Of 4 friends who journeyed to the Keweenaw for the day.
And what an adventure we had. Gaah. Oh my god, I swear, I haven't had this much fun in a looong time.
Erin, Bob, Brett and I decided to go up to Houghton and Tech's campus to hang up posters for the upcoming Counting Crows concert. So we left yesterday before 11 in the morning.
First off, we had the most ghetto car in the history of the university. Ok, so really, it wasn't such a bad car, in theory, but it actually did kind of suck. It was BRIGHT teal blue and it was a compact car. The only good thing about it was that NAE was footing the rental and gas bills, so we were golden.
The roads were total crap up until Baraga. They were all slushy and people decided to retarded drivers. Erin got the car sucked into slush more than once trying to pass granny drivers.
I don't think it helped that me and Brett kept screaming that we were gonna die everytime we hit a slushy patch. At one point I thought the car was gonna do a complete 360 when it hit slush. Brett's eyes got really big and he started clinging to the car seat. His knuckles were a ghastly shade of white for a couple of seconds. This made for good entertainment for me, at the very least.
So we get to Houghton in one piece. I even got to play tour guide a bit and point out my old school and where I used to work (...or at least where I worked before the place burned down--boo) and all that good stuff. I felt like such a hick because Chassell is so freakin' small. It's like "here's the school. It's all in one building." Five seconds later "here's the post office" followed up by "here's where I worked" and then you're through with Chassell. Literally.
Oh well. It's my little village. I liked it, I lived there. I'm over it.
We ran around downtown Houghton first, posting stuff. We stuck a poster whereever there was any free space. We even illegally stuck up a poster in the women's bathroom of McDonald's. That was a covert operation that ended with Erin and I playing Charlie's Angels while Bob tried not to fall over from laughing.
After that little adventure we ventured into the Backroom Bookstore. Erin had never been in one, so we HAD to go in it. I was all "ooh! We must take her to the 3rd floor." Even though I've never been up there myself. For those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about--the 3rd floor of the Backroom is the adult floor filled with worldly adult pleasures--or at least that's what the sign for it broadcasts.
So we go up there and have a mini-photoshoot before even enterring the place. Brett now has a stunning pic in front of the neon naked lady sillhouette. And there's a semi-erotic/hella funny pic of Bob grabbing a woman's boob on a poster. (To my friends: I have the pics, if you want to see them or use them as blackmail.) By the time we actually got up to the 3rd floor we were dying laughing. We're immature like that.
We enter the little delightful shop and I'm shocked to actually see people there. Oops, my bad. For some reason I didn't think there'd be people in there. So there's skeezy old guys and a couple in there and now they're all giving us the evil eye because we're all laughing our asses off.
I was so embarrassed to be up there, honestly. I've never really looked in the sex shops before (except to laugh at vibrators with Ann once), so this was totally a new experience for me. Same thing goes for Erin and Brett, too. Brett saw the titles of the movies and just started giggling. Erin and I didn't stop blushing. Bob was the only one that looked semi-comfortable in the place. I just felt skeezy. I wanted a shower the minute I enterred the place.
But it was so funny. There was this sex/torture chair in the vibrator part of the shop and Brett was bent on strapping me in for a picture. It probably would've happened too, but there was a security camera right above us, so that was a no-go. What a funny pic that would've been though. Hehe. And did you know they make porno greeting cards? I've never seen Erin's eyes so big. "I don't get it! How'd they do that?!?" It was great.
We stayed up there for a good 20 minutes looking at the selection of goods. There's some hilarious movies out there. That's all I have to say.
We finally moved on to Tech's campus then. Once we started driving on a Tech road the car started to make a funny noise, like it was dragging something. Sure enough, when we stopped Brett looked behind the car and almost fell down laughing. The hangar that holds up the muffler was dangling vicariously at some weird angle from the car. No wonder students were giving us funny looks as we drove around. We all freaked out for a second. It turned out to be nothing, really though, because Bob got down and just kind of banged the hangar back up into the underbelly of the car. It's all good.
THEN...the first building that we went into on-campus to hang up a poster...yeah--Brett set off an alarm. He claims that it was going off before he opened the door, but he's the only one that heard it. We all go into the building and I'm like "what's that sound?" Bob just looks at the security system and starts laughing. We got out of there pretty fast.
In all honesty, it probably was going off before we got there, but we weren't going to take any chances. I'm sure we're on some security cam.
The rest of the Tech campus was pretty calm, no real adventures. Bob wanted to play this video dancey game with the Anime geeks. It was kind of cool--they had this whole hall set up just for all the students who liked anime' and all things Asian. I was kind of jealous that they did that just for them. It was kind of cool.
After Tech we went to the infamous Houghton mall. We walk in and Brett immediately starts laughing. I was wondering what could be THAT funny when I saw it. A mulleted family. I kid you not. The father and the son had shortish mullets with long-ass rat-tails. And the mom had a curly-permed she mullet. It was kind of sad and inhumane. I whipped around and just burst out laughing. Bob and Erin were confused for a second until they saw what we were laughing at.
Then Erin whipped out her camera. "We must document this." So we start stealthily following them for 30 feet or so. They turned a corner...and then we did 2 seconds later. Erin's like "Brett! Krissy! Pose for a picture!!!" So we got a picture of us laughing our asses off while Erin attempted to get the Mullet family in the frame with us.
My stomach hurt so bad from laughing. Oh GOD. It was soooo funny. Bob was like "where the hell am I? I need civilization" the entire time. I don't think he would've believed the mullet family thing if he wasn't there to see it himself.
After that little tasty tidbit we went to South Range--the budding suburb filled with abandoned buildings and charred remains of a past civilization. All the great mulleted people of the Keweenaw live here. We had to go here because our friend Clayton was from this town and we wanted to send him pics.
We're driving into the town and the first thing you see is the sign announcing that you're entering South Range. Immediately after that there's a church sign proclaiming Destination: Hell--don't go there!!! It was too too perfect. Bob's expression was priceless. Yes yes--South Range is a lot like hell. Even the church seems to think so.
We stopped to have a photo shoot by the two signs. I'm all gung-ho to pose by the South Range sign, even though there's a massive snowbank in front of it. I start scrambling up it and immediately almost drown it's so deep and soft. I sank all the way up to my crotch. Charming. Brett and Erin found an easier way to get to the sign without getting nearly as wet or cold. Grr.
We toured South Range after that. All 3 blocks of it. As we passed the firehall we heard a polka band and noticed a lot of cars parked in front of it. I immediately want to crash the community soiree' so we come up with a plan. Erin comes up with this elaborate lie that she's a photography major from NMU and that her assignment is to photograph different elements of communities in the Keweenaw--she needs organic, true events. (It was really believable too--she's so sweet and innocent looking, plus she has a really nice camera.)
We go upstairs to the shindig and Erin spits out her story. They totally believed her. It turns out that this is a birthday party of this woman and she just invited the entire community to join her in celebrating. She rented the firehall and booked 3 different bands for a night of dancing and fun and relaxation.
It was so sweet, too, because they totally believed that we were photography students. The birthday girl greeted us warmly and told us to eat and dance and stay for a while. They seemed excited about the other bands that'd be playing later on that night--including the famous (at least in the Keweenaw) LumberJanes. Hehe
Here we were--totally lying and crashing this birthday celebration and these people were sooo freakin' nice. What we were supposed to do? Me and Bob polka'd while Erin snapped some pix. The band was great too, FYI. There was even an old guy playing the spoons. It was hilarious.
We left after a couple of minutes. I felt like crap for suggesting that we do this, cuz I was all "ooh, you'll see TRUE yoopers in there" and then they turned out to be so totally nice. Yeah--that bit me in the ass. At least we had fun.
We ran around the burg and took a bunch more pictures. They totally got dumped on, in terms of snow. They got at least a foot or more than Marquette got. Yay! Better them than us!
We didn't get home until 9 at night. It was so fun though. I don't know if it really shows in the telling of it, but it was so much fun. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. And it helped that I'm friends with the people I went with. I'm sure that if it had been any other members of NAE it wouldn't have been this much fun.
I'm so glad I went. I was gonna bail out. Props to me for not doing that!
Erin got the pix back today too. God bless one-hour-photoshops. Some of the pictures are so hilarious. The South Range sign ones crack me up so much. The Mullet Family one didn't turn out too good, but you can actually see Mullet Dad's rat tail, so it wasn't a complete bust of a picture. Hehe.
I must sleep. I need sleep. And if any drunk people try to mess with me tonight I will go mental on their asses. (Ask me about that one later...)
Ciao, dahling!
~*Krissy*~
Livin' Out My RockStar Fantasy To: "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera (actually jammin' to the whole cd--it's so damn good!)
Crush du Jour: Shane West
Happy Thought of the Moment: road trips, good friends, laughing till your stomach hurts, lunch at the Library restaurant, fresh brewed root beer, REAL cherry coke, great photos, polka-ing, 3rd floor of Backroom, university vehicles, Mullet family, new Linkin Park cd, shaped chicken nuggets, seeing Heather (yay!), photo shoots, massive snowbanks, hilarious church signs, this weekend in general, being relaxed