A Very Eventful Yesterday

by Hanly on May.03, 2009, under The Wisconsin Experience

Yesterday was Mifflin day (the day the Mifflin Block Party) is held. I woke up around 9:45-ish to go to the farmer’s market down in capitol square, with Mike, Mady, and Erica. I was expecting to buy some fresh fruit to eat, but that didn’t happen. Apparently its Spring, and well fruit just aren’t ready in the actual spring. That is to say, that in Florida we are accustomed to having freshly grown fruit year round because of the warm temperatures, hence not experiencing 4 seasons, or spring for that matter. Anyways, there was a lot of honey, jams, and freshly baked goods. I couldn’t contain my craving and had to get a humongous cinnamon roll. The farmer’s market is a big deal around here, there are young and old alike, set to the floral spring background that accentuates the capitol building. After the farmer’s market we stopped by Jamba Juice. This was my first time getting anything there since I usually opt for the unhealthy frapuchinos at the conveniently close Starbucks that seem to be established near jamba juices back home. I opted for an original sized Strawberry Whirl with a Calcium power boost. We all joked around a bit how they should offer a $20 Tamiflu power boost to combat against Swine Flu, since Erica’s brother had been tested positive for it and her entire family was under voluntary quarantine and taking Tamiflu. On our way back we saw Ryan biking to Mifflin.

There wasn’t much to do back in the dorm so I just watched some TV for a bit. David got back from a church thing and we decided to go check Mifflin out since despite his living near Madison his entire life he had never been there. We invited Kolin to come along and walked all the way there. We walked down to one end and back to the other, not really finding anything fun to do since we were apparently too sober and didn’t know anyone that lives in Mifflin.

On our walk back to the other end of the block party we saw this guy who had attempted to pick up a dollar bill off of the ground, which had been sneakily placed atop a pile of dung. I couldn’t help but laugh hysterically. We were on our way back when we ran into Maria, Britney, and another of their friends. We decided to hang around with them a bit and go back to Mifflin. I hadn’t quite noticed it before, but apparently there is a “Planned Parenthood” office on Mifflin, which was quite ironic considering the chaos and debauchery surrounding it. I couldn’t help it, I had to take a picture.

Planned Parenthood office during the Mifflin Block Party.

We continued walking down through a multitude of people drunkenly dancing at one of the WSUM DJ stages. We got separated several times, and at one point David and Kolin were blindly looking around for the rest of us in a large crowd of people. We made it to Maria’s friend’s house and we hung around in the front for a bit not knowing what we were waiting for. We then decided to go through an alley between two of the houses towards the backyard where most of the party seemed to be taking place since open containers are not allowed on public property, so as long as they are in their backyard or front yard it is ok. We stood there for a while as people from both houses tossed empty boxes and things to each other. A mob of cops came down the alley towards the back. It was around 7 or 8 of them. One of the guys was throwing a box to the other balcony when it didn’t quite make it all the way and it fell between two of the cops as they walked into the backyard area. Thy all stood there discussing what to do. They identified the one who had thrown it and split up to go into the house and get the one who had thrown the box. Some went in through the front, other through the back door, but none stayed outside… I took out my camera and started recording.

A few minutes later more cops show up outside trying to figure out where the guy had gone.

We left not too long after that. I was a bit hungry so we decided to stop by the union and grab a bite to eat. I had my camera with me so I decided to act like a tourist and take some pictures since the Memorial Union is an architecturally beautiful building.

Memorial Union

We hung out there for a bit, where I took a few more pictures. When we got back to Tripp we found that the water fountain (or bubbler as it is called here) had been clogged with soil. Tyler tries to clean it up with a dustpan broom as Adam sings from inside the nearby bathroom, but it remains clogged. He then tries to unclog the drain with a plunger.