Drinking Liberally

I thought I should get a post in about Drinking Liberally before a whole week has passed since I attended. I alluded to my participation in an earlier post - but didn't elaborate. Last Wednesday, they moved their digs from their usual Minneapolis locale to The Muddy Pig in St. Paul - that was close enough for me to sneak out after Pooteewheet got home. What I didn't quite understand was that the drinking part of "liberally" really meant "freaking extensively" and involved being careful not to turn your head lest someone top off your beer while you weren't looking. I met some of the people whose blogs I always read, like Robin from over at PowerLiberal (she remembers me!), The Wege over at Norwegianity, who actually came to my site to comment about, of all things, my post about the Teapot worshippers in Malaysia, and Jackpinesavage (well, part of Jackpinesavage) from over at Curly Tales of War Pigs. The later pretty much rode out the evening with me, and I'm not sure if, by the end, I was putting up with him, he was putting up with me, or we were just having a good time. I needed someone to talk to, because Erik (from work) had to leave before he turned into a puddle of incoherentcy (but not before he outed the bartender to me as A.J. so I could personally bother him all evening
for beer like I was his best friend). Erik was having a difficult time not pumping his glass while Scotty Mortenson told him all about his political positions and opinions for what seemed like an hour. Scotty seems like a nice guy with plenty of great ideas, particularly considering he wants to represent my hometown (Monticello) which is smack in the middle of what is becoming, or is, conservative-central Minnesota, but damn, even from three feet away in an unrelated conversation, he's freaking intense. I actually had a pretty good time talking to a new Minnesotan fresh up from St. Louis as well. His discussion about his employer limiting his access to Yahoo personals and the effect on his sex life pretty much left me in stitches. Anyway, I spent quite a while sobering up from Bell's Two-Hearted, Summit EPA (and others) and politics, talking about music instead, but the damage was done. Regardless of how sober I was when I left (and I was fine), I had prepped myself for a good hangover the next morning - which begs the question, why on a Wednesday? But life usually craps in my favor, and Pooteewheet had a dental appointment the next morning for which I'd already taken time off, so I didn't have to explain to anyone why I was rimming an Advil/Tylenol bottle and hooked to a water IV. I topped my absence off with "I should visit with my Dad (from Tucson) as he's leaving town", and just wrote the day off entirely - mostly taking a nap, reading a bit, and vowing to keep my glass where no one can reach it next time.