"I love the night life, I want to boogie." whoa.  for the last two nights my brother was in iowa, we went out drinking. tuesday night we went up to Iowa City.  phew!  The wackiest place on Earth!  Iowa City is THE college town in the area, I saw more freaks there in 4 hours than I have in the two whole months I've been living in Burlington.  We hit four bars, getting more and more intoxicated each time.  Iowa City is a great place, maybe when I finish my two-year program at Southeastern Community College I'll finish up the next four years of my computer tech education at Univeristy of Iowa.  The place is fantastic; there really isn't anywhere I've been that can compare to it...bunches of cool shops & bars all along this no-traffic road with plenty of outdoor seating, all within walking distance from the college itself.  I heartily recommend trips up there constantly; I'm going to try to take Jenn out there when she visits (august 8th) and Stew if he visits in august like he mentioned.  Last night (wednesday), my brother and I went to three Burlington bars with Nate (coffee shop guy).  Hit Martini's (where I had dinner with my parents and was wowed by the design of the place) which is a bar-in-restaurant style, then walked over to Barracuda's, which is a sports bar/dance place.  Wicked crowded, very noisy.  My brother and I did get a laugh by watching people "dance".  Lastly, we went to Buffalo's, which my father (!) recommended.  A nice working-man's bar, small enough to get to know patrons & staff, but big enough to not be a dive.  We played darts (I lost) and then the fun-filled evening ended.  Technically, these past two days have been the first time I've been to real bar-type bars (specifically a bar, no restaurant/family atmosphere), so it was an entertaining learning experience.  if you're interested i had about 5 beers each night, which is plenty to get me buzzing nicely.  Ahhh smoke beer & company, who could ask for anything more? well it'd help if i had a job so i could pay for my own beer...ah well. So have the past few days been an alcohol-fueled rush?  Not really.  Was sort of okai seeing the big glut of family (grandmother, sister, brother-in-law, little baby neice, brother), but didn't exactly make me extremely ecstatic.  I've never been one to have huge emotional ties to any of my blood-relations, so it was like "Wow, family."  Although hanging with my brother was great; we actually didn't fight.  Closest thing I'll have to getting Tom out here, too, in the sense that I can be myself (sort of) with my brother. Minor sidenote; Nate expressed interest in putting a resume/portfolio on the web, so I'm going to be doing all the design & management of said site.  Finally, a test if I can do site design for a living 8>.

July 24th, 1997