On! Wisconsin!

Much to report in this posting of the web log. Following a Thursday night at my favorite bar in the world, the Karaoke Kid (where several high school basketball coaches were getting’ their sing on and where I met this really drunk guy who looked like a sleazy Republican and yet had a very friendly and attractive Japanese wife with whom I practiced my Japanese), Keli, India, and I took a quick yet successful trip to northeast Wisconsin, including Oshkosh, Green Bay, Door County, and Sheboygan. Highlights included hanging out with the parents of my ever-cheerful roommate, Keli, in Oshkosh, running on to Lambeau Field, staying in a very quaint and cozy cabin overlooking Green Bay (the body of water, not the city) and watching basketball and Japanese Animation until very late in the night, driving around in Door County and enjoying the great scenery, stopping off to watch the Badger basketball game at a bar in Sheboygan known as “Burps” and eating dinner at a Supper club just down the street known as Rupp’s, which served good food but had the look and was playing music much like one might expect to hear in a funeral home (an instrumental version of “Memories” was playing as we walked in) and a quick drive through the bizarre fordist company town, Kohler, where Kohler faucets are made. A few notes: While touring Lambeau, our tour guide pointed out that the Vikings (my favorite football team) had never won a championship. I wanted to raise my hand and ask the man “who won the first ever game in the newly-renovated Lambeau Field and the first ever playoff meeting between the teams?” However, in Packer country, it’s best to just grin and nod, grin and nod. So I didn’t. Secondly, while at Burp’s (which felt and looked like the quintessential small-town Midwestern bar) and watching the game, we were fortunate enough to meet the owner and namesake of the place, Burp himself. I could understand why Burp earned his name, as he had a voice that had clearly only been achieved through decades of chain smoking, sounding only a notch or two above a tracheotomy. Anyhow, he was standing in front of the television and telling off-color jokes to these three thrity-something, heavily Midwestern accented women during the tensest part of the Badger’s victory over Bucknell which put UW into the Sweet 16. (Go Red!) Well, Burp felt bad, and then the bartender bought us all another round of Spotted Cow. I wish I could repeat some quotes I heard from Burp, but they wouldn’t be very funny without hearing them in Burp’s voice. So I won’t. At the same time, some young man at the other end of the bar was trying to hit on my roommate, India, commenting that she “looked nicer in dreads than any woman he’d ever seen.” (India does have very nice dreadlocks, by the way.) So she got a free Spotted Cow out of the deal, which is nice. But she had to make it known to the guy that she was very much taken, and the very friendly bartender made sure this was known without crushing the poor sap’s soul.
Now we’re home, and tomorrow begins the great writing marathon that will be the remainder of Spring Break ’05. In one week, I will have a full draft of my thesis. So there’s lots of work to be done, and I’m gonna get some sleep to help me do it. Hail Progress, and Go Badgers!