Back to where it all began, sissy and I headed out to the Green City Market with Moose and T, for some sunshine, pretzel rolls, and fresh flowers. Afterwards, we went met up with A for some lunch, and I celebrated the big 5-2 with some ice cream, (extra fudge, hold the cherry) exactly as I like it.
We finished the night off at Logan Square festival, with some serious beatz and a ginormous lemonade.
Well folks, we made it! This Saturday is officially the fifty-second Saturday video!! I’ll do a bit of a yearly recap in a few, so be on the lookout! The party’s not yet over, Sy has far too much cute for just 52 Saturdays.
This weekend sissy and I celebrated our very favorite day just the way we like, with big hair, dancing, and most importantly, family and friends.
After doing a little shopping, and having Sy help us pick out something decent to wear from the clothing bomb that went off in my room, we invited over the lovely Carley Martin to help us get birthday-fied. She seriously worked her magic, and off we went, to get our dance on.
Sunday after getting up early to hit a giant flea market with my mamacites, we went back to their house for some authentic midwestern mexican food. After we filled ourselves silly with tacos we chatted a bit about the 2012-2013 family trip to mexico-palooza. The one downside to an August birthday is the reminder that afterwards it starts the dreaded cold-front countdown, but the thought of being back in the Yucatan is seriously making me excited forready to tolerate winter.
Mom’s homemade brownie-chocolate chip-ice cream cake was the cherry on top of a wonderful birthday week. Thanks everyone, for making this birthday incredible!
This weekend sissy and I went downtown to get our shop on a little. We did some serious damage at a few places, had a little Hannah’s Bretzel, then it was off to buy party supplies for T’s 30th birthdayrama.
Being the queen of all things birthday, sissy had the party planning down. Balloons, candy buckets, grilled meat, tiny cupcakes, and a surprise-smirnoff-ice (wha?! ugg. poor T…) I was pretty early to bed, in order to be up for some bacon, eggs, and catch-up.
We were fortunate that they had a room big enough to fit all of us, and with the median height of my dad’s side of the family at about 6 foot x a lot, this was no small feat. Being spread out far and wide across North America, we don’t get together as often as we all would like, so it was great to get together and chat over pancakes and the cumulative 100 cups of coffee we drank.
This weekend sissy and I took our ‘teased to Jesus’ hair out for margaritas with our favorite twinsies. We spent the night pretending we were back in Mexico on college study abroad. Plenty of Espanglish, boy gossip, general mayhem, and fruity flavored hangover inducers.
Saturday I spent the day recovering (ay dios mio) and headed back to the suburbs to celebrate my favorite mamacites.
After an early morning bike ride, and a stop at the office, we went up to Wisconsin to hit the Sunday flea market circuit. For the first time in flea market history, I did not buy a single item, though I pocketed the cash that I didn’t spend, for next weekend, when we hit up a larger, biannual market that has been a gold mine in years past.
To round out the day, we stopped at Tastee Freeze, so the dogs could get their ‘pup cups’ (vanilla ice cream with a dog treat on top), and then went home to make a mother’s day DIY taco bar. Que rico. After celebrating my favorite lady, (Love you mom!), I went back to the city to watch my own baby dive into paper bags and bring me ALL of the toys.
Special thanks to Kellybelly for shooting some of the extra footage. Also special shout-out to mom…you know, for giving us a reason to celebrate Mother’s day.
This weekend began with a double date night, comida Mexicana (in preparacion for our trip next week to the good ol’ Yucatan Peninsula!), then to see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, where Rooney Mara knocked my socks off, bringing to life the Lisbeth Salanader I had pictured as I read through the trilogy.
Saturday sissy and I had our eyeballs poked, prodded, and photographed with our favorite glaucoma guru. Afterwards, we donned our giant sunglasses to avoid having our poor dilated retinas burst into flames in the sunlight, and headed to the office for a coffee or two, or ten.
Saturday night we had our first annual gathering of the cousins at 90 Miles Cuban cafe. The food was good, the drinks were smooth, the music was loud, and I couldn’t understand a word that was spoken … which, for the record, pretty much mirrors my experience studying abroad.
Sunday morning A and I went for a walk around our neighborhood to enjoy the warm spring weather. After a trip to the bakery for cupcakes and coffee, we went home to watch our ‘little gentleman friend’ (what A’s incredible 98 year old grandmother calls our cat) pretend he was a ferocious bird-stalking beast, (with the windows open, he can really show them who’s boss, by, you know, cackling and making his eyes really big.) its almost mid-January and there hasn’t been a snowpocalypse yet in Chicago? Hallelujah, amen, praise the sun goddess, kthnxbai.
Next week in Mejico!
Also, I am not sure why the quality on this video is so terrible… perhaps it was the combination of a dark bar, a video editing novice, and trusty iPhone acting a fool. I have downloaded i OS 5 onto my iPhone, so here’s hoping next week’s looks a little bit better! Advice also welcome. very welcome. with sugar on top.
I spent the waning hours of 2011 doing a few of the things that I love best, eating pizza and getting my dance on. I was certainly in good company at (the owl and the boiler room), and since we started out our night at 5:30 (!), we were able to have plenty of time to establish dance floor supremacy. Until the lace on my dress became hopelessly entangled with some random gentleman’s pocket button, and my dance times came to screeching (and quite embarrassing) halt.
I licked my wounds and recovered, and spent the rest of the beginning of 2012 alternating between cuddling with Sy while he slept inside his favorite backpack, and (allegedly) throwing my toiletries down the hallway of my apartment to check their aerodynamics. Thankfully A put me to bed at some point, however, I did wake up to the cat chasing around a bottle of mascara, so…
New Year’s Resolution #1 – act like an adult.
Sunday morning I dove into a pot of coffee and giant burger at the Fountainhead, before saying goodbye to out of town friends who we hope enjoyed the Chicago pizza so much, that they will have to come back. This time we promise to take you somewhere where the jukebox plays all night long.
This year has been a roller coaster of new beginnings for myself, and it seems, pretty much everyone around me. I said goodbye to my old job, and spent my summer entertaining my cat and spending time with my mom, until I became a contributing member of society once again with a brand new 9-5. I said goodbye to friends who moved out of state and hello to siblings who moved back home. Finally, I started this little blog…here’s hoping that 2012 brings as much fun, dancey, and laugh filled weekends as 2011 did.
This weekend A and I threw together our weekend bags, rationed out our snacks, kissed the kitty goodbye, and headed off to lovely Saugatuck, MI to enjoy the 60 degree fall weather, before Mother nature covers the heartland in thirty feet of snow.
After accomplishing my tasks as Navigator-General (“just go North”), I was able to sit back, hoard all of the chocolate covered pretzels, and watch the cityscape turn to farmland… with a minor detour through the armpit of the midwest, (I’m looking at you, Gary, Indiana).
After arriving, putting our bags in our room, and checking the old lumbar mill for secret passageways, we went to ‘Crazy Horse’ saloon, where they were not fooling around with the cuts of meat. To escape post-prime-rib coma, we did what any self-respecting tourist does… drove around the area making u-turns and looking for Wal-Mart.
Saturday morning breakfast was delicious, obviously, because someone else made it, and afterward, we took the bikes for a spin around town. Saugatuck is the place to be… in the summer. The sleepy shore town was pretty much empty for the season, which made for more space to do bicycle donuts in the parking lots, and pretend that the reason you had your choice of any table at the restaurant was because you were fancy.
The rest of our time was spent picnicking (picniquing? pick-a-nic-ing?), antiquing, buying chipotle olive oil, and calling home for updates on our cat (just kidding…?). Sunday morning came all too quickly, and though I missed the city, it was really nice to play country mouse for the weekend.
In honor of daylight ‘crap it’s dark at 5′ saving time, I thought it would be nice to throw back a few. We rang in the official Beginning of the End of Ever Seeing the Sun Again at Brenden’s, the local Albany Park hangout, where the drinks are cheap, and the dancing is free. As it probably should be. After several rounds of trying to out cabbage patch and moonwalk each other, eventually we all collapsed in a heap of elbows and jazz hands.
All of the party animals were eventually put back into their cages for the remainder of the evening. Saturday morning was spent recovering and pretending to be a real adult, who does adult things like get the car’s oil changed, and pay rent. Saturday evening we took the People’s Train downtown to go to Murasaki Sake Lounge, where I happen to know the DJ (because I am in the know, you know). A did his record scratching/button pushing/knob turning thing for the better part of the evening. Lucky for him he had an entire EXTRA SIXTY MINUTES of time in the day, thanks to farmers, or Benjamin Franklin, or vampires or something. After his set, we called it a night, but not before the crowd showered him with single red roses and teddy bears, obviously.
This Saturday is dedicated to the (somewhat annual) Halloween Road Rally. In celebration of J + K’s wedding anniversary (held on Halloween last year) they petitioned the Great and Powerful Clue-Maker, (and her mouthpiece.) to come up with a list of clues that would have us driving wildly around the suburbs to solve, photograph, and hunt for ingredients for our ‘witches brew’. This year, however, the Clue-Maker had some help from one of the party hosts, and the Road Rally went viral, with its own twitter feed spitting out clues throughout the night.
With our fearless banana behind the wheel, formaldehyde face, Joker and Rosie the Riveter crusaded for Halloween victory, spending most of our time running back and forth between churches, cemeteries, and ‘crime scenes’. One of my favorite clues had my team taking me for a spin around the cul-de-sac in a little red wagon, towing a freshly ‘unearthed’ Bert the skeleton. My team may not have won, but we did fare better than team One, who got pulled over by the somewhat overzealous long arm of the law. Good thing someone remembered to leave the prop shotgun at home.
Afterward we rallied with some pizza and cupcakes, while the victorious team picked through 10 lbs of candy winnings. Fortunately for me, the banana boyfriend was on the winning team, and while he watches jazz/skateboarding/cat videos on youtube, I sit on Candy Mountain and eat my way down… I am doing my very best to make sure he doesn’t get any cavities. Besides, since when do bananas need candy anyway?
music: The Black Keys – Howlin’ for You
*No bananas were injured (or bruised) in the making of this movie.
