Pimpin' in Chicago

This weekend I took a trip to see Gwen at DePaul in Chicago. It was a ton of fun, and I met a lot of super awesome people. Check out the Package Deal blog for a list of the people.

Thursday was kind of a settling in day. I ate far too much sushi and met a boy, Scribbler, who was both Anarchist and Communist. I still believe that his particular political persuasion doesn’t really work in real life. I also learned that in Chicago people don’t argue Liberal v. Conservative like we do in Iowa; they argue Radical v. Liberal, which is really weird for me. Mike and Gabe told a story about vampires and sang some pretty songs for us.

Friday was shopping with mommy day in the morning, and then Radical Cheerleading day at some random coffee shop off the Jarvis stop. Krysta showed up later than night after lying to me, which is good for me. It was also exciting because I went to my first party that I had to be buzzed in to. You know, apartments have those little bell things, so you can let the people into the building. It was so fun for me.

We also went to The Weiner Circle, which is a hot dog stand run by a bunch of angry black women. They curse at you and it is SO great. Direct quote: “Which one of you skanky hos ordered this hot dog!?” We watched a bunch of drunk guys get into a fight, only to be broken up by the token white guy who works there. We met a nice boy named Brad, who I’m not totally sure wasn’t gay, and Gwen got an awkwardly placed kiss for some cheese fries.

On Saturday we went to see Wicked. It was amazing…SO GOOD! The costuming, the script, the music, the actors, it was just great. I can draw a whole lot of parallels from the musical to the world we experience every day. The witch, Elphaba, was not actually a bad person, however, was labeled in such a way by the society. The Wizard was not actually an amazing man, but was put in a position of power simply because the people needed someone to believe in. The relationship between Glinda and Elphaba was something to be examined, as well. They were two complete opposites drawn together in spite of themselves. The underlying love story, and the change of heart of Fierro showed that not everyone is all that fucked up and cold. The script was just absolutely brilliant. I don’t even need to mention how incredible the costuming was. In short, it was extraordinary; at the top of my list, indeed.

Later that night, after making a deal with our good friend Cory, there was ice cream to be had along with some French fries with the Heterosexual life partnership of Noah and Matt. I inappropriately called James McNab, SammyK, and Peter. Later we took a jaunt down to the lake, played in the sand, and looked at the moon. After awhile a boy named Josh made a great observation and said, “Guys, the Chicago police are watching us, and I’m not even lying.” We decided it’d be good to get to stepping, not to mention that is was ass-cold and very, very early in the morning.

Morning, wake up, take the train into the center of the city and walk though some kind of parade. It was really weird for me. All in all, what a good weekend! It was so much better than doing all of the homework and studying for AP tests that looms, so incredulously, over my head.

-Ashley

I never asked for this
Or planned it in advance
I was merely blown here
By the winds of chance
I never saw myself As a Solomon or Socrates
I knew who I was
One of your dime a dozen
Mediocrities