Life, Liberty & Pursuit Of Your Boyfriend

I met a friend Friday after work in Geneva-on-the-Lake. We started at the Old Firehouse Winery for a few pitchers of the Blush Smashed pitcher-drink-thing and if-you-can-really-call-that-a-menu dinner. I suppose it goes without saying the dinner was awful (mexican, american and “snacks” at a winery??). First things first, I am no wine snob, but I do enjoy learning and of course, tasting. Secondly, in my pursuits, I never imagined mexican food going well with anything but tequila and beer. Thirdly, after choosing the “safe” route with an enchilada (hunger strikes), I realize they really meant to describe the dish as a “cheese-and-onion-enchilada-with-smeared-tomato-paste-not-salsa-to-act-as-italian-enchilada-and-better-pair-with-that-merlot.” Blech. And finally, the piece of shit on my plate was ELEVEN DOLLARS. The Old Firehouse’s merlot was WAY too sweet (for a merlot??), but I thought the Cabernet sauvignon was fantastic — the winery claims “rich and zesty aftertaste,” but there was no “finish” at all, just utterly FANTASTICLY smooth. These tastings were all part of the dry flight (from your option of dry or sweet)… I am not much a fan of white wines, so I skipped those — and seeing the white that I DO drink is seasonal (Spiced Apple, also a great selection). Their Chambourcin was the most god-awful wine I have ever tasted (a really, really dark and rich red). A great opportunity to try something different, but I think I’ll skip Old Firehouse on my next visit to GOTL and try another Geneva winery.

So, not to be completely free of a good time, my friend and I rented a super-cheesy motel on the trip for the night. SUPER, the drinks are about $3.00 at nearly every bar. The Geneva Music Festival was happening at The Cove as well, so we listened to a few cool punk/alternative local bands. Maintaining the fun of a short beach town vacation, we joined the other out-of-towners for many, many Jell-O shots (you cannot resist the whipped cream topped shots for only $1) and the Geneva Bar Crawl. In between bar bounces, we walked though the haunted house, competed in a very close and tense game of air hockey (I won! Oh, and sorry to all the Canadian Soldiers that committed suicide on the table), danced to a local cheesy disco band (which, freakily, I exclaimed I wouldn’t dance unless “I Will Survive” played and it turned out to be the next song on the set list WTF?), and even got yelled at by a game attendant while taking pictures at the shooting gallery (who knew the flash set off all the bullseyes?). It should go without saying (I’m sure you are all aware of my appetite by now), that the after-bar food comprised of gyros (holy crap, yum) and elephant ears. We did not sing karaoke.

Saturday, I drove back into Cleveland for HSB revisited for my Pitt Sis’ 29th bday. Bars downtown to include: Velvet Dog, Blind Pig, Ultra and pizza. Velvet still sucks for ordering drinks, but the rooftop is still kickass for a warm summer night. The music is starting to grain on my nerves a bit though. Blind Pig, surprisingly, was where we had the best time. Ultra, too fuckin’ hot. Pizza… blah.

For Father’s Day, I spent the day at a family cookout at my grandmother’s. It was such a beautiful day to walk around park with the fam (yeah, and my little niece is home!!) and swing on the swingset with the man. (*grin* Wait, what?? There’s a man hanging out with the family??) Later, we sat around and caught up on our movie selections: The Illusionist and Saw II. I am currently obsessed with the Saw trilogy of movies and highly anticipating Saw III at our next “movie night.” Oh, and Donnie Wahlberg? Mmmmm, mmmm, mmmm… tasty! ‘Nuff said.

Seeing as how Monday was incredibly too hot to do my nightly walk through the Metroparks, a couple friends and I cooled off at the Crocker Park theaters for the showing of Knocked Up (Hilarious!). And FINALLY, I picked up the tailored jeans at Indigo Nation.

BIG BREATH… OK, almost done. Since ALL my siblings were in town, we took our annual reunion to Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh. (I was able to take a day off!). The drive out there was gloomy and of course, the day began with rain. When the sky opened up though, the day was beautiful! It actually got hot enough where we WANTED to be soaked again, so we went on all the “get wet” rides. Besides dropping my stomach, I filled it with hot dogs, corn dogs and chocolate-covered pretzels with mini reese’s stuck to the outside. Just as we started to dry from the Rapids ride, ominous thunder clouds appeared  and the world rained down on us. It RAINED… and apparently, there was potential for tornadoes. I did NOT get to ride the new flying saucer ride, the Cosmic Chaos — so disappointed! But my favorite coaster is still the ol’ woodie, The Jack Rabbit (Sadly, this is not my family in the video…) But back to the ride itself: have you ever been on a coaster that you IMMEDIATELY go DOWN a hill instead of UP? You take two full drops before hitting the chain hill AND it’s over a minute-and-fifteen minutes of riding pleasure!).

So, the park closed early at 7 p.m., and we were stuck in an arcade during the storm. When the downpour let up (a bit) we high-tailed it to the car, but the ONLY exit out of the park was flooded four feet. There were a hundred people standing trying to figure out where the fuck to go — and the most irritating is that NOBODY that worked in the park was instructing the park-goers where to GO. After discovering an open emergency exit by another patron, we took off and received an after-five-only voucher courtesy of the park. Seeing as how we had a good 6-7 hour day, it was a nice gesture by Kennywood.

Keeping with more family traditions, we had dinner at Olive Garden (seemingly a sister tradition every time we visit Pittsburgh now) and I re-fueled with a five-cheese baked ziti. I thought for some reason staying in Pitt overnight was a good idea, but had to drive to work Wednesday morning, where to say the least, I was exhausted. I had the chance to go to the Indians game with my dad Wednesday night, but had to decline and catch up on the world’s longest nap — followed by the awesome AFI 100 Movie Special on CBS. I may not have cable, but I do get select air channels for FREE. And I will assume the longest DATE ever when I sit down to watch all 100 with my beau.

Reading: I will not disclose the embarrassing non-fiction book I am currently reading in record time… and “A Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest J. Gaines.

iPJHiser-ing: “Angels at my Door” by UNA (Listen to “Hate” too, both unbelievable songs), “Wonderkiller” by Liz James, “Body Baby” by Pharoahe Monch and “The Truth” by Roisin Murphy

Thinking: God never promises to remove us from our struggles. He does promise, however, to change the way we look at them. –  Max Lucado