crawling back
Nov. 25th, 2002 03:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
squamousI am once again hanging out in my old cubicle at Shaftco, in Chicago, sitting across from Blake. Man this place is just dying. It is sad to see it now and reflect on the glory days, however foolishly obnoxious those days were (oh and they were foolish, powerfully foolish). Lots of layoffs, still. Some this very day apparently. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't have kept working here, sucking blood as the big dumb corporate body slowly died, milking it all the way down, but really that would not have been much of a solution. I am glad I got out of here when I did, but am sorry it has come to this lowly state.
The city itself, Chicago, must've gotten under my skin more than I realized though. I was downtown several times over the weekend, near my last apartment here, and found myself kind of missing being able to just stroll around downtown. It's hard to know what I would do if I came back though; a lot of my friends have already moved on, and it's expensive to live here. Plus just living at the foot of all the big buildings and scurrying around like an ant can get overwhelming. But it was a lot of fun to visit.
The wedding was great. I am most happy for Shawn and Katie, they are just both such fine people. I can't wait to see what they do with their new life together.
I got in Thursday evening and hung out with Shawn and his dad and sister. We were joined by our friends Brett (the best man) and Lori, then went to dinner with some more of Shawn's relatives. Friday we ran around some, then had the wedding rehearsal. I think Katie had the single most attractive collection of bridesmaids I've ever seen. I wanted to apologize to the poor girl, Shana, who had to stick her hand through the crook of my arm but she was very nice actually. Kind of amusing to me though, somehow, and some of we groomsmen joked about it a little - as Shawn himself put it, this is what happens when a marching band geek grows up to marry the girl who was both Prom and Homecoming Queen. The rehearsal dinner was at the Parthenon, and was a very big, friendly, emotional time, with a ton of good food. Shawn's mom just passed away at the beginning of this year, and I did find myself thinking of that from time to time and feeling sad she was not present for the wedding. I am sure it weighed much more on the minds of others there, and her name came up several times of course.
I stayed with Shawn the night before the wedding, and was the only one who did, so that was kind of fun, talking to him right before the big day. Everything went very smoothly on the wedding day - Shawn's large collection of groomsman and ushers and offertory people assembled in his apartment and we all got dudded up and walked to the church. The wedding included a full Catholic mass, and all went very well. I felt privileged to see the whole thing up close, see my good friend Shawn take this step in life. I had some various negative thoughts about Catholicism which I of course kept to myself... I was very surprised to find I had this internal, out-of-nowhere contempt for the priest. It was just odd, but naturally I didn't show it. I am not sure where it came from. I am generally not the type to mock people's beliefs, I hope.
After the wedding there were some pictures, and a trolley ride, and more pictures, and then we went downtown to the Bank One building on Dearborn (if the building has another name, I don't know it) to the 56th floor for the reception. The view was amazing, with the city all lit up at night, and I enjoyed it all the more since it was positioned in the midst of an area where I did a lot of walking over the past few years, so now I got to see everything from way up high. The reception was great fun... there were 220 or so people involved but I know a surprising number of them, and all were very fine folks. They had a live band that played things like "Billie Jean" and "I Will Survive", and of course the obligatory "Brick House". It was a great evening... got to hang with various friends from the college days, many of whom now live around DC. Made plans to go visit them sometime soon.
The next day there was a brunch and then I went out to the suburbs to visit my friends there. Hung out and played with Cooper and Eliot, which is always a lot of fun. Eliot wanted me to do crafts with her so we wound up making some paper hearts. Cooper is into origami now and had an instruction book for paper-folding, but I was of little use to him with that. We watched "Spy Kids" and had a wonderful mini-Thanksgiving dinner (don't worry, I got every bit as full as I would at a regular Thanksgiving meal). Crista made some experimental blueberry-cranberry pie that was the best thing I have ever had in my mouth. That night we chatted and played Trivial Pursuit (Mike won).
I noticed this weekend that I have some weird irrational hair-trigger temper thing going, where it seems like I have momentary impulses to blow up over the dumbest stuff. No idea where that is coming from or what might account for it. I hope it's just some temporary response to some perceived stress-aggravation or disrupted sleep schedule. I'm worried it's like something out of a MASH episode, where I will have my irrational outbursts til Hawkeye or Sidney whoever have an insightful heart to heart with me where it is revealed what I am deep down really angry about. I can't imagine what it would be... or, I would sooner not try to. It would all be just too lame if that is what is going on here. I should have nothing to bitch about in this life at the moment.
Today I said goodbye to Mike and Eliot then Crista and Cooper took me to the train, which I took back into the city. Met up with Blake and we had lunch at The Olive Branch, which is still the yummiest place to eat, I tell ya - altho they did stop serving the pastries from Shatila Food Products. Very sad. But a good lunch nonetheless. And of course now I am checking in here running down my insight and chuckle free account of the past few days. And now it's time for the airport... sorta wish I could've stuck around here a little longer, but I will be glad to get home, as well.
The city itself, Chicago, must've gotten under my skin more than I realized though. I was downtown several times over the weekend, near my last apartment here, and found myself kind of missing being able to just stroll around downtown. It's hard to know what I would do if I came back though; a lot of my friends have already moved on, and it's expensive to live here. Plus just living at the foot of all the big buildings and scurrying around like an ant can get overwhelming. But it was a lot of fun to visit.
The wedding was great. I am most happy for Shawn and Katie, they are just both such fine people. I can't wait to see what they do with their new life together.
I got in Thursday evening and hung out with Shawn and his dad and sister. We were joined by our friends Brett (the best man) and Lori, then went to dinner with some more of Shawn's relatives. Friday we ran around some, then had the wedding rehearsal. I think Katie had the single most attractive collection of bridesmaids I've ever seen. I wanted to apologize to the poor girl, Shana, who had to stick her hand through the crook of my arm but she was very nice actually. Kind of amusing to me though, somehow, and some of we groomsmen joked about it a little - as Shawn himself put it, this is what happens when a marching band geek grows up to marry the girl who was both Prom and Homecoming Queen. The rehearsal dinner was at the Parthenon, and was a very big, friendly, emotional time, with a ton of good food. Shawn's mom just passed away at the beginning of this year, and I did find myself thinking of that from time to time and feeling sad she was not present for the wedding. I am sure it weighed much more on the minds of others there, and her name came up several times of course.
I stayed with Shawn the night before the wedding, and was the only one who did, so that was kind of fun, talking to him right before the big day. Everything went very smoothly on the wedding day - Shawn's large collection of groomsman and ushers and offertory people assembled in his apartment and we all got dudded up and walked to the church. The wedding included a full Catholic mass, and all went very well. I felt privileged to see the whole thing up close, see my good friend Shawn take this step in life. I had some various negative thoughts about Catholicism which I of course kept to myself... I was very surprised to find I had this internal, out-of-nowhere contempt for the priest. It was just odd, but naturally I didn't show it. I am not sure where it came from. I am generally not the type to mock people's beliefs, I hope.
After the wedding there were some pictures, and a trolley ride, and more pictures, and then we went downtown to the Bank One building on Dearborn (if the building has another name, I don't know it) to the 56th floor for the reception. The view was amazing, with the city all lit up at night, and I enjoyed it all the more since it was positioned in the midst of an area where I did a lot of walking over the past few years, so now I got to see everything from way up high. The reception was great fun... there were 220 or so people involved but I know a surprising number of them, and all were very fine folks. They had a live band that played things like "Billie Jean" and "I Will Survive", and of course the obligatory "Brick House". It was a great evening... got to hang with various friends from the college days, many of whom now live around DC. Made plans to go visit them sometime soon.
The next day there was a brunch and then I went out to the suburbs to visit my friends there. Hung out and played with Cooper and Eliot, which is always a lot of fun. Eliot wanted me to do crafts with her so we wound up making some paper hearts. Cooper is into origami now and had an instruction book for paper-folding, but I was of little use to him with that. We watched "Spy Kids" and had a wonderful mini-Thanksgiving dinner (don't worry, I got every bit as full as I would at a regular Thanksgiving meal). Crista made some experimental blueberry-cranberry pie that was the best thing I have ever had in my mouth. That night we chatted and played Trivial Pursuit (Mike won).
I noticed this weekend that I have some weird irrational hair-trigger temper thing going, where it seems like I have momentary impulses to blow up over the dumbest stuff. No idea where that is coming from or what might account for it. I hope it's just some temporary response to some perceived stress-aggravation or disrupted sleep schedule. I'm worried it's like something out of a MASH episode, where I will have my irrational outbursts til Hawkeye or Sidney whoever have an insightful heart to heart with me where it is revealed what I am deep down really angry about. I can't imagine what it would be... or, I would sooner not try to. It would all be just too lame if that is what is going on here. I should have nothing to bitch about in this life at the moment.
Today I said goodbye to Mike and Eliot then Crista and Cooper took me to the train, which I took back into the city. Met up with Blake and we had lunch at The Olive Branch, which is still the yummiest place to eat, I tell ya - altho they did stop serving the pastries from Shatila Food Products. Very sad. But a good lunch nonetheless. And of course now I am checking in here running down my insight and chuckle free account of the past few days. And now it's time for the airport... sorta wish I could've stuck around here a little longer, but I will be glad to get home, as well.
