Is not Chicago!
Saturday, it goes:
-6:30 am depature, McDonald's breakfast (so bad, so tasty), a toll road, a toll road, a toll road
-11:45 Chicago time, Lake Shore drive, we wait, we inch forward, we wait, we tweak, we wait
-12:20 dropped off by the spa- where's the spa? where the fuck's the spa? I have no phone, I have the wrong address, I'm in the middle of downtown Chicago, where the fuck's the spa?
-12:30 thank god, find a library, find a phone book, find the spa address (stupid numbers inversion), find the spa
-12:45 mimosas, ladies, got my nails did, mellow mellow
-3:00 Obie boys, families, rehearsal in the garden, big fat raindrops, rehearsal in the hotel
-4:30 scotch, bruschetta, vodka drinks, Julie brothers, lobster pastas, aunts & uncles
-8:00 Owen & Jesse, iced intakes, Tremble, bouncy balls, Pocket abode, Slash & Nico, more scotch
-11:00 Skes & Staab, Puga & Momo, back porch with smokies and a homeless guy under the playground slide
Sunday, it goes:
-10:00 coffee, coffee, shower, "foundation" (by which they mean stupid corsety in and up thing, by which I mean the only strapless thing I own aside from the bridesmaid dress)
-11:00 Samuel's deli, eggs and bagels and potato pancakes and blintzes with sour cream and Skessicas
-12:00 Julie hair, bridal magazines, slippy floors, nerves?
-1:30 hotel, dress steaming, face-making, bouquet clutching, jewelry giving, picture taking, cuteness
-3:00 pictures with the boys, carrying bags, meeting harps, Julie & Paul are SO PRETTY
-3:45 chairs and families and fussing and fretting and it's windy and oh no! but it didn't rain
-4:00 we walk in, Jesse makes words ("most excellent adventure"!), Paul gets weepy, Julie gets giggly, we all get weepy, they kiss, there are butterflies and bunnies, the harpist plays "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and hooray! married! hooray!
-4:30 more pictures, more pictures, quick now like a whirlwind and we wait on the bus and we wait on the bus
-5:30 tasty bites and more scotch and family and hugging and love and a gorgeous garden and only a little bird poop and we're all getting drunk and we're all in love
-Later there is food and more booze and toasts and dancing and dancing and dancing and Schwa schmoozes with the relatives who have amazing tales and I jump up and down and twirl and flail until I have to take my shoes off and switch to water instead of wine and sweat and sweat and oh yeah, I forgot, asparagus
-Later still when we have to say goodbye we kind of can't believe that we have to say goodbye, that the people we met from Philly and Sacramento and Colorado we might never see again, and the friends we have in New York and Boston and Virginia and Arizona we might never see again but we're all so in love, we're all so grateful, we are all so honored to have been in this place with this people, all so worthy of love
-And then we get back to Skes & Staab's and remove the foundation and there are red marks on my sides and coffee down my dress but we don't care, we porch, smoke, collapse
Monday, it goes:
-10:00 coffee, coffee, kill time with the cats who are hungry but we don't know where the food lives
-11:00 we just miss the El, stand on the platform, Skes frets, we poke fun, I do my best not to fall down
-11:30 twenty five for brunch, moments of catch-up missed amidst the whirl of booze and last night's excitement- I can't believe it's been two years since you did that, I can't believe we've all been apart so long and damn, this eggs benedict is delicious
-1:30 the sidewalk is crowded with hugs, thanks, I'll miss you, we'll see each other, take care, I love you, I love you, everyday pedestrians slip through us and we half-apologize but it's hard to care
-2:00 packing and cats and Skes & Staab and stalling on the porch and ohmygod it's 4:00 if we don't go now we'll get caught in rush hour and into the car and onto Lake Shore and it's not crowded and onto 41 and onto 90 and we're headed home, how sad, we're headed home...
I tried to write something coherent but it was too incoherent to capture. The charge of love was larger than the harsh of leaving. My bestest friends got married to each other. This was the best weekend I've had in a long time.
-6:30 am depature, McDonald's breakfast (so bad, so tasty), a toll road, a toll road, a toll road
-11:45 Chicago time, Lake Shore drive, we wait, we inch forward, we wait, we tweak, we wait
-12:20 dropped off by the spa- where's the spa? where the fuck's the spa? I have no phone, I have the wrong address, I'm in the middle of downtown Chicago, where the fuck's the spa?
-12:30 thank god, find a library, find a phone book, find the spa address (stupid numbers inversion), find the spa
-12:45 mimosas, ladies, got my nails did, mellow mellow
-3:00 Obie boys, families, rehearsal in the garden, big fat raindrops, rehearsal in the hotel
-4:30 scotch, bruschetta, vodka drinks, Julie brothers, lobster pastas, aunts & uncles
-8:00 Owen & Jesse, iced intakes, Tremble, bouncy balls, Pocket abode, Slash & Nico, more scotch
-11:00 Skes & Staab, Puga & Momo, back porch with smokies and a homeless guy under the playground slide
Sunday, it goes:
-10:00 coffee, coffee, shower, "foundation" (by which they mean stupid corsety in and up thing, by which I mean the only strapless thing I own aside from the bridesmaid dress)
-11:00 Samuel's deli, eggs and bagels and potato pancakes and blintzes with sour cream and Skessicas
-12:00 Julie hair, bridal magazines, slippy floors, nerves?
-1:30 hotel, dress steaming, face-making, bouquet clutching, jewelry giving, picture taking, cuteness
-3:00 pictures with the boys, carrying bags, meeting harps, Julie & Paul are SO PRETTY
-3:45 chairs and families and fussing and fretting and it's windy and oh no! but it didn't rain
-4:00 we walk in, Jesse makes words ("most excellent adventure"!), Paul gets weepy, Julie gets giggly, we all get weepy, they kiss, there are butterflies and bunnies, the harpist plays "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and hooray! married! hooray!
-4:30 more pictures, more pictures, quick now like a whirlwind and we wait on the bus and we wait on the bus
-5:30 tasty bites and more scotch and family and hugging and love and a gorgeous garden and only a little bird poop and we're all getting drunk and we're all in love
-Later there is food and more booze and toasts and dancing and dancing and dancing and Schwa schmoozes with the relatives who have amazing tales and I jump up and down and twirl and flail until I have to take my shoes off and switch to water instead of wine and sweat and sweat and oh yeah, I forgot, asparagus
-Later still when we have to say goodbye we kind of can't believe that we have to say goodbye, that the people we met from Philly and Sacramento and Colorado we might never see again, and the friends we have in New York and Boston and Virginia and Arizona we might never see again but we're all so in love, we're all so grateful, we are all so honored to have been in this place with this people, all so worthy of love
-And then we get back to Skes & Staab's and remove the foundation and there are red marks on my sides and coffee down my dress but we don't care, we porch, smoke, collapse
Monday, it goes:
-10:00 coffee, coffee, kill time with the cats who are hungry but we don't know where the food lives
-11:00 we just miss the El, stand on the platform, Skes frets, we poke fun, I do my best not to fall down
-11:30 twenty five for brunch, moments of catch-up missed amidst the whirl of booze and last night's excitement- I can't believe it's been two years since you did that, I can't believe we've all been apart so long and damn, this eggs benedict is delicious
-1:30 the sidewalk is crowded with hugs, thanks, I'll miss you, we'll see each other, take care, I love you, I love you, everyday pedestrians slip through us and we half-apologize but it's hard to care
-2:00 packing and cats and Skes & Staab and stalling on the porch and ohmygod it's 4:00 if we don't go now we'll get caught in rush hour and into the car and onto Lake Shore and it's not crowded and onto 41 and onto 90 and we're headed home, how sad, we're headed home...
I tried to write something coherent but it was too incoherent to capture. The charge of love was larger than the harsh of leaving. My bestest friends got married to each other. This was the best weekend I've had in a long time.