Weekend in Chicago

After a summer of sobriety (meaning, we no longer drank tuesday.thursday.friday.saturday.sunday(wine only, guys!)), Sarah and I met up at last to take Chicago by storm.

Naturally, we recruited our top drinking buddies, Toups and RJ, for Thursday, night one. Well we would have recruited Maria, maybe not with the label "Top drinking buddy", but you know what I mean, but apparently she had to teach 1st grade or something in the morning and they frown upon hung-over teachers? Thats not what my mom says. But thats besides the point.

Anyway. So we go to a pub, and drink and chat and have a pretty spectacular time. Pretty uneventful, actually. We met some of RJs law school buddies (the cute one was unfortunately already married, damnit), and just ran our mouths without holding back in the typical meghan-sarah-toups fashion until the bar closed.

Oh. So the reason I was in Chicago was because i was going to see U2 with my long-lost cousin Kevin and my parents. So we were staying in a hotel.

So Sarah and I go back to the hotel at like 3:30am, knowing that I have to take my parents sightseeing at like 8am, when they wake up. We're like, Eh, whatever, it's just like biochem on a Friday morning, right? Wrong. I wake up to take a shower first, and realize that I'm still drunk. Yep, definately still drunk. So I wake up Sarah with a "Wake up sarah we have to go sightseeing. Also I'm still drunk". Fortunately, Sarah is still drunk too. We get ready, giggling excessively, I mean a LOT of giggling, and begin our voyage to see Chicago, after a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts, of course.

While we're walking, we pass some big statue. My mom asks me what it is, because we all know that I am quite the Chicago statue-authority. The conversation goes something like this:

"Meghan, what's that statue?"
"Oh, that one? It represents the soul of Chicago"
"The soul of Chicago? Interesting."
"Yeah. Its pretty cool. Well actually there was quite an ordeal, because the artist set himself on fire in front of it one day, it was big news. He was expressing himself or something but I'm pretty sure he died"
"What? Meghan is that true?"
"Yeah of course it is, I couldn't make something like that up, its just weird chicago-arty types"
"Really? Wow."
"Yeah."
"Well, is that why the flags are half-mass? In rememberance of the artist who lit himself on fire?"
"No mom, I think they're at half-mass because today is September 11th. But maybe you're right."
"Oh."
Sarah just laughed the whole time, I tried to keep a straight face.

I dont know what else, but I compulsively lied the entire day.

Later in the day, I was fortunate enough to have an awkward cocktail date with long-lost cousin Kevin, at 4pm. At this point, the last thing I want in the world is another cocktail, but twist my arm I had to be social, right? So we meet Cousin Kevin and some of his friends, one of whom is from Chicago. The first thing my mom says to him is "You're homeless people here are so polite and kind!" At that point I ordered another drink.

Then that night, I had to continue drinking again, of course, with Toups, a surprise visit from Polich, and this time Maria decided that we were cooler than the 1st grade, at least for a little while. Nothing really eventful happened either except the usual, as stated previously.

Polich came and spent the night at the hotel with us, and the next morning my mom was like, "Well. Your friend was awfully quiet" I'm like, well Mom, we did get back at 3:30am and they left at 6am, so I'm not sure what exactly they would have to say. But maybe thats just me. I'll tell him to be chatty next time, I guess.

We did see some people having dry sex in the train station, which was awkward.