ChiDope '04 Wrap-up
May. 24th, 2004 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
av8rmikeEveryone else is doing it, why not me?
I couldn't get a flight for Friday night, so I had to miss![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gundy's festivities. Also, I had nothing to wear. Instead I opted to get up at 5:00 Saturday morning for a 7:45 flight. The flight in and trip to the hotel was pretty uneventful, until I got to the hotel. The first room they gave me was apparently a "conference suite," with a large living room, couch and chairs, and a full conference table. I took a shower and was planning to take picture of the suite when the front desk woman knocked on my door and told me they'd given me the wrong room and needed it for a wedding that weekend. Oh well, no harm done, and the second room was still nice, even without the conference room.
I metjdoh, Billdo, Gingy, Dave, beagledave, and I bunch of other people I don't feel like linking to in the lobby, and we took the el downtown. The goal was to explore Michigan Ave a little, then take the Architectural Boat Tour, but we seemed to have missed the boat. We were hungry, and it was starting to rain, so the few of us that were left went down into Chicago's basement to have lunch at the Billy Goat Tavern. This is the "cheeseburger, cheeseburger" place made famous by Belushi's SNL skits from 20 years ago. After that it was back to the hotel to change and head off to dinner at Lou Malnati's and tavern fun at Black Rock.
Kyla and her roommate talked me into going out afterwards to some gay bar. I had a pretty good time, but it was getting really late, and if Kyla is starting to get tired, it must be time to go back home. The cab took me to the blue line, but I stood on that goddamn platform for at least 45 minutes waiting for a train (the hotel was by O'Hare). I didn't get to sleep until 4:30, so that was at least a full 24 hours awake.
Sunday I managed to get up and meet a few other travelers for breakfast. Jane and Bill offered to chauffeur me to mini-golfing and wherever else, since my flight wasn't until 6:00 PM. There were about ten of us in three groups, and somehow my group ended up being the slowest.billdo1 never told me my score, so I have no idea how I did. =P A bunch of us ate at Super Dawg afterwards, then explored this crazy store called American Science & Surplus or something. Interesting place, but I doubt I could have flown back with anything I'd have wanted to buy.
My flight was supposed to be on time, but there was apparently some severe weather east of us that they had to route us around. Therefore they decided the best thing to do was park us on the tarmac for an hour and a half and let everyone else go around us. We finally got in to Baltimore at about 10:30, almost two hours later than scheduled. Neither of the friends that I called were able to meet me, so I had to take a cab back and spend the last of the money in my wallet, which didn't even get me home. At least on the walk back from downtown at 11:30, if someone had stopped to rob me, I wouldn't have had anything to give them.
Personal shout-outs go togundy, misscreant, jdoh, and all the other people who took on the thankless job of organizing everything. Thanks to postmoderngirl, bristlesage, dynosaur, javamaven1, and justplainbryan for letting me hang out with them Saturday night after Black Rock. I wish I'd been coherent enough to talk to everyone more. And speaking of which, sorry to aries28, zanshin_dave, and anybody else I forced to listen to my drunken ramblings. I'd been looking forward to meeting many specific people, and I feel like I squandered the opportunities to talk to them. Hopefully I'll remember better for next time.
I couldn't get a flight for Friday night, so I had to miss
gundy's festivities. Also, I had nothing to wear. Instead I opted to get up at 5:00 Saturday morning for a 7:45 flight. The flight in and trip to the hotel was pretty uneventful, until I got to the hotel. The first room they gave me was apparently a "conference suite," with a large living room, couch and chairs, and a full conference table. I took a shower and was planning to take picture of the suite when the front desk woman knocked on my door and told me they'd given me the wrong room and needed it for a wedding that weekend. Oh well, no harm done, and the second room was still nice, even without the conference room.I met
jdoh, Billdo, Gingy, Dave, beagledave, and I bunch of other people I don't feel like linking to in the lobby, and we took the el downtown. The goal was to explore Michigan Ave a little, then take the Architectural Boat Tour, but we seemed to have missed the boat. We were hungry, and it was starting to rain, so the few of us that were left went down into Chicago's basement to have lunch at the Billy Goat Tavern. This is the "cheeseburger, cheeseburger" place made famous by Belushi's SNL skits from 20 years ago. After that it was back to the hotel to change and head off to dinner at Lou Malnati's and tavern fun at Black Rock.Kyla and her roommate talked me into going out afterwards to some gay bar. I had a pretty good time, but it was getting really late, and if Kyla is starting to get tired, it must be time to go back home. The cab took me to the blue line, but I stood on that goddamn platform for at least 45 minutes waiting for a train (the hotel was by O'Hare). I didn't get to sleep until 4:30, so that was at least a full 24 hours awake.
Sunday I managed to get up and meet a few other travelers for breakfast. Jane and Bill offered to chauffeur me to mini-golfing and wherever else, since my flight wasn't until 6:00 PM. There were about ten of us in three groups, and somehow my group ended up being the slowest.
billdo1 never told me my score, so I have no idea how I did. =P A bunch of us ate at Super Dawg afterwards, then explored this crazy store called American Science & Surplus or something. Interesting place, but I doubt I could have flown back with anything I'd have wanted to buy.My flight was supposed to be on time, but there was apparently some severe weather east of us that they had to route us around. Therefore they decided the best thing to do was park us on the tarmac for an hour and a half and let everyone else go around us. We finally got in to Baltimore at about 10:30, almost two hours later than scheduled. Neither of the friends that I called were able to meet me, so I had to take a cab back and spend the last of the money in my wallet, which didn't even get me home. At least on the walk back from downtown at 11:30, if someone had stopped to rob me, I wouldn't have had anything to give them.
Personal shout-outs go to
gundy, misscreant, jdoh, and all the other people who took on the thankless job of organizing everything. Thanks to postmoderngirl, bristlesage, dynosaur, javamaven1, and justplainbryan for letting me hang out with them Saturday night after Black Rock. I wish I'd been coherent enough to talk to everyone more. And speaking of which, sorry to aries28, zanshin_dave, and anybody else I forced to listen to my drunken ramblings. I'd been looking forward to meeting many specific people, and I feel like I squandered the opportunities to talk to them. Hopefully I'll remember better for next time.
