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A note from Chicago....

Nov 16 '04 (Updated Nov 17 '04) Write an essay on this topic.

The Bottom Line Free beer, free food, free love... well almost.

Dear Everybody—

Wow—what a weekend.

It started around 3:45 in the morning on Friday when Andrew came and gave me a little shove to get me going. We had to get on the road early—very, very early—if we were going to do this Epinions Meet & Greet thing. So… while I really am not a morning person, I allowed myself to be awakened, gladly accepted a cup of coffee, put on the jeans and sweater I had put aside the night before when I was awake enough to choose an outfit, and headed out to the station wagon.

Some sixteen hours after pulling out of our suburban driveway north of Dallas, we were pulling up in front of my brother-in-law’s very charming row house in Chicago. I’ll spare you the details of most of our drive, but as we were cruising up and down the streets of Dan’s neighborhood, Andrew and I agreed that Chicago really is a special city. Even though we were tired from the long drive; even though we weren’t in the part of the city that gets shown on postcards and in photo books; even though we drove around for an extra half-hour trying to find the right street amidst the maze of one-ways, dead ends and odd diagonals; we instantly decided that we loved Chicago and if it wasn’t for some minor details like having a job and room for our kids, we would get a flat in one of those old brownstones that have all that character and become a part of the landscape of the Windy City.

But I digress….

Anyway, after eating some real Chicago pizza, catching up on life with Dan and his girlfriend Kelly, and catching some ZZ’s on the sofa bed, it was time to get in a bit of sightseeing before beginning our real purpose for being there. Note to self: next time you go to Chicago, make sure you leave more time to actually see Chicago. A couple of hours walking around at the lake, checking out Millennium Park, and staring at the impressive skyline is not enough!! What we saw was enough, though, to know that we definitely want to take a longer trip to Chicago before too terribly long.

Then it was time to head over to Dave and Buster’s for the party. I was excited, and more than a little nervous. Andrew is the social butterfly in our union—my own tendency is to be more of a wallflower, watch what’s going on, keep from saying anything stupid, and soak up the fun from a distance until I feel more comfortable. This was not to be. My usual M.O. was foiled almost immediately.

As we entered the upstairs room set aside for this shindig, we were warmly greeted (and meeted?) in turn by Christal, Sara, and Garrett who came over, offered handshakes and hugs, and pointed out some of the other members who had already arrived before leaving us to our own devices so they could meet (and greet) the other members who trickled in over the next half hour or so. Other members of the staff—Randy, Paul and Rob (who’s handle I don’t know) were also scattered around the room, talking with members, putting m&m’s in little plastic bags, monitoring the laptop that was set up so people could access the Epinions site just in case they couldn’t spend 3 whole hours without getting their fix. (OK—so it was really there in case anyone wanted to show a technical problem to the network gods at the party. I like my story better.)

The next 3 hours were a bit of a whirlwind. I got to meet Ed, Caroline and her partner-in-crime Eugene, Ben, Eric, Mike, Lori, Shelly, Kathy and husband Michael, Jason, Rex, Kristina, and Paul. Also in attendance, though I missed out on meeting some of them were Tom, Abraham, Melissa—daughter of Michael and Kathy (And thanks, Kath, for giving me her 'real name'.), Deborah, Hahna, sshelle (who I just plucked from Kathy's review), and Bob.

Note: I know I’ve left off at least 1 person who was there (the nametag said ‘guest’ I think), and I may have left off others. If you know who you are, please tell me so I can add you to my list. The vast quantities of Guiness that I consumed courtesy of Epinions have prevented me from having absolutely clear memories of every name and face I encountered that afternoon.

Many of the highlights of the afternoon have already been covered in great detail by my fellow revelers. From the sexy hunk of man-flesh that is Paul, to the deep conversation I had with Kristina; from the wild exuberance of Mike and Eric, to the more reserved friendliness of Kathy, Shelly and Ed, to the somewhat surreal moments with Jason (are you related to Gilbert Gottfried?); everyone I met was fantastic. Everyone made me—the aforementioned wallflower—feel like I was more than just a corsage for the Tomato’s collar, but that I was a welcome member of the ‘in-crowd’ in my own right. I didn’t want the party to end.

And it really didn’t—a subset of the partiers gathered again a few blocks away to sing the night away at The Blue Frog, a hole-in-the-wall local bar featuring board games and karaoke. I loved the singing and craziness—a reminder of many hours of my misspent youth that were passed in the presence of booze and singing. I would do it again in a heartbeat—in fact I’d like to start campaigning now for the next M&G to be in north Texas so we can plan another Karaoke after-party and also a barbeque after-after-party the next day (sorry guys—if you come to Dallas, you’ll have to plan to stay for at least 2 days instead of just one).

After getting back to Dan’s place at about 2:30 Sunday morning (we had one more place to go after the karaoke bar) we got a few hours of sleep. When we came-to, we drank copious amounts of coffee, went to an afternoon movie (I Heart Huckabees), ate Thai food for dinner, and got back in the station wagon at about 8:00pm for our long drive home. Some eighteen hours later (yes, we slept in the car at a rest area for about 2 hours somewhere along our route) we got back to our little suburban Dallas home. And while I missed the dog and the kids and my own bed, I would not trade one moment of this weekend. The dog and the kids and the comfy pillow are my everyday. Making new friends is the chance of a lifetime—and I hope that some of you are friends for a lifetime.

Amy

P.S.—I won’t go into details on the concert Andrew and I went to after the Karaoke except to say that, dang, my brother-in-law is a badass! As the bassist for the Outlaw Family Band, he is way cooler than any other member of our family. Learn more about the way they rock in Chicago (Andrew has labeled it ‘blue-grunge’) by visiting www.outlawfamilyband.com. Martyr’s (the bar they were playing at) was loud and I was half asleep on my feet, but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world!

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