"Woulda Been Better On A Boat..."

Bea's my favorite.

SO! The long-awaited Chicago saga! You are giddy with glee! You weep tears of joy as your dreams come to fruition! You dance a spontaneous soft shoe as elation pours through you! You...you don't? Oh. Alright. Just reading is ok, too.

I went to Chicago a coupla weeks ago for Sean and Keffy's wedding extravaganza. It was an action-packed week, to say the least. I got in on Tuesday morning and settled in at our home for the next few days: The La Grange Motel. Hoo boy. It was...adequate. I was neither mugged nor beaten while staying there and the price was right, so I guess no complaints. (ok, one complaint: I couldn't get the little slatted window in our bathroom to close and it was actually IN the shower...so I could see the goings on in the parking lot below whilST lathering my hair. Kind of unnerving). Bea and Andrew and Brad and Erin all showed up that evening and the week o' activity began. We did oh so many things. Some highlights follow in what I shall heretofore refer to as...

WEDDING WORDS!

City - Pat, Andrew, Brad, Erin and I spent about two days exploring downtown Chicago. We rode the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier. We ate pizza at Unos. We went to the top of the Sears Tower. We ate pricey food at Harry Caray's. We visited the House of Blues. We walked...a lot. It was pretty much awesome.

Second City - Bea and I wandered down to The Second City on Thursday afternoon. It's in a really cool neighborhood - lots of little local shops and cool buildings and whatnot. Great place to wander on a beautiful fall day. Anyway, we went to Second City to check out the place and maybe get tickets to a show. Done and done. We saw all kinds of great photos of troupe members who went on to be pretty dang famous. And we booked tickets for Saturday night. At 11pm. The show was hilarious...and lasted until 2am. Downtown Chicago is pretty interesting at 2am. Good times!

Ed's - After our first trip to the Second City, I introduced Bea to Ed Debevic's. I went there once with my college roommate - it's a fun place. The waitstaff is all sarcastic and they dance on the tables and stuff. Our waitress' name was Babycakes and she was just about as sarcastic as they come. On our check she wrote "Thanks - now get out!" I was waiting for Bea to actually call her Babycakes...cause, you know, it would have been funny to hear him say it...but he never did it. Ah well. Can't get everything you want.

Zoo - The wedding was on Friday evening. Friday morning dawned cold and windy, so instead of going downtown for pictures (where it would have been even colder and windier) we went to the Brookfield Zoo. Yup. All 17 of us piled into the stretch Escalade and rolled on over to the zoo for a couple hours of pictures.

Best People - We finally got Sean and Kathy married off [cue simultaneous sigh of relief for me and the Bea]. We were Best Man and Maid of Honor and I'd say we definitely put in our hours over the months leading up to the wedding. The ceremony and reception were really great. They sort of sprang our Best People toasts on us, though. We walked into the reception, sat down at the table, and ten seconds later the DJ says "and now we will hear a few words from the best man..." Yikes! I was not-so-secretly glad that Bea had to go first. At least I had a couple minutes to collect my thoughts. I think it went fine - I honestly can't remember what I said. Hm. And I caught the bouquet. FANtastic. It was me and about a dozen 14 year old girls who I had about a foot and a hundred pounds on. Nope, not embarrassing at all.

I'm sure I'm leaving a ton out, but I think this is long enough as is. It was a great wedding and I'm so happy for Sean and Kathy. I remember a couple years ago, back in Augusta, when Kathy and I would be driving away from church and she'd be going on and on about how cute this Sean-guy was and how she wanted to get to know him better etc. etc. etc. etc. ... etc. etc. etc. (Keffy's a bit of a talker...) Mission accomplished, I'd say. :-)