More Midwest Adventures

It's funny how things happen even when you're not on the East Coast (jokes! Love you Midwest). Almost immediately after I got home from DC I got an invitation to a party at Dan's down in the cities, so I went down last weekend and had a great time. The party itself was a great mix of people I knew really well, people I hadn't seen in years and years, and people I had met once or twice, so there was some great conversation. Plus grilling, beer, and almost knee-jerk criticism of the SEC. I also got called No Fun Zone, which I don't think I've heard anyone say since college, so that was a nice treat for me. I stayed at Dan's apartment that night, and in the morning got up before my hosts and went out for tofu scramble. There were evening plans but no day plans, so I spent many hours in coffee shops finishing up that Margaret Atwood trilogy I've been reading (and dreaming about, recently). When Emily got home, I went to her apartment, and we hung out until the England-Italy World Cup game started. We went to watch it at this place called Brit's Pub, where they decided the most fitting introduction to the game would be a Shakespeare recitation and someone affiliated with the pub singing "Nessun Dorma." Not knowing anything more about soccer than what I picked up as an elementary schooler whose only goal was, unfortunately, an own goal, I had a great time even though I wasn't totally sure what was going on. It seems like everyone is really good at falling down, and the Italians made a lot of unsurprising hand gestures. Plus the ogling was pretty good. Altogether a good introduction to the World Cup, which I have come to enjoy if only in a Stockholm Syndrome-esque way. There's just no getting away from it right now.

Jennie and I have certainly had a hard time avoiding it in our expeditions this week. She got an awesome job in Lawrence that starts at the beginning of July, so she's moving out of town next week. We've taken her last week as an opportunity to go to all the restaurants we like in Fargo. On Tuesday we went to Wurst (USA vs. Ghana), on Wednesday we went to Romo's for great, great Mexican food (Russia vs. South Korea), and tonight we went to Leela's (no soccer). I'm so happy for her, but, with Jared out of town and Lauren and John having just moved to Missouri, I'm preparing to be pretty lonely until at least mid-July. That being said, I'm in the process of making even more friends from this Meetup group I joined. Tonight I went swing dancing in Island Park, and it was a great time even though I am a terrible dancer. There were, shockingly, more men than women there, so I got to dance a lot, plus I chatted a lot with some people I knew a little bit and a few others I hadn't met yet. There were a couple of missteps (I made a joke about being a good lead because I'm good at having men tell me what to do, which I think is a pretty good line, but which everyone pretty much seemed to take a face value), some hilariously awkward flirting (after I said that I know a surprising amount about how to cook meat for a vegan, one guy said, "Well if you marry a guy who eats meat, you'll make him really happy." ULTIMATE LIFE AMBITION), and perhaps (hopefully) some slightly less hilariously awkward flirting (fingers crossed!). This swing dancing is a regular Thursday night thing in the summer, so even if I can't consider the people I met tonight new friends, at least, with this and trivia, I have some folks to hang out with on Tuesdays and Thursdays.