Chicago Chicago...

Well, I know I'm not on "vacation" anymore since its a Friday night and I'm home blogging. Damn...

But, tomorrow I'll be going for a minor trifecta of sorts as I attempt to go 3 straight weekends of hitting up a club. A friend's birthday is tomorrow and she will probably want to hit up a spot after dinner. Here's to hoping its a club rather than a bar.

Before I get into my Chicago recap I wanted to shed some light on my activities here at home. Since I'm currently living with two teenage female cousins, I've been introduced to Korean Pop music. I can officially say that I'm now a HUGE fan of Wondergirls and BoA. Here's a good song, Nobody by Wondergirls. I thought this video was pretty funny. Also, check of BoA's song Eat You Up....hottie! I think my Korean fetish may be back...ANYANG HASEO!

Oh well, on to a recap before I forget too much of what transpired.

Friday
-Amazingly I actually woke up before 8 am so that I could get on the road ASAP and meet everyone at the airport and head into the city together. I wanted to park my car at the ecomony lot at the airport because parking in the city costs $50 dollars a day...F THAT!

-Roughly two hours into the trip as I drove thru St. Louis I FAILED the Color Test and was promptly pulled over by a State Trooper. The Color Test you ask? Anyone not white typically fails this test. Add the fact that I still had my California license plates and it was a recipe for getting pulled over. I figured the officer must have reasoned that I'm a drug mule.

Hispanic looking guy with CA plates...he was hoping for the bust of his life! He asked me 3 times if I had anything illegal in the car then asked to check my trunk. He asked me repeatedly what I was doing and where I was going. Of course I was extremely polite and spoke in my best "white businessman" voice. After 30 minutes or so he let me go with a "warning". Oh, he originally said that he pulled me over for following too closely to the guy in front of me, come on, anyone who has ridden with me knows I drive like a grandma and never tailgate.

The biggest thing I was actually worried about were my eyes. I had my appointment to see if I was a candidate for Lasik the day before and my eyes were still dialated. For those of you who have never had an eye test, the doctor puts medical drops into your eyes that force them to dialate making you very sensitive to light. Hmm...what else causes your pupils to dialate? Cocaine, Estacy, LSD, Crack, etc....you get the picture. That would have been an uncomfortable situation that I would have a tough time explaining, even though it was the truth.

Tho I didn't get a ticket, the stop still cost me $15...that is the difference between the group rate I would have paid had I gotten to the airport 30 minutes earlier, versus the rate I paid as a single passenger on the shuttle. I still get the last laugh since the officer never saw all the yayo and meth I had hidden in the cushions of the seat! I'm Tony Montana! You fuck with me, you fuckin' with the best!

Why no officer, I'm not trafficing cocaine. I just need extra lumbar support.

-Finally arrived in Chicago and after sitting through about an hour and half worth of traffic just to get into the city I got to the Intercontinental Hotel where everyone was staying. They had already moseyed down to Pizzaria Uno for a taste of Chicago deep dish. Also, it seems that the fellas were well into the drinking...nice!

-We did some wandering around the city before heading back to the hotel for a little R&R before hitting the night life. Funny thing tho. We happened upon the MCA (or the Museum of Contemporary Art) and it seems that every 1st Friday of the month is like a social event for singles in Chicago. It seemed a little hoity-toity but it was pretty interesting. I did get to see a pretty cool exhibit about Buckminster Fuller.

This dude wanted to put a big ass dome and cover part of Manhattan. I like it!

-As a side note I cannot recall or didn't really know the names of many of the places we hit up, but I'll do my best. I know we started Friday night down by Wrigley Field at a place called Sluggers. A typical Midwestern style bar with the small dance floor and cheapo drinks. I think my California friends got their first taste of the random and unpredictable musical transitions from hip-hop to rock to pop to Ice Ice Baby. Welcome to my world!

-After a few rounds at Sluggers we mounted up and headed to the Rush street area. I really don't remember the names of the 2 places we went to. However, I recall the first place played really sick music (which I tried my best to take advantage of) but it ended 1:45. We lamented and wished we had gone there earlier. We walked a few doors down and slid into another bar, but with no dancing, it was whatevers for me. We stayed there for a few rounds then headed back to catch some shut eye.

Saturday
-Thankfully, our earlybird friend (you know who you are!!!) allowed us to sleep in all the way to 9 am before we were roused. We went to grab a bite at Portello's (I think thats what it was called). I had a hot dog there that was very very tastey. Someone described it as a hamburger that used a hot dog instead of a patty. I would consider that an accurate assessment since mine had tomatos, onions and a whole pickle slice, along with the required ketchup and mustard of course. Shoot, I will blog about the various foods I've taken and try and rank them...but thats another entry.

-We wandered the city, hitting Millenium Park, checking out the Silver Bean and The Crown Fountain. We also braved the cold rain and took the Architecture Boat tour of the city. Pretty fun stuff.

If the Silver Surfer took a giant dump...it would look like this.

-After our sight seeing we all headed back to the hotel to freshen up. We all got dressed up for a dinner atop Chicago. We dined at the Signature Room at the 95th and that's where the magic happened. As some of you knew, we were in Chicago that weekend to be witness to a marriage proposal. And NO, contrary to popular belief I did not cry. I will have to write the manager of the restaurant however, to complain about the enormous amount of dust that caused my eyes to water...that's just poor hygienic conditions on their part.

-After the dinner and show, all 17 of us crammed into a limo and headed out for more dancing. Great music and great company can only lead to one thing = the return of Captain Sweat Monster. Needless to say, I soaked through an undershirt, my button up shirt and my snazzy vest and tie. Great times tho.

I proudly confess however that I was one of the few who wanted to party till the last club closed at 5 am. However, upon getting to the 2nd club after we closed down the first, we found that they were still trying to charge a cover. I don't think it was the money that bothered anyone, it was the fact that they were trying to charge a cover at 3 am! Bastards!

Thus, we just bought dangerdogs (and a vegetarian burrito for the non-carnivore) and cabbed it back to the hotel.

Sunday
-We had another round of Chicago Deep dish for lunch, I think it was Emo's East. They allow anyone to tag up the place, so we all did our best to leave our mark. After lunch we hurriedly got our stuff together and I rolled back with the newly engaged couple and other friends back to the airport.

We did flirt with the idea of staying one more night (as several of the folks were hanging around till Monday), but the cost of the ticket transfer was Somalia-pirate-ransom like.

-The drive home was uneventful, bouts of heavy rain then some sunshine. It did give me plenty of time to contemplate on the great weekend and made me miss California again. Thanks again to all the folks who made the trip to the Midwest and let me be a part of the celebration.

Can't wait to do it all again!