Blue Men

It was a really fun holiday weekend.
On Friday, I drove to East Lansing right after work to meet up with Amy. We hung out with her new boyfriend, at least I think I can safely call him that, and his friends and headed over to Rick's. The boys live in Treehouse apartments, only a block down the street from Evergreen Arms, so both to and from the bar Amy and I did our share of looking up at 11F's balcony and feeling sad.
Rick's was fun as usual, and we didn't even get the chance to play photo hunt this time. I don't clearly remember much more, except for what Amy and I were able to piece together the next day. People were running and wrestling and a toe nail was torn off. Chris, Amy's boyfriend, had one too many Sparks and was dancing, no bouncing, all over the walls, the ceiling and a small table in the living room. It was a good night.
The next day, Amy and I drove to Chicago. We did well navigating ourselves to the city, until we got close. When we reached downtown, we somehow headed south, instead of north, and ended up asking for directions from an assisted living security guard in not-the-best area of town. He tried to point us in the right direction and told us repeatedly to "look for the men in blue. Don't ask directions from just anybody. You look for the men in blue." We must have looked pretty helpless.
We didn't need to ask for further directions. We found our hotel, the Beldon Stratford, just fine from there. It was a pretty fancy place, chandeliers, extravagant carpet and valet-only parking (no other choice, we asked). Our room could have comfortably served as an apartment with its full-size fridge, stove and microwave. I definitely felt out of place there.
Amy went star-crazy, convinced that since some celebrities live/visit Chicago, we were destined to them all in our night there. As we ate dinner at a restaurant down the street from our hotel, she stared almost nonstop at a girl she swore was Melissa Joan Hart (Sabrina, or better yet Clarissa for those not in the know.) I looked, and although I admit there was a resemblance, it definitely was not her. Amy continued to stare, was tempted to snap a picture with her camera phone and screamed "Melissa" as we left to see if she'd look our way. She didn't.
We also spotted, actually Amy spotted, Hugh Grant, Rubin Stoddard and Demi Moore, among others.
We walked to the theater, which was only about a mile from our hotel. Blue Man Group was amazing. We were front row, center, and they were right in our faces. We had to wear ponchos to fend off the chewed up Captin' Crunch cereal and Twinkie vomit propelled off the stage. Afterward, we took pictures with the blue men and stopped for a martini before heading to bed. We felt sophisticated sipping on our ritzy drinks, and tried hold back the shudders we had every time we took a sip of the Manhattan.
We got an early start Sunday and got back to East Lansing in good time. Then we drove to Chris' cottage in New Baltimore for a day on the lake. However, when we got there Chris was no where to be found. His family, on the other hand, was everywhere, and drunk. Parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, including one who called us whores. It was a little awkward, to say the least, until Chris finally arrived from his friend's boat an hour later. Then he felt bad, and drunk, and entertained us the rest of the evening with golf cart rides, his dad's dancing and a pool party at his friend's house.
Overall, it was a great weekend. Three nights in three cities and I still had Monday to relax.