Party Like It's 2006

Forgive me, I haven't exactly kept up the pace here these last few days. I had an all-day wedding over the weekend, plus a late-night comedy party fest Saturday night. Getting to bed at 3:30 just doesn't suit me very well. I'm pretty lame - more the "read until 9 or 10, get up at 5 or 6 and hit the gym before work" type. But it was well worth it.

I served as one half of an all-female best man team for a friend (of a friend) who got married at the Columbia Yacht Club. It was an honor to be included in such a small private ceremony, and especially to be entrusted with calming/wrangling the groom, administering the pre-wedding Zombie, keeping a tight hold on the rings and marriage license, and offering the groom the last gumstick of his bachelorhood in the hotel car on the way to the club. The groom didn't hesitate to complain that the gum was rather smashed and flavorless, and laughed when I pulled out my cell phone to sign up for the next level of my writing class at Second City on the way there (I always wait until the last second), all of which added a nice touch of normalcy to the day.

The ceremony was supposed to take place on a boat out on Lake Michigan, but the weather wasn't cooperating, so it was held inside the club instead. Then there were drinks and chitchat before moving to dinner at a restaurant nearby, where the four-year old boy who became my default date ate all the croutons off my Caesar salad and offered me a few french fries as consolation. (I indulged him because he and his seven-year old brother were a little frightened by the tornado sirens we heard in the cab on the way over, and they were both a little peeved by the buckets of rain that drenched us as we dashed from the cab into the restaurant. Well, plus, I'm a softie and I usually indulge kids anyway.)

Then there was the comedy tour, during which K-Rock and I gave Apiary Nate (our editor from NYC) a whirlwind tour of Chicago laughs and beer. It was great to meet Nate, the mysterious "Charlie" figure to our "Angels." He's a real flesh-and-blood dude, after all. One of the friends he brought along asked how we knew each other, and I explained that we sort of didn't. "I got an e-mail out of the blue one day," I said, and then I wondered - how long had he been reading this blog before he asked me to edit the Chicago branch of his beloved Apiary? Turns out it was a few months. Nate's nothing if not thorough. Read all about it on the post I slapped together on the Bastion.

Even after a soothing long bike ride to and from class at Second City on Sunday, and almost ten hours of sleep last night, I'm still feeling a little wrung out. Sometimes I wish comedy were more of a morning activity, but I don't think that's ever going to change, so I guess I'd better get used to it.