xtcian

7/26/02 You know how you

7/26/02

You know how you go to some cities for a wedding, or a special occasion, and see precious little besides your hotel room and the reception hall? That sure as hell is not going to be the case with our trip to Chicago, as a full-day scavenger hunt designed by none other than Rick Maechling - took us all over the city to just about every famous spot imaginable. We had our pictures taken in front of the Picasso sculpture, the Water Tower, the "chee-boger chee-boger" restaurant, both the Sears and Hancock towers, as well as the seals at the zoo. Nobody is as full of civic pride as Rick, which was great, because he was on our team. Even as the heat index swelled toward 100, everybody was having a kickass time.

This evening, we went to the Tavern Club for a steamy dinner (the air conditioning wasn't working) where we sat and gossiped with Eric Gribbin, Chip, the McNab brothers, and Alex & Wendi. It's hard to justify being in a fraternity, and most people are surprised to hear I was in one (I usually leave out the part where I was social chairman). Frankly, the Lodge makes me feel totally unapologetic, given the clientle. Any place that would take in Chip, Rick Maechling, Drew McNally, Ricky Bell, Jamie Block and me – and still be socially functional – has got to be imbued with magic.

among others, Alex Yong & Wendi, Chris Mumford, Ali Farahnakian, Bobby Vogler, with Tessa at bottom, and my eyelashes at far right; in the Tavern Club elevator

Later on, we all drove up to the Gold Coast and spent the rest of the night knocking back booze at Hotsie Totsie, a place that was full of dum-dum post-Northwestern hotties with French-manicured toenails; needless to say, we brought the place a dose of much-needed honesty. I had a great chat with Steven Comfort, whom I've always respected a great deal (it was strange luck that Susan, his sister, played such a huge role in my early 20s as well as his father, Coach Comfort of the UNC swim team) and we all sat around to watch fellow bro Ali Farahnakian do a little bit on Conan O'Brien. Pretty cool that Ali was there to watch it with us – that must have been amazing for him to see himself on TV while surrounded by brethren that had been with him through both thick and thin.

As we were about to leave, Eric Gribbin stopped me and said he'd like to bury the hatchet, something about a basketball game we'd played a long time ago where I booted the ball down the hill in a rage, and he said "you're pissing on the brotherhood" and told me I had no idea what it was like to be fraternal with people. I barely remembered it, but it did occur to me that we'd had a run-in long ago, something that was now deep in my subconscious.

I told Eric that I was an immature asshole in 1989 with a lot of time left in the oven, then I looked around the bar and said, "frankly, I'm surprised most of these folks still talk to me." Which was a bit of a hyperbole, I guess, but I am thankful that we are all awarded second acts in our lives, and that your fraternity is not defined by a physical structure located on some campus many decades ago, but by the small crowd of people willing to keep faith that you'll eventually turn out okay.