La Vie Sociale

I did it!!  I FINALLY caught up on my blog!!  This usually is a rare thing for me, but I’m proud to say I don’t mind being behind on my posts.  For one, it means I’m living my life and not wondering what’s going on with social media.  I do not want to be one of those people who are constantly posting away to “keep in the moment”.  I rather LIVE in the moment and reminisce later.  It’s a blessing to be able to look back and remember these sweet memories I have shared with my family and friends.  They mean the world to me!

With my trip coming up, I don’t have too much planned out.  This will be a first for me as well, but it’s mostly because I’ve been there before and saw most of my interests the first time around.  I’m hoping I get a chance to see other sides of Europe that I might have missed beforehand.  So much has changed in the world since I last was there and I’m curious how that will play out for me.

Over the weekend I got my seasonal haircut Friday after work, but I felt a migraine coming on.  Can you believe I had this migraine all weekend???  It woke me up early Saturday morning so I took something and proceeded to do my chores around the house.  I mostly did laundry and started packing once I ironed out my clothes.  I had a birthday dinner to attend to at 6:30pm, so I managed to squeeze in a workout.  At the gym is when my migraine resurfaced again.  I managed to finish my workout but had to rush home to get ready.  Unfortunately I never took anything that evening, but with all of the festivities going on, I tried to ignore it the best I could.

At the dinner at Emilio’s Tapas I caught up with friends and we were enjoying our night.  We ended up walking down the street to the Marriot Hotel so we could have some birthday cupcakes for dessert.  Of course, we didn’t want to go home yet.  We walked over to Broken Shaker for cocktails.  The waitress suggested we tried their punch bowl and we were glad that we did!  It satisfied all of us and we even had seconds!

Now that the party was JUST GETTING STARTED, we decided to go to our favorite club, Disco.  I was surprised that we walked over to that one too, but by the time we got in the club, my feet were beginning to hurt.  We managed to get at table to rest up but we couldn’t stop dancing!  The dj was playing oldies like New Order and Depeche Mode and we were having a blast.

I couldn’t believe we closed the club down.  Not to mention, it was Daylight Savings Weekend, so it was later than I thought.  It hit me then that I was done for the night.  The birthday girl had fun and I finally had enough.  I couldn’t wait to go home.

I really wanted to go to church in the morning, and I did.  But sure enough, my migraine was still lingering.  I took some Tylenol at home twice that day, and to my surprise, woke up with a huge migraine Monday morning.  I was a mess.  I did not feel well for the most part.  Today I’m mostly exhausted because I feel I never truly rested this past weekend.  Now that my trip is in a few days, my anxiety will kick in.  I think that’s why I’m glad I don’t have too much planned ahead.  I’m more concerned about my health if anything.

See ya when I come back!  The rest of this week I’m going to lay low by cleaning up my apartment and trying to squeeze as many workouts that I can.  Until next time!!

Golden Year Birthday Party!

My trip is this week and I am nervous as ever.  Not to mention, I’ve been getting migraines more frequently.  I’m not sure if it’s sinus related considering Spring is right around the corner, but the temperatures here in Chicago has been dry and frigid.  I’m wondering if it’s tension.  I hate this!!!  I had trouble sleeping Friday night and the fact that I went out on Saturday with it being Daylight Savings Weekend did not help whatsoever.  Regardless, I did manage to finish up my laundry so I could start packing.  I’ve even have my toiletries together ready on my bathroom counter.  I usually pack that last since I use my products daily. 

Back to recapping my events.  I FINALLY reached March events and the first weekend was an eventful one!  My friends from Michigan were in town to throw a birthday party for their son who turned 2 years old.  It was his Golden Year birthday.  Hopefully he’ll remember how much fun it was!  It was a Sesame Street themed party and the kids loved it.  The kids’ age ranged from infant to 11 years old, but everyone got along great.  Elmo and Cookie Monster even made a cameo appearance!  Lol.  It was great my friends together with their little ones.

Baby Shower Brunch

I’m still recapping February’s events.  I’m getting nervous about my upcoming trip because everything is happening so fast.  Of course, there’s a ton of things I have to do.  Namely, getting my seasonal haircut which I will be doing tonight.  I can’t wait to chop off these winter ends!

After my long night when my friends were in town, I had to get up early the next day to go to a baby shower.  I was exhausted so I skipped church to get more zzzz’s.  Trust me I didn’t have time to feel guilty about it.  My friends were assuming I was at service so I got ready as fast as I could.  Since church was over at 12pm, I knew they were on their way to pick me up.  Luckily,  I wrapped my present a few days earlier.

We made our way downtown, but traffic was terrible.  I was worried that we were going to run into the mom-to-be before we had a chance to set up.  We luckily found parking at a lot in front and ran inside the restaurant.  A friend of ours offered up space at his restaurant.  He had our section ready for us.  We quickly decorated and waited patiently.  I guess it didn’t matter rushing down there because the mom-to-be got there an hour late!  Oh well.  What can you do?  She was very pleased with her shower and the lunch was delish.  I love it when things fall into place!

Allons en ville!

I’m still recapping February’s events!  We’re still experiencing frigid weather here in Chicago, and most of the East coast are getting snow.  So technically, winter is going strong.  Lol.

The last weekend in February was pretty crazy.  I knew I should rest up because me and my friends were going to throw a baby shower for someone.  But that didn’t stop me from stepping out on the town.  Saturday morningme and the girls got together for brunch to discuss the details of the shower.  We quickly picked up a few things to make sure we had everything we needed.  The shower was being held on Sunday, so we were crunched for time.  I knew some friends were in town from North Carolina and they wanted to meet up in the evening for dinner.  I told them I would skip dinner since I had brunch earlier.  I’m a light eater and eating out twice would not benefit my tummy.  I worked out after hanging with the girls and then got ready. 

Brunch at Dapper’s East

I met up with everyone at Sunda.  My out-of-town-friends really love that restaurant and always try to book a reservation whenever they’re in Chicago.  I had my cocktails and caught up with them afterwards.  I knew it was supposed to rain and was skeptical about going out at all, but here I was.  Sure enough, it started to pour while we were inside.  WHEW!  But of course, the rain wouldn’t give up, and we grew tired of sitting around.  We decided to try to go to a wine bar around the corner.  I was being a baby because I had on my black suede ankle boots.  Suede and rain don’t mix, but luckily it wasn’t raining heavily as it was earlier.

We settled at Public House for a round of drinks.  Since we didn’t know what to do next, we decided to go to their favorite nightclub Disco.  They were hoping to bar hop for a bit but the weather was too annoying to walk in the rain.

Luckily, we got in right away and headed upstairs.  Disco is a lot of fun and my out-of-town-friends absolutely love it.  We practically closed the place down before heading to an afterhours spot.  I probably should have been home hours earlier but I ended up checking in at 6am!  YIKES! 

Chus & Ceballos at Soundbar

The easiest way to beat the winter blues for me is through music.  Since I love dance music so much, I always get excited if I hear that a good dj is in town.  On this particular Saturday, Chus and Ceballos were going to perform at Spybar.  I kept contemplating whether or not I should go.  Let’s face it, I’m getting older and I haven’t been able to stay up late even if I wanted to.  I knew I wanted to hear good music and I let my brother be the deciding factor to see if he would go with me.  He was excited so I bought the tickets on a whim.

Well it turns out, there was a pipe burst at Spybar.  That’s what happens in frigid weather.  Not to mention, I was unaware it was going to snow.  It snowed for a few hours, but enough to cause some accumulation of snow.  I grew frustrated because I wanted to change my mind and forget the whole thing.  But now I had the tickets.  I figured the show must go on!

Spybar made an announcement via Facebook that the show was going to be held across the street at Soundbar.  That sounded fishy to me since technically they will be squeezing two different parties in one club.  I knew me and my brother had to get there at a decent time.  

Sure enough, it was a mad house outside.  They had two different lines forming, but some people ignored them altogether and tried getting upfront.  I knew the drill so I didn’t mind waiting for a bit.  Luckily we waited patiently and the line kept moving.  We were inside!

We found the round room and got comfortable.  We saw some familiar faces and had a blast.  I miss dancing so much.  I know one day I would have to give up the nightlife but I love good music.  In the meantime, I’ll stretch this out as far as I can!

This year’s Valentine-Gift-to-Myself

As I mentioned earlier, I am going back to Europe soon.  This trip in particular came out of nowhere.  I have a chance to see my friend for a few days, and I have a voucher I need to use by the end of the year.  I saw a good flight and booked it.

But on Valentine’s Day, I booked another trip to Italy to see my friend again.  This trip is more exciting because others will join us in Rome.  It will be our little group of former Chicagoans (since everyone moved out of the city except me).  For the past few trips I did some solo traveling, but this time I will be in the company of good friends.  I’m very excited!!  I can’t wait to see everyone!

Since I’ve started this tradition for myself, I have learned that being selfish is not always a bad thing.  I am pretty modest for the most part, but because I choose not to fuss over myself, I forget that I DO need to take care of me from time to time.  Pure joy is what makes us feel alive, and sometimes we get caught up with our responsibilities that we neglect ourselves.  It’s important to wake up and connect with what makes us happy, or else all we would be doing is working and paying bills.    

More Birthday Fun!

I did something crazy again.  I booked another flight to Europe.  I leave in 2 weeks and I’m SUPER NERVOUS.  As you can imagine, I will be miserable in the meantime.  I want to catch up on February’s events, because March Madness is right here!  

My brother had a pretty good birthday this year.  First my mom and us took him out to dinner at Señor Pan.  Then my dad wanted to throw a birthday dinner for him as well at his place.

Unfortunately, my dad worked pretty late that night, and me and my brothers were keeping ourselves entertained watching the “Versace” series.  Have you caught up to this show??  It’s pretty crazy because I remember when the news broke out here in Chicago.  Everyone was on the look for Andrew Cunanan!  He was on the run and nobody knew where he would turn up next.  I can’t believe Versace has been gone for so long.  He was a true visionary.

My dad finally showed up and we all had dinner together.  Unfortunately, me and my brother had to leave right after since we both worked the next day.  I hope my brother enjoyed his birthday.  I love him very much.  He has always stuck up for me…

I notice I wear a lot of grey in the winter.  

Birthday brother 

Señor Pan

The day after the basketball game, my family celebrated my older brother’s birthday.  Technically, I am the oldest but since I have two brothers, it’s easier to describe him as the oldest one.  We decided to take him out to dinner to Señor Pan; a Cuban restaurant in the northside.  There was a lot of snow from the day before, so we had some trouble finding parking.  We finally lucked out in the parking lot but these are things to consider when you live in the city.  My mom was very excited to be out of the house.  It’s hard for her to live in retirement and not be able to leave her place because of the crazy weather we’ve been having.  Not to mention, we did not expect the flu to be as scary as it was this season.  I did not want to risk her getting sick.  Regardless tonight was a special treat for her.  The food was delish and my brother enjoyed the staff coming out to sing him happy birthday.  I was very surprised they did that at the last minute.  He definitely will remember this dinner! 

I ordered Ropa Vieja!  It was delish 

We loved the personal touch!