the ocean

Some of our friends threw us a little party in honor of our (March) marriage last night. It was really great! People came in from all over and we had heavy appetizers and a full bar. I love when my friends meet my other friends, so it was sort of my platonic ideal. Here are some pictures!

My sister and my friend Liz! I look blurry for some reason.

Some of my Bar Show crew! We take a lot of pictures, some of which we should definitely think twice before sharing anywhere.

It's Air & Water Show weekend here in Chicago, or as I like to call it, %#@&^%. Hundreds of thousands of people come into the city to fail to make right turns on red, amble aimlessly directly down the middle of the sidewalks, and presumably watch an air show of some sort. Parking in our neighborhood becomes an absolute nightmare, as opposed to its standard fever dream, and every Walgreen's line becomes clogged with people trying to haggle over the price of sunscreen. In short, it is a grand affair.

This year, one of my friends had a party, because her new place has a gorgeous rooftop in an excellent location for viewing. Because I will take any excuse to drink rose in mass quantities, I attended, and on that score it did not disappoint. I did spend the majority of the actual air show program hiding inside my friend's condo and consoling her terrified dogs, but I pretty much got the gist of it from the ear-splitting flyover noises.

Afterwards, I tripped over the sidewalk and scraped my entire forearm against the side of a building while trying to get to McDonald's and order a chicken sandwich. May there be many happy returns of this day.

So the church my mom and I go to has started making us all introduce ourselves to each other at the beginning of each mass. This may not seem like a big deal, but we're Catholic, so the whole idea of church is that we can sort of disappear into the background and think about where we should go to brunch afterwards. I already have to shake hands with strangers after the Our Father without a sanitizer station in sight; I wasn't exactly looking for more. And let's not forget that we are, by and large, not a charismatic religion -- if I wanted lots of excitement, I'd become a Snake-Handling Baptist. That might even get me on the news.

Anyway, I've struggled over the years with the Catholic mass. I'm definitely for all of the social justice, but kind of against the premarital sex will blow your legs off business. I'd also prefer that there be less child rape involved, but maybe that's just me.

The 9 AM mass we go to has the huge disadvantage of being at 9 AM, but I do like having the whole day ahead of me afterwards. And there's never a threat of acoustic guitars, which tend to creep into the later services. Also very few children, which is good, because Jesus said to "let the little children come to" him, not me. I'd hate to get in the way.

I was just in San Francisco for work for a few days. It was pretty nice. A lot of the work I was doing consisted of drinking and exchanging business cards, so that's okay. The weather was beautiful the whole time, although they did have these weird, anemic mornings where I felt like I wasn't even sure they were really happening yet. That could have been me, though, given the drinking mentioned above. And I got in a short visit with a friend I've known since kindergarten, but who has nevertheless forgiven me for throwing up on her mother's day card. That's the sort of closeness you just can't develop overnight.

It is always kind of weird dropping into a city for one or two days and just working there, though. I didn't really get to see any of the major attractions, like the Golden Gate Bridge or the Full House building. Mainly I saw the hotel conference rooms and the bars and restaurants within a two block radius of there. Oh, and the airport. I do have to give some credit to SFO for their range of food options and plentiful outlets. Demerits to United for the in-flight internet not working, however. I was already out of reading material for heaven's sake.

I'm definitely glad to be back with the full weekend ahead of me, though. I've got a lot of not doing stuff to be doing before Monday comes.