fun weekend ... but ouch!

This weekend pretty much ruled. I haven't had so much fun in a very, very long time.

On Saturday, Portland was blessed with amazing weather. The temperature was close to 80 degrees, the sky was blue, and there was a gentle breeze. Ally had school, so I was at home watching TV when Lauren and Michelle called and told me that I should meet them at Laurelhurst Park. I hopped on the bus and took a quick ride down to the park. There were quite a few people out enjoying the weather, and it felt great to sit in the shade by the pond and just relax outside.

After a while, we decided that we wanted to go to a bar with a patio and have a few beers. It was getting close to the time that Ally would be out of school and Jaime would be off of work and we knew they would join us soon. Michelle's ID was with Jamie at his work, so we walked from the park to Lloyd Center (probably about 3 miles) with a brief stop on the way at Staccato Gelato.

Once at the mall, Michelle grabbed her ID and told Jamie to meet us when he was done with work at the Rose and Thistle Pub. He was worried about not having shorts, so on the walk to the pub we stopped at Goodwill and bought him some bright orange, 80s style, short shorts that we were sure he wouldn't wear but would get a good laugh at.

We were on our third drinks by the time Jamie, Ally and Ally's friend Erin met up with us. We all ordered food and more drinks. My Scotch Egg was outstanding! After we had finished our food, Tyrel showed up and ordered food, so we all split a pitcher of beer to bide the time until he finished eating.

Once he was done, we headed back home for drinking and debauchery. This is where things got crazy.

I rode from the pub in Tyrel's car, and after a quick stop to get beer we pull up in front of the house to see Ally, Erin, Michelle and Lauren all standing around laughing at Jamie who was proudly wearing only his short shorts, shoes and a headband. He was doing stretches and yelling "Spring Break '88!" at the top of his voice.

We moved into the garage and started playing a drinking game. We all got more and more drunk, and the more crazy we became. I won't go into too much detail but I'll just say that there was yelling, beer showers and nudity. We even went across the street to the playground in the park and played a game called "Groundies" which is sort of like "Marco Polo" except it involves a playground play structure instead of a pool. It was a lot of fun for quite some time, but sort of lost its charm when Lauren fell off of the play structure from the second story. She was fine, but it was definitely a bit scary.

On Sunday, Ally and I woke up pretty hungover. After sitting around complaining for quite a while, we decided to get some breakfast and go to the mall so Ally could get a few things for our trip to Las Vegas. Shortly after returning home Lauren and Michelle came over with Danny, their friend John, a ball and some beer. We went across the street and played kickball and drank beers for a few hours. I was still tired from the night before, and my knee was starting to hurt from running in kickball (am I really this old?) so I called it an early night.

I woke up this morning with every muscle in my legs hurting. It hurts to walk and my knee feels terrible. I have no regrets though. I had so much fun this weekend, the pain is worth it!

Pictures will follow, once I determine which ones won't make me lose friends.