Great Party

This is one of the top parties of the year. I highly recommend everyone go. If you need tickets email me at memphisphilip (at) hotmail (dot) com. I will have some as of Thursday next week.

Merry New Year!!!

That's right I said it: Merry New Year!!! If you haven't seen Trading Places with Dan Akroyd and Eddie Murphy, then you don't get it. And if you haven't seen that comedy, you need to get a serious readjustment to your movie viewing priorities. Forget going to see I Am Legend or Alvin and the Chipmunks (they probably suck) and borrow that damn film from any of your friends. They probably have it.

Anywho, I'm going to skip over a few things from November that although they are funny, I don't feel like taking the time to tell them. I'd rather get to the Holiday Season. Or if you are like many of us and hate living in a politically-correct world, the Christmas Season. There I said it. If I disappear, it's because the PC-nazi-police kidnapped me. If that happens, have a good one and don't get none on ya.


On December 1st I went to the Ptolemy "Holiday" Party downtown. After the party wound down, I went to Spindini with a group from the party. Of course I was still wearing my Santa hat which drew looks of shock and disgust from the pretentious crowd at this supposed downtown hot spot. I ask you, dear reader, how they can get away with judging my Santa hat while we can't mention the miriad of surgical accessories they were displaying, including but not limited to lifted/enlarged bossoms, tightened faces, tucked posteriors, enlarged big toes, hair transplants, and botoxed thumbs. I had a group of folks who were waiting for me in East Memphis at Old Venice Pizza Company. I headed that way to meet up with folks and catch the incredible Roxanne Lemmon. I used to live next door to her in Midtown and have been promising her for over two years now that I would get off my lazy ass and go see her live. I have to say it was well worth it. Anyway on to the pics from that night. I have only one pic from the Ptolemy party, and it didn't turn out that well. So I'm starting my second post in a row with a girl posing in a "Look at me!!! I need attention!!!" picture. This is Theresa (I think), and it happened to be her birthday that night Here's me with part of the group at Old Venice. And you can see the Santa hat too.

Here's the birthday girl again.

Part of the reason I got the pic with her Michelob Ultra is because that is a very important Ultra. It propelled me to the rank of "you're an asshole" status. Now I will admit that's a lot of responsibility for just one beer. Especially a beer as crappy as a Michelob Ultra. Let me explain: the bar was crowded and there were only three bartenders. Actually only two of those bartenders were attempting to work from time to time. So when they finally came to us, my buddy Sam bought a round for all of us. Despite the fact I heard him order the Ultra, the bartender never brought it. It took a few minutes for birthday girl to realize this. Then she started to ask why we all had drinks and she didn't. I turned and got the bartender's attention to order it because I was standing at the bar. The bartender brought it, and I gave Birthday Girl her beer. She looked at me and said something like "about time" with a bit of attitude. I let it slide for a second until she tried to snatch my Santa hat. When I sarcastically told her to say pretty please first, I reached the pinnacle of "you're an asshole" status to her. And I really didn't care. I just laughed every time I got the evil eye for the next thirty minutes. Then she finally forgot why she was mad at me.

Here's a pic later in the night. Nothing like shots on your birthday right?

Here's a pic of the Roxanne Lemmon Band. I personally call her Foxy Roxy, but everyone knows her as Roxanne. She's the one in the middle playing the guitar.

So that was the official kickoff for the Christmas Party season 2007. The next party I took my camera to was a Tacky Xmas party thrown by a couple of guys I went to high school with. You were supposed to dress up in really bad Christmas outfits. There were people dressed like Cousin Eddie from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. There were guys who went and got really tacky turtlenecks from the women's department at Wal-Mart. The ideas were hilarious. I spent more time drinking and talking than actually taking pics of everyone's outfits. But here's one couple. You can see his sweater but I didn't get a good pic of her outfit.

I ran into the "Fun Davis" sister. But after that night, we have changed her nickname to Dropsy...I think. She tried to give a friend a hug and dropped a beer bottle in the middle of the laundry room. I'd change her nickname to Spilly but that's reserved for the originally Spilly from my college days. Here's a pic of the guilty parties trying to clean up the glass next to the 5 gallons of eggnog. Yeah, it was strong eggnog.

Sorry some of the pics are blurry like this. Don't ever buy a Sony Cyber Shot camera. They suck.

There were a couple of girls in charge of the music with an Ipod outside. It was like listening to the thoughts of an ADD kid. One minute they'd put it on hip hop and then they'd put it on rock. But they finally landed on "Crank That" by Soulja Boy. Of course they knew the dance. I got a few pics of them dancing. These two girls actually did a good job.

Then this new girl jumped in and knew a little bit of the dance. That was the most comical part of the whole dance. She'd keep bumping into them and apparently doing it wrong, but she'd never stop and try to correct herself. Hey, everyone had fun so who cares right?

Everyone's favorite Memphis Celebutante Mendi was there of course. Here's a pic of yours truly with her. The antlers, sweater, and scarf are nice, but I wish I had a pic of her elf stockings. Those were classic.

We always have to keep up with our traditional shot pic. But there was nothing to shoot. Our drink choices were limited to wine, beer, and eggnog. So I chugged beer while she chugged wine.

This is a pic of one of the hosts, 3D. I'm not sure exactly what he was doing, but I think he may have had a spark land in his hair or something. They had two fire pits going, and that's really the only logical explanation I can come up with for this pic.

Here's Mendi again. No, Mendi! He's not a candy cane! That's just the wine talking to you!

No matter how gangsta you are, sometimes you just need someone's extra large glasses to make your gangsta image stand out that much more.

After the cops shut the party down (how old are we?), some the walking wounded including myself went to Newby's. Some genius (not me) said we needed shots. Some other genius (this was me) decided to buy a round of jager shots. Ugg. There were 12 of us. I bought 12 shots. And yet even though "everyone" took their shot, there was one left. Hmm...

No one was stupid enough to actually drink it so it was there after we left the bar. It was one hell of a party, and I'd like to thank those guys for having me there.

A few weeks later I went to a Christmas party thrown by a few guys from work. I'll post the video of this in my next post, but here are the Steps of Doom. There are two reasons for that name. For the first you'll need to see the videos. The second is because the damn bottom step was not as deep as it should be and the rest are very unsteady. So that makes walking up and down them very fun.

The last holiday party I went to was again downtown at JK's on December 23rd. I was probably the youngest person there, but it didn't really bother me because there were plenty of friends there. I had been hunting early that morning and the morning before in Tunica with Scottie Too Hottie (now known as Sloppy Scotty in honor of the appetizer at the Brookhaven Pub). Down on the farm there are several trees where mistletoe grows so one of the guys with us, Ford, shot down some. And when I say some, I mean a ton. Ol' Sloppy Scotty brought several bunches to the party and left them around the party. Most of us let them hang from our Santa hats. After most of the crowd started to leave, one of the guys hooked up his laptop to the stereo and they moved the coffee table from the middle of the living room. I'm kinda glad he did, but part of me wishes he hadn't. Why the conflicting feelings? Because although I said the girls above had ADD DJ syndrome, this guy actually did. He was HORRIBLE. He'd let 30 seconds of a song play and then skip to the next one. So you'd start dancing and then the music would stop. Everyone in our group was complaining loudly but he never paid any attention. He kept ruining the mood.

There were certain songs he'd play completely through though. One was that Soulja Boy song (twice in one post!). I tried to do a little bit of the dance based on what I saw at the Tacky Xmas Party (somehow the vodka I had been drinking messed up my good judgement). I was quickly told I was wrong by one of the women at the party (she's the second from the left in the next picture). The fact that she said it isn't that great, but the way she said it is priceless:

Her: "Look, you're doing it wrong. You have to do it like this." (she shows me)

Me: "I don't think you're right."

Her: "I have a 13 year old son. Trust me, I know this dance."

I really wanted to tell her that her son was born before I was even out of high school, but I really didn't want to ruin her Christmas by making her feel that old. So I just said ok and let her keep dancing while I stood to the side with my friends until the next song.

So we kept dancing. Sloppy Scotty put his moves out on the dancefloor. I have to say, no one will ever mistake him for Fred Astaire. Here's a pic of him with DD.

Here's the final pic I took that night. It's Ford and Brooks standing on the sidelines while all the old women were on the dancefloor going crazy for "Baby Got Back."

Despite what you may be thinking, I believe Ford is probably saying what the rest of us were thinking: most of those women didn't need to dance to that song and draw any more attention to their "backs." Btw we did have a nice conversation trying to figure which ones were cougars and which ones were future cougars (I told you I was probably the youngest person there).

I hope you had a fun Christmas Party season. I'll try to get the videos up tonight or tomorrow, but you know I can't promise anything.

Hello, Hello Again

When we last left you, I had given you a slightly in depth of a few...well several drunken escapades during the fall. Let's pick back up around the Arkansas at Ole Miss game weekend. Remember our friend who had her 21st birthday and kept spilling her drinks during the Ole Miss v Bama weekend? Well she was a little more coherent and able to use my camera to take pictures for me this weekend. The problem is she thought every other picture needed to include her. I'll spare you the constant barrage of "look at me!!!" pictures, but I have to offer you the first one:
Look at me!!!!!

Anyhoo, we did get our pick together. Here's a few pics of tent regulars.

For some reason that weekend, the music at the tent began to change from a let's party to a more let's dance. And next thing you know we are all dancing. I mean everyone, from my sister and her college friends to my grandmother. We danced for an hour or so. You doubt it? Look even Scottie Too Hottie got down with people.

I did feel a slight bit of apprehension when I looked over and saw Scottie Too Hottie dancing with the sister. That's always a scary sight. We almost need to put up signs around saying "Beware folks, Scottie Too Hottie's on the loose."

Here's a pic of the sister taking a pic of S2H and a dance partner. Mailbox Mike tried to include himself in the best way he could. He gave bunny ears. Nice.

That was a wild weekend.

The next weekend I drove to Little Rock to catch a plane for a wedding in Houston. An old pledge brother who is from Houston was getting hitched to a very sweet girl. I had to be there. For the purpose of this post, we'll call him Bearcat. I've known Bearcat since I was a freshman in college around age 18. It was a blast. I tried to take pictures along the trip. Most of them are crap, but I have several worthwhile ones that I have to share with you.

I took off work Friday of that weekend. Problem was that I had started a few good nights of drinking Wednesday night with some friends. Of course that continued through Thursday night which was Halloween night. I never got any pics because I got all the way to the Lord T and Eloise show at Newby's before I realized the camera was at home. I will say I had a great time and didn't get home until well after 3am. What was my costume? The 40 year old virgin, post-wax. So you can tell how little sleep I had before I had to drive all the way to Little Rock to catch a plane. I did pass several tanks being hauled across the country. Here's a pic:

That weekend Steve Spurrier and his Fighting Cocks of the University of South Carolina were playing at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville (pronounced "Fa-yaeatte-ve-yille"). The Gamecocks are known for having a fan base who travels in large groups.

Apparently they know puns in South Carolina.

Anyhoo, I caught the plane to Houston and hung out for a few hours until it was time for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. I wasn't in the wedding party, but I was invited because Bearcat and I are good friends. Plus I'm sure they needed some sort of entertainment at dinner. We dined at a nice little Italian restaurant in the midtown area of Houston. There was cocktail hour on the patio beforehand. We had assigned seating at the tables and someone screwed it up...I think. Another friend of ours, TR, was seated at the table on the right side of the room while his wife had a seat on the left side of the room. There was a blank card next to TR which I found out was for me. I'm not going to let a man and his wife sit across the room from each other. She sat with TR, and I jumped down at a table where I didn't know anyone. I sat with several friends of the bride (whom I didn't know before dinner) and the cousin of the groom (also whom I didn't know). After a few moments of awkwardness we began to discuss...well, mostly the kind of BS you discuss with strangers at a rehearsal dinner. We started telling wedding stories. During this time, I noticed a slight variation in the group at our table. The majority of them (friends of the bride) were fresh out of college around the ages of 23 and 24. They had switched from their beers at the bar to the wine at the table (I took a sip and chose not to partake in the wine). The rest of the table, i.e. the groom's cousin and me, were older. I am 28, and she is...I'll be polite and say in her 40's. She stuck with her steady flow of Dewars and ice. I had a nice stream of vodka tonics in front of me. The funny thing was the "younger" crowd at the table was getting drunker faster than we were. Overall I don't think I could have had more fun at any other table. I told stories. I laughed at other's stories and jokes. Had an absolute blast.

At one point during the meal I see out of the corner of my eye, the bride's family looking at our table. They were pointing at me. You see, the bride met me once before this weekend at an Ole Miss football game at my tent. It was after the game and late in the afternoon so I knew she probably couldn't pick me out in a crowd. Her family was obviously asking her who was this guy that they didn't know. Which one of her husband-to-be's friends was this? Was he one of the wild ones they heard horror stories about? I turned to the groom's cousin and did a mock impression of the bride's family. I covered my mouth as if I were whispering to her and began pointing at each of them. They quickly showed their collective embarassment and tried to hide the fact they had been pointing in my direction. The groom's cousin and I got a big kick out of it.

After dinner and dessert, the party returned outside to hear toasts and then a slideshow of the bride and groom throughout their lives. It was really cool. After all that, the younger generation divided up to head out into the Houston area to continue our intake of libations. One group consisting of most of the guys (with a few of their wives) and the groom were heading to one bar. A second group consisting of the bride and all her college girlfriends were going to a bar called the Armadillo Palace. Guess where I went? Yeah, a few of the bridesmaids from my table grabbed me and said "you're coming with us to the Armadillo Palace!" So I piled with too many others into the back of a Toyota Four Runner. So here here I am in a suit and tie climbing into the back of an SUV like a drunken college freshman. Amazing how much I had regressed in one night. Or some might say I didn't regress that far. Anyhoo, as always, I had the camera ready for your viewing enjoyment:

At least I wasn't alone when I was crammed into the back of the 4Runner. My question is, do you think we could get a little more smile out of these two? There's too many teeth in that pic.

Bringing the shocker to Texas. I rock the shocker; they rock the horns and show gang signs.

When we pull up to the Armadillo Palace, there is a giant metal armadillo statue out front. Giant as in over one story tall. There was a damn good band playing real country music, not that fake shit that Nashville puts out. Sorry I didn't get a better pic of them.One thing I learned in college is that Texans are a proud people. They love their state. The rest of us love our regions. Texans have way too much pride. Need examples? Glad to help:

A lone star bathroom sink (notice the stars in the bowl)

The bar had Texas shit all over it. Here's a flag celebrating the different countries that have claimed Texas.The only disappointment about this bar was they didn't have a mechanical bull.

One of the things I learned while I was at this bar (besides the fact I can drink most of these folks under the table) was how to two step. Of course I have since forgotten it, but one of the bridesmaids was really enthusiastic in showing me how. Here she is.After a few of the folks were carried out of the bar to cabs, I hung out with bride and maid of honor. I'm not sure exactly what I was trying to get them to do, but they definitely were there to entertain.

After the bar finally kicked us out, I caught a ride back to the hotel with the bride and maid of honor. Of course I had to visit Taco Cabana on the way to the hotel. If you ever go to Texas, there are two fast food places I recommend: Taco Cabana and Whataburger. Both are open 24/7 and serve better food than you can ever imagine. Taco Cabana is what Taco Bell would be if they actually served real food.

We get back to the hotel with our TC and plop down in the lobby bar to eat it. For some reason the hotel's bar closed at 11PM while the real bars in town closed at 3AM. So we had all this food to eat but no libations. I went into the hotel shop behind the front desk to get some waters. What did I find but beer in the fridge. I politely convinced the girl at the front desk that we drink these beers before they go bad. She was kind enough to let us. We opened our beers, finished our TC, and said good night. Honestly, I think I had maybe a sip or two from the beer. I was so done drinking that I didn't need anymore.

The next morning I awoke with a wonderful hangover. I couldn't find a way to cure it in my room. I didn't have any aspirin or anything. I just slowly drank water until I got a call from one of the groomsmen. The groom's family was taking all the guys (and some of their wives) to Armadillo Palace for food, beer, and some pool. Like I always say, "the best detox is retox." We returned to the scene of most of the crimes from the night before and force fed greasy hamburgers to ourselves. After a few bloody maries and beers, the general mood of the group lifted as our collective hangovers drifted away. We watched some college football games while playing pool and shuffle board. The restaurant finally kicked us out just before 4 that afternoon because they had a private party coming in for the evening. As we walked out, I saw the party planners setting up this mechanical bull. I exclaimed how disappointed I was; I had been in Texas for just over 24 hours and I was finally seeing my first mechanical bull. I said I was unhappy because I was probably going home without the opportunity to ride the mechanical bull. The rest of my group really started to laugh when I said that coming to Texas and not riding a mechanical bull is like going to Hollywood and not sleeping with Paris Hilton.

That night we went to the wedding, and it was beautiful. The reception was at the Petroleum Club at the top of the Exxon Building in downtown Houston. Here's a view of the skyline including the Toyota Center where the Rockets were playing a game:

I had a great time at the reception. The food was great except for the weird purple mashed potatoes. What was up with that? We danced and drank and laughed. Here's a pic of the single girls reaching for the bouquet:

There were only two girls who really were after it. It seemed like the rest were shying away from the bouquet. My kind of crowd. Of the two girls who were hunting for the bouquet, there was the first girl who actualy caught it. We'll call her the friendly bridesmaid. The other girls obviously didn't catch it. We'll call her the drunken, angry bitch bridesmaid (that's a fitting title for that night). When the friendly bridesmaid caught the bouquet, the drunken, angry bitch bridesmaid snatched it from her, stumbled a few steps backwards, and threw the damn thing back in the friendly bridesmaid's face. Hey! Here's a pic of her not long after that:

She passed out in the chair. It was probably a gift from heaven because after her stunt on the dancefloor, she was shunned the rest of the night. When she did try to be conscious, she would make futile attempts to speak to anyone in the vicinity. Of course her tone had a viscious, angst ridden bite and her words were so slurred that all you could decipher was "hey you." It almost made me want to say "honey, grab a cup of coffee and some guy or girl to help you work out this pinned up frustration. Are those words too big for you right now? Ok, then go get some." But I didn't know her or really care. So I walked away shaking my head.

For the final two hours of the reception, the younger generation had an ongoing debate over where we were going for the afterparty. Like I said this was a two hour discussion. Half the crowd wanted to go to bar A. Then it was bar B. Then some people wanted to go to a club. You know what kind of people you find at a club? Watch the new haircut video again. More than half us were against that idea. So this fuster-cluck continued. After the first hour, I hit a wall. I mean bad. I was tired and I really didn't want to deal with a bunch of ADD drunks who wanted to do this, then 30 seconds later wanted to do this. Now before we left one of the guys from Mississippi showed his dance moves to prove that we didn't need to go to a club, but to a bar:

Imagine Chris Farley dancing by himself and that's what it was like. We all went down to the bottom of the building and after we concluded that we were going to a certain bar, this one girl said she wanted to go somewhere else. So it continued. It was at this point that I lost my patience. I said goodnight to the group and explained that I had sobered up too much in the last two hours to start all over again at a bar. Despite their whining I headed back to the hotel which was only a few blocks away.

I'll spare you the whole story, but the walk to the hotel was interesting. If you've never been to Houston, it's a warm town almost year round. And seeing as there is a good climate, they have a large homeless and bum population. It is not nice. On my way to the hotel, there was this woman about a hundred feet behind me stumbling down the sidewalk. She was rambling out loud, obviously high. All of a sudden I heard certain words coming through clearer than others. Now I'm going to shorten the curse words, but you can get the idea: "GD white boy in his GD MFing tuxedo. Thinks he's hot shit. Yeah F you..." Then she trailed off again into incoherent words. For the record she also was white. I looked over my shoulder to make sure she wasn't right behind me or anything and saw some of the folks from the wedding party driving towards me. They slowed down and drove me the rest of the way to the hotel. I don't think the bum woman was going to do anything to me, but I was thankful I didn't have to walk the rest of the way looking over my shoulders.

The next morning I packed and caught a cab to the airport. I really wouldn't mention this, but I did capture a pic of the greatest mullet of all time:

How awesome is that?

Well that's all I've got for now. I'll try and get another post up soon to bring us to the holiday party season. I have a great video that I may just put up out of chronological order. Actually I think I'll just let that be a teaser for it.

Have a good one and don't get none on ya.

Party Flyer for Saturday Night

It's official. I'm going to be one of the shot bartenders from 10-11. What's the ratio? One for you, two for me?

But I finally got the pic of the invite. Here's the front and back of it. It's going to be a blast. See you there.

Party Saturday Night

This Saturday night, the Grand Krewe of Ptolemy is hosting its annual Fall Party at Ernestine & Hazel's downtown. The party starts at 7:30 and lasts until...you black out, I guess. There will be live music and free beer (and shots!). The party will be free for all 2007-2008 Ptolemy members and their guest. Non-members must pay $35. Also if past members choose to pay just the $35 entry fee instead of all their dues, I'm pretty sure that fee will go toward your 2007-2008 dues (double check with our Chair Natasha or someone at the door). This is a great opportunity to check out krewe if you've been curious.

Alright, now that I have the official wording out of my way, I can get down to the more important details:

The theme is Old School, or as I like to call it "Reliving your college debauchery in one night." There are going to be soul burgers, beer, music, and shots. The party is being thrown in a former brothel. What more do you want? It's going to be a big time. Besides what else are you going to do? Go to the Blues Ball? I don't think so. If you do, you're probably getting stuck at the back table. So leave your responsibilities and worries at home and act like you're back in college for one night. It'll be worth it. Hell do the full cliche and try to be this guy:

p.s. someone bring a beer bong. I don't know where I put mine from college.

Double Recap

So it's been a while since I posted. Sorry. But this (hopefully) short recap will be a good example of why I've been so damn busy. (I just finished it, and it is really long. Sorry)

Let's see, my last post came on Thursday week before last. That night I went to Newby's for the Lord T & Eloise video shooting. I had heard they were going to start shooting around 10. I was wrong. Some local white guy rapper named Kaz started out. The crowd was full of your regular Lord T folks and the folks who showed up to be in a rap video. There was this one girl there wearing a tight orange dress. I'll say that she was not the type of girl who should wear anything tight. Between her gut and her bedonkeydonk she needed to be a little less revealling. She was definitely a source of entertainment for all of us around. The real act came on around midnight. Unfortunately we only stayed for a few songs, because some of us have to work for a living.

The next night (Friday week before last, Labor Day weekend) I took it easy. I swam and then packed to go dove hunting the next morning. I woke up Saturday morning around 3:45, grabbed the hunting stuff and we headed west into Arkansas for a dove hunt. We picked a horrible spot and only ended up with 4. We high tailed it home. After unloading the truck, I took a quick shower and had my two pregame beers (one before my shower and one in the shower). I grabbed a quick bite at Vanelli's Deli (I'll post about them sometime soon). Got down to the Liberty Bowl and went into the game with my buddy Daniel. It was a good game for the first half and then the Rebels started to stink it up in the second half. Fortunately our team pulled out the win so I don't have to hear those obnoxious Memphis fans at work talk trash for another year. The week leading up to the game was just brutal. They kept playing the "Colonel Rebel's Crying" (aka the Coach O song) over and over at work. Funny thing is, most Ole Miss fans think it's great. I laugh every time I hear it.
After the game I raced home to pack for the lake. I grabbed my stuff and started rolling. I hit the bridge over the Mississippi at 8:50. I made it to the lake house at 11:15. I was exhausted, but I had a few beers before I got went to bed. The rest of our group showed up Sunday morning. We went on the water around 11:30. Sometime around 12:30 the Shady Lady V started screaming by the back of the boat. Turns out she cut her foot. We jumped back in the boat and drove to the marina. We pulled ahead of the other boats and docked to get her out of the boat and into a car. I grabbed the first aid kit and HM was about to start bandaging her toe for the ride to the hospital. I ran into the marina's office and asked for directions to the hospital. In the meantime this guy walks up to HM and asks if he can help. HM says "well, I'm an Eagle Scout and a former lifeguard." The guy says "I'm a combat medic." HM immediately steps away and replies "man, have at it." I walk out to see this random guy spraying anti-bacterial stuff on her toe and bandaging it up. He was done in no time at all. We thanked him and everyone else who helped us.
We walked the Shady Lady V up to the car and went back to the house. It was out of gas so she and I had to jump in my truck. We got to the hospital in Heber Springs in about 25 minutes. We'd have been there sooner, but there was a stupid tractor driving down the road at 15 mph. He finally pulled off. We didn't leave the hospital until after 7PM. She got 10 stitches. We had dinner at the house and tried to watch Talledega nights until everyone started falling asleep. We got up Monday morning (Labor Day) and packed up to head home. It was pretty uneventful.

This past week I spent time working (of course) and training for my next triathlon. I did go to a planning meeting for the Ptolemy Fall Party at Ernestine & Hazel's on Sept. 29. It's going to be good if the lawyers don't kill all the good ideas for "safety precautions." I'll post more details about the party as they become finalized. But the theme is Old School. I call it an excuse to party like you did in college. But knowing some of my friends, that's going to be a scary thing.

This past Friday I had two parties planned on the same night. The first was the Art On Tap at the Brooks Museum. It had rained earlier that afternoon, so the weather was cooler but humid. I saw a ton of folks there. I actually met a guy who has been banned from the Brookhaven Pub for a year and half. I kinda wish I knew why but I was pulled away to talk to some other folks later. Didn't take any pics because I spent most of the time drinking and talking. If you've never been, I recommend it for next year. It's a beer tasting with every kind of beer that's sold in the Memphis market. I ran into a few guys from work. I asked one guy what he had tried and liked. He said "I'm just drinking the Miller Lite." When I inquired further, he said "well, I like Miller Lite. I only want to drink Miller Lite. And I don't have to walk through the crowd to get another one. Plus everyone I want to see will walk past me here at some point in the night." At least he knows what he wants.
I left there at 7:30 because I had to be on time for the next party. It was a surprise birthday party for my buddies Zac and Matt at Neil's. We had a pretty good time. Zac's birthday is a milestone age so his girlfriend got him a cake with a guy made of icing trying to crawl out of a grave. I'll post a pic later. I run across something I didn't know could exist. A friend of the group didn't know how to use the keg. How do you live into your late 20's and admittedly like beer, but don't know how to use the tap on a keg? Kinda blew my mind.
Unfortunately, I had to head home around 11:30. I had big plans the next day (yesterday) in Oxford and had to help the 'rents pack the trucks to go down Saturday morning. I got home around 12 and helped pack the coolers. I finally said I'm exhausted and went to bed.

We got up around 9:15 yesterday morning and finished packing the truck. Of course Murphy's Law was in effect. We finally get down and set up the tent around lunch time. Nothing really extraordinary happened. Some chicken headed college girls showed up and acted like idiots. Yankee brought the Maker's Tea (I had 5 and somehow was still standing). We ate, drank, and had a great time. I had friends stop by to say hey. It was real low key until right before we were going to head into the game. My friends Troy and Lauren walked up with their baby girl. She was absolutely precious. Somehow she slept through all the music and the rowdyness. She woke up a few minutes before we had to head to the stadium. She kept smiling at all the folks standing around looking at her. She was absolutely precious. We are all thankful she looks more like Momma than Daddy.
The game started out horrible. But Ole Miss started to rally against the Mizzou Tigers in the second half. Out of nowhere we started driving the ball and stopping their offense. It was really cool to see them play like that. I would have liked it better if we had won, but that didn't happen. Went back to the tent after the game and had some more of Yankee's Makers Tea.
We finish packing the trucks and head out around 10:15PM. We hit a line of stopped cars before the Sardis bridge on highway 7. The line didn't finally move until after 11:30. So we hopped in the back of the truck and ate the rest of our fried chicken, cheese, and water melon. It sucked that all the drinks were in the other truck but we were fine. After we finished the chicken. The brother and I decided we were going to walk towards the bridge where we thought the wreck was so we could see what was going on. People looked at us as we were walking towards it and just staring. I kept telling them that we'd bring them a report of what was going on. We got over halfway there when we saw a line of cars starting to move towards us as the cops finally let the vehicles through again. We turned around and started running towards our ride and everyone started jumping back in their cars too. When we got back to the truck there was a line of cars that went right past us, but we didn't move. The cops finally let our group through the bridge. We didn't get home until late and quickly unpacked the truck before going to bed.

So that's what's been going on. Hope you've been doing well. Have a great rest of your weekend. Sorry it was so long.

Songs on the playlist:
Evanescence - Call Me When You're Sober
Coldplay - Lips Like Sugar (live in Paris, cover)
Hoodoo Gurus - Like Wow-Wipeout
Guns N' Roses - It's So Easy
Coldplay - Green Eyes
The Rolling Stones - Live With Me
GNR - Out Ta Get Me
The Smithereens - Too Much Passion
The Rolling Stones - Angie
Coldplay - Yellow
The Travelling Wilburys - Handle With Care
The Romantics - Talking In Your Sleep
Lord T & Eloise - Black Limousine
Lord T & Eloise - Pills
GNR - Mr. Brownstone
The Rolling Stones - Can't You Hear Me Knocking

Luau Party Recap

Remember when I went on record to say "if you decide to skip this, you will miss one of the best parties of the year" in the last post? That wasn't a lie. It was a fantastic night. I rolled into the party a little later than I had planned, but ran into a ton of folks I hadn't seen in a while. Of course you had most of the usual suspects, but I honestly can't say who all was there because there were so many people that I heard were there and never ran into. I'd list the names of everyone who was there but that would take too damn long. So here are a few pics

Of course here we have Andy, Scottie Too Hottie,The Brother, AP & DP, and me. My camera isn't the best when used at night so obviously she almost cut off Andy.

Here I am with Amy W. I actually met her and her friend Kel Bel (aka Shoopster) the weekend before at Sabafest. But I was so damn drunk that there's really no telling what I said. I'm sure it sounded something like "hiyaniiicetamee-ya."

Here I am with Andy, Anna, and Laura. Laura liked my grass skirt so much that she wanted it in the pic. I have to say that I was surprised that no one was wearing more luau clothing. Everyone was dressing nicely. It's like no one wanted to really get into the party spirit until after they got there.

Here I am with Alaina. I have to say it was a great time and I'm glad I went. By the way, I got to meet Mr Roboto from Nashville. He used to do the Thursday Night Fever blog but stopped. I heard the reason, but it's not mine to say. Anyhoo, I'm about to go ride my bike for an hour. Yall have a good one and get some on ya tonight.

Phoenix Club Luau Party Update

Here is some info on tonight's kickass party straight from el presidente:

- There is a beer truck with 8 taps running. Two free bars, one with hurricanes provided by Owen Brennan's, and another with martini-type stuff provided by Swig. There is also a cash bar for a wider variety of beverages.

-Hog Wild BBQ will be providing food (not sure if it's for free or not, but you should eat before you get there anyway).

- Tickets will be available at the door. $30 a person.

I'm going to go on record and say that if you decide to skip this, you will miss one of the best parties of the year. I mean when's the next chance you have to see Raiford DJ?