Weird headspace.

Weird headspace.

It was a tiring week. I feel like last night was the first time I had the chance to rev down my motor and take a break. Sometimes my social schedule stuns even me, and when you have 23-year-olds asking you "how you do it" without collapsing it sort of drives the point home.

Here are my primary secrets behind maintaining a healthy mix of the day- and night-time worlds:

• Exercise regularly.
• Drink lots of water.
• Stay away from 4 a.m. bars.
• The 9-to-5 job always comes first.
• Keep a painting in you attic so it can take all the abuse for you.

See, pretty simple, huh?

In other news, the Chicagoist team waked away from the 2nd Annual Alternative Media Slam with the grand prize trophy after crushing both Red Eye and Time Out Chicago. (O.K., TOC actually had me worried since that was a pretty close match, but Red Eye proved once again that the MSM (they kept trying to use their affiliation with The Trib as some sort of defense) is largely clueless when it come to both new media and yo mama jokes.) afterwards I went on the town with most of my A&E writers whereupon they got introduced to whiskey-soaked Tankboy. The evening ended at Underbar, but keeping true to my rule about 4 a.m. bars, I went outside for a smoke and ended up hopping in a cab. The aftereffects? I'm quoting my writer Marcus here:

I'm typing this at Underbar courtesy of their fabulous WiFi connection since Ali and I are still here, wondering where the hell Jim went! He was here about 16 hours ago; the last we saw of him, he was walking outside to smoke, I guess, but never came back. Poor Ali's curled up on the floor in the fetal position, rocking back and forth, muttering, "Jim will be back, Jim will be back, Jim will be back..."

Anyway, thanks again, and as soon as Jim shows back up, we'll finish our drinks, hop in a cab and get home so I can do a post on Monday.

Funny kid, huh? So sad it's all true. In my defense I did see Ali the next night at the Air Traffic show -- wow, were they surprisingly good -- that supposedly counted Johnny Depp among its attendees. If only I could have confirmed that fact and hooked her up with him, all would have been forgiven. Oh well, at least I could confirm Ali was no longer in the fetal position.

All right, I'm rambling, so I'm out. As a parting question, how about all of you? Anyone else gifted with a healthy balance between two worlds?

Photo of the victorious Chicagoist team by Alicia Choi