Man, yesterday was taxing, though in a good way.

First I drove downtown to the Hyatt to meet Troy and Eulalia to perform my second wedding-related duty, taste-testing the planned menu for the wedding's meal. Let me tell you, for those of you who are coming, it is FANTASTIC. Delicious, nutritious, makes you feel ambitious, as my grandpa used to always say. Wow...I haven't heard or said that in ages...whoa.

After the meal, we decided to try to find things to kill time until 10-cent wings at Hawkeye's. So around 3:30, we drove over to a store called Papersource on Chicago and Franklin. Eulalia and I had to go to the bathroom, so while Troy meandered through Papersource, we tried Starbucks...no luck. So we went to Bar Louie a couple doors down. I never feel comfy just walking into a place, using the bathroom and leaving, so we got a beer and relaxed a bit. Troy then called us, wondering where we were. We finished the beer and went back to Papersource to finish up. Some chick actually asked me, "Can I get your opinion on something?"
I'm like, um, yeah, I guess, though I may not be the best person to ask.
Chick: "I'm trying to put together invitations for a baby shower (? I think that's what she said), and I like these colors, but I don't want it to look girlie. Does this look too girlie to you?"
Me: Um, hmmmm.
Eulalia: "Hi, Andy, what's the question?"
Chick: "Well, I'm putting together...does this look too girlie?"
Me: I don't know...I don't think it looks TOO girlie. Maybe this one color is girlie, but not these other ones.

And it went on, with Eulalia helping probably more than I was, and the chick explaining her life story as to how she got thrown into this at the last minute and her parents were stationery manufacturers and they sold the business or something like that and that she would rather have a different shade of red than one of the reds she had, but there were no other alternatives. And then we left the store. Quite interesting.

As we approached the car, I noticed it was the only one on the street. I knew I had a ticket, and I ran to the car, just in case a tow truck was approaching somewhere. I discovered I had a ticket indeed. $50 for rush-hour parking. Damn. We did not notice the sign right in front of the car that said no parking 4pm-6pm, which is unusual, because I always look in the city. I guess it felt like it was much earlier in the day when we got there, so I thought nothing of it, fed the meter and that was that. Thankfully it wasn't towed.

We then stopped at AlphaGraphics on Irving Park Road and then Kim and Nick's to see what was up there. It was the first time I've ever been in their apartment, and it was nice. :) I'm just saying that...no, really, it was nice.

By then, it was time to meet Luis at Hawkeye's for wings and beer. We did so. Luis talked to one of the bartenders who'd typically given us more or less a cold shoulder most of the time. She just started talking to us about how she went white-water rafting on the New (sp?) River in West Virginia and nearly died when the raft flipped completely over. She also talked about how much fun it was, but she'd never go again. And then how she watched "Deliverance" the day after she got back and couldn't believe how accurate it was on the rafting stuff or something...whatever. It was cool, as it always is.

So now, I'm back at work. I hate that. :)