Here's my Memorial Day weekend in a nutshell ...
After spending Friday cleaning the yard and the house, we were awakened -- a common occurrence these days -- by Phoebe's crying at 8:30 a.m. ... Kates fed her and I jumped in the shower ...
By 10:30, my buddy Ed was on our doorstep for our reunion tour with Matty. The three of us worked together years ago at a small-town newspaper for all of nine months. But those were some of the most random and fun times of my young adulthood -- and I've said many times: I've never laughed as hard or as long than I do when I'm with those guys ... The purpose for our reunion: Matty's getting married, and this weekend was his bachelor bash.
I gave Eddie the quick tour of the homestead. We caught up on life, played some vinyls, and I mesmerized him with my collection ... Then we hit the road and trekked to our first stop: U.S. Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox ...
Matty and the rest of our party crew hadn't arrived yet, so Eddie and I had plenty of time to take in the park's exterior, including a massive marble monument to the 2005 World Championship team. A rock 'n' roll band also was playing outside the gate to add to the festive atmosphere, and Eddie and I had a good time watching people and musing about the money fans throw at teams so they can have their names put on bricks and help pay for the the club's multi-million dollar players and facilities -- which will be demolished and forgotten a half-century from now, along with those measly bricks.
At 2 p.m., the rest of the guys arrived, and Eddie and I were in the stadium before Matty could finish doling out the tickets ...
Now, I've been to U.S. Cellular Field, er, New Comiskey Park, multiple times -- but never to see a game. And I gotta say -- I'll take the fan experience at Wrigley Field or Miller Park any day; I was a little disappointed ... Perhaps my experience would have been better if we hadn't been in the bleachers --- the main scoreboards were obstructed by seats, poles and overhangs. And the batting lineup and players stats weren't shown on the stadium's iconic exploding scoreboard -- nope, they were on the scoreboard directly behind us. Obstructed and making my neck sore from constant turning around ... Beyond that between-inning entertainment was lacking, and the passionate fans I'm used to seeing at Wrigley and Miller Park were nill ...
The game was bland too. Sure, the Angels and White Sox were two of the best teams in the majors going in ... But there was no scoring until the sixth inning. Although I did get to see a Vladimir Guerrero home run, the Angels scored two runs in the inning, and that's the way it ended, 2-0. The only other highlight was Ozzie Guillen getting ejected for arguing a called third strike in the ninth inning -- but even that was a seemingly lame plot to get the crowd fired up.After the game we hit McGinny's Tap. Great atmosphere. Tasty food ... And we got to catch the Cubs game for a nightcap ...
And finally, we ended the night at a Chicago classic -- Zanies ... Kicking off the show was a guy whose name I don't recall, but it doesn't matter -- he was awful and he knew it. At one point, he even said to our lifeless crowd, "It don't matter if you guys are having fun or not, I still got five minutes left." ... The other performers, however, weren't near as disappointing. We saw Melissa McQueen, who had some hilarious bits about her upbringing in western Kansas, losing weight and moving to L.A. And then the headliner for the night was Baron Vaughn, who did this hilarious ipod bit and ended his routine with a catchy song about penises and lollipops -- seriously! -- which was genius because we had it stuck in our heads the rest of the night ...
And that was that. Eddie and I said our good-byes to Matty and the gang, and soon we were back on the interstate heading home.* * *
... On Sunday, I reunited with Kates and Phoebe, and we hit the road for a family gathering ...
It was pretty low-key as far as family gatherings go. Phoebe stayed sleeping in her car seat for the first hour ... and then woke up in time for Grandma and Great-grandma to share a little argument over who got to hold her first. Fun times.
... By 7:30 we were home and getting Phoebe to bed ... And then we listened to the storms roll in. I've not heard thunder so loud in a long, long time. Some of those I swore touched down in our back yard; at one point I shot straight up in our bed and literally watched the alarm clock begin blinking when the power zapped out.
And Phoebe and Kates slept through the whole thing without even flinching.
* * *
To close out the weekend, we caught up on some movies ...First up: Wedding Crashers ... Now we can say we've seen it -- but I think it's overrated. Sure, there were some comical moments -- not to mention a great cast -- but I didn't find any of them to be so hysterically funny I thought I was going to wet my pants. The movie got really predictable, really quick and it was only a matter of time before John ended up with Claire ... I give it 2.5 stars.
Second movie: Must Love Dogs ... Yeah. Barely 30 seconds into it, I was telling Kates, "Why do I feel like I've seen all this before." Then she started telling me about the plot as though she had already seen it. We wondered if we'd seen parts of it on TV -- and then realized it was one of the movies we watched during a stay at the farm last fall. Doh!
For that, we decided it was time to take a break and get outside to enjoy the day's gorgeous weather. We took Phoebe for a walk. Grilled out. Put Phoebe to bed. And then stayed on our deck until it was so dark we couldn't see the other side of our yard.
We closed out the night watching Hairspray ... I wasn't so ecstatic about it when we finished watching the film as I am now that it's had time to sink in and I've watched the DVD extras ... Nikki Blonsky is a riot and the rest of the cast is fantastically balanced with a load of new -- I love watching Amanda Bynes -- and veteran talents (Hello, John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah and Allison Janney!). Watching the DVD footage of the cast meeting for their first table reading, during the choreography and recording the music gave me such a deeper appreciation for the film ...
I'm going to be singing "You Can't Stop the Beat" in my dreams tonight ...
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