4.20.2014

I understand the appeal of bachelorette parties!

Because we're really getting down to it in terms of how quickly the wedding is approaching (FIVE WEEKS OMG), things have officially Started Happening. The first of the things that happened was my bachelorette party.

I should share that I did not want a bachelorette party.

I did not want a wedding shower either, but that's happening next weekend. If it's half as awesome as my bachelorette party, it'll be the greatest wedding shower ever.

Despite not being terribly interested in having a bachelorette party, I was informed that too bad, we love you and you are getting a bachelorette party. This caused a slight panic while I envisioned embarrassing outfits, being ceremoniously handed underpants in very public places, being encouraged to approach random strange men and offer lollipops, all while hanging out awkwardly with people you don't know very well... most of those things did not happen.

Most notably (duh), your own bachelorette party is the best thing ever because you know EVERYONE THERE. Why this did not occur to me before realizing all these amazingly awesome people I know and love were in one place is beyond me, but I was very quickly reassured by the fact that I really do have excellent taste in friends.


Look how beautiful my bridesmaids are!

Not only are these ladies extra-awesome, but they know me well enough to know that no, I do not want to do any of those things I mentioned up there that I was dreading, and if forced to do so, things would get awkward and not so fun.

First of all, my bachelorette party was superhero themed.

Superhero. Themed. Bachelorette. Party.


Check out the cake! This didn't emerge until well into the evening and I said it then under the influence of love and alcohol, and I'll say it again now... that cake tasted like My Little (sparkle) Ponies. It was delicious, and tasted like... well, like My Little Ponies would taste, if they were a cake flavor. Sparkly, sparkly pony cake.

Imagine that picture being a flavor of cake. No, really.

My point is that it was delicious.

Because my friends know me well and are awesome, instead of all the things I'd been mildly dreading, we went on a local distillery tour and sampled delicious spirits, after which I was given underpants in public. Since we'd just been on the distillery tour, there several reasons I didn't mind the public gifting of underpants.


After the distillery tour and dinner (when the underpants happened and I did my very, very best to ignore the bros behind me whistling, a lot), I was told there was an activity. I did not know what this activity was, but had joked for a long time with my sister that if I ever had a bachelorette party, we should skip the strip club and just go bowling or something.

The activity was... bowling!!

Not just any bowling, however, this was bowling at the Holler House. The Holler House is a Milwaukee institution. It's a house bar with a two-lane bowling alley in the basement (the oldest operating bowling alley in the country, since 1908). There are pin boys who set up your pins, the bar is run by a 90 year old woman and her 70 year old daughter, and there are bras hanging all over the ceiling. The fire marshal actually shut the place down briefly a few years ago because the bras were a hazard - evidently the threat has been neutralized, because the Holler House is open and the bras are still proudly displayed.



Evidently I neglected to take a picture of the ceiling bras, but that's me with my super-bachelorette cape and some of the amazing random dress-up clothes the Holler House has for you to try on when you have imbibed enough. The downstairs bowling alley, while small and crooked, is the best.


As if this awesome wasn't enough, when I got home from the bachelorette party before going out to our favorite local with my fiance and some of the lads, a friend of ours had the most amazing gift for me. As you might recall, back in 2008 when I went to Ireland last, I dropped my DSLR lens-first on a smallish mountain. Ever since, the autofocus has not worked. I have horrible eyesight and manual focus is nearly impossible for me. This friend... had an extra Nikon DSLR autofocus lens... and gave it to me. I can't even... oh my god.





Beorn is the handsomest. And I love, love, love this lens.