squash, and i dont mean the gourd

a few weeks ago i went with a friend to a rather strange event. it was a fundraiser for the chicago city squash youth league. i guess its a league that is offered free to children in the inner city of chicago. they can come on in and play squash.
i know, i know, it was as weird as it sounds. and then to make things even stranger it was being held in the main lobby of the field's museum. they set up a temporary squash court and surrounded it with tables for us to eat at while we watch an exhibition game. so many things were strange that night. first of all, just trying to understand what squash is was hard enough (turns out its basically just racquetball with different racquets and different balls). second, the temporary court they had erected happened to be right next to the two elephant models and just across the way from a full set of t-rex bones. a unique sight to behold, that is for sure. everyone there was dressed up in an evening gown or a suit and tie. as we were milling about eating hor dourves there were people offering raffle tickets priced at 'only' one hundred dollars each. needless to say i felt quite fancy.
as the night progressed we were treated to some amazing salad and roast. as far as entertainment goes, they just so happened to have flown in the 1st and 8th ranked best squash players in the world. from egypt and from australia. you know, just to swat the ball around for our amusement.

1 comment:

oldebekn said...

Was this on November 3rd? We were there that afternoon, and it looked like they were setting up for a big party that night. Krista and I wondered what it was... Did the point still count if it bounced off Sue? Keep up the good work Marcus. I especially enjoy the Brinktionary. Is schmidlap in there?