Lots of Celebrating

So since my last post I've aged a year. Actually, I guess technically I've only aged by 12 days but my year count has increased by 1. You know how you know you're getting old? When people hear it's your birthday and don't instantly ask how old you are for fear of possibly offending you.

So my birthday was last Thursday and 2 hours before I officially turned 31 I got undoubtedly the best birthday present I could have ever asked for when the Hawks won the Cup! Of course, with all the celebrating that went on that night it made me feel . . . less than optimal on my actual birthday. That's in fact the 2nd time I've done that to myself, where I've partied so much on my birthday eve (and, naturally, when it became my birthday at midnight) that I've had to somewhat suffer through my actual birthday. The other one was my 20th, so it's good to see I'm progressing. Take that maturity!

This weekend was pretty action-packed. Went to the Cubs/Sox game on Friday, which was weird because of what a complete after-thought it was in light of the Hawks parade and rally. Usually the whole city gets baseball fever for the Crosstown Classic (regardless of the teams' records) but this year it was much more of a "baseball? they're still playing that?" kind of feel. Still was a lot of fun even though the Cubs were roundly trounced. Right after the game I hitched a ride (being in no driving shape myself) out to Davis, IL for my friend Chicken's bachelor party. Having been drinking for the better part of 9 hours by the time I arrived, my memory is a bit on the hazy side (to put it mildly) but what I remember was a good time. It is funny how full circle things come. You party and drink with all your friends in college and for a really long time it's just an unbelievable amount of fun. But inevitably you get into your mid-to-late 20s and you're still doing the same thing. And it's still fun, but it's just no longer the unbelievably awesome time it once was (particularly because the hangovers start getting way worse). Then you get older still and you and your friends don't get together nearly that often anymore, and so now when you do you start to appreciate how rare it is. And in that way this thing that was really fun and then kinda old becomes really fun again.

Anyway, Saturday was my brother's college graduation (Congrats Zac!) and then that night we went up to Ravinia to see Steve Martin play some bluegrass. That was a ton of fun and Ravinia is definitely the best type of environment to see that in. He's a great banjo player and of course was quite entertaining between songs too. I remember listening to Steve Martin records as a kid (I know that makes me sound like I'm 50 but it's true) and always wanting to see him live so to finally get a chance was really something special. And the fact that he wasn't doing stand-up actually makes it better in a way. While I still love those records (now, of course, updated to MP3s) that comedy is definitely a product of its time and to see him up there now doing the "wild and crazy guy" routine would have just seemed really stale and dated. So I'm glad I got to see him doing something that you can tell he loves and is still challenged by. The one real piece of nostalgia he allowed himself (and his audience) was closing with a bluegrass version of King Tut, and that was awesome!

This weekend I am running in this. Climbing up cargo nets, scrambling over cars, leaping through fire, and crawling in mud under barbed wire! Woo hoo! Gonna be 85 degrees too! At least it's only a 5k. Too bad I've run a total of 3 times in the last month. Happy first father's day to me!

Getting excited for the move, yet dreading all the packing that still needs to be done between now and next Friday. And with a wedding to go to this Friday, a Cubs game and Patton Oswalt show on Saturday, and then the race Sunday this weekend doesn't appear to offer much in the way of free time either. I foresee a lot of frantic packing next week and a very late night next Thursday. We hope to have everybody over for a housewarming/poker/grilling/karaoke party sometime this summer if we can ever find a free weekend to do it.