Well it didn't. It kept going. And going. And going.
After the band ended, we stumbled outside where the barkeeps had been
roasting a whole pig. The main pig was nowhere to be found, but there
was definitely a lot of pig evidence. Carlos -- who is a musician on
tour from Cuba and can be seen shoving erin's face with pork while
vegetarian tuttle watched -- fed us well and made sure we had our fill
of crispy and fatty pig parts. I left with a thin layer of pork grease
coating my face, hands, camera, phone, and probably everything else I
had on me.
Afterwards we headed down to wicker park to go to nick's beergarden
(for the record, there was lots of beer, but no garden). At this point
it was nearly two am, but for some reason they could stay open later
(if any Chicago folks would like to educate me on the bar laws please
chime in, I don't understand why they could keep serving beer). We
took advantage of their wacky rules and had pbr specials for far too
long. At some point val's friend Sal jokingly texted her asking what
the plan was for 2am drinks. I bet he was surprised when she actually
answered.
At 3am we had a pretty big posse. Tuttle, Erin, Val, Sal, $2 (that's
how he told me to remember his name was stu), Josh boutros, Pete, the
magicians Dan and Adam, and a gal named Christine. There was also a
random boutros fan who happened to be there. We drank more shitty
beers until Sal told me to drink something good. So he bought me a
local brewed 312 (which was mildly florally orange flavored)
and bought himself a pbr. Who says chivalry is dead?
At 4:30 or 5 -- i really cant remember -- we realized they hadn't
closed yet but thought we should get going. I wanted French fries or
food so we popped into some taco place. When I got there some girls
turned to me and shrieked. They said they'd seen me earlier (thank you
orange dress) and wanted to meet me. One said I looked like Amelie
(the film. And yes I double checked that she wasn't saying america, as
in ferrera aka ugly Betty) and another said I was the cutest thing
ever. We even took pictures together. Clearly they had also been
drinking until 5am and their vision a bit blurry.
At that point I said farewell to my new friends, forgot about tacos
(which weren't French fries anyway), found tuttle and Erin, noticed it
was almost light outside, and then hopped in a cab so that I could get
to my room, pack, and head to the airport.
Sidenote: the only tragic thing about all of this awesomeness is the
fact that the worlds softest bed (really, I wasn't the only one who
noticed this about the Sheraton beds) went unslept in.