LA LA LA LA LA LA LA! Your glasses are dirty!

Last Sunday was a nice day for just the 2 of us. Most Sundays are deemed "Sunday Funday" and involve friends and beer. But this past Sunday was just Blondie, me, and beer. We were mostly lazy all day, and then around 4 pm, decided to head out for a short walk. We walked down to the pier and watched the water and boats for a bit, before stopping at a bar on the pier for a few drinks to end our afternoon. Blondie was wearing a shirt from Key West that day, and someone saw his shirt and ended up stopping and talking to us for a long time (because he used to live in Key West). It was pretty cool and pretty random. And after the pier, we got a few more beers and then sat watching traffic from our balcony.

Monday and Tuesday were crazy days at the office - just go, go, go all day long. The highlight of Monday and Tuesday was Tuesday evening drinks with 2 coworkers. One is a really good friend who I drink with a lot, and the other was his boss that I'm not that social with. But his boss rocks and we had a blast just shooting the shit and relaxing after a long day.

Wednesday my alarm went off at 4 am so that I could get up and get to the airport for a 7 am flight to Chicago. I was upgraded to first class before I even checked in, so that was nice (the plane was full and there were 24 people on the first class upgrade list so I was happy I got upgraded). The flight went on time and was pretty quick, but we landed in Chicago to a very chilly rainy day. I picked up my rental car and drove out to my project site (about 90 mins outside of Chicago) to spend the day working there.

I met my coworker first who had driven in also and we went for lunch and got caught up, before meeting the staff for the first time. They are actually a really great group of people who made me laugh pretty much all day long. We tore through a ton of work that afternoon, and then my coworker left to go back to Chicago (she lives there) while I drove about 30 more mins to the town I was staying in that night.

I did a lot of work that night from the hotel and then treated myself to a margarita and queso dinner. Afterwards it was back to the hotel to crash HARD for the night. Thursday was another busy day - I was onsite by myself this time, but managed to get through a ton of work at the various sites we are going to be deploying in. Thursday night 2 coworkers flew in for our training on Friday. I met up with both of them at the hotel lobby before we settled on hibachi for dinner. After dinner it was a few drinks back in our hotel lobby before the night ended a little early.

Friday was training - always a nerve wracking time as you want things to go WELL for the users. And it did! Relief! I had a few things to do at one of the sites before training, but then showed up about an hour before training started to get prepped. The users seem very enthusiastic about it all and we just generally had a good day with everything. After training ended, I chatted via phone with a staff member for one of my other projects for a bit, before making the drive back to O'Hare and dropping off my car.

The train into Chicago from the airport was pretty fast and before I knew it, I was seeing Slick and PFunk for the first time in almost 2 years! My cab from the train to their area (which, just, LOVE) dropped me at their local bar and they had secured us a spot on the patio. We spent several hours there getting caught up on each others lives before one of their other friends joined us. We had a few more drinks there after that, before taking PFunk back to their apartment and the rest of us heading out to another bar. We ended up closing that bar down and then making a burrito run to end our night.

And then of course, Saturday morning sucked. I lazed around until 9 am, and then drank a couple of coffees with Slick before he took me to the airport. A huge McDonald's meal, which I got in an attempt to kill my hangover, did not in fact, kill my hangover. And then my brilliant thinking decided hair of the dog was in order. So I got on the plane (first class yet again) and got a bourbon. Which took me almost the 2 hour flight to drink. And did not in fact kill my hangover.

When I finally got to my apt, I took an hour nap and then Blondie and I went out for a date night. We headed up our street a bit and stopped at dinner at one of our favorite places, before heading to our local to watch the Rangers game and catch up with our friends. It was a later night (because I finally killed my hangover), but a really good one.

Yesterday was spent drinking. Heavily. I started by meeting up with some friends at Pony at 12:30. One of my friends was getting texted frequently for work (it was his day off) and he was getting stressed out. When they finally got the issues resolved that they were trying to deal with, he turned to me and said "let's get fucked up". And it seemed like a *brilliant* idea. (It wasn't). We drank at Pony for a long time before heading back to our local bar to wish our bartender happy birthday. And ended the night at 10:30 pm at yet another bar. And then went home and passed out immediately.

The story of my life. Sleeping. Working. Drinking. Exciting... so exciting!

Plans on tap - NO TRAVEL THIS WEEK! Well - maybe not quite. I'm due back in Chicago area next Monday for the entire week so I thought I might try to fly into Madison and hang with my BIL and his family this weekend. If that happens, I'll either be leaving Friday night or Saturday morning. I also got the Madison project officially. So most likely will have to be back in that neck of the woods in the next 2 weeks.

And then the exciting news!!! Blondie got accepted at Google I/O! From his entire company, he was picked to represent his division. He'll be going out for that conference to SF at the end of June and I'm going to join him for a few days so we can do the "Redwoods Run" and hang out in that area for a bit. AWESOME news for Blondie - it's truly a HUGE deal to get into this conference - so happy for him!

And after Google I/O, it's time to meet my family in the Land of Oil for a few days of golfing, middle-aged men roller skating, and baseball.

How is it already almost mid June?

--K