How to have a hangover without drinking a sip of alcohol

Friday night, I hosted the family to celebrate Fall birthdays.  I gave my cousin a new board game to in hopes that it’d replace the worst game in the world, Apples to Apples, as a favorite.  The next present she opens?  The adult version of Apples to Apples!

Saturday night, I hosted a Mac ‘n Cheese Mingler, the biggest one to date, with forty guests.  It’s getting very interesting to track how the guests hear about the Minglers:

  • Alma mater connection (Boston College)
  • Time Out Magazine
  • High school connection (Evanston Township High School)
  • Pecha Kucha Night
  • Improv Olympic
  • Volunteer connection (Chicago Cares)
  • Film-peer connection (Kartemquin Films)
  • Business Network Chicago
  • Chicago Magazine
  • Coffeehouse flyer (Sip)
  • Bar flyer (Map Room)
  • Linked-In
  • On-line Biking Community (Chainlink)
  • and much more!

I don’t usually kick guests out, but when 2AM rolled around, I had to nudge out the stragglers – only five hours until I had to get up for the Urban Assault Ride!  UAR is a bike race around Chicago, where participants have to go to various checkpoints, perform wacky stunts like pushing you and your teammate around a parking lot on a skateboard using a plunger.  Much more difficult than it sounds.

Hosting is the equivalent to seven drinks.  Urban adventure race = five drinks.  Sunday afternoon, I made love to my couch and a bag of sweet ‘n spicy Doritos left over from the Mingler, thinking about all the work I had to do but unable to make my brain function.