On Friday, DC and I met CL and PS for drinks at the Loon. I was skeptical of our meeting place, at first. The Loon? Really? I've never chosen to go to the Loon. It's always some place I end up when there are long lines to get in the other bars on that corner - The Refuge, Drink, Rosen's, Brothers. (Except I NEVER go to Brother's. Ew.) On Friday it was quite nice. They have a great happy hour appetizer special - mini sandwiches for $2.50. You get 5 bite-sized burgers or Rueben’s or 4 other kinds that I don't remember. We all had cheese burgers. They were cute AND tasty! I think they had a drink special too, but I was craving a bloody mary and those are rarely on special. What can I say? I have expensive tastes when it comes to alcohol.

The Loon also looks much nicer in daylight. We were there at 5pm so the sun was still out. (Yeah spring!) I've always assumed it was a typical run-down junky downtown bar. It's kinda pretty. Next time I'll think twice about dismissing the Loon.

Afterwards CL and PS were supposed to go to a Wine Tasting at International Market Square, but changed their minds. I think it was because DC and I are such great company. :) Since they picked the Loon I wasted no time suggesting the Imperial Room. Afterall, it's basically across the street. Now, the Imperial Room might be my favorite bar downtown. CL always says she doesn't like it. I've never figured out why. The crowd there is always a nice step up from Rosen's and Drink. Don't get me wrong, the chances of running into some aggressive, drunk, frat boy is just as high, but at Imperial Room, he'll probably be with a group of normal people, instead of a group of other aggressive, drunk, frat boys. Also, the music is fabulous! They usually play stuff like Stevie Wonder and Al Green and other songs from that era that I've never heard before, but love to listen to. And they serve Woodpecker cider. I don't drink beer, so any bar that has at least one variety of cider is all right by me.

We stayed at Imperial Room for a few hours and then called it a night. It was a lovely evening of catching up with CL and PS. The next day, though, I heard something really, really scary: there was another shooting in Minneapolis. Downtown. In Block E. 2.5 blocks from where we were. Apparently a man on the patio of Bella Note was shot by some asshole who fired a gun randomly into a crowd of people. The victim died. The shooter was arrested almost immediately. (There's a police station 2 blocks away, seriously I hate stupid, violent people.) You can read more about it here.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Minneapolis and have never lived here - Minneapolis is a wonderful and safe place to live. I swear! The uptown shooting and now this downtown shooting are very rare occurrences. Yes, we have bad neighborhoods where shootings are pretty regular, but uptown and downtown are very safe places. It makes me so sad that this happened. I wonder if these shootings will make the government think again about repealing the completely ridiculous "Conceal and Carry" law. Granted, I'm sure the guns that are used in crimes are rarely obtained legally, but still. DOWN WITH GUNS! (Don't tell my dad I said that. I think he's still a member of the NRA.)