Who did Joe meet today?

Rarely do I mingle with the social elite and tonight was no different. As crazy ass thunderstorms/flooding rain/tornadoes (50-80 mph winds) slashed through the Chicago area fucking with everything from me getting my afternoon coffee to el supremo and Ricardo leaving town, I was focused on hitting a fundraising charity event downtown. Granted, it was a pizza and wine event, but still it's fun and for a good cause.

After getting all dressed up and doing some computer work, I heard an all too familiar beeping sound. It was my moisture indicator that I have set near a door that stands between my downstairs and an outdoor drain. With all the crazy ass weather, somehow the drain got backed up and started flooding my unit, again. Fortunately I was right there watching what was happening and at what pace it was happening. Being on hand, I was able to control it very quickly with towels and my shopvac, but it brought to the forefront of my mind yet again the need to fix the problem, not to just find a band-aid solution. I really thought the flooding season was over!!!

Before I could even contemplate leaving, for my charity event, my buddy Lil'Tim (set for day three of his four day Joe-Palooza) called to say that he'd been on the road from Evanston for an hour already and was nowhere near downtown, so he was turning around and going home. Couldn't blame him. As it was, I decided to show up an hour late for the event just to make sure that the flooding was under control. Upon arrival, I was told that they would be having the event again, gratis, in three weeks or so. Whoo-hoo!!! Two events for the price of one and Lil'Tim can join me this time!! Always more fun when he's around.

So at this greatly reduced charity event there were probably only 25-30 people. Which is fine, but I was flying solo so more people is always better in that situation. However, I found some very interesting people to talk to. One person, an absolutely beautiful woman who lost her husband to cancer in 1992, was in attendance and it turns out her husband had written The Super Bowl Shuffle and she still had the rights to it along with a bunch of other things including something to do with the Grabowski's. Very funny and interesting. We chatted for some time but I never revealed that I had dressed up for Halloween last year as one of the Grabowski's:





Yes, I had a hula skirt on, but no coconut bra...the store ran out of them.










Anyway, this woman rubs elbows with football executives and stars on a daily basis. She's the type of person that I really don't interact with all that often, but she was fun. While I was checking to see if I had posted this picture, I realized that I used to call Lil'Tim, T-Rex Tim. I like the Lil'Tim reference better, but since he was mentioned in my very first blog entry, I felt I should make sure that you all know he's the same person. Here's a very, very, very unflattering picture that he would absolutely kill me over if he knew that I posted it. Ha!! That'll teach him to not read my blog!!!





Drunk and sunburned Lil'Tim. What an awesome freaking picture. I have no idea who took this for me. Wonder what I was contemplating?? Probably, "Who the hell is that with my camera?"






Another very attractive young lady that I met was helping out her sister in-law (who was pregnant) and brother (who had a bicycle accident and really screwed up his shoulder.....like 9 screws and a replacement socket), even though she lives in Seattle. It was well worth risking further flooding and possible car damage to head downtown and meet these two women. As a side note, I bid on and won a Beer Bash for 49 of my closest friends at a bar downtown!!! For only $325, 50 folks can drink for some undetermined amount of time......that's a little more than $6 a person. Hell, guys on my softball team can drink that much in about 12 minutes. Finding 49 people other than me though will be an interesting task. Stay tuned!!