Thank the good Lord I don't have to to start work until 10 am tomorrow! This has been one of the quickest and most physically draining weekends I can remember in a long time. Still, my spirit is high.
From work on Friday, I headed 20 minutes east to Fox and Hound. I needed a way to watch the Rangers game anyway (screw you NHL Network!) And it was also Darek's last day working at CEC, so about 30 of us gathered to say goodbye. I liked the free pizza, wings, and chips/salsa. Even bad pizza tastes decent when it's complimentary! I stayed for two periods, a game the Rangers won and got home around 8:45. No big deal. Let's just run through this via timeline, inserting notes as necessary.
Saturday
6:45: Woke up
7:00: Had a rye bagel and three strips of bacon for breakfast
7:45: Left the house
8:45: Purchased the new Lionel Richie album at Wal-Mart in Rolling Meadows
9:00: Arrived at Mays' house in Prospect Heights
9:15 Left the house with Mike and Melissa for downtown Chicago
10:15: Arrived at State/Randolph, former location of Borders, to install Mays' window exhibit of paintings
We had nine people total: Mays, Melissa, Mike, Joe, Maggie, Anne, Natalie, and Albert. My early work consisted of scraping paint off windows, taping the 20-foot high side windows with some kind of paper, and measuring and cutting large paper to create half-sheets that would eventually become the backdrops of each painting. Basically, I rolled out the paper on the floor, measured it, and cut it. So it took a lot of standing, walking, bending, and jumping over the sheets. Maggie and Natalie told me we needed 16. So I did 16 and then Melissa explained to me that they needed 16 total sheets. And each one I was cutting was just a half sheet. So I then had to make another 16! Plenty of 80's music in the background too.
1:45: Lunch from Jimmy John's
2:15 Resume working
It must have been right before lunch time when we started to hang the paintings. But Joe had to make these wire hooks to insert into the screws of the windowsills. He was the only one who could do it and we had to do this for eight windows. And the last two paintings had to be hung in front of the display case, where there was just 23 inches of space between the windows and the wall. So setting up ladders was incredibly hard in those tight spaces.
3:00: Albert leaves
3:30: Mike and Melissa leave
4:30: 15-minute Starbucks break. Caramel apple cider
5:00: Maggie and I install the black vinyl paper in the front doors behind the "Reflect" logo that creates a sleek background.
6:30: Anne leaves
8:00-12:00: We are all struggling to keep going. My feet start to ache.
8:30: Maggie leaves
10:00: We bolt two paintings together and hang them as one since they refuse to hang properly in the window.
10:30: We have two paintings left and now have to install two more, but both of these are behind the display case.
12:00: We hang the last painting, the heaviest one of all.
12:30: We finish cleaning and head back to the burbs.
12:50: We arrive at Mays' house, I leave five minutes later.
1:50: I arrive back at home in St. Charles, almost 18 hours after I first left.
3:00: Bedtime
Keep in mind, at Joe's urging, we skipped dinner. Besides lunch, I was working off of three granola bars, 3 or 4 bottles of water, and a few handfuls of carrot sticks and celery stalks. Mays had e-mailed us that we would finish around 6 or 7. I didn't think that was realistic, but I figured we'd be gone by 9. Little did I know I wouldn't even have an opportunity to grab dinner on the way home! I really wanted to try a Marco Polo from Tony Sacco's Coal-Fired pizza. Ah well...
So I woke up around 8:45 and this was one of those mornings I had no trouble going to an 11:15 service. Shane Farmer gave a good talk on Palm Sunday. I said my hellos and headed back home 1:15. Oh, I had to stop to buy ten 50-lb blocks of water salt. So I had the fun of loading that into the cart, wheeling it to may car, loading each block into my car, driving it home, and then taking each block out of my car, then down the stairs, and into the basement. That's a great workout right there!
So then I settled into watch the Penguins vs Flyers game I had DVR'd. I never expected Philly to score six goals, but they did. And with the 6-4 Flyers win, the magic number for the Rangers to clinch the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference is just 1 and each team has three games left, including a head-to-head on Thursday.
I left again around 4:45 for a 45-minute drive to Berwyn and the Wrestlemania party at the Jew's house. Workonko (that prick who doens't want to play mini-golf with me), Q, Jerome, Mangold, were there as well. And as soon as Sheamus defeated Daniel Bryan in 18 seconds, Q's mood was totally ruined. All in all, the card was ok, but I would have to call it mediocre. Punk vs Jericho, HHH vs Undertaker were fine matches, but nothing I'm going to really remember ten years from now. I think with HHH-Undertaker, they didn't utilize the Cell as much as I thought they might. The Rock's victory over John Cena was really good. The two music acts before each introduction were totally unnecessary. The music took ten minutes total and I'm amazed they couldn't give that time to their World Heavyweight Championship match!
I left that madhouse around 10:15, got home just after 11, and settled into watch the Rangers vs Bruins game that I had DVR'd. Yeah, the Blueshirts lost the chance to clinch the top seed at home as they fell 2-1. Big deal. This was a one-goal loss to the No. 2 seed in the conference that they had beaten all three times this season. It wasn't the best effort I've seen from them, but it doesn't really worry me. All it means is they likely won't clinch at home. I don't care if they clinch it in the Roman Coliseum. They're going to be the No. 1 seed. At this point, all I care about in these last three regular season games is that they stay healthy and come out ready to play in Game 1 on April 11.
Bed at 12:30 am. Back to work we go.
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