This post is a bit late in reporting, but well entertaining.
Randy and I headed down to the Illinois Jaycees General Assembly in St. Louis a couple of weekends ago to meet up with some fellow Peoria Jaycee members. We first met up with Mary, Dave, Kate, Danielle and Steve... sounding like a line up of the usual suspects already... on the Landing at the Morgan St BrewPub.
Earlier this year, for whatever reason, Kate would get Randy's and my name mixed up; so for the weekend just to screw with her, I became Randy and Randy became Rick. We also clued everyone else on it to to push it further.
We eventually made it to the Marriott where the GA was held. Rick and I belligerently crashed the invite-only Presidential Cocktail Hour for the state president. At that point, we ran into Becky, Roxy, Gretchen, Scott and other Jaycees we know around the state. Rick and I then crashed the banquet dinner where we had no ticket for a plate. While seated with our Jaycee friends, Rick commented in a manner to transmit guilt, that the fried chicken sure looked good. Rick had just finished consuming the complementary lemon slices for the glasses of water in a feeble attempt at fighting hunger. While I resorted to drinking beer to accomplish this, at least Rick won't suffer from scurvy.
Once the buffet line subsided and entrees replenished, Rick and I went up to sneak a dinner plate for ourselves. We only got as far as placing green beans on our plate when someone from the Gateway Region Jaycees (the GA host organization) came up and busted us. They claimed a dinner ticket would cost us somewhere around $37 and we said "No thanks." They confiscated our plates with the green beans and took it back to their table. We walked from the buffet table still hungry and empty handed while the adjacent table had two plates of only green beans.
The awards ceremony was next, where I'm happy to say the Peoria Jaycees cleaned up nicely for the 3rd quarter of 2007. The libations of New Castle Brown Ale flowed into the night as well until around midnight for me. This is when Mary suggested I should retire and offered to escort me back to my room. It really didn't make any sense to me at the time, but in hindsight, it was a very good move as it probably eased lingering symptoms on the day after.
Rick however partied on for at least another hour. With our sober friend Bob, he chauffeured Mary and Rick to a local White Castle for some sliders. And what happens when you change from Brown Castle to White Castle... hey, what goes on at a GA stays at a GA.
The next day was rough for Rick. But yet we still stopped at a White Castle so I could get some breakfast. Rick had only soda.
On the way home, we were pulled over by whom I called "Ponch" for doing 75 in a 65. Around Hopedale, IL, the road curved to the right, and while I just finished passing another car, I saw the elusive motorcycle cop put away his radar gun. I knew he already had me. Shit! Shit! My 16 year hiatus of speeding tickets was over. And I had just told Rick's wife the day before that I hadn't had a ticket in many years... especially, I jinxed myself.
But alas, we finally made it home for much needed rest. Until the next GA!!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
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