Holy Awesome! BunnyCon 2008

Last night my beautiful, wonderful sweetheart Jasmine and I did a little of Synchronicity's annual BunnyCon Bar Hop. The BunnyCon is fun event in which scads of maniacs dressed like bunnies get together and hop their way from bar to bar. Although Synchro has been doing the BunnyCon for years, this was my first one.

It was a RADICALLY BITCHIN COOL time! We started off at the Happy Village lounge at around 7:00. When we first showed up, there were only about 6 or 7 bunnies, and it was kinda odd. The Happy Villlage is a small neighborhood joint, and some of the regulars looked at us a little askance. With only six of us, we seemed less like a mob of maniacs, and more like a small clique of weirdos. But no worries, because re-inforcements were on the way!!! Slowly, and then not-so-slowly, more weirdos with bunny ears poured in, and by the time we left the joint, we had about thirty or forty bunnies.

The streets of Chicago were cold and slippery last night. (Naturally, yesterday being the first day of spring, we'd had four inches of snow.) But would weather prevent these winsome and world-wise wabbits from walking? It would not.

Our next stop was a place called Ola's, a small polish bar in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood. Ola's is one of those joints with take-out six packs and atrocious fluorescent lighting, and with no formal marquee or signage designating the place's name, just a lighted Old Style placard with the words "Zimne Piwo" under it. As a rule, I NEVER go to this joint, unless it's for a Synchro event. I can't stand fluorescent lighting, and in a bar, it seems particularly out of place. Nevertheless, we OWNED that joint when we walked in. The bar is small, and there were already ten bunnies or so waiting for us we showed up. So the bar was packed with fun-lovin' bunnies. What a blast! (Unfortunately, some of the regulars were irked enough to clear out completely.) The bartender at this joint, Ola, is one of those surly bitches who thinks it's funny to be rude to her customers. Anyway, the bunnies of BunnyCon were not to be deterred. We gave her more business in an hour than she'd probably had all week, scared away her regulars, and left, probably making her wonder about what caliber of life she's leading.

The next stop along the way was the Easy Bar, a large, kinda shoushie pub in the inexorably poshening neighborhood around Division & Damen. There were still MORE bunnies waiting for us there when we arrived. This was probably my favorite part of the night. The "normals" at this bar were mostly yuppie-types who looked like they were there to impress their buddies' girlfriends with their awesome light blue shirts. The women there struck me in much the same that many yuppie women do - as if they were pretending they weren't miserable. The looks on some of these jerkasses' faces when this mob of maniacs ploughed in was beyond priceless. You could just feel the vibe in the room from go from an ironic, too-cool-for-school, raised-eyebrow kind of sneer, to a wide-eyed disbelief before finally settling on a vague jealousy, coupled (hopefully) with a desire to rethink one's life. By the time we'd been there awhile, I did a quick head count, and we'd hit 70 bunnies! This train was rollin'!

Sadly, I'd been sick all week, or else I might have stayed for further shenanigans, but the smartness in me told me that it was time to go. (I am FINALLY starting to kick this thing.) I'm sure more fun was had by more maniacs down the line, and hopefully next year, I'll get to make the whole hop!

BunnyCon '08, I salute thee.