A few years ago my best friend and her husband moved to Chicago. We packed them into a couple of trucks and a car and drove from Houston to Chicago nice and slow, taking about two days. We still got there before the moving van, but it was a nice trip. We spent the waiting time playing Munchkin-fu. It's a fun game but a day or so of it and it starts to pall. I found out later a friend of mine works for the company.
I adore my Stacy-girl and I'd go up there just to yarn-stalk and drink coffee with her if I had the money. Her husband spins a mean pun and we've all got stories and gossip and knitting to share. But wait, there's more!
Last year in December I auditioned and was accepted to work for an on-line radio station. Basically, a group of players for the video game City of Heros pooled talent and money to create a player-run streaming audio server called The CAPE radio. The "DJ" of the hour logs into the server to provide music and snappy patter during their regular show time and there is a stream-hold of music all night long. We have fan-created ads that make fun of bugs in the game ( El Supernatural Mexicano), praise the developers (Sexy Jay Station ID), and spoof on gamers in general (Dock Workers Need Love Too). We run in-game parties, weddings and events with music picked by the hosts or tailored for the event. We create ads for Super Groups or Villain Groups, the COH universe version of a guild. We've even been known to host and run fairly massive charity drives that have Real World impact and raised a lot of money for several different charities.
Two years ago, the CAPE started to hold meet-ups for DJs and listeners, and anyone else who wanted to join us in Chicago. It's right in the middle of the country and a major hub for a few airlines which makes it fairly cheap to get to. We get everyone together on a Friday night and do Rock Band until our eyes fall out. Then Saturday we go do karaoke at a tiny little bar in a Polish neighborhood. The owner is a sweet woman named Alice who indulges us shamelessly. She brings in food (the bar only serves drinks) and she often will keep the bar open late for us. We hardly disturb the regulars and we all tend to drink quite a bit.The later in the evening it gets the more languages are spoken and even sung in. Then, at 4 am when Alice will no longer indulge us, we tumble out into the wild streets of Chicago to hunt down pancakes and other breakfast foods, stalking the frisky bacon and bringing the coffee pot to its knees drained dry. This is the time that makes for the worst pictures generally. Sunday, we sleep and take in the lazy sights and the fabulous Chicago foods and Monday we all go home.
So Thursday I'll be up at a horribly early time of day to get on a plane and fly to Chicago. For four days I will pretend that nothing actually bad exists in the world. There will be inconvenience, possibly some car stuffing. I might snore in front of people who didn't know I could make a noise like that (or that any human being could). But for a tiny slice of my life I'll be allowed to just be me enjoying myself. It's called vacation and I hear it's good for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment