As Erica answered the door, all eyes quickly shifted to the smallest creature in the room (not my wife). At less than 10 pounds and younger than 8 months, our puppy French bulldog Lola was on her 5th day in the house. It was immediately clear at that moment who the star of the night and the rest of 52DD would be: our dog.
Previously named Honey Badger, Erica and I got Lola from our friend Mary, who has another Frenchie and a son. It was too much to handle and she needed to lessen her workload and stress. I had told her "give me that dog" literally every time she saw me. So when she decided to sell HB/Lola, I was the first person she asked.
Erica and I aren't in the best financial situation at the moment, given the plumbing problem we just endured. So I told Mary that Erica and I needed to watch the dog for a day to see if she got along with our cat Smokey. In a sense, I was trying to back pedal a bit. I figured I had a way out other than telling her I just couldn't pay. But after spending 5 minutes with Lola, we called Mary and greenlighted the new family member. Luckily my sister agreed with the decision and floated us the needed currency.
So after several "oh my God's" and puppy squeezes, Riana and John came into the kitchen as I finished up cooking. I have not perfected when the meals should be done in this process, I usually plate too early, however, I think finishing up the cooking over cocktails might be the preferred method now. The meal was tacos, but this time with chicken and authentic style (small corn tortillas). Naturally, the cocktail was margaritas. Ri and John brought us some Hussongs Tequila, and using Jesse's (Week 5) recipe, I made some much better-than-before drinks. I have heard the key to good cocktails is fresh squeezed juice, which I agree with, but I now also believe the quality of the liquor is also very important.
The other thing Ri brought over was homemade salsa. So we busted out the tortilla chips, I heated up some dirty rice and refried beans and we ate. The chicken was a little on the spicy side, which I personally like, but overall, I think it was one of the better meals I made. We somehow landed on the topic of travel (I believe it was over food discussion) and Ri and John told us about all the incredible vacations they have been on. Once a year in April they go to Mexico. Their best meal ever was in a small coastal town in Italy, at a private restaurant that converted into a dance party afterward. They had very engaging and interesting stories about their experiences, and I enjoyed listening to them sort through stories back and forth together and create a vivid picture in our heads of their history.
With the margaritas out of the picture, I went to the fridge and broke out some Negra Modelo and made some Micheladas. A Michelada is a beer cocktail, made popular in Mexico in the 1940's. Generally, the recipe contains tomato juice or clamato and a salted rim glass. However, I make mine as follows: ice, a splash of Tabasco, a splash of Worcestershire sauce, a pinch of pepper, a pinch of salt, half a freshly squeezed lime and a beer. I'm not sure they were a total hit, but that's the flavor I personally like for that drink.
Somehow, we landed on how you met stories. The way Erica and I met, or, ended up going on our first date, rather, is quite interesting. The story starts with me flying out to Alaska to meet a girl I met on Myspace. I actually told a somewhat butchered and tamer version as my Wedding speech, which left out the naked black men I saw and various other juicy details. So Ri and John got the full, uncensored story, which I will save for my back pocket in case future double daters inquire, but the conclusion is essentially that I had only called Erica (who intimidated me greatly with her beauty) because I had an interesting story to tell her. Our first date was me recanting this story.
Riana and John are clearly well adjusted, attractive and dynamic people. My favorite moment of the night was once again putting my hideous mantle piece at the mercy of public opinion, and this time getting a seal of approval from the couple. To shame my wife (who hates the mantle piece), we posed for a portrait recreating the awful art.
I went on to repetitively tell Ri how much I liked her Dad, and awkwardly enough, how much he liked me. Her Dad Tom was my mentor at Roosevelt High School, and we launched a student run poetry movement that is still alive and well thanks to Tom's efforts. Noticing I was in mid-ramble mode, I reached for the Table Topics. To my horror, Ri and John immediately recognized the move. They have read the blog(*), so they know all about Table Topics. I think busting out the game might now be seen as an offensive gesture, almost a sign of waning conversation or pending boredom. I assure you this was not the case, so if it happens to you, just know, most people will face the Table Topics at 52DD. It's part of the culture.
We made our way through several questions in the box, each one exposing more how charismatic and genuine Ri and John are. We fit in some catch up about what old friends are doing and where they are at currently and we passed Lola around from lap to lap. As the 11th hour approached (I say this as an expression, it was literally probably the 6th hour at this point in the DD), I called up Ben (Week 1) to ask him a question about touring with Outasight because John had a friend who worked with him. The brief phone question ended up in a visit from Ben and Josephine, who were also excited to come say hello to Lola, of course.
What happened next would forever change my life, and now, it will your's as well. Ri and John introduced us all to SLAP SHOTS. A slap shot has one rule: firm but fair. The shooter takes a shot of booze, and once it is swallowed, the slapper slaps the shooter immediately in the face, not too hard but not too weak. Firm, but fair. The idea is this action replaces the need for a chaser. It also looks like an insane display of public domestic abuse, so they advised against doing it at bars.
The slap shots escalated into the group blasting Boyz II Men and chugging a ridiculous sized bottle of vodka, running around the house with a giant pillow fish and slapping the crap out of each other. Suddenly, I woke up with all my clothes on laying on top of the covers. I took one survey of the house and noticed it was totally destroyed. I also heard snoring coming from the shut guestroom door. Success! Couple number two to utilize the anti-DUI bed (the originators of this move were Gomez and Devon from Week 6).
I groaned my way back up the stairs and got under the covers. I next awoke to the sound of the dishwasher, when I went to investigate, I discovered that Riana and John had cleaned the entire house, sorted the garbage and had the dishes going. Between the homemade salsa, nice tequila and cleanup crew, I have to say, I am very impressed. And of course, the gift of slap shots.
I'm going to go on record and say something stupid: try this at home. I don't know what kind of legal trouble this puts me in, but try slap shots at home. Do it.
Next week I will be trying to rope my friend Evangelos into taking slap shots with his girlfriend Mariko. Stay TUNED.
(*) One of the funnier moments of the evening was Riana recalling how she was reading John last week's blog entry out loud, which has a preview of their date. She read the first sentence about good-looking popular people from Roosevelt and Ballard and was like "John, who are these people? I thought we were next week!"
I like the blog Jeff!
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