Opinion
Weekend with friends yields awkward situations, stories
February 24, 2010
What happens when a small town man travels with some friends to their big city life? Lucky for you, I have a couple answers to that question my friend. This past week, I had the pleasure of travelling Milwaukee to see my roommates’ home turf.
Now, I’m by no means a newbie to hanging around in big cities, but there are still certain times I’ll be reminded “That’s right, we’re not in a small town.” For example, it’s probably not the best idea to drive down the busy streets of Milwaukee yelling “Party at the curling house! We’re going this way, come on!”
Quite obviously there are major differences in nightlife, transportation, among many other things, but the best part about being in a different environment is the stories and/or mishaps that can and do happen.
The drive down is one of the best parts. Three close friends, talking about stuff that you wouldn’t want to fall on virgin ears, among other things. Come on, who hasn’t had a good game of “would you rather” before? Overall, the part of Milwaukee I was in wasn’t very different from our River Falls setting. Nice neighborhood, friendly people, and the local favorite establishments were all over the place.
Though not totally unaware of my surroundings, I still managed to have a few awkward moments that were able to be laughed off later on. The first is a situation that I think most of us have been in. Whether at a bar, grocery store, anywhere, we have all done this.
We were on a nice part of North Avenue not too far from Lake Michigan at one of the local bars. We’re all standing in a circle reminiscing about who knows what, letting the girls around us let everyone know “I just…I just wanna dance!”
People all around were smoking, and usually it doesn’t bother me too much, but I decided to take a very deep breath and exhale slowly. Now, this is the part most of you should be able to relate to.
I was staring across the way at this “bro” looking gentleman who looked like he just wasn’t a fan of life at that moment. Now, for all I can remember, I was probably pondering why I was shelling out two dollars for “Red Dog” in a can, but I happened to be staring at this man. He didn’t like that.
In my defense I was looking right through him, but he probably thought I was appreciating his original style of the “Monster Energy” baseball cap, AE polo and ripped jeans.
Back to the exhale, I was getting all the second hand smoke out of my lungs, and at the tail end of the exhale, I looked as though I was puckering my lips. This gentleman shot me a look that said “Boy, I’m gon’ kill you.” I of course started laughing immediately. Lesson learned, don’t pucker your lips at a bro, because there’s a good chance that he might spray you with Axe Body Spray, or make you watch “Jersey Shore.”
One thing I was really surprised with was with how insanely nice the downtown area of Milwaukee was. The downtown area, however, just reminded me of why I enjoy my small town bars, they don’t cost a fortune.
Now, the first bar we went to didn’t have prices set too high or anything, but come on, nothing can compare to 2 for 1s and liters of mixed drinks for the prices that we pay here in River Falls. One thing that is much more fun to do in a setting like Milwaukee as opposed to River Falls is people watching.
Let me tell you, the creepy men come out of the woodwork in bars downtown. Some people may think it’s creepy to people watch, but come on now, it’s simply just watching (and greatly appreciating) life as it passes you by.
Now, that’s my vague overview of a weekend in Milwaukee, but since a large part of our student body grew up within the limits of a big city setting like Minneapolis/St. Paul, everyone can appreciate the difference between a weekend in a “River Falls” as opposed to a night out on the big town.