"We dress just like Cid and Nancy"

Feeling: Exhausted
Current Love: "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" - Daft Punk

Is it the weekend yet? I'm completely exhausted of energy at the moment from lacking sleep in the past 30 hours. But yet, I'm still excited about summing up my weekend at two in the morning.



FRIDAY

I woke up at 9:35 for my Diffeq class and received a text from Matt:
"You want to come to the Threadless opening?"

What.
I have been wanting to go all week, and it was surprising that he was going. Basically, the online/Chicago based company just opened a retail store and was "throwing a party" at the Metro= free shows.
After ironing out some kinks in the plan, I agreed to tag along with Matt and his friend Mike (the driver) for a weekend road trip to Chicago.

I went to my math class at 10:30 and got ready/packed before going to Mechanics at 2:30. I had to skip my 3:30 Stat class since the show was scheduled to start at 6, and we wanted to avoid traffic.
After food, gas, getting lost (solely a fault on my part), we finally got on 61 around 4:30. Lucky for us, there was an accident a mile or so down the road, and the traffic was in congestion for about 15 mins. Some car/truck was flipped on its side by the road. Eh.
The rest of the drive went smoothly and we got into Chicago just around 6. (Chicago time!) The store was a lot smaller than I had imagined from looking at pictures, but the LCD screens were super neat. I took a few pictures but did not buy anything.
The store was in the Depaul area, so Mike dropped his car off at his friend Ben's, whose apt. we later crashed at. Ben came with us to the Metro, but it took him forever to get ready. Taking the train took awhile and getting lost did not help either (not my fault this time; I was actually the one who noticed we were going in the wrong direction). We finally made it to the Metro around 8:30, where the last band, Hey Mercedes, was setting up. I was disappointed that I missed Anathallo, the band I really wanted to see, but I couldn't complain too much considering the show was free.
Hey Mercedes turned out to be punk/emo/whatever, and we all agreed that it wasn't super. We left after 40 mins. and followed Ben to his friend's party.

The party started out small and grew exponentially with time, until it hit the limit, and then decreased. It was fun talking to people, but the highlight had to be the piss-ass-drunkard.
Everyone first noticed him when he locked himself inside the bathroom throwing up for awhile. He disappeared after that, and everyone assumed he left. But later he comes out of no where, stumbles into the kitchen, where I was sitting with others. You can tell that he was about to blow as he tried making his way to the door. I watched in silent and waited for the moment...
BAM! He blasted.
The projection was rather impressive. Red liquid and chucks were splattered all around the entrance to the laundry room. Seeing as the front door was too far, the drunkard dashed for the immediate window in the laundry room and rained down from the second floor.
Oh but it gets better.

Two minutes later, a group of guys walked up from their smoke break, not looking very happy. Apparently, they got hit by the drunk's puke as the window was directly above the front door. Luckily, they didn't get too much on them, but the turn of events is still hilarious.

The hosts freaked out when people started throwing up, so they wanted everyone to leave. Ben was in the pool of people that threw up, and he was pretty wasted. We ended up hailing a cab, because he didn't want to walk, and the cab driver was really dumb.
$10 later, we made it back safely and called it a night.

SATURDAY

Mike and I woke up bright and early Saturday night. We had to pick up Matt from the apt. where we partied, because he ended up staying there for various reasons. Naturally, we made fun of him.
The plan for Saturday was going up to Libertyville, Mike's hometown. The place is about 40 minutes north of Chicago.
On our way there, I dropped into the first "Oasis" I've ever been to. It's basically a consolidation of fast food haven. I wanted to get a Gyro, but Mike recommended a local place. Since we were close to out destination, we left and ended up eating at the Gyro place. I enjoyed it, even though the meat was super salty.
We sat and watched TV at Mike's house for awhile, regaining energy and figuring out our next move. After some time, Mike's light bulb lit up, and he had a surprise in store for us.

I was pretty curious as to where he was taking us. We made a pit stop at Caribou Coffee (my first time to the chain), and ended up in the rich neighborhood. Mike led us to the end of a street, where sets of wooden stairs delve onto a beach and the sound of wave splashing lingered in the air. It was a very pleasant surprise. I had no idea the town was right by the lake, and I have not been to a beach for over a year.

We spent a long time at the beach. Everything felt calm, happy, and peaceful. I imagined how wonderful it would be if I lived in such an area. Everyday, on the beach.
But Indiana, in the end, is just Indiana.

Mike planned a get-together with his friends for the night. His dad bought him alcohol from the store and apparently doesn't care that he or his friends drink in the house. We grabbed food with his friends at a Thai restaurant for dinner, and regrouped back at his house.
The night was also his high school's homecoming, so his sister and friends were hanging out upstairs while "us college kids" partied in the basement.
We danced and raved to Daft Punk (Interstellar 5555), and later Matt taught us to swing dance. We danced the night away, and before long, everyone parted, and it was already 1 A.M. I had work Sunday morning, so I requested that we leave in the morning. Mike planned on staying up, and we all ended up staying up before leaving around 5.
By the time I got into the car, I was ready to pass out. At some point down the highway, I noticed Mike pulling into a gas station. Apparently his car was heating up, so he had to buy some coolant. Problem solved? Except some times later (I really don't remember how long, because I was pretty much drifting in and out of sleep), he stopped again because the car was still heating up. He called his dad and found the problem. Good, we're really on our way now.

I felt a little guilty for having Mike drive all the way back at this hour. I could tell that he was barely hanging on towards the end. I'm just glad I made it back safely.

SUNDAY

After getting back, I showered and got ready for work. The weather was terrific, which made the 20 minute walk fairly pleasant. I haven't gone back to work in over 3 weeks, so I had no idea what's up these days. The hours went by pretty easy as I just had to resort some books. The rest of the time was devoted to ME homework.

The rest of the day wasn't that exciting.
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Sooo, looking back, it was a good weekend with fond memories.
Also, I miss Chicago.