house while we waited for everyone to gather there (and while most were shaking off their hangovers from the night before.) The group consisted of me, Stoner and Neil, Kevin, Tuna and Gretchen, Kristin, Lindsey and Blake, Dawnage, Ed and Megan, and Kim.

We hit up some shops down on the Waterfront. then rocked a kickass dinner and headed over to Sing-Sing, which is a piano bar (much like Howl @ the Moon in the Inner Harbor, MD) where you request songs on pieces of paper accompanied by a few bucks... the more cash that shows up, the more likely you'll get your song played. I knew we'd have to get these two piano player guys' attentions somehow, so I wrote out my request form as follows: "Something wicked-gay for Kevin and Tuna's birthday." They were called up to the stage to perform the Chicken Dance.

It was great, but they were annoyed at us for some reason...so they got us back by having Ed, Stoner, and I go up on stage and do the Hokey-Pokey. That was a blast. The piano guys, who double as comedians for the evening, started the comparisons of me to goofy dudes with lotsa hair. Howard Stern, Weird Al, and Sanjaya Malacar from American Idol. The crowd took to calling me Sanjaya for the rest of the night...even on my way to the car, some chicks cheered for "Sanjaya" as I walked past. Being an attention whore, I milked it for all it was worth.

During the night, our big group commanded the attention of the piano dudes and the crowd, being the loudest and probably the drunkest. We kept chanting I-U-P because the big schools were having some stupid popularity contest. Tuna and I didn't care much for one dude in the crowd, so whenever the piano guys would pick on him, we'd yell buuuuuullshiiiiit in unison at him. I think it was because he wasn't yelling at all or even having a good time. Douche. That is bullshit!

Also bullshit: my friends tried to get the second string piano guys to get me on stage while they played I Alone (my college theme song) but the bench-warmers bungled it. After Kristin complained to the one dude, they "made up for it" by bringing me up for a YMCA 'contest'. I totally won, cuz i'm awesome. I got a free drink and I got to get the crowd into it and cheer for me. That's always charges me up.

After the lights went up and the piano covers went down, we hung out with the piano guys for a bit, chatting about how the one guy's wife was an IUP alum. They were very nice guys. (We didn't talk to the second-string douchehairs.) We then headed home. (Neil was the Designated Driver, for those of you who are concerned.)

It was awesome to see all of those guys and have a good time with them...especially The Fish (who was FACED!!!) and Kristin, who made a big trip from Boston to hang with us. Highly excellent.

The next day I experienced the worst drive home in the history of driving home. My iTrip didn't work because I blew a fuse right before I left for home. It was fucking pouring rain THE ENTIRE RIDE HOME, I was tired and slightly hung over, I had to listen to the three cd's I just happend to have in my car, I was starving, and it all just sucked. I was ecstatic to get home.

Next time: August 2007 ends with The Tauz Party, Laser-Tag, and a new feature at The Blaug will start up...