I was chatting with Sofi's friend Vanessa this past week, and she was telling me about how she was organizing a despedida de soltera for Sofi (literally translated as "goodbye as a single person", or what we would call a "stagette"). I remarked that I was probably not even going to have a stag, for a number of reasons. One reason is that I'm really not going to be in Regina at all before the wedding. Another reason might be that I am not having a wedding party and hence there is no responsibility for such a gathering "assigned" to anyone. It's also important for you to know that in my peer group over the years I have done the majority of event planning for everyone, so I wasn't sure if anybody would have the initiative or the capability to pull something off. I am happy to report that I was wrong on pretty much all counts.

This past weekend started off innocently enough. I was coming home to Regina for only 36 hours, and every single one of those hours was accounted for in terms of wedding-related activities that I had to do (like mailing invitations, etc.), personal stuff to take care of (haircut) and work things that I can only do in Regina (like submit travel expenses). I had a lot of stuff to do and only one weekend to do it. Still, I thought Friday would be a good night to go out and socialize with whoever was able, and then I would have all day on Saturday to get finished the things I needed to do.

I had talked to Mike earlier in the week - he volunteered to pick me up from the airport and then we'd play it by ear and go somewhere for a few social drinks. I had talked with a few other people as well, like Brad and Blair and Zab about joining us. We had no set plans but I was to call everybody when I got into town. My plane was delayed but we landed around 10pm. I asked Mike where he wanted to go and was surprised to hear him immediately say The Barley Mill, a place I'm fond of so he got no argument from me. I went about my business of calling everyone and letting them know what the plan was. Little did I know that everybody I had been calling was already at the same place ...

We get to the Barley Mill and no sooner do I look at the back of the place do I see pretty much all my friends in Regina! The jig was up - everybody was there to celebrate the impending end of my spectacular failure of a single life. The best part about it was that I had absolutely no idea it was happening and everybody totally fooled me. The worst part about it was that I knew what was next - a big party, and one that I could not afford to take part in because I had so much to do over the weekend. The choice was clear: leave the place early to get my work done and insult my friends who went to the big trouble of organizing this shindig for me, or drink lots of alcohol on their tab and make me and them happy. I should also mention that this decision took a lot less time to make then it did to type the preceeeding sentence! The sight of the three tequila shots on the table also helped :) We pretty much closed down the place and then went to Brad's to finish off the night playing cards and boozing some more. Many props to everyone who showed up for the festivities and especially to Brad and Mike for their central roles in pulling off the surprise and the event!!! It was great!!!

The drinks were free but I still paid a price for having such a good time. The next day was particularly hellish. I can honestly say that I cannot remember vomiting so much in my lifetime. Thanks to Brad for driving me home that afternoon and to Marco for giving me a hand in picking up some much needed supplies (stamps!) and babysitting me on the way to full recovery. I had to cancel my haircut because I wasn't finally mobile until around 8PM or so. My parents stopped by briefly to drop off some pictures that I needed since I wasn't able to head to their place during the day to pick them up. I had a shower and went to work to fill out my paperwork and stopped to grab some food on the way home. By the time I had had food and watched Ortiz beat Belfort in UFC 51, it was midnight before I even started any of my work. Many thanks go out to Marco for staying up late and helping me with the wedding invitations, which were complete around 4AM. Marco hit the sack and I kept going, scanning childhood photographs for the wedding program until around 7AM in the morning. I finished watching Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (don't bother watching - not a whole lot of funny in that one) and by that time it was time to shower and head to the airport to go back to Chicago.

I didn't sleep much on the plane back, so I was pretty tired by the time the plane landed. The Super Bowl was a great game, but I didn't see the end of it, because I passed out in the third quarter and didn't get up until the wee hours of the morning :( I also missed the debut of American Dad, so I'm pretty disappointed about that as well. I'll have to download it soon...

Last week at work was pretty brutal, because I was sick for pretty much the entire week. I had some stuff that had to get done so I couldn't take a day off so I had to trudge through each day whether I was physically able or not. I'm hoping I am done with being sick for the near future!

This week promised to be better than the last one, and this weekend I'm going to Washington, D.C. to visit with Nick. I'm sure we'll have a good time - it's hard not to in Capital City USA!