Muzak

First of all the title of this entry is not a typo. I maybe a bad speller but I’m not that bad. Muzak is the system that used to be used to provide music in building lobbies, elevators, and for telephone systems (hold music). For some reason this weekend made me think about these systems; I never worked with them but apparently the old telecom techs used to install and work on them all the time and one had told me about them a few years ago when I worked at Qwest.

Well this weekend was full of music. Thursday was RB’s birthday so Friday night we went to her host families for dinner and a visit and then met up with some of her friends at the 7^th St. Entry. I don’t really think it was RB’s type of music though. Much more what AP and I would have gone to concerts for 5 years or so ago, a pretty good garage band playing speed metal. Watching the kids in the mosh pit was fun I even kinda wanted to join in. Of course we were over dressed for the venue. RB was the only girl in heals and nice pants and wearing nicely done make-up, while I was the only guy wearing nice leather shoes and a button up shirt. We kinda stuck out a little. After that we stopped briefly by the Otter Bar in southeast to hear some karaoke and one last beer.

Saturday was fun. I went over to AP’s house and watched him make a mess of the wiring in their bedroom, went to Chisago Lakes for some Buffalo meat and old Cheese, saw the movie Serenity (it was pretty good popcorn fodder), grilled the Buffalo meat, and went to Oktoberfest. We didn’t stay at Oktoberfest as long as I would have liked but apparently all my friends are getting old. MQ was really itching to go because he had to study the next day so I was home by 12:30, which I guess isn’t all that bad. It was still cool to hear some polka music though. Unfortunately the music was only downstairs in the bar – the place simply to hot to hang out in – and no one was dancing anyway so we stayed upstairs around the tent in the parking lot.

Finally Sunday night RB and I went to the Foo Fighters and Weezer concert at the Excel energy center in St. Paul. It was a lot of fun. We got the tickets through my networking group at work and got to see the concert from the executive box. Unfortunately we missed the happy hour because I was running way behind (and decided to stop at CompUSA on the way home from the gym). The opening band wasn’t really all that good but Weezer was awesome. Again I don’t think the Foo Fighters was RB cup of tea but I think she had a good time anyway. Believe it or not it was her first concert! The executive box was directly in front of the stage so the view was awesome. Besides my networking group a manager from Audit brought her daughters and some of their friends. So, half of our entertainment came from the crazy 13 year olds us who screamed their heads off at the bands. All in all it was a lot of fun and a good kicker to the weekend just before I start my first assignment.