The Night The Lights Went Out At Wrigley, blueberry beer and Ted Lilly being a bad ass

I swear I didn't do it...I don't care what you people over at Cubblogging say.....the secret is between me and Tyler Colvin. Oh wait...that was the dream I had last night. My bad.

The "it" I was referring to was the lights going out at Wrigley Field Wednesday night. That was fun times. And rather entertaining. Let's recap my trip to Chi-town, shall we?

We arrived in Chicago around 11pm on Tuesday night (there is seriously nothing more boring than the drive from St. Louis to Chicago....except for maybe the drive from St. Louis to Dallas). We checked into our ritzy hotel, the HoJo on LaSalle (hey, it was 80 bucks a night and had free parking....don't judge me) and tried to get some shuteye. Wednesday morning, we awoke to a beautiful, and really effin hot, day in Chicago. After a very yummy breakfast at a place called Yolk, we headed out to Michigan Ave for one very specific purpose....no, not to buy a purse at Coach.....to get popcorn at Garrett's. Ever tried it? It's a little kernel of heaven. Just sayin. After that we headed over to Millenium Park because, I don't care how many times I've been to Chicago, the Bean is always entertaining. Always. After lots of pics (I'll try to post some this weekend), it was time to head to Mecca, er, um, I mean Wrigleyville. I wanted to get there nice and early so we could bar hop, because, well, that's what you do when you're in Wrigleyville....right? We headed for the Cubbie Bear, which, I must say, I was disappointed in. I mean, it was fine and all, but I was hoping it was gonna be a total hole in the wall....and it was actually fairly nice....and big. I wanted wall to wall Cubs fans and the smell of stale beer. WTF is this? A clean bar? Weird. I DID however, get to see my friend Eric while there.....he met us down there so that was good times (been friends since we were 14 which was like um, only 10 years ago and stuff......HA!). After that we headed to Goose Island for dinner and more beer....um, the Cubbie blueberry beer is DELIGHTFUL. I highly recommend it y'all.

Then it was game time, it was Gorzellany vs some dude on the Dodgers (does it really even matter?). The Cubs were down 5-0 after 2 innings and it looked like I was gonna need several more Old Styles to get through the rest of the night......they mounted a comeback (hells yea, Jeff Baker 2 run homer! Too bad he suddenly went blind yesterday. For reals!!! WTF???) but ended up losing 8-5. At least I got to heckle Bob Howry (Ok, I didn't really because I'm a nice polite Cubs fan, but I wanted to. When I saw he was coming into the game I nearly cried).

Yesterday was a day game, so after breakfast with my friend Eric, we headed back to Mecca and hung out at my new favorite place-Murphy's Bleachers. Now THAT is my kind of bar. After a couple of 312's, we headed on back over to Wrigley where it was............TEDSDAY! I was so effin excited to see Ted pitch and he did not disappoint-even when he was caught cheating. OMFG, seriously? We had no idea what was going on, why that Dodger guy was so mad, it wasn't obvious from the stands, I found out later from news reports. What a douche. Accuse Teddy Baseball of cheating? Seriously? Does he not value his own life????? That, sir, was a mistake. It was nice knowing you.

I must say, watching a pitcher's duel is never exciting. I mean, sure, I was glad Ted was pitching such a good game, but if it wasn't for the freezing ass lake winds, I may have taken a nap (we used Erin's "W" flag as a blanket...yes it was that chilly). My ass was up out of my seat in the 8th however, when Mike Fonte"yes" hit that triple! SO exciting. Of course then Geo got out but then, oh then, my baseball boyfriend Tyler Colvin came up to bat. I just knew the game was about to change because young Mr. Colvin is quite good off the bench.....and have I ever mentioned how freakin adorable he is???? His double turned triple scored the game's only run and while Ted didn't get the win (that honor went to hottie mchottie pants, Sean Marshall), it was fantastic. And Marm. Oh the Marm. Nothing like experiencing a Marm heart attack in person. He walked the first guy and everyone was nervous. When Manny came up, the crowd started booing and chanting "Manny sucks" which leads me to a short diatribe. Why does everyone hate Manny? The man is PURE ENTERTAINMENT. And, I don't know if Cubs fans realize this, but Manny's ability to suck as a left fielder allowed them some hits....and later runs. Leave the guy alone! He struck out against Marm as I knew he would and all was right with the world again. Marm actually struck out the side and I could see the filthiness from here. That was some sexy pitching my man. Sexy. I finally got to realize my dream of singing "Go Cubs Go" at Wrigley Field and waving the "W" flag proudly. Bucket list check off.

After the game we had to head home as I had to work today. After sitting in Chicago rush hour traffic for like two hours, we were finally heading south down Hwy 55 and on our way back to the STL (Jen, I totally thought of you as we drove through Springfield!). We got home around 11pm....I was sooooooooo tired and ready to go to bed.....only to discover I was locked out of my apartment. Now, let me explain. I had my keys, that wasn't the issue. The issue was that my landlord had been there all day helping install new windows (they're quite nice!) and, upon leaving, apparently locked both locks on my door. Now, this seemingly is not a big issue, but each lock requires a different key (I have no idea why) and I only carry the key that locks the deadbolt.....therein lied my problem. So, at 11pm, I was on the phone with my landlord who had to drive from his home about 20 minutes away over to mine so he could unlock the door. Awesome. I'm sure that will earn me some brownie points......actually he was quite nice about it and while I was waiting for him, I got to meet my new neighbor Brian and hang out in my other neighbor's living room. Good times.

Once inside my own apartment around 11:45, I discovered not only had they locked all my locks, but they also TURNED OFF THE AIR CONDITIONING. Um...it's been in the 90's all week in St. Louis, so, at nearly midnight, it was 80+ degrees in my apartment. Who the hell can sleep when it's that hot? Not me. I was still awake at 2am (even though the air was crankin) and had to get up at 6am. Needless to say, I am a barrel full of sunshine today. Thank God for Diet Dr Pepper.