Minutes from The Tornado Room

There are no photographs with which to document the scene on Saturday night at the Tornado Room in Madison WI, so I'll begin the word volley, with hopes that those attending the First Annual Neutrino Achievers of America Conclave, will duly expound in the comment section here.

Trisha Corona (aka Byrdie) was in rare form (....except she always is), sporting a sleek, black crow-esque look. Having been flown there by the Italian family for weekend writing business (say more, Byrdie) she purportedly traded her Tornadic beef filet for an on-the-bone beef tenderloin, the size of which, upon arrival at table, frightened the soused Italian matriarch from whose plate she made the switch. After much Italian songmaking, during which time The Reverend Boyce Johnson, B & I took our table, ordering a "fun" table red our server recommended, they concluded their evening .... and ours began. Byrdie found us in the adjacent room shortly thereafter, leaving her benefactors on the sidewalk awaiting cab back to the plush hotel to which she and I would be chauffeured via sober Perrymobile many dreamy, hilarious and exhausted hours later.

I had over-eaten in the snack department at another watering hole down the street, so I ate a tasty Caesar salad, leaving the meat of the matter (two medium-rare 28 oz. on-the-bone tenderloins) to greater men than I, escorting Byrdie to the lounge for soire preliminaries. We were joined by two bloated carnivores 45 minutes later, drunk on Flintstone-sized beast intake. B was wordless for quite some time, rubbing his belly.

Topics for the evening included: Bydie's rundown on the Familia Italia; Madison history & geography lesson (given by The Rev); struggling to remember the "I Love Little Baby Ducks" lyrics; a lesson in neutrinos (given by Perry) followed by the Neutrino/Tuaca chant & sit dance (repeated several times) followed by the vestiges of Italian Tuaca liquer squeezed from a bottle our amazing bartender Mandy found behind the bar (mmmmmmm - carmely stuff); local and national politics; and myriad discussions and back & forth banter lost forever in the comfy corner of memory. A very good time was had by all. And Avedis, thanks for stopping by (if briefly).

The evening ended when we were told, again, in no uncertain terms, that it was time to leave. I spent the night in an expensive (free to both Byrdie & I) penthouse level room (her room key doubled as the elevator key), sharing a king sized bed of monstrous proportions and being read to sleep. We enjoyed a choice continental breakfast in the penthouse dining quarters, where I was introduced to the whole Italian family & posse, and a walk down the length of State Street afterwards. Brent spent the night (well, a few hours anyway) in an uninflated albeit inflatable kayak on the floor of The Reverend's quarters, after discovering that the box purported to hold the inflatable twin mattress hauled from home was filled instead with photographic archives. Thank god he brought his pillow, although I don't think it helped much. Had he not miraculously answered his dying cellphone around 11am, I'd still be sitting on my suitcase in the street wondering where The Rev's house was....

We stopped at the Hilldale Mall on our way out of town to see Hannah for 15 minutes before she headed to work after just returning from a weekend in Chicago with friends. Sounds as if they spent most of their money on parking ramps and the W Hotel, eating candy bars for nourishment and riding free tour trollies for entertainment.... among other as yet undisclosed events. (Hannah, weigh in here, wouldja?.... and no sugar-coating, please....)

Suffice to say, B crashed in the back seat of the Golf all the way home while Hannah's pal Courtney and I chatted up front. She told me all about her weekend in Nina (near Madison) with the new boyfriend.... he's quite the catch, from what I heard. We missed Chuck's birthday party (sorry, brother) returning home much later than we planned. That's adventure!