The Max: Skee Ball and Tramp Stamps

Tags

bars, conservative, family, friends, games, humor, life, oldschool, tattoo

I thought instead of telling you about my day as a lazy couch potato I would continue my story from last night. The part with the light bright and Kevin Bacon.

This was definitely one of the coolest places I’ve set foot in in quite some time. After bowling, we walked a block into slightly less sketchy territory (but not that much safer…) to The Max, a self proclaimed retro pub next to a t-shirt shop and a pizza place. Walking in, the first thing I heard was the sound of skee ball and and old video games. The two rooms were filled with games like Tron, Pacman, and Street Fighter II, all pinging and booping with their flashing lights illuminating the room. For a Tuesday night, the place was packed with people reliving their youth. Behind the bar the walls were literally covered with cassette tapes and Pez dispensers. A light bright had pegs spelling out “The Max” in multicolored letters. Above it all was a row of static filled TV’s complete with rabbit ears and random wires. Among the shows they chose to play that night were Footloose and an original Star Wars flick. Bonus points for the bar: I got to see the tractor scene AND Jabba the Hutt side by side.

Yes.

On our way out of the bar, completely sober by the way, we discussed getting matching tattoos at a parlor nearby. Since we all turned 18 a few years ago this has been a recurring conversation.

“Let’s all get tattoos!” someone says.

“No!” I’d reply.

“Okay.” someone else would agree.

Okay, so this is usually a little more drawn out. We’ve discussed hearts, butterflies, stars, and suns. Multiple places and colors have been suggested, but we’ve always decided to wait. Mostly because we’re too chicken, but I’m pretty sure it’s also because we’re not all entirely sure we’ll still be BFFs in 20 years when the tattoos don’t look as cute as they would on our 20ish year old bodies. At that point we will probably regret getting even tiny reminders of friendships that didn’t quite go the distance.

At least that’s why I’m hesitant. Who knows about the other girls. Maybe someday I’ll come home for the holidays with a tattoo to hide from my conservative family. My guess is probably not though. I’ll let you know if that changes.

Maid of Honor Drama at the Bowling Alley

Tags

bar, bowling, friends, life, wedding

I was wrong about the rum.

All of my other predictions for the night were correct however.

The above picture, taken from the bowling alley website, sums it up nicely I think.

We began by meeting up at this bowling alley downtown. For those of you not familiar with the area, I was less than a block away from a greyhound station and across the street from “The Midtown Adult Superstore”. Overall, not the best place to walk around at night. As I approached the building I became increasingly more wary. Neon bowling pin signs adorned the outer wall and the front door contained no windows. I must say the bowling pin handle was a nice touch though. It at least let me know I was in the right place. Inside the carpet assaulted my vision in a way only the 70′s could. Green, yellow, and orange plaid covered the floors and the rest of the room is done in the same color scheme.

I waited at the bar for my 5 friends to arrive and looked at their drink menu. A few wines and beers as well as a mixed drink section that looked as old as the carpet. Nothing creative, just drinks like the White Russian and Brandy Alexander. You know, staples from the 1920′s.

The girls finally arrived, we ordered cheesy tots, and started bowling. We realized how out of place we were when we noticed there was no electronic scoreboard. They handed us a sheet of paper to keep score on. None of us had a clue how to start. Luckily, there’s an app for that. After brushing up on the rules, we started throwing embarrassingly light balls at pins down the lane and catching up on our lives. I’m the first of the group to get engaged and since we’ve all known each other for over ten years this was apparently a big deal. I really don’t like discussing these things with them though because it inevitably turns to talk about who is my maid of honor. The thing is, I don’t know that.

I’m torn between two girls out of six. It was hard enough narrowing it down that far, but this is one of the toughest decisions I’ve had to make about my wedding. I’ve known one girl, we’ll call her Lee, since we were in kindergarten. we’ve had out ups and downs over the years, but we’re still friends. The other girl, we’ll call her Shelby, is my former roommate. We have so much in common and I always know I can talk to her about anything. They both have crazy streaks, but Lee is usually anti wedding and anti commitment whereas Shelby has been a maid of honor recently and did a wonderful job. I guess it comes down to choosing because of how long we’ve known each other or who will do a better job.

I just don’t know if I can make that decision right now.

Uhg.

Wow. That was a ridiculous tangent. I didn’t even get to the part of the night that involved light brights and Footloose.

I’ll save that for tomorrow.

Thrilling, I Know

Tags

boredom, life

When I started this shindig a whole 24 hours ago I had high hopes of taking this little blog by storm. “I’m going to write about how epic my day to day life is!” I thought to myself. I hang out with really funny people and we do weird stuff and that’s always exciting reading right? Well today was probably the most boring day I have had in quite some time. My winter break ends in less than a week so today was spent tweaking my resume, updating my portfolio, and cleaning out closets.

Thrilling, I know.

All of those funny people I usually hang out with? They were doing equally boring things like working (who does that?) or hanging out with people cooler than me (if that’s even possible). I know this because I spent most of my day in lengthy text message conversations with these otherwise occupied people.

In short, my day was nothing even remotely worth writing about unless you like reading detailed descriptions of portfolio design, resume building tips, or my plans to carpool with a classmate to our internship next semester. Tomorrow will prove to hold much of the same monotony, however, there is the possibility that I will see people outside of my house at some point. I don’t want to give too much away, but these adventures may include me wearing shoes that scare me and rum.

Who Indeed

Tags

blogging, goals, life, new year, resolutions

Hey there. What’s up? I’m Nikki.

This new year has just begun and I can feel that it is going to be big. I’ll be planning my wedding, graduating from college, moving multiple times, looking for my first big girl job, and generally starting a brand new life. I don’t make resolutions for each new year, but I do have goals. I plan on getting healthy, making new friends, and being more adventurous. You know, all of those things that people make resolutions about and never do. But they’re just goals. Not resolutions. Ah semantics.

Anyway…

All of this craziness is me at my finest. My plan for this blog thing isn’t so much a plan as it is part of my goal to be more adventurous. Hopefully this will focus my energy into trying new things and articulating my thoughts more than my current haphazard habits do. The last time I tried this sort of thing I’m pretty sure I was in middle school and the platform was something called Xanga. For those of you familiar with middle school blogging from the early 2000′s: don’t worry, this blog will contain far fewer thinly veiled attempts to get boys to like me as well as a reduced number of sad cries for attention. Although, I’m apparently not past thinking I’m someone to read about.

Here’s to a new year.

-Nikki