48 HOUR ROUNDUP

This has been another long and exhausting yet thoroughly entertaining weekend in good ol' Chi-Town. Here's a quick blow-by-blow:

THE DATE

My Friday night date went very well, although not exactly according to plan. Since we really could not find a movie that we could both agree on, and since we were starving we opted to go out and have dinner rather than fight the crowds at the multiplex. JT came over and we had a drink than walked through the little downtown section of my neighborhood, with me playing the role of the tour guide pointing out interesting architecture, funky little shops and the bars and restaurants.

Finally we settled on a simple bar/grill were we drank beers, people watched (we got my favorite table which is surrounded by windows and 3 sides) and ate good food. He ordered a cheese steak sandwich, I had the grilled cheese.

Afterwards we walked around some more to burn off our heavy meals. Rather than sit in one of several crowded, noisy bars, we hit up the liquor store and went back to my place. We drank, listened to music and flirted with one another. Eventually we moved into the to the other room and put in a DVD. We settled on "Jarhead" since JT had never seen it (not to mention I will never tire of seeing Jake without his shirt on).

I must say I prefer watching movies at home as opposed to the theater. Whereas the a movie theater has the huge screen, stadium seating and popcorn, I have an acceptable TV, booze and comfy couch to make out on! Towards the end of the movie JT's eyes were getting heavy so I suggested we lay down. It didn't take him long to wake up and we had some "fun" although we kept it PG-13.

Roomie's cat woke me up around 7AM, crying because he was hungry. I reluctantly unwrapped my arms from JT and fed the little fuzzball, than climbed back in bed and went back to sleep for another 3 hours. Upon opening my eyes I was reminded that I am not in fact dreaming and traced my fingers alongside still sleeping JT's back. Eventually he awoke and I gave him a nice good morning kiss. Damn I like this boy! I would have been more than content to lay there all day with him, but alas, he had things to do and so did I. Sigh.

THE NOT SO FUN PART OF THE WEEKEND

Saturday afternoon I (finally) dropped off the rent check, did some shopping and did a ton of laundry at the laundry mat. Ugh, I fucking hate doing laundry with a sincere passion but at I got to watch the Cubs stomp on the Mets (in your face Billy!). The Mets gave up 5 runs in the 3rd inning and I went home grinning ear to ear. We won 6-2. Hells yeah!

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY

Saturday evening my buddy MarK picked me up to go to our mutual friend's 30th birthday party. Friend's wife selected a "Sopranos" theme for the party and asked everyone to dress up like characters from the show (birthday boy kinda looks like Tony, only Jewish). Since I don't own a jogging suit and I don't wear suits except for funerals or weddings, I elected to dress up like my normal self, in a t-shirt and jeans.

This was a family/friends affair so I knew very few people. Friend's Mom said hello to me and called me Ryan. "Mom" friend said, "his name is Justin". "Well, I knew it ended with an N" she said. Following this exchange I made a beeline for the beer tub. My newly 30 year old friend has 3 brothers in law who are triplets. I know one of them is gay but I can never tell them apart, however, while I was walking over to the beer tub the gay one, who was laying on a couch spotted me. "Heeeey Justin" said he. "Hey man, whats crackin'?" said I. We chatted for a moment but I spotted another friend who I hadn't spoken to yet and I excused myself.

Although I always feel awkward at these family/friends parties, I must say that I had a great time and ate some terrific Italian food (friend's wife can cook like non other).

We left at 9:30 and headed back to the city.

THE SHOW

The plan for the rest of the night was to head down to Wicker Park and see a free show at the Double Door. MarK is awesome about finding out about these things and last night was no exception. Rhapsody.com was hosting a private post-Lollapalooza gig featuring Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, Chin-Up Chin-Up and the Ponys.

We rushed to get back to his place, had a drink and some smoke then hopped on the Western Ave bus and headed south. It was a bit of walk from the bus stop to the venue and I was worried the place would fill up before we could get there. To get in to this show all one had to do was RSVP on-line (you couldn't buy a ticket even if you wanted to) but it was still first come first serve and we got there at 11PM, an hour after the doors opened.

Not to worry, they found our names on the list and we were rewarded with wrist bands. Said magical wrist bands had 2 little tabs on it labeled "DRINK" which I redeemed for some Red Stripes (free music + free beer = happy me!).

Less than 5 minutes after getting inside Ted Leo and his band stormed the stage and proceeded to RAWK THE FUCK OUT. This was the first time I had ever seen him live and he did not disappoint. It helped that he was playing at one of the best sounding venues in Chicago but dude was amped (coked up?) up and wailed around the stage. Awesome.

During set break I noticed a smokin' hot guy with spiky blond air standing next to me. We started talking about music and Lollapalooza. Turns out dude is some kind of important music industry executive and spent the whole day behind the various stages at Lollapalloza and at various VIP shin-digs. I always thought these types of guys were douche bags but he couldn't be nicer.

While talking he extended his hand introduced himself as "Mike". About once every 5 seconds I had to remind myself that I only have eyes for JT and that Mike was likely straight. Eventually the lights dimmed and the The Ponys came on and started rocking out with furious abandon. Gotta give it up for the local boys!

MarK disappeared while I was talking to Mike (more like screaming in his ear over the loud music) but reappeared with 2 Fat Tire bombers. Pinch me! Needless to say I was drunk off my ass at this point and past the point of caring about the heat in the barely air conditioned place. I wanted to stay and watch the next set and continue talking to Mike but MarK was getting tired (pussy!) and we left around 2AM.

Whew, busy weekend. I need to go the gym and burn some carbs. Hopefully the universe will allow JT to have some time to hang out tonight, but I know he's super busy babysitting (awwww) and he has more family functions later this evening. Sigh. Hope you are all having a great weekend and staying cool. It's hot as shit here in Chicago...

If you're interested in what the hotness that is Ted Leo & The Pharmacists sounds like, click here to see a video of their song "Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone" (I would embed the video but Blogger is in a bitch of a mood).