When TerribleAspect mentioned that the company he worked for was hosting its annual meeting in Milwaukee I told him that I thought it would be fun to try and meet up. I gave him my number however in his eagerness to see the wonderful Wisconsin sights he left it on his desk so I didn't find out that he was in town until I saw a message in my inbox here on E2. I wasn't sure if it was too late to call so I sent him a message back. Fortunately we were able to connect via phone but he was reluctant to plan anything for Sunday since he had the small matter of his missing luggage to resolve.
Sunday we agreed that attending German Fest would be on our agenda for the afternoon. When I asked what I should wear I was wondering if it was breezy down by the lakefront. Thank goodness I did ask because I would have felt really stupid walking around in cargo pants and a t-shirt while the person I was with wore a suit. Driving downtown can be a bit challenging especially if the roads are being repaired. After I picked up TerribleAspect I showed off my mad driving skillz by ignoring a red light. That was fairly embarrassing but I managed to get over it and I even found a halfway decent parking spot close to nothing on the wrong side of all the attractions.
Walking around downtown Milwaukee can be a lot of fun. Typically it is more fun if things like restaurants and bars are open however we did find a box of abandoned books in a back alleyway that seemed promising until we dug through it. After that we heard nature calling and since the Ethiopian restaurant was the only thing we could find that was open for business we felt obligated to obey their posted sign informing people that their bathrooms were only available for paying customers. Fiscally speaking this was a conservative choice as we ended up spending less than five dollars for tea, Diet Pepsi and unlimited restroom access.
When I was in Chicago someone told me that I had a good sense of direction. I almost laughed out loud because I've been lost so many times I call myself a professional loser. Fortunately for TerribleAspect my memory is better than my sense of direction so we were able to find our parking spot without too much trouble. On our way back we walked along the Milwaukee river. For a while we sat on a spot off the promenade. I felt bad because I like the sun but he prefers the shade and since he didn't know that Wisconsin weather is unpredictable he hadn't packed clothing that would be appropriate for eighty-eight degree heat accompanied by eighty-two percent humidity.
The sun was starting to set when I dropped TerribleAspect off at the zoo. I drove home thinking that the nice thing about most noders is you can start talking, they'll start listening and even if you drag them all over town and they don't get to see anything cool they'll still be really nice about it. Everyone knows that online people are capable of virtually anything however I'm happy to report that TerribleAspect is a respectable citizen who opens doors and pulls out chairs instead of weapons. The bottom line - while I might describe someone as terribly handsome or a terribly good conversationalist I could not find any other aspects of this historic micro-nodermeet that were the least bit terrible.