Thursday, January 10, 2008

The rest of my U.S. trip (2)

Being Gay and Happy in Chicago

So after having to pay like $500 on towing and tickets (oh yeah, I got another ticket like two weeks before the accident), I felt like crap. I spent the next to days talking to my insurance company , since I didn't know if it was going to cover the other car's damages, talking to the repair shop, it was hell. So I thought I was having a bad week, but one day after I got out of work, I got to the lockerroom and realized my perfect, $160 sunglasses, which I bought with my first paycheck, were stolen. NOW I could officially say I was having a bad week. That was, until I found out Daft Punk was going to play in Lollapalooza. Since my sunglasses were stolen, I felt like I had no reason to live, but this just gave my life a new meaning. I inmediately made all the arrangements: bought the tickets, asked two days off, and I was ready to go. At first I wanted to stay in a hostel, but I talked to my relatives living in Chicago, and I was kind of forced to stay with them. Which was actually the best thing I could've done. Not only I had a nice, bug free place to sleep, but I also had the luxury of eating 3 times a day, non of which including sandwiches or $1 burgers! (I spent the entire summer without having breakfast because I always woke up late). So now that I had food and bed covered, I could focus on having fun. I spent the first two days on a shopping spree, going to museums, and spending time with my cousins. I spent the afternoon of the second day in Lakeview (by myself of course) , had an amazing dinner at the Chicago Dinner, and just enjoying the cultural diversity of my favorite city.

Next Day was Lollapalooza Day. I woke up really early, put all my new clothes in one giant bag, so I could easily carry it on the bus back home. I had to be at work the next day at noon, so I had to catch the 11pm greyhound bus. My cousins were going to pick me up after the concert and take me directly to the station. Lollapalooza was AMAZING. Honestly, I only bought the ticket to see Daft Punk, but I got to hear some great music (M.I.A., The Polyphoic Spree and G. Love and Special Sauce are a fundamental component in my iTunes library). Even though I was alone, I met some cool people, and had a lot of fun: I sang Linkin Park's In the End at a Motorola karaoke booth, joined a clue contest, flirted with some girls at the G. Love gig, then with a really hot guy at the M.I.A gig, but of course, I ddn't really cared about them. My only purpose was to see the greatest one of all: Daft Punk. I got to the stage like an hour before the show started, so I got a really nice view, (plus I got a really nice view of Perry Farrell kissing one of the guitarists in the mouth, and of course, Farrell's wife amazing ass).
The show was amazing. As a Facebook group says, I've seen the Daft Punk triangle, life will never be the same. It was great to be in this huge party, where everybody was dancing and singing. I didn't care that I had only eaten like two hotdogs and drank like 7 bottles of vitamin water in the entire day, I didn't care that I had to leave the town in two hours, I didn't care about any of the problems I had because of my bad driving. I has happy, because I had worked my ass off to be there, and I just wanted to sing One More Time like there was no tomorrow.



A happy ending, after all
As soon as the show ended, I had to take a 6 hour bus so I could be at work on time. It was saturday, and it was supposed to be really busy. When I got there, it was raining and attendace was low, so they were overstaffed (which totally sucked, since I could've stayed for the second day of Lollapalooza). Everybody was all cranky, but I was just glowing: I had seen my favorite group live, and I had only three more days of work before ending my contract and going to NYC. Plus, finally everything was coming to a happy ending: my insurance company was taking care of all the damages of the other car, mine was being towed to a junkyard, and my tickets were paid.
Saying goodbye to my friends was hard. Crazy Bulgarian Girl has some serious issues, but we ended up becoming really close friends. I guess it's because we understand each other's madness...whatever. I still talk to some of them, and hopefully I'll see them again sometime. But it was time to look at my bright future: Now all I had to do was taking my cheap Northwest plane to New York City, for the final six days of my U.S. trip.

(To be Continued)

2 comments:

Chicago's Bi Guy said...

I'm glad you enjoyed your time in Chicago. We have a lot to see and do. Ive been tempted to go into the Chicago Diner so maybe I'll try that next week. What did you think about lakeview (boystown) that's the section of town I live in. Trust me after a while you get bored and tired of the "night life"

mstpbound said...

i'm glad you had a fun time in chicago!! :D and welcome back to the world of blogging! if you're ever in the DC area, give me a holler...