I need more hellos

Lacey and me at her going away party

Don't be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetime, is certain for those who are friends. - Richard Bach

Friday night, our dear friend Lacey Landt left Alaska.

As part of the celebration of her departure, everyone (Amy, Lacey, Hannah, Jason, Jon, Julie, Nate, and Olena that is) came over to my place for a get together that included present giving, some wine and beer, and some serious rocking for old times sake.

The fearsome fivesome (Jason, Hannah, Amy, Jon, and Lacey)

It was a really amazing night, and it was a proper sendoff for Lacey. I'll call it the last date for Hey Hermano's (our Rock Band band name) World Tour, and in a fitting bit of life, Amy made Hey Hermano World Tour t-shirts as a gift for the three core members of the band. They pretty much rocked. Touring drummer Jason did not get a shirt, but we of course did not want to mess with his sleeveless AC/DC shirt, shorts, and tube sox ensemble.

That just seemed like the nice thing to do.

Serious faces only, please

Additionally, we all contributed to a photo album for Lacey. This photo album had individual pictures and messages from us, and pictures (in chronological order of course) that encompassed her time in Alaska - complete with captions. It was a pretty amazing present, and Jason, Amy, and Hannah deserve massive kudos for filling that little guy up with captions, as I was pretty much useless in that regard.

I'm not sure why we're doing this, but I love it

After the rocking and presentation of the gifts, we all piled into our respective vehicles and took Lacey down to the airport. This was very fun because I got to go out in public wearing my Hey Hermano shirt, torn shorts, and fantastic tube sox that Jason so graciously let me borrow, along with my orange shoes. I got more than one look.

It was also very fun because the entire drive there was a big catchphrase convention, with everyone in the car constantly yelling out the catchphrases that have been developed in the short amount of time Lacey was up here.

Mostly though, it was very sad and bittersweet. We all got our goodbyes (although that is only temporary, as we are planning to attend Lacey's wedding in August) and Lacey left us. The rest of the weekend was full of "what now?" and "I miss Lacey." It really is a testament to who Lacey is, as she is such an amazing person and a person that everyone will truly miss on a day-to-day basis. I mean, I saw her 9 days in a row recently, and now I won't see her until August at best.

That makes me a truly sad panda.

From me, and from everyone else, we're going to miss you Lacey. You're the glue to the group as Jason so succinctly put it. Good luck in Minnesota, and see you soon.

Hey Hermano, Last Stop of the World Tour

Saturday Night Fever, aka Laceyfest 2008

Joey and I pre-funking - No beer for him

This Saturday was planned to be Lacey's big going away party. We had big plans for having a bunch of people out at the Homestead Lounge, bowling, dancing, being stupid, etc. You know, typical things, but bigger and with more people. The plan was good, the execution of the evening was even better.

The night started off with Kim and I having dinner at La Mex and getting a couple of Margarita's to begin the night well. One problem with that is La Mex has apparently gone downhill. The Fajitas I had were interestingly flavored, the tortillas they gave me were apparently the junior edition ones (seriously, they were less than half the size of a normal tortilla), and the Margaritas were overly sweet and didn't even seem to have any alcohol in them. It was fun, but the food was kind of eh.

After that, Kim and I went over to Amy's house to join her at the beginning of the house party that was going down that night. Of course, it was only 8 or so, so no one was there yet, but we did get to help Amy organize CD's and play with her and her roommates pets - strangely, that was a ton of fun! I had a great time organizing Amy's CD's with her - so much so I'm about to do the same with mine after I finish this.

Amy, Lacey, and Hannah at the Homie

Up next, Amy, Kim, and I rolled out to meet up with everyone at Garcia's in that country that is connected to mine - Eagle River. As many people have noticed, I rarely leave my "bubble." My "bubble" ranges from as far south as where I work, to as far East as the highway, to the west it extends to the Carrs on Minnesota, and to the north we have 4th Avenue. I essentially never leave this tiny little area, so going out to this foreign land known as "Eagle River" was a heck of a thing. It took quite a bit of effort, but I managed to get us there.

At Garcia's we joined up with the whole crew (there were many, and I apologize if I forget anyone - Lacey, Jason, Jon, Julie, Olena, Nate, Keith, Eric, and then a number of people I didn't actually really meet), had a quick drink and rolled over to what I had heard was the most amazing bar ever - the Homestead Lounge (or the "Homie" as it has been so affectionately titled).

Myself and Jon - Are we having a good time?

So was the Homestead Lounge all it was hyped up to be?

Bowling Alley? Check.

Ridiculous dancing people? Check.

Many gaming tables? Check.

Most bizarre music selection ever made? Check.

Yep. It was pretty much rockin', or to quote Hannah and to summarize the experience in one word - badonk-a-donk.

Amy, me, and Hannah

Eight of us bowled, with two teams of four going against each other - Kim, Lacey, Jason, and I on one team vs. Nate, Jon, Keith, and Eric on the other. First game my side got massacred, but the second game we did WAY better, with all four of us managing to cross into triple digits (we aren't good, and that was pretty much our equivalent of perfect games). I rarely bowl, but whenever I do I have a great time. I'm unsure as to why I don't do that more often...maybe I should look into this.

All this time of course, we're drinking, laughing, and being merry, and Amy is photographing nearly ever movement within seeing distance, which is why I came out with so many great pictures. Of course she also took about 450,000 self-portraits with anyone who came close enough to grab. They turned out pretty much awesome though.

Me and Amy after a few futile attempts at picture taking

After bowling, we all rolled into the bar for a few rounds of "Emasculation by Amy" (aka playing Amy in Fooseball). She's pretty much a cheater at life at that game, and Jon and I's matchup against Amy and Lacey was alternately embarrassing (we had an audience and I was terrible) and very discouraging (did I mention I continue being terrible at Fooseball?).

After that, we traveled over to where everyone else was hanging out - essentially we all sat and watched the insanity that was happening on the dance floor. There was a rotating group of about five people who were dancing and pretty much being either filthy or filthy ridiculous. Of course, after a little while we had to go out and lay down the law, and Lacey, Olena, and myself went to the dance floor and showed them whats up. My moves will be told in tales to anyone who was not there, I promise you that. They were incredible - I'd say some sort of combination of Michael Jackson and Elvis is a pretty accurate representation of what they were like.

Shortly thereafter, Amy, Lacey, Kim, and I departed to go back into town and head to Amy's roommates house party. As we were leaving, Kim and Amy ate it pretty badly. Given what we were doing that night, Amy and Kim falling on the ice should not have been unexpected. Even though it was entirely predictable, it was no less funny. Kim was pretty much hilarious all night, but her and Amy going down was inadvertently the apex of that hilarity. See photographic evidence below of this.

Kim and Amy, pre-spill

Kim and Amy, post-spill

For two people who just ate it, they seemed to be having a pretty great time.

So we went back into town, avoided all fast food restaurants (sorry Kim!) and made it Amy's place. The house party was still going on inside, and I love house parties. Excitingly enough, there was even a bonafide bonfire roaring in the backyard.

Lacey, me, Amy, and Kim at the bonfire

Fun fact: Bonfires are always wonderful. This is pretty much a fact of life. This bonfire was no different, even though at the end of the night it was just Kim, myself, and five other random people I'd never met before. Of course, these were the type of people who quoted Chuck Norris facts constantly and had hidden stashes of seating in the forest. So you know, awesome people.

Kim and Jake - Chuck Norris looks a bit demented

They were all ridiculously great, and the bonfire was a wonderfully chill finish to the evening. Even though every person that actually lived there went to bed, Kim and I still had a great time. Well, until I went home, walked through my gate and slipped on the ice, caving the ice in with my knee and causing a huge bruise and bunches of swelling. Totally sucked, but it was OK. It didn't hamper the night at all, and I feel as if we had a good send off for Lacey even if it was nearly a full week early.

Also, just as a fun addition to the pictures, I included a self-portrait I took with Amy and Hannah. I think its pretty stellar, but it may have been too close...what do you think?

To Nasa...sincerely, the Astronaut

Tonight, Lacey gave me a task -- help her rewrite and reformat her resume and cover letter. Should be boring right? Very, very wrong. I was extremely excited in fact. I love writing those kinds of things, especially the cover letter portion. This is to be expected of course, as I am in fact very dorky and that is simply what I do. You know, very dorky things. It sort of pours out of my being filling whatever room I'm in at that time.

While I was still working on this project, Amy arrived to my place to watch Lost with Lacey and I. She came over to find out what we were doing, and of course had taken over the captain's chair within minutes and was running the show in the mass renovation of Lacey's cover letter. Soon we were debating on sentence structure, punctuation placement, and the allocation of the skills (skyllz?) we had developed. Point being? Amy + English = Huge Nerd. No big deal really, but it was extremely entertaining to see her doing her nerd thing, as most everyone has one. Some people quote movies, others read comics, some even quote movies, read comics, talk about tv show characters like they are real people, and discuss how great living in a zombie infested worlds would be.

Amy?

She dorks out on prepositions (or a lack there of).

Regardless, when our nerd powers combined, we formed a pretty rocking writing duo. We managed to create what may be the single greatest cover letter ever made (in only an hour and 20 minutes!), and had a fantastic time while doing it.

The point is this. Need a cover letter written? Hire us out. For $25 a cover letter (to feed the coffee habit of course, as it is voluminous), we'll spin your tasks and enhance your skills with all of the marketing speak and PR jargon that paper can handle. The best cover letter you've ever had (seen? had.), or your money back! That's the guarantee you get from Haiku, Inc. -- the world's greatest privately owned cover letter writing company.