Saturday

Have you ever had one of those strange dreams where random people from your past appear? They are dressed crazy, as something different from who they are, and you don't really know where you are but everything is vaguely familiar. For me, that dream was called "Saturday".

I took the Amtrak up to Milwaukee Saturday afternoon. When I arrived I was greeted in the world's dumpiest train station by Miss Lisa. We both proclaimed our starvingness and headed straight to lunch. We ate at "Comet". Lisa asked if I could believe that Comet was now a full restaurant and bar instead of the one room little coffee shop we frequented in high school. I said "I know, I can't believe it" and tried to remember having ever been there in my life...I couldn't. Lisa had a cheesy tomato grill and I had the Turkenstein. We both had delicious seasoned fries that were REALLY spicy which led us to say, "Damn, these are REALLY spicy" every time we ate one. Yes...I got the spiciness in my eye at one point.

We went back to Lisa's after lunch and climbed the eight thousand flights of stairs to her adorable rooftop apartment. We caught up some more, drank some peppermint tea and watched some episodes of The Office that she had on DVD. (By the by, that show is hilarious and I want to marry Jim Halpern. Jim and Pam are the new Ross and Rachel.) Then we cracked open the vino and got ready to go.

We arrived at the house and realized that this party was for real. There was a tent in the backyard, space heaters, a bonfire pit (everyone in Wisconsin has a bonfire pit in their backyard) and a DJ. I was instantly bummed that I hadn't reconsidered wearing a costume.

As we approached the house my friend Erin, who was hosting the party and who I hadn't seen in almost nine years, appeared at the door. "Oh my god, shut up, get in here!" She was dressed in a cowboy hat and holding a fake pistol. She had done her make up to appear bruised and scarred. We hugged and I was careful not to mess up the smeared blood on her face. "What are you?" "Oh, my friend and I are Thelma and Louise...after the crash." Brilliant.

Her roommate walked into the kitchen. He was wearing a top hat and a suit...his gray face was made to look like a zombie. He was a dead president maybe? "Brooke you remember Mike." This was going to be harder than I'd planned.

In the back yard under the tent there were some more familiar faces, people I sort of vaguely knew in high school. I caught up with Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz about her new job in Madison. She reminded me that the last time we'd hung out in high school was when she'd nearly killed us by going the wrong way down a busy one way. I hadn't remembered until she told me, and then I couldn't stop laughing.

Rainbow Bright lives in Chicago so we talked a little bit about the windy city. Plato and I caught up on his job at a party supply store that enabled him to provide all the goods for the party.

Any older brothers or sisters that were there got caught up on Tate's life. "He's a chef in Manhattan!"

Then the girls arrived. Erin (there's two Erin's, keep up) walked outside and we sang a chorus of "Oh My God"'s . She was dressed as a 1930's black widow and of course looked fabulous. More like a costume from a play than from a Halloween shop. We instantly started gabbing and didn't shut up for almost an hour straight. Gina arrived, her eye make-up smeared, clothes buttoned wrong and a condom in her hair. She was dressed as "The Walk of Shame" which is an amazing and hilarious costume. As I laughed at her condom filled hair and cooed over cell phone pics of her gorgeous baby our friend Alicia arrived. She was dressed as a marionette complete with a stick coming out of her head to hold up her arms. The last one to arrive was Katie, as Punky Brewster, and the group was complete (minus one girl who couldn't attend due to the recent discovery of a tiny human in her tummy). After recapping nine years in nine minutes the stories from high school started flying. We all poured ourselves another round of WOP (Is this a Wisconsin thing or does everyone know what this is? It's that giant tub at the party full of fruit, fruit juice, and every bottle of booze in the house) and laughed hysterically. Some of the stories I didn't remember until I was hearing them...some I remembered vividly. Some guy came and sat at our table for a few minutes and then stood up with a "Whoa! I don't need to be here" as we recapped some of the more...vivid...memories.

Erin B and I agreed that we should have been older when we went to Spain together so that we could have appreciated it more. But still laughed about the experience. Erin D reminded me about the time she came to Chicago with me to visit my mom and we got busted for smelling like cigarettes. Apparently my response to my mother was "It was so weird, we were outside hanging out and this crazy man ran by and dumped a bucket of smoke on us!" What a smartass, poor mom. Alicia said she's been with her boyfriend from high school for ten years now and they have a six year old. We also reminded Alicia of some of her many talents from High School. Gina and I remembered the blacklite Christmas parties she used to host at her house, Katie and I remembered having the entire world figured out by Senior Year.

Hands down couldn't breathe funniest moment of the night was when Katie, who was a year older than us in high school but in our grade, admitted that she was not in fact a year older than us...she was the same age. That she had only said that back then because she wanted us to think she had her license when in fact she was taking her parents car out without a license or permission. At first we didn't believe her so she pulled out her ID and we all exploded. As I looked closer at the ID and remembered cruising around in that car with her I said through tears of hilarity, "Katie, not only are you not older than me...you are YOUNGER than me." She smiled..."I know!"

As we wrapped it up we made promises to keep in touch. A couple of them are coming to Chicago soon which I can't even wait for.

Lisa and I recapped the recapping later at IHOP over pancakes and chicken strips...respectively. It was fun.

It was fun and I laughed a lot and hard which was good. I thought a lot about them on the way back to Chicago. I thought a lot about all my friendships on the way back to Chicago. I was looking out the window when suddenly I could feel that I was in Illinois instead of Wisconsin. You don't need signs to tell you when you're home...and when you're not.