Of Miles Rausch

If anyone was going to ruin my bachelor party, it was going to be me. I have a bad habit when it come to people trying to do nice things for me; I don’t usually let them. That’s why, whenever anyone would ask me if I was excited for my bachelor party, I would tentatively respond with “Yeah…”. Not that I didn’t have the utmost faith in Bryce and Tony (and everyone else involved in the planning), but I had no faith in myself to actually let a group of people (guys, no less) devote an entire evening to me.

That being said, it was a great time. The first highlight of the night was Bob Davidson. That might sound strange, but Bob is a good friend, and I was really glad that he was able to make it. Of course the other highlights were everyone else in attendance: Bryce, Tony, Dan, and David.

First, Bob came over to my apartment in Madison, and we drove down to Sioux Falls together. Our first stop was Buffalo Wild Wings, pretty much the only place in town for wings that we yet know about. I ordered 6 Teriyaki and 6 Asian Zing. Bryce got really hot ones, and took them to go. Both Bryce and I were in tears. I ordered a Jack and Coke to drink, and the waitress, when she brought water, set a glass of water in front of Bob on a napkin, and then slid it over to me, and put Bob’s glass of water on the table without a napkin. This behavior made us think that he had somehow offended the young lady, but we decided not to address it.

After wings, we went to Nitwits Comedy Club, which is a couple blocks from our apartment, and we saw some stand-up. There were three performers: the first one was lame, the second one was good, and the last one was funny. I had some girly drinks there and made Bryce order them for me, which meant he had to order twice as much of his normal drinks to seem not gay in front of the wait staff.

After this, though, the plans were kinda up in the air. Dan had brought a PS3 with Rock Band, and the goal was to play it at the hotel, but the hotel didn’t have AV hookups. So, what to do? Rent a TV from Wal-Mart.

Yes, I said “rent”.

The way it works is that Wal-Mart’s return policy is pretty forgiving. At least, for now. We went in and picked out an SD TV to get. One that wasn’t so expensive that, if we couldn’t return it, we’d be stuck with a huge bill. Despite the rules, I called Holli. We were looking at HD TVs, and I thought, “Boy, those sure look nice.” I flirted with the idea of buying one. Holli told me what the wedding money that we had so far accumulated would buy, and she said she trusted my judgement. In the end, I wasn’t brave enough to actually buy one. We cavorted around town, but got to Best Buy too late. So it was back to Wal-Mart. We got the “perfect” TV and headed back to the hotel room.

Then we played Rock Band. It was that simple. The hotel room was nice, and there was a desk to put the TV on. Then we all took turns on the different instruments: guitar, guitar, drums, and microphone. Bob left first, because he had to work. Then Dan left. And eventually it was Bryce, Tony, David, and I. The next morning, Bryce returned the TV claiming, “I thought it was an HD TV.” The person responded that it doesn’t even say “HD” on the side. “I know. I’m retarded.”

That phrase apparently works for Wal-Mart’s return policy.

All-in-all, it was a fun time, and even though no one got so drunk they couldn’t remember the night, it was filled with wings, comedy, screwing “the man”, and video games; all my greatest passions with my greatest friends.

See the pictures in My Bachelor Party.

We’ll both post about this later, but I thought I’d show off the pictures we have so far. Internet is $9.95 for 24 hours of usage, which means that this might be the only time we do that.

Our Honeymoon – Day 1: Airports, All-Star Music Resort, Disney Hollywood Studios

Our Honeymoon – Day 2: Disney Magic Kingdom

Our Honeymoon – Day 3: EPCOT, Downtown Disney, Boma’s

Our Honeymoon – Day 4: Disney Animal Kingdom with Albie

Our Honeymoon – Day 3 – Diana+

Our Honeymoon – Day 4 – Diana+

NOTE: abbreviated post so I can get my life back I just want my kids back!

Christmas was good. We spent it the weekend previous at Hawarden, where there was an early Christmas on account of Adam and Cari being unable to be in town on the 25th. My big present there was a box of N* t-shirts. Holli did a good job of keeping me in the dark on it, and she contacted a number of people and sold them t-shirts – thoroughly undercutting any profit I hope to make off these shirts in the future. Just kidding!

Between Holli and I, we got a bathroom for Christmas. I also got Born Standing Up by (The) Steve Martin from A&C. It’s super awesome, though I haven’t had much time for it lately. Marissa got the big present: she got a new MacBook. She had to earn it, though. It was at the end of a long series of bogus presents, which was beautifully orchestrated by Larry “Puppetmaster” Gregg.

After Hawarden we went to Big Stone City. Bryce and Lindsey were back, so we got to see them. We had the usual get together at Grandma’s which ended in presents. Sue’s gift for us all was a used pack of cards. And then there was an iTunes gift card inside. I haven’t used mine yet. I’m waiting for the perfect moment. Holli and Lindsey both got presents from Sue this year.

Then it was back to the Val Rausch house. I got a snow globe, Extras Series 1 DVD, a movie trivia book, and a Garmin GPS unit from Mom. I was a little taken aback looking inside the box because half the stuff listed on the contents was missing. Then she mentioned the word “eBay”, and I knew the score. Still, the device is neat, and I definitely need to devote more time to playing with it.

The big present here went to (the youngest) Brenna. She got Rock Band for PS2. Good thing there’s a large living room there. We hooked it all up, and we played for a fair amount of time. It works with Guitar Hero II guitars, so we were playing bass, lead, drums, and had a singer. We all took turns and Dan and David and Tom came over.

Christmas Day, Holli and I headed to Sioux Falls. And a storm hit. We were driving 10 miles an hour at some points. We got to witness a collision, but thankfully made the trip just fine ourselves. The GPS brought us straight to Kevin’s place. There we had a great meal of prime rib and lobster tail. Holli and I were originally going to head to Madison, but we scrapped those plans pretty quick. At Karin’s, then, Holli broke out Pop 5, and it was a hit.

I’m sure there’s plenty I’m forgetting. It’s late at night, and all this last minute wedding stuff has a lot of us over-tired. All-in-all it was a good Christmas. Let’s do it again next year.