a weekend of festivals and sports and wicker park

the excitement of my near-death experience yesterday distracted me from documenting a really packed weekend.

friday i met up with katelyn after work at the plymounth bar rooftop lounge. it had a great view and good people watching and weird mist spraying out of pipes into the air. i guess the mist was supposed to cool you off, but it only helped my hair frizz. thanks, don't need any more help.

after that, i went home to make sure i met up with my friend alison coming in town from atlanta. we almost relived our college days by getting ready and leaving the condo at 12:30am. our destination: the rainbo club in wicker park (damen & division). supposedly wilco likes to hang out here when not on tour. i loved it already. it was a very small intimate club/lounge. no dancing going on, but there was a small stage where i bet a 1-man band could play a gig, a photobooth if you wanted to prove to all your friends you really did meet a cute guy, and a pinball machine if you didn't feel like socializing (though why would you go to a club in the first place?) alison and i met up with katelyn there and i'd say we had a pretty good time. i mean, i'm going back. most clubs stay open til 4am, which i definitely could have done, but this one turned on the lights at 1:45am and started kicking people out. note to self: go earlier next time.

in spite of the late night, i made it up for the 10am softball game. let me preface this paragraph by saying i truly enjoy the company of most the people on my softball team OFF the field. on the field, they (one) think we are in the world series or something and get so bent out of shape if anyone makes an error. we totally were winning 5-1 until the last inning when we lost our mojo and let the other team score 9 runs. so we didn't make it to the next round of playoffs. fine by me because it was stinking hot and humid and i was ready to quit. we all went to el neuvo mexicano on clark st. for lunch after. it probably wasn't the best idea to order sugary margaritas and sit the hot sun... we learned our lesson; i think everyone's stomach hurt. food was awesome though. i will definitely go back but on a cool evening or in the fall.

following some afternoon errands, alison and i made our way to the taste of lincoln festival. supposedly they had food and bands and crafts for sale, but all i saw was drunk people. and i wasn't one of them. ok i lie, i saw some bands. one even played 'sweet home alabama' and made me feel quite at home (except i was the only person to yell out 'roll tide roll!' after they sang the chorus... guess they don't do that up here). i figured out the point of festivals is not what they portray themselves as (taste, art fair, etc); it's about beer and meeting people. lots of beer, lots of people. basically a huge street party every weekend of the summer. it's pretty awesome, but i'll have to get there earlier again.

i love that i go to church at 6pm on sundays (yes i am following a paragraph about beer-filled street festival with a statement about church). 6pm church = still get to sleep in. which i did and then met mj and jenna (gals i've met through rose) at 3rd coast cafe for an amazing weekend brunch. i went home to change clothes (sundress on a windy day is never a good idea) and run some more errands. at 4pm i filled in for another softball team hoping to redeem myself for saturday's poor showing. again, the guys on the team take it way to seriously. one guy ran over from shortstop to catch a fly ball that i clearly could have gotten. on another play he so easily floated the ball to me at second and screemed at me not to go for the double play. i shouldn't have listened and gone for it, but when people scream you usually take a few seconds to react. oh well. i also walked and struck out. i have learned to restrain myself from giving the ground a severe beating with the bat after a strike out; i think i'm maturing!

after the game, i got all spruced up and headed to wicker park for church. i was actually supposed to go to church and then run a booth at the wicker park festival. i never actually made it to church because i thought surely they wouldn't be preaching while the loudest band i've ever heard was jamming on a stage literally outside the school where church is held. so i just found the booth and let everyone know i was there. want to know what booth we had? it was a 'make free buttons' booth. yep, buttons. like the ones you had all over your bookbag in 3rd grade. but those cooky wicker park people totally ate it up. we were non-stop button-making-machines from 7-10pm. everyone wanted to know why we were giving stuff away for free and we said 'we're with citichurch and we wanted to share the button-love'. facetious, but you get the point. the church wants to be good neighbors and reach out without being fake. i love it.

so that was my weekend and that's kind of how all my weekends have been. busy. non-stop. great.

p.s. if anyone can think of another word i can use instead of 'awesome' i would really appreciate you letting me know.