Fest, Fest, Fest-y Fest!

As I mentioned in the last entry, I recently went to La Crosse for the grand 'ol Oktoberfest celebration. I've taken part in the festivities every year since I moved to La Crosse, so this was my 6th year in a row. I must confess, it was slightly difficult (or maybe odd is a better word) to attend the events now that I'm no longer a La Crosse resident. I missed not having my own bed to sleep in or being able to come and go as I pleased. However, I do have to say, it was still a great time! For those of you who are unfamiliar with Oktoberfest, it's essentially a week and a half dedicated to the celebration of German heritage. Why it starts in September is still a mystery to me, but I don't really care! The city is overtaken by brats, beer, parades, and partying. Good time, right?! I went to La Crosse with some girlfriends, and we all stayed in my friend Becca's apartment. Saturday's routine consisted of the following:

1) Get up at approximately 6:30 a.m. (hungover or not)
2) Pack up the goodies (goodies consisted of donuts, brats, chips, pickles, miscellaneous snacks, soda, various types of alcohol including beer, bloody mary's, whiskey...you get the picture)
3) Bundle up. It was cooooold.
4) Arrive to our parade spot at approximately 8 a.m.
5) Crack our first beers at approximately 8:05 a.m.
6) Play drinking games until the parade starts (at 10 a.m.)
7) Wait for the LONG parade to reach us at our spot (around 11 a.m.)
8) Dance to any and all polka music as the floats pass by.
9) Continue drinking.
10) Wait in line forever to use digusting port-a-potties.
11) Check the time and realize there's still 3 hours of parade left.
12) Take a seat for awhile to reenergize.
13) Continue drinking.
14) Shove down a brat to prevent early drunkenness.
15) Rejoice when the parade is actually over.
16) Stumble around to pack up and clean up.
17) Load the cars.
18) Walk to the bars.
19) Continue drinking the rest of the day.
20) Go to the Fest grounds (for those who were still awake).
21) Head back to the bars.
22) Pass out. I lasted the longest (1 a.m.)! :)

Okay, so that was a little more detailed than necessary, but that's literally how the day went. See some pictures below as evidence of the day. Thankfully, we got up early enough on Sunday to drive home before the exhaustion hit, but let me tell ya, I barely moved once I got home. Overall, I had a blast. Can't wait to go back for year number 7! :)

Colby girls at Fest!

Serious concentration (or confusion) during the card game.

Roomies reunited!!!

Some of us at Shooters!

Concentrated on drinking beer out of our shot class mugs! (Brothers Bar)

Taking a little siesta on the curb.

After everyone else wimped out, I met up with my fam at Top Shots!

(After this bar, I was done for the night!)

Enough is Enough!

Okay, rain. Seriously. Go away. I feel like summer didn't exist this year because of all the rain, and now we're sitting here listening to all the flood warnings because we're going on 5+ inches. Bla. I do have to say, though, it does bring back my old childhood thought process. When I was a kid, I used to envision what we would do if it ever flooded here. It was quite simple. I thought we would sit on the livingroom floor and play Monopoly. That's it. Back then, I thought houses were invincible, so I pictured water going up passed our windows while we were engaged in an intense round of passing "Go" and buying hotels. Now that I've entered reality, I realize it's not quite that simple! The funny thing is, I don't even like Monopoly. It seriously never ends. Perhaps I envisioned that particular game knowing it'd be awhile before we could do anything else. Anyway, no board games today, but there is certainly enough rain for a flood (see the pictures below). It's quite annoying, actually. For instance, right now there's a road closed sign sitting directly in front of our driveway because the road we live on is flooded. Looks like I won't be going too far. It's not like I really have anything to do, but knowing that I'm "stuck" makes me feel very restless. And not gonna lie, I have a big fear that it's going to interfere with my plans to get to La Crosse tomorrow. Since there's virtually no good way to get to there from here, I have to take a lot of back roads. And since I have to go South into one of the most flooded counties (Wood) to get there, I'm fairly certain the drive will either be extremely unpleasant or entirely nonexistent. If I can't get to La Crosse for Oktoberfest, I will be PISSED. I live for this weekend, so rain, like I said. Go away. You will NOT ruin my weekend.

Part of our backyard.

More backyard. It's flooded across the road too!

The crick is overflowing!

The neighbor's yard.