Brunch for an Aries

Last weekend I attended a birthday brunch in River North for a friend of ours.  It was held at Troquet.  I have never been there before.  The weather was beautiful that day!  Unfortunately that also meant the traffic was awful.  I was 20 minutes late and felt terrible about it.  Oh well.

Regardless I wasn’t the only one who was late.  Lol.  Needless to say, once everyone arrived we ordered away.  It was nice catching up to everyone.  The birthday girl had just returned from the Philipines and her stories were amazing.  We finished up and decided to go down the street to Rocks bar.  There we had the bar to ourselves.  We played a couple of games of skee ball.  I think the birthday girl enjoyed her day.  She had to leave early to pack for a work trip. 

Someone in our group suggested going to a bbq she was invited to, and we happily agreed to go with her.  Even the traffic back that way was bad enough.  We picked up a few items and headed over to the address.  Luckily, these guys were cool enough for us to crash their bbq.  They ended up cooking some awesome tacos.  It felt nice being outside on the porch.

Today is my trip!  Needless to say I am very nervous.  First stop Paris and then I’m off to Istanbul.  I will report back when I return!  Until next time…

One Inspired Evening

My friend from work was selected along with 70 artists to auction off their artwork for charity.  I was so proud of him!  This would mark his 2^nd year in a row in which he was chosen to participate.  The invitation was cocktail attire and I knew I didn’t have a dress to wear for this occasion.  I opted for a black lace mini dress I had worn for New Year’s once and decided to leave on my leather trench the whole night.  I didn’t realize leather trenches were back in style.  Luckily I kept mine well hidden in my coat closet.  I rarely wear it because it’s heavier than my other coats.  I have never been to an art auction before.

My nerves were a mess that night.  I hate that I still get this way from time to time.  I apologized to my friend for the way I was acting.  I hate being embarrassed like this.  In the end, I finally calmed down.  I ran into another artist friend who was auctioning off his canvas painting.  He and my friend hit it off.  Afterwards, we all went to the after party at Emporium at Fulton Market.  They had some pin ball machines and we tried playing a couple of games.  In the end we headed off to Key Club on Hubbard Inn and hung out there for a while.  I haven’t been out all night in a long time.

The Luck of the Irish

This week I’m heading to my next adventure.  Obviously I’m very nervous about my flight but I’m constantly keeping myself busy.  My nerves were pretty bad last night.  Hence, time to wrap up March’s events!

After that horrible sickness, I started to feel myself again.  I made a haircut appointment on St. Patty’s Day Saturday because I wasn’t sure I was in the mood to join in the festivities.  My friends were letting me know they were going to meet up for the dying of the Chicago River.  I knew there would be a time restriction, and told them I would meet up afterwards.  I was surprised they were still out.  Needless to say, the group had dwindled down.  We stayed at Celeste for a while until my friend grew hungry.  She ran into another friend who was heading to Maple & Ash.  He invited us all along and we jumped into a Lyft ride and headed down there.  I felt so underdressed when we walked in!  It’s definitely a fancy place but we were still wearing green for St. Patrick’s Day.  My friends ordered appetizers and everything was delish.  It was good times despite not celebrating traditionally at a pub.  Lol. 

WhirlyBall Birthday Party

Back in March I attended a surprise birthday party.  She had no idea her friends and family were planning this.  I wasn’t sure at first if I could make it.  I knew I had some errands to run.  Once I realized the party was not until later than expected, I knew I was good to go.  I’m just glad I didn’t walk in on the actual unveiling of the surprise.  Lol

I did not want to participate in whirlyball but had to since the teams were outnumbered.  I am TERRIBLE at sports.  Of any kind.  In this case, not many were having the best luck with their carts.  It’s hard to navigate if you can’t control your cart.  I was going backwards for some time!

We had cupcakes and cocktails and then we decided to bar hop towards Courtland’s Garage.  Our friend was enjoying her birthday and we didn’t want to stop the celebration just yet.

Since that weekend was Daylight Savings weekend, I ended up not feeling well on Monday and didn’t go to work.  I don’t know what I had, but I made my way to work Tuesday, only to call in sick Wednesday.  I was out of it the remaining of the week.  I have not been that sick in years.

I WANT ONE MARGARITA

A few weeks ago my mom friends wanted to step out for a margarita.  Since I don’t see them very often, I agreed to tag along.  One of them was driving in from the suburbs, so it gave me a chance to throw something on and run out the door.  I had met up earlier for brunch with our other friend.  I felt bad because I was tired from the night before.  That was the night I saw Kaskade with my brother.  I took it easy the rest of the day.  Now that I was going out for drinks again, I couldn’t help but wonder if people were tired of being stuck inside.  Our Chicago winters drag out until April.  Yesterday alone was in the high 30s!  It makes you want to escape to somewhere warm.

We went to our usual spot Garcia’s by Lawrence.  This Mexican restaurant has been around for over 20 years!  Great food with a lively atmosphere.  Everyone knows about Garcia’s.

I had a nice time catching up with my friends.  The next day, I did manage to go to church.

Kaskade at Tao

One of my favorite djs was coming to Tao and me and my brother decided to purchase tickets.  We were thirsty for some good music and  wanted to come out of hibernation from the long winter months.  For the most part, there were some electronic djs that I didn’t get a chance to see in January and February, but for the most part, some shows were too difficult for me to make it to.  One of them performed on a Sunday night, and I knew I couldn’t miss work the next day for some show.  Another dj was in town but the weather was horrible.  Kaskade always draws a big crowd, and we knew we had to act fast before the tickets were sold out.

Well guess what happened?  I bought my ticket and sent over my proof of purchase to my brother.  He informed me that he was going to get his by lunchtime.  To his surprise, the show had sold out!  Now what?

I tried looking for other sites to see if anyone else was selling tickets for this event.  Nothing.  On Instagram they held a contest 2 days before the show to give away some tickets.  I was getting desperate.  I figured worst case scenario I’ll give my ticket to my brother and he will have to go by himself.  Kaskade is his favorite dj and I didn’t want him to miss his performance. 

I didn’t win the contest, but a promoter of Tao did mention to contact him for tickets and table service the night before the show.  Me and my brother were not interested in table service, but were hoping to score one ticket if possible.  I lucked out with the promoter contacting me right away and asking me how many tickets I wanted.  “Just one,” I replied.  Dead silence.  I decided to continue the conversation on my own hoping I didn’t come off as a pest.  “Is there somewhere I can purchase the ticket?” I asked.  He finally replied an hour later that he was going to put me on his guest list but that I still had to pay.  No problem!

The next day me and my brother decided to head to Tao early in case we were going to run into any issues with this promoter.  The biggest joke in the industry is that there probably isn’t a “guest list” and might be denied at the door.  For all I know, his Instagram account can have a fake name on it!  We walked up to the bouncer and my brother was granted entry with my ticket.  I told them I was on the guest list courtesy of the gentlemen’s name.  I showed him our conversation via Instagram and the bouncer told me to go on in.  After security checked my purse, I was stamped and granted entry as well!  We scored!!  Not only were there no problems, but the guys at the door never charged me at all!  Me and my brother decided to celebrate at the bar.

Since we got there pretty early, it was fun people watching.  The club filled up pretty fast and eventually Kaskade came on and was amazing.  It was the perfect night for us to enjoy some good music!