Sometimes it seems like us locals here in Minnesota need a visitor from out of town to spark a get together. Last time it was Sara, this time it was Allison — yes, the Allison!
A few months back Allison told me that she would be in town with her boyfriend Erik for a wedding. Turns out that Erik has a lot of family around here, which worked out great to help get Allison here for some partying with us local bloggers. While there were a few that couldn’t make the meeting, we still gathered a very respectable group!
I picked Allison up in my little VW Golf, which served us well. The parking spot we found at the Mall of America was a little short spot, almost custom made for my Golf. If I were driving any other vehicle, we would not have been able to park there.
We met up with the group, made introductions, and fell into comfortable conversations right away. We talked about Heather’s recent “Tour De Cure” (a.k.a. “Ride in the Rain”) ride , and I even let her convince me to ride with them next year (30 miles?). Allison has a ride coming up too, so it was fun to talk biking for a while.
We talked about Amber’s upcoming schooling and how she’s coping with night shifts. We talked about carb counting versus exchanges, and how we were all trained. Bob, an old friend of Allison’s, talked about his “love” for NPH (he hates the stuff!).
As we were sitting in the food court, chatting and laughing away, this guy walks behind us blowing on some sort of kids flute – loudly! As he walked by I turned to look. A tall skinny guy with longish curly blonde hair. His outfit? Tight white spandex, long sleeves and long “leggings”, with a pair of running shorts on over the top of them. And a shower cap.
Apparently stuff like this is “normal” in New York, because nobody said anything! I just HAD to say something. It was almost as weird as the lady who attacked G-Money in Disneyland. At least there was no blood involved here.
And as usual, the time went by way to quickly, and it was time for Allison and Erik to get to the airport. Erik couldn’t make the the meet-up, but we all got to meet him and talk
for a couple minutes at the end when he came to pick Allison up. He seems like a really nice guy — it’s too bad he couldn’t hang out with us earlier. It is always too bad that these things have to come to an end. I had a lot of fun, and look forward to the next one!
