Greetings from Chicago, where it is Saturday night, and I am sick. Even though I am sick, the day has not been uneventful. I rode the wave on an endless supply of Aleve (more than the recommended daily dosage, should have read the package I guess before I took seven of them.) At any rate I had no choice because I had to work and there was no way I could get through the day without swallowing. So, I took a major quantity of over-the counter-drugs.

The call of free internet and my addiction to writing weird crap drove me to the lobby of my hotel, but now that I am here I realize I must make this quick, as my drug-induced energy is waning, and quickly. I am too scared now to take more Aleve. I may have to suffer through several hours of not being able to swallow. Luckily I am not yet congested, because that takes all the fun out of partying while sick.

The coolest thing that happened today was we went to a party on a rail car, in Union Station. It is an old rail car and you can rent these things and cruise around in them! All over the country! If you have ever taken a train, please throw away all thoughts of those moments. These rail cars have leather sofas and kitchens. I was completely in love the moment I stepped into that car. There was not much room so there was lots of squeezing around people. I earned bad points for saying that of course Smarty Jones did not win the Triple Crown, that shit is all fixed, and also that George W. was going to try to capitalize on the death of Ronald Reagen. It was a small space, and I guess I should be more conscious of sound carrying in these situations. But I gained points when we were all discussing the renting of the rail cars and how food and beverages were included. “All beverages?” I asked. “Like liquor too?” A moment passes. “Suckahs….” I yell and the whole car erupts with laughter. “I’ll drink a bottle of Bailey’s before 10 A.M!” Some guy says. It was a different kind of after trade show party, one of the best ones I have ever been to. I will not rest until I get to rent one of those rail cars and go to New Orleans in it.

Today we also had an altercation. It was me, my boss, my co-worker Chad, and his girlfriend Gina. (Earlier, Gina, who is a chiropractor, did some weird thing to my neck that totally freaked me out, but that is another story.) We all left the convention center where there was a huge line for cabs and also, for the busses that take you to the hotels. We never wait in line, we just walk towards the hotel until we can flag a cab. But today we encountered the security guard from hell. We walked up the street, and he points back and says, CAB LINE OVER THERE. We were like, Dude, we are walking. (Until we can get a cab that is.) He was watching us for a long time, I guess, because we heard a shout and someone on the other side of him hailed a cab. He was screaming and ranting at these people, when we hailed a cab and got in. This is Chicago – there are cabs everywhere. So, we are in the cab going down the street and the Security guard walks out into the road, and stands, arms outstretched, in front of our cab. GET OUT OF THE CAR, NOW he says. We were like, are you tripping? My boss is yelling, you have no authority here in the middle of a Chicago Street! The guard comes over and demands that the cab pull over and kick us out. The poor cabbie, who had no idea what was going on, said quietly, I can’t kick a fare out of my cab. The guard was kicking and hollering and I swear, was about to completely lose it when we pulled away.

Is it really worth getting your panties in such a bunch? I’ve got to go to bed now, and hope I am not a slave to the Aleve in the morning.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 5th, 2004 at 6:35 pm and is filed under Tales from a Strange Land. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.