Part 2: Afterhours With My Co-Workers

The people I work with work very hard and play very hard, as evidenced by our evenings in Chicago.

Sunday night was supposed to be a night out for me and my close girlfriends. We've joked for months about going to keroke sometime...so we thought it'd be great to do while in Chicago. Unfortunately, there were no keroke bars open on Sunday night....so, after trying to go to a piano bar (for which we were under-dressed and not allowed in!), we decided on a local Irish pub/restaurant. But, by that time, our group grew from five or six to about 30 or 40! Here are a few pictures:

Sunday night was by far the tamest night of the week.

Monday night, I went out for some delicious Thai food with my HR team friends. Then, my roommate Hillary and I met up with some folks at a local pub. The others at the pub were all part of a "pub crawl" - which basically means that they rented a trolly that took them from pub to pub to pub all night. We were not a part of that! We simply stayed at the one bar with a few folks. It was a great, great night! The six or so of us just hung out, talked and laughed for hours! We didn't get back to the hotel until about 1:30 but Hillary and I were WIDE AWAKE so we ended up talking in bed 'til about 3 am (yes...I was EXHAUSTED the next day...and for the rest of the week).

Tuesday night, I walked around Michgan Avenue with a few friends, had a quick dinner and then went back to the hotel. I wasn't sure I was going to go out but when Hillary got back from dinner with her sister, she suggested we see what some of the guys were up to. So, we did. And, let me tell you....this was by far the most fun I've had in a very long time and I was completely out of my league the entire night.

It's a long story but we somehow ended up at the newest, most exclusive club in the city. We were personally escorted to our friends' table. The bouncers were about 8 ft tall and 3 ft wide. We had a waiter at our beck and call - devoted exclusively to the 10 of us. We ordered a $300 bottle of vodka to share and one of the guys ordered a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne. There were girls just walking around in hot pants and some go-go dancers. There was even a woman in the bathroom who's sole job was to greet you and hand out paper towels after you've washed your hands. It was way more swanky than anywhere I'd ever been (or will probably ever be again). And none of us was dressed appropriately - I was in a little hawaiian summery dress!

I had so much fun with my coworkers that night. I even danced (Jennie, can you believe it?!) It's been a very long time since I just had that much fun and let my hair down that much. While I don't think I'll be doing anything even remotely close to that evening's festivities again for a long time, it was still one of the highlights of the week.

Wednesday night was the final night of the retreat so my company planned a dinner cruise on Lake Michigan for us all. And, to make it a little more exciting, it was a masquerade party. It was pretty fun! Here are some pictures:

And, after the cruise, most everyone (though, thankfully NOT me...there's no way I could have done it) went out to a salsa dancing bar. I think they were out until like 3 or 4. Crazy. But, I'm sure it was fun!

All in all, I had a great time...though, I probably didn't make the best decisions all the time. Nothing terrible happened...and in comparison to a lot of the stories I heard from/about other people, my entire week was super tame. But, for me, it was probably more partying and ridiculousness than I've ever done in my life....definitely making up for no partying in high school, college or my early 20's. Okay...maybe not (since I didn't really do all that much this past week) but for me, it was a lot. And, it'll probably be the end of such things for a looooooooong time.