First, you are going to need some KBC beer. Generally it can only be obtained in the Upper Peninsula, although I did find it in a liquor store cooler in Westfield, Wisconsin once. If you do not have any KBC, the best you can probably do is some other local, craft-brewed beer. I guess even Sierra Nevada, in a pinch. It absolutely cannot be Bud Light (although Bud Light with Lime is a different matter entirely.)
photo credit to Brockit Photography, which I work for sometimes
Drink it. Get tipsy. Recycle the cans. Probably pee a few times, since alcohol is a diuretic.
You are also going to need some live music. Preferably a local or semi-local band, but a good one, one that’s put out a record or two. You know. It’s even better if you are at least somewhat acquainted with them, and they know you by sight, and you are in the front row.
Por ejemplo.
This was it. This was my perfect moment. We were talking about perfect moments at one point this summer, when some of John’s friends (and mine too, I suppose — I wouldn’t call them my not-friends, but they were really his first) were sitting in our living room, and Annelise, who was in Quiz Bowl with both of us, said that she had one in sixth grade, coming back from the annual Camp Nesbitt trip. She was sitting on the bus, surrounded by her friends, and it was a beautiful day and she knew that she would be home soon. This idea stuck with me, and eventually it allowed me to give a name to a sensation I’d never been able to categorize before.
John and I were at Farm Block Fest, in Ahmeek, Michigan. It had poured the night before and rain leaked into our hand-me-down tent, leaving us soggy and dispirited. But then, later in the day, the sun came out, and we decided to have lunch at the Fitzgerald restaurant (named after that ill-fated ship), and we swam in Lake Superior and I wore my graduation dress. It was already a perfect day.
Something about standing in front of that stage, outside, in the summer, surrounded by exuberant people, with the perfect amount of alcohol in my system and John standing next to me…I was so happy. These moments are always bittersweet because you can never quite tell when they’re going to end, but you know that these are the times you wait for on those terrible days. These are why you are alive.
