Gotta Love The Drake!...

Sorry for the prolonged absence. I just returned from an action-packed week in Chicago for Christmas. Here is a play-by-play for those who are interested in why I've been neglecting this blog as of late.

• Sunday we drove down in a horrendous windstorm that had knocked out any remaining snow we had up here. I got pulled over for speeding, but did not get a ticket. That's like the tenth time that's happened to me. I have a horseshoe up my ass or something. We stopped first at a mall I used to work at in high school (Brookstone) to pick up some last minute gifts. It was cold as fuck. We then drove out to my sister's house where we stayed the following three nights. It was nice to have some quality time with my two-year-old niece who is now talking quite well.
• Christmas Eve we usually spend with my dad, but he couldn't make it this year, so it was me, my brother, my sister, brother-in-law, niece, mom, aunt, Megan and I. We opened gifts and ate pizza. Megan got to be bored by a bunch of baby pictures of me.
• Christmas we spent at my mom's. It was low-key. People popped in and out and we sat around and ate Godiva chocolates I had gotten from the guy I work with and drank Champagne. I did NOT get the new racing toilet I had asked for, dammit.
• Wednesday, Megan and I left the 'burbs behind, stopped at the Garfield Park Conservatory and Club Lago Restaurant briefly, then, for the second year in a row, checked into our executive suite at The Drake, a classic Chicago hotel right at the crotch of Michigan Ave. and Lake Shore Drive. This was thanks to Megan's dad who travels a lot for work and had an excess of the hotel equivalent to frequent flier miles that he generously shared. I wrote about it last year. It's weird for me to be around that much wealth. Not weird in that I feel uncomfortable, but in that it's new for me. From there, we headed out to the much talked-about blogger get-together at the Hala-Kahiki Lounge. Everything you've read about it is true. It was great to meet new people and see old friends. Much thanks to Clare and Kristi for the DVDs and Grant and Bubs for the drinks. I'd also like to welcome Chaylene to my blogroll. Her blog is called "Better Living Through Bacon". How could a blog with a name like that have eluded me this long? Hopefully we can do that again sometime and enlarge the circle.
• Thursday we went to the Shedd Aquarium, somewhere I had not been since grade school. It was quite a lot bigger than I remember. We had gotten passes for Christmas which allowed us to bypass the considerable line out the door. Megan got some good shots and will be putting them on her Flickr site (the main reason she rarely blogs anymore). We ended up hanging out with friends back at Lago and then bar-hopping. It was a late night.
• Fuckin' A! How many links does this post have!?
  
• Friday we were pretty spent, so we took it easy. We went and got some pizza and then checked out the Museum of Contemporary Art that was having a special exhibit on art & rock and roll. We finished the day with drinks and really good soup back at The Drake.
• We drove back at a conservative rate of speed and have been listening to records on the new record player Megan's parents got for us. It was a great time, but it's nice to be back. There was also a new blanket of snow waiting for us. The gifts just keep on coming!

PS: I'll be guest-posting over on Grant's blog for the next few days, but I'll try to put some shit up over here.