By now you all know my good friend Jaime. We met in St. Louis in 2006 when she started working in the office I had just been transferred to about two weeks prior. We became fast friends and in the last four years we've had many adventures.
After a monsoon waiting for a Toad the Wet Sprocket concert in St. Louis.
At my farewell party before I moved from St. Louis to Minneapolis.
At a winery in Missouri with Missy the last weekend before I moved to Minneapolis.
At our friends' Jamie and Chris' wedding in Florida, where we invented the game What Do I Have In My Purse That Cost More Than This Crappy Hotel Room?
I've lived in Minnesota for two and a half years already but between National Sales Meetings every January and August and my fairly frequent visits to Chicago (where she transferred after I transferred up to Minneapolis) we've managed to see each other pretty regularly. However, until a week and a half ago she had never been to Minnesota. (Okay, she was here once a million years ago to visit the Mall of America with her mom. But she hadn't been here since I'd moved here, so the shopping extravaganza doesn't count. It was so long ago that purchases probably included acid-wash jeans and t-shirt clips.) Sooo...when Chelsea Handler (of Chelsea Lately on E!) announced her book tour (translation: stand up comedy tour) I dropped everything to find out when she was coming to Minneapolis and immediately emailed Jaime to try to persuade her to make the trip. It wasn't until after she had decided to come and I had purchased the tickets that I received the email titled: "Chelsea vs. Jesus." Neither one of us had realized that we'd planned her visit for Easter weekend (Apparently neither Google nor Microsoft feels the need to mark such holidays on their electronic calendars.), so after many promises to her mom that I would take Jaime to church and spare her (Jaime's mom) the burden of Easter egg dying if she allowed Jaime to spend Easter weekend with me rather than in southern Illinois with her immediate family, I received an email with the subject, "In the battle of Chelsea vs. Jesus..." and the body of the email simply said, "Chelsea wins!" Our plans for the weekend were on!
Jaime drove up Friday and arrived in time for a little sushi happy hour in Eden Prairie. Yum.
Delicious.
After happy hour (around 8:30) we headed back to Chaska where we hit up the local bar, Heartbreakers. We ordered a couple of beers and were sitting at a high top table minding our own business when a couple of guys came in, pulled out their fancy dart cases (Yes--cases containing their very own sets of hot pink darts.) opened them up on our table, and started playing darts directly behind us. They were very competitive and it was clear that they spent a lot of time there. Jaime and I were already on our second beer so she looks at the darts, then at me, and says, "Oh yeah? You have your fancy dart cases, but look what I have!" and pull THIS out of her purse:
It was no small coincidence that this case is almost identical in size and shape to those which held the hot pink dart sets.
Have you ever played this game? After I finished shrieking, "What in the world is that?!?" and got the giggling somewhat under control, she proceeded to teach me how to play. Basically, you have these two little pigs:
I swear this if for real, y'all. I can't make this stuff up.
and you roll them like dice. You get a score based on how the pigs land. Now maybe this isn't quite as funny when you don't have a couple of beers under your belt, but I'm willing to bet that it is. We sat and played pigs in the bar for an hour and we were laughing so hard and making such a scene that people kept coming over to ask us what in the world we were doing. The next day we had to go out and buy me my very own pig game. Beware--the next time you see me I will probably try to make you play. And you will love it.
Anyways, Saturday we were up early to get ready for our big, Chelsea-filled day. She's touring to promote her new book, Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, which we had both already read, so we packed up our books, picked up my friend Katie, and we all headed down to the book store at the University of Minnesota, where we actually got to meet Chelsea and she signed our books for us.
Jaime, Katie, and yours truly waiting patiently in line to meet Chelsea!
It's true what she says--she looks SO much younger in person than she does on TV!
My book, signed by Chelsea!
With our books signed we headed to Starbucks for a frappuccino and to kill some time before we met up for dinner with Julia and headed to the show. Josh Wolf (a regular on her show) opened for her and I laughed from the time he walked on until the time Chelsea finished the show. I was worried that it might get a little vulgar but it really didn't, and we all had a great time. If you have a chance to see her live you should! (Chelsea, you can thank me by sending me large sums of money. Or by being my new best friend. Either one would suffice.)
Sunday was Easter, so Jaime and I headed to the early service at church to Hallelujah. I've been church shopping since I moved here and I've gone to this particular church fairly regularly, but last Easter I went to a different church and I just have to say--the Hallelujah Chorus should not be left up to the congregation (as it was at last year's church). The choir did a beautiful job and I thought it was really neat that they invited anyone who wanted to sing it to join the choir for the big finale.
After church and a minor (okay, maybe it was more than minor) baking debacle we headed to Julia and Jon's, where Julia had prepared a gorgeous Easter brunch. (Attire was "Jesus Casual.") The honey-baked ham, hashbrowns, sweet potatoes, quiche, green beans with almonds--it was all delicious! Oh--and did I mention that Jaime and I decided to Bumpit for Jesus? We did. I mean, the higher the hair the closer to God, right?
Bumpin' it for Jesus. (Ironically, in front of a synagogue. On Easter.)
Showin' off our bumpits Jessica Simpson-style.
After brunch we had an Easter egg hunt and dyed eggs:
Our egg-dying skills are rather eggceptional, don't you think?
and after that Jaime had to get on the road. I stayed behind for a short Wii tournament before heading home around 5:00. Oh! Did I mention that Jaime brought me this adorable Easter basket? She definitely did.
Contents included a wine glass with matching cocktail napkins that say "There's no problem a glass of wine and a flat iron can't fix," a golden anchor dish scrubbie (Her anchor radar is fantastic! She definitely should have been a DG!), and some chocolate praying hands.
It was really great to spend some quality time with Jaime in Minnesota and we had a lot of laughs. I miss you already, J! Thanks SO much for making the trip!!
2 comments:
Aww.... what a fun Easter weekend! Why didn't I hear about this on our phone date?? :) Also, I can NOT believe you own and wear a bumpit. LOL. I think you could have gotten it higher like in the commercial.
P.S. This is the first time the computer allowed me to make a comment. So, I could go back and comment on every single post that I've had something to say about, but I better just let you know that I've been reading and enjoying and leave it at that :)
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