As it was, I developed blisters on the bottoms of my feet from my ravishingly comfortable stilettos.
Thursday was the First Look for Charity, the opening night of the Chicago Auto Show, where we get all dolled up in black tie attire, sip champagne, and meander around $100k cars like we can afford anything more than a Camry.
It's one fancy gala. We're pretty much the riff-raff, but they don't discriminate as long as you pay the fees. And yes, Fabio was in attendance with his harem, although I missed him and his flowing locks!
The night started out excitingly engaged; people from all our area hospitals popped out of their respective woodwork to play for the evening. Congressmen, mayors, and benefactors milled around our hospital's hospitality suite. Hey, in Illinois, in an election year, that was the place to be. I watched in awe...those congressmen knew exactly when the flash of the camera would pop; they'd make eye contact with their prey of choice and one millisecond before the camera goes off, flip their Dentine smile toward the camera, somehow making it appear genuine and spontaneous.
That's the trick of the politicians.
It was just so authentic.
SO anyway, in this room full of important people, I saddled up to Nurse Jackie's husband and jokingly asked if he'd wait in the 30-40 minute line for my refill of Chardonnay. Several other women at our table requested the same. We figured we wouldn't see Mr. Jackie back for at least a half hour. Imagine our surprise when he emerged back at the table a minute later, gracefully balancing six glasses of wine!
He said he told the bartender it was for the congressmen!
And so we all got our wine refills.
We're keepin' it classy!
So after that dashing experience, Jack and I went up to the show room floor with a few friends from work. My first stop, of course, was at Ford, for their Mustang display.
Do they get any prettier?
We ambled between the Oktoberfest booth (who was giving out 16 oz pint glasses as souvenirs) and the sushi station, mixing authentic German brews with raw fish. I didn't know until later, that Jack was hoarding pint glasses and suddenly realized that we now have service for four.
No wonder that bag he carried grew so heavy!
The other highlight of the night was the drawing for the two Cadillac's. We matched exactly one number on each drawing and figured that we didn't really want a Caddie anyway. We're TOYOTA people.
On the way home, speeding along the Dan Ryan, I disputed Jack's plan to stop at the nearest White Castle (this is our tradition; nothing is funnier than walking into a White Castle when you're dressed to the nines and tuck napkins into your strapless gown so as not to dump mustard on yourself). I had to get up at the refreshing hour of 4 a.m. to get to Loyola by 8 a.m. for an annual ethics conference.
When I signed up, I forgot it was the morning after First Look.
It was fun. I remember very little from the conference and took diligent, verbatim notes so I could re-educate myself later. I did, however, run into two of my ethicist pals from a neighboring Catholic healthcare system. My plan is to shadow them (if they'll let me!) and see what their worlds are like.
I arrived home later in the afternoon and immediately crashed. I knew Jack had a rough week because, when I emerged again, he had about six dishes cooking on the stove. My outlet is sleep. His is culinary arts.
I guess it COULD be worse!
And I'm finally allowing myself to blog because I finished a decent draft of my first theology paper (due tomorrow). I forgot how difficult it is to write a theology paper when you procrastinate to the last day!
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