Not as terrible as to be expected

So yesterday I had two goals initially:

1. Get tea at Gulu Gulu.
2. Hang out with Sam before he goes back to college for the rest of the semester.

Trying to get #1 accomplished was a bit difficult, due to people calling me, people flaking on plans but never telling me they flaked, talking with friends who work on weekends online about all sorts of things (I'm looking at you, DD), more people calling me, record stores, and then another person calling me. But I finally got my cup of tea, and was even able to start a new scarf that a friend requested a while back, though I'll need to restart it since it's too narrow. While there, I texted DD that I finally got my tea and knitting in, and that it tasted of wool and victory.

While at Gulu Gulu, I had a good experience. No, this does not involve a guy with a sleeve tattoo. I was sitting at the bar drinking my tea and knitting, and there was another guy next to me on a laptop, when a friend of his came by to say hi. They were chatting, and I was pretty much ignoring them, when he said "I just learned to knit... and hey, look! She's knitting, too!" So I look up and start talking to him about knitting, and we introduce ourselves. He's probably late 40's/early 50's, and just a very friendly guy being nice in my city. It made me feel more like I live here than I rent here. So when he talks to the waitress about getting tea, I look down to see...

...he's wearing parachute pants that are painted to have the galaxy on them. HOW COOL IS THAT????? They were great. And I thought that it was great that he's so confortable with himself that he's wearing galaxy parachute pants. Go him.

After that, unfortunately, I had to leave Gulu Gulu, so I trekked to my family dinner in Ipswich. My younger cousins were making dumplings for us all, as well as lo mein and cole slaw. Well, I should say the latter two menu items were made by my uncle. It was a very tasty last dinner with Sam before he heads back to college. Great to see him. I asked if he wanted to do something after dinner, but he already had stuff going on with his home friends, so he politely declined. Ah well...

So after hanging out my cousins' house for a bit, I decided to head into Salem and make the "what's going on tonight?" texts. But when I got back to my car, I had a text waiting for me from my friend Mike saying "Hooters tonight?"

Now, in order to appreciate this, understand that I have a very close group of work friends, and we love wing nights at bars. And we've been tossing around the idea of going to a wing night at Hooters for awhile, just to see what it's all about. But as we work in Ipswich and this is in Saugus, we've decided to stay more local. So I guess Mike's twin brother John decided tonight might be a good night for it (since Mike is getting married next weekend, so there's a lot going on for the next few weeks) before the spring gets a lot busier. So I said yes, always being slightly curious as to what it's deal was for months, and offered to drive.

The crew for this trip included myself, John, Mike, Foster, and Michelle. And as the title indicates... it was not as terrible as to be expected. The girls were, and not to sound judging, moderately attractive... or about as attractive as one could expect in Saugus. The look of the room is someone corporate and lacking character, but this doesn't surprise me. Decent crowd for 10pm on a Saturday. A few big groups there along with us.

The wait for wings was terrible. We had already gone through a pitcher and a half of beer before the wings came. I think the waitress realized we were getting antsy since she kept coming over to make sure we were okay and give us excuses as to why they weren't out yet.

The wings were okay. I've definitel had better, and I feel like the coating of sauce on the wings were not even or consistent, though it did had a nice kick to them. We went with battered wings, and at times I felt like I was eating more batter than meat. But alas. The price of the largest platter was a good deal, though. They were not stingy with blue cheese, which after many fights with Paul of The Bay for extra cheese, this was a nice change in pace.

So while service was not good and the wings were alright, it was pretty much what I expected, and really great to hang out with some good friends on a Saturday night. And despite the heartburn I currently have from the night before, they were tasty enough for me to eat a few. So while I don't think we'll be becoming regulars any time soon, we decided we could be convinced to check it out every few months in a crowd like this.