I went to a Zero 7 concert last night. Obviously they would never come to Milwaukee so I high-tailed it to Chicago for the night.

So here I am, in Chicago. Staying over at Karl and Ray’s apartment near Soldier Field. I didn’t get too much sleep, their couch isn’t very comfy compared to my bed at home, but it was worth it.

Anyways, yesterday I got up, took a shower, and got dropped off at the Amtrak station. Wisconsin and Illinois have this service setup where you can get between Milwaukee and Chicago for $20 each way. They run multiple trains daily so I just grabbed the 1PM one and got in at 2:30.

So I got here, dropped my stuff off, and made my way up to Loyola. Of course, the friend of mine from Loyola was busy, so I had to kill an hour. I went downtown and looked at Loyola’s new downtown residence hall. It is absolutely beautiful.

Then I spent an hour at a Starbucks drinking down a caramel frappuccino and reading the last Saturday New York Times they had left. I had been to a few other Starbucks on my trek (there are 3 within a 3 block radius) and could only find the $5 Sunday edition, so when I saw the Saturday edition I jumped on the opportunity.

Actually, I probably should have paid to read the New York Times… Oh well, I put it back as I found it anyways.

Then I made it to Loyola. Of course, the L sorta broke down on the way from the downtown campus to the lakeshore campus, but the delay wasn’t that bad. I got to Lakeshore, looked over the Loyola Campus, and felt anxious to get back there. When I got off the L I met up with my friend and we went to dinner. It was a good dinner, pricey at $7.50 for Chipotle, but having the opportunity to catch up after a long time away was a good feeling.

After dinner I flagged down a cab and made my way to the concert venue.

The venue is really small. Well, not super small, but still, small. 1,100 people can fit in it, with booths and chairs along with a dance floor. All unreserved seats, so you could sit anywhere you wanted (except the booths, those were reserved.) I found a cool guy who I talked to for about an hour about music and etc then the show started.

Now being under 21 I obviously didn’t have a wristband to get me alcohol. But the guy I was with got me a beer from the waitress and I accepted after a bit of nagging. I wasn’t intending on drinking, but turning it down didn’t seem appropriate. Our waitress didn’t give a fuck that I didn’t have a wristband and I got offered a few more beers, but I turned them all down. I wasn’t there to drink, and I am glad that I stopped at one.

Anyways, the concert. First of all, José González is a great singer and guitarist. He opened the concert and was one of the main vocalists during the Zero 7 set. Some of his stuff was… ok. But then he started getting into it and I loved it. So did the crowd.

After he was done, Zero 7 came out. Like a lot of electronic groups, the main guys didn’t do much. Played keyboards a bit, messed with their Apple notebooks, and etc. The real star of the show was, again, José González and Zero 7 regular Sia Furler. Sia was just great. Very excited and was dancing and really having a fun time on stage. Jose was of course sitting down with his guitar, while the drummer/guitarists/main guys were in the background keeping everything together. I am not usually a concert person, but I have to admit, considering this trip will probably end up costing me $120, it is worth every penny.

Then I took a cab to the apartment, got in, noticed that my stuff was actually back at the office four blocks from the apartment, and made my way down the street at midnight to go grab my stuff.

Getting back I watched a few TV shows and talked for awhile then tried to get some sleep.

And now I sit here. Awake at 9:45 while everybody else is asleep, and ready to go home.

So. My father buys Beck’s beer. He likes it, asked me a few times if I have had it, I said no. So today, just because I felt like having a beer, I opened a bottle of Becks.

With a flathead screwdriver.

While the screwdriver drawer was open.

Now I THINK I cleaned the most important stuff off. Smells like beer over there, but I will go back soon and put a rag to it. May help a bit.

As for the beer. I don’t like it.

Diet Dr. Pepper really does taste like regular Dr. Pepper

Did I mention I am on a diet? And that it is working? Not sure how much weight I have shed, but I have really been slimmed down after cutting out the 800-calorie a day Coke addiction.

Of course, I had some regular coke and grenadine over the weekend (fuck Shirley Temple, I’ll call it Coke and Grenadine if I want to) and I swapped it out with Sprite and Grenadine (fuck Kiddy Cocktails, I’ll call it Sprint and Grenadine if I want to.) But what I noticed I really liked was Sprite and Grenadine with a splash of Sweet-Sour. It was tasty. Not tasty enough to warrant the fact that I paid $5 and only got non-alcoholic drinks while everybody else who was over 21 paid $5 and got unlimited beer and rails between 10 and 1.

I need another fake id. I really do.

I still hate Diet Coke.

This weekend my mother’s side of the family (her madden name is Broerman, so I guess it is the Broerman family) has their annual golf outing, in memorial of my grandfather. It isn’t sentimental, it isn’t sad. Hell, it’s the best fucking day of the year! You get to golf while drinking. Err… You get to drink while golfing. Depending if my mother is anywhere near my cart. I covered this last year.

My dad is more “It’s beer, and he’s in college. I drank a lot of beer when I was that age.” I believe he would be disappointed in me if I started drinking Budwiser, however.

So Friday Night there is a “picking party.” You rank all the people who are going to be golfing as an a golfer (best) to d golfer (never plays).. Make sure you have an A-b-c-d in each group, and that there is a brother or sister of the Broermans the team, and roll with it.

Last year they got crazy as hell about me drinking. My mother told them not to serve me. I swear to god if she pulls that shit again I’ll just sneak some of this top shelf amaretto and drink it beforehand. Oh god that would taste horrid, nevermind.

Anyways, that’s fun. We end the night at my uncle’s house with everybody eating and generally sobering up the entire night. Each team, depending on how they did at the game, get to pick prizes. They are usually somewhat crappy mug holders and such, but the real prize is the trophies that the winners get. Then the Broerman brother-sister-etc dances around and the entire team gets accused of cheating. Which they probably did.

Then there are fireworks. We have fireworks from last year, and I’m sure they bought a few more this year. I want to make a Sparkler Bomb and set it off.

Alright, so thanks to the 4th of July party I THOUGHT they were buying some Rolling Rock.

Now Rolling Rock is a great beer. In fact, Rolling Rock is one of my favorite beers.

So now that I am still sticky from my amoretto experience, I decided “Meh, might as well have one of my favorite beers”

So I open up the fridge What did they buy? Rolling Rock Lite.

What, is someone on a diet? Were they out of Rolling Rock? Did you pick up the first green thing you found on the shelf? I pray this was an accident, because, god damnit, this isn’t my Rolling Rock.

This isn’t even a case of “Beggers Can’t be Choosers.” If I wanted to, I would just find somebody outside the liquor store who can grab me a 12 pack, get a mini-fridge, and have at it. But this is free, so…

You know what else is good, Leinenkugels Apple Beer. Tastes like apple cyder in a beer, but better than it sounds, and it is tasty.