House party with a side of salsa

Any doubts of Chicago’s night life in comparison to New York’s were erased after Saturday’s endless night. I started out with dinner in Wicker Park with my old college roommate Melanie, her British husband Gary, and his coworkers. I originally was going to meet the gang at Katie’s surprise birthday party, but scheduling got mucked up. Luckily, I was able to meet Big Mike out at a bar right across the street from my very first apartment in Chicago (Ashland & Diversey). The apartment was an absolute hell hole but hey I didn’t know any better moving up there from Kansas. We resurrected punching pictures circa 2003. After getting thoroughly blotto (don’t all my best stories start that way) at the bar, a group of us hopped in a cab to attend a house party in Lincoln Park. No Big Mike, Sammy (aka the Cubini, also the one trying to do “Blue Steel” in the pictures), and I have a history of attending lame house parties. This one was no different. As soon as we walked in, the 18 year old informed us that the keg was out. We asked them if they had any liquor and he pointed to the kitchen. Okay his idea of liquor was peppermint and peach snapuchs (sp?)! We finally found a bottle of cheap vodka and a 2-liter of Pepsi. Bad idea! We were by far the oldest people there (by like half a decade at least) which was like the last time I went to a house party with Big Mike and Cubini (sad we didn’t bring the bright green liquor Intrigue again). One guy said to me “aren’t you glad classes are over for now?” Huh, oh no wait I graduated over 4 years ago! I just gave him a look and asked him to guess my age. Ummmm 23……WRONG! I think he even added a few years to his guess because I was being bitter. He just turned 22! Actually, I have no distain for younger boys, but he was a total fratty and I was seriously loosing my buzz. I interrupted his monolog to tell him “I’m leaving” and then quickly walked off. About a half hour later he shouted from across the living room “Lindsay you liar, you said you were leaving”. Not to brag but without missing a beat I yelled back “I was leaving….you”. Ha ha ha., zing! Now the dance circle was full of young 20’s gyrating like they were having a collective seizure. Hence, we created our own old people circle. The music was modern pop music (annoying) so Big Mike hijacked the Ipod and started playing old school music (music from when we were in high school). A little “bombs over Bagdad”, Paula Abdul “straight up now tell me”, Motel Jordan ‘this is how we do it”, and the kiddies took back the DJ duties. We had enough and walked out. I waited outside the front door when the boys emerged with some magazines and an actual spare car tire! They rolled their prize down the front stairs and tried to roll it down the street. Thankfully Big Mike and I talked them into just leaving it in the lawn (come on I would have to be a lot drunker to walk off with a tire!). The closest bar we could find was a Latino disco. Sammy and his cousin are both Cuban, so they threw out the Spanish speaking love to sweet talk the bouncer lady to wave the cover. The huge room was filled with hundreds of couples dancing Salsa, Mambo, etc you name it! I mean they were actually dancing….well (like they really knew what they were doing). Now I was in awe of the dacing, but I had a good laugh with the costumes. I saw a lot of 1920’s gangster fedora hats, sequins, and white shoes…..and that is just on the guys! One guy had a bright turquoise 3-piece suit on. Now I thought that was bad until I saw his friend with a banana yellow 3-piece suit with a bright turquoise shirt. Ah ha ha ha. After a bit of standing around being the “white people”, I left to make 4:30am drunk dials and pass out in Melanie’s superb guest bed.