A Week in Chi-Town

Last week I went to Chicago for the BIG PLASTIC CONFERENCE. It was lots of fun. The conference was good, but ya’ll don’t really care about that work stuff now do ya?

The whole gang flew into Chicago on Sunday (Father’s Day AND Little Sister’s birthday.) We stayed at the Palmer House, which is pretty darn fancy. On Sunday night we all went to Howl at the Moon, which is a piano bar. BestestFriend/CoWorker and SweetestCoWorkerEver requested “Sister Christian” and actually went up on stage to sing along. The guy playing the piano was all like “too bad I’m gay” and “you two are very attractive, do you have any brothers?”

Monday night we had a little boat ride/architectural tour/booze cruise. We went up and down the river and then out past Navy Pier into the lake.

Tuesday morning somebody at the conference stole my cell phone. L

On Tuesday night we went to see the White Sox play the Cardinals. I wore my PUJOLS jersey even though he was injured and didn’t play. The Cards got their ASSES handed to them by the Sox. Seriously. Good thing I don’t care about baseball. I had a hotdog and nachos and a chocolate-covered frozen banana (purchased for me by the Boss Who Is Kind of a Goober) and lots of beers. It was a good time.

On Wednesday night we went to the John Hancock building for drinks. AmazinglyAnnoyingA was being amazingly annoying (if you can believe that). We had to wait for Pretty Boy Floyd and a few others and she kept saying “I hope they know we’re going to the John Hancock building,” and “maybe they went ahead to the John Hancock building.” Finally I was like, “for crying out loud if you’re that worried about it why don’t you just go on ahead and we’ll meet you there?!” Well, we went to the Freakin John Hancock building and had grossly overpriced drinks. I was impressed with the view from the ladies’ room. They make a pretty good mojito, too.

After that we went to the Chicago Chop House for dinner. Even though Jackass (who had organized the whole week and managed to screw up everything at least a little) had made a reservation they told us it would be 45 minutes until we could be seated. So we went across the street to the Hard Rock Café and had yet more drinks. THEN we went back to the Chop House. I had the surf and turf. It was gooood. SCWE drank an entire bottle of wine by herself. Then we went next door to the Redhead Bar for more drinks. I was the first one to go back to the hotel – at 3 AM!!!!! SCWE and Floyd had already done 6 shots each by the time I left. I have never seen Floyd so drunk. He kept shouting about buying a Gene Wilder statue with moon boots and a hat that says “Who Farted?” The next day we ran into Floyd and asked him how he’d gotten back to the hotel. He couldn’t remember. He said, “Jesus could have given me a ride home and I wouldn’t have known it.” Awesome.

Thursday night SCWE’s friend DP met us at the hotel bar. Turns out his apartment was across the street from our hotel all week! AAA decided to walk around Millennium Park (at night! By herself!!!!) so we didn’t have to deal with her. Hooray. We went to Leaping Lizards – a Mexican restaurant in Lincoln Park. We tried to go to another Mexican restaurant but they were closing – at 9:45 on a Thursday! Whatev. Leaping Lizards was good. BFCW and I split a pitcher of margaritas. Then we went across the street to a bar it was PACKED! My flight was early the next morning so I left around 1 am.

Tomorrow Timmy and I are going to St. Thomas for a week. Yippeeeee!