From: annie@ivgate.omahug.org
Date: Sun Nov 02 2003 - 22:42:35 CST
Here are some of my comments about the various goings-on over last
weekend. Overall, I enjoyed it immensely. Good food, good entertainment,
and good companionship. I enjoyed seeing my old friends and making new
ones.
We had a good crowd and a good mix of people. Our largest Pinkfest ever.
It seemed like at every activity there were newcomers to Pinkfest, all
who seemed to have a good time. If anybody didn't please speak up. :) :)
I think we also had a very good mix of mainstream and alternative
venues. I didn't sense anybody's discomfort anywhere.
I'm glad to see that so many of our people brought friends and family
members along to our various activities. I hope all of our guests
enjoyed themselves and the group.
No reports of anybody having trouble finding any of the activity
locations or finding the group. (Just phone and listen to see whose
purse is ringing, right? :)
A few notes on the activities ...
6:30pm: Happy half-hour (Hard Rock Cafe)
7:00pm: Dinner (Hard Rock Cafe)
Good food and service. Totally t-oblivious. We were treated just as any
other party both at the bar and in the restaurant. Their motto is "Love
all, serve all", or is that their slogan? :) Anyway, they do mean it. :)
And ... overall, I think the Happy Half-hour concept worked fine. Gives
time for those who want to, or those who are early to enjoy a drink, and
it gives those who are fashionably late a bit of time to catch up.
9:30pm: Hunters Dance Club
This is a fun place, and yes, it is a great place just to sit around and
shoot the bull or people-watch. Only problem I see with Hunters is it's
way out in the toolies so to speak. I'll be honest, I did expect more of
a dance-only loud place (like Gipsy) but it was very easy to converse
over by the bar. I did have to step into the side room when the phone
rang, however.
And yeah, I definitely pulled a Margeth on the way back. :) :) I guess
I'll never live that one down. :) :(
6:30pm: Happy half-hour (Ed's)
7:00pm: Dinner at Ed's, retro dress encouraged
Loud and tacky, but that's what it's all about. Once again, totally
t-oblivious and very accommodating in quickly changing our table when
our fashionably-late member arrived. :) Yes, our $$$ is definitely
green there. :)
9:30pm: Gentry on State, Rudy's show
Again, another very entertaining show. This one is definitely a must-do
for anybody in vicinity of Rudy. :) How he goes for 4 hours without a
single break is beyond me.
later: Baton Show Lounge (???)
Didn't happen. Nobody was jumping up and down about it this year, and
most of our group seemed to be quite content staying for all 4 hours of
Rudy's show, which he did without a break. Good thing he didn't have to
take the train back to ORD. :) :) :)
Aft: Field Museum or something touristy (?????)
Again, didn't happen. We talked briefly about going and looking at dead
bones, but nobody was jumping up and down about it. Seems like daytime
things haven't been getting everybody excited. I'm not too concerned, it
did take several years for daytime activities to really catch on at DLV.
There were several reports of people going off and doing things on their
own, boat trip, shopping, etc.
7:00pm: Happy half-hour
I didn't know that AS's no longer had a liquor license until I phoned
for reservations, and quite honestly I thought there would be some
negative comments, but when I arrived I saw that a couple of the others
had figured that out :) and took a trip to the boozatorium up the
street, and AS's gladly provided the mixers.
7:30pm: Dinner (Ann Sathers)
I enjoyed this very much! Food was A+ and service was A+++++!
100% turnout for this activity. (EAT YOUR HEART OUT, DLV!) Actually,
counting all people of all ages :) our Thursday dinner at Hard Rock
actually had 200% turnout. :)
Speaking of food, I don't think I heard one single complaint about the
food this year. Oops, kinda spoke too soon. Forgot about the hockey puck
veggie-burger. :) They did fix that, right?
later: Boystown bars
Well, we seemed to hit one place (Side Track) and sorta stuck there.
Most everybody just seemed to want to stay there and shoot the
sh^H^Hbull instead of wandering on to other places. That's fine with me.
By the time we discussed moving on it was obvious that we would be
giving up our seats at Side Track and would probably not find seats
anyplace else we went.
One thing that suprised me is that one of the others reported that her
drink was on the house. I wondered what she had that I didn't :) but
once when I went back for a drink, the bartender said "This one is on
us, we appreciate your business ..." and this being in a place that was
definitely not lacking for business that evening.
Morn: Farewell breakfast (where?)
Again, didn't happen. Sunday is pack up and travel day, and it seemed like
it was pushing time a bit just to get packed and out to the airport.
In conclusion, I think Chicago is just the right place to do something
like Pinkfest. Yeah it's expensive, and yeah, it's crowded, but it is a
super place to get away to for a few days.
The people who are attracted to Pinkfest are second to none. Everybody
knew how to dress and knew how to behave. No behavior problems, and no
restroom incidents to date. :)
For the third straight year, we seem to have lucked out with the
weather, except for a few showers on Friday.
Some concerns:
There are some transportation issues. Taxis and trains, combined with
walking, just doesn't work very well for some people. Perhaps we should
look into doing a semi-organized ride share thing similar to what we do
for DLV. At least we probably need to seek out the hotels that are close
to the action but provide convenient in-out parking.
Moving forward:
Now, for those who didn't hear the news, Elena has volunteered to be
the Den Mother WRT the schedule next year. Please join me in thanking
Elena (in unison now, "Thanks, Elena") for taking this on. I've enjoyed
doing this for the past 2 years, but I'm glad somebody else is taking
that one over.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to Pinkfest 2004 already. :)
Thanks again, gang. :)
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