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!!

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 

Aquarius Season

Happy Valentine’s Day everybody!!!  I hope everyone gets to enjoy the lovey-dovey experience today.  I love Valentine’s Day even if I’m single.  I told someone they are my Valentine’s this year and he seemed ok with it, so who knows???  Hahahahaha  A girl can only wish…

Around the middle of January I booked a train ticket to Detroit to visit my friend who moved out there a while back.  Her birthday weekend was coming up and I knew she’s been missing her friends here in Chicago.  Unfortunately when I brought up the idea to visit, everyone was busy that weekend.  I decided to go regardless, and she was excited I was coming down.

I don’t remember the last time I took an Amtrak train.  Since I work downtown, I took a half a day off from work and ran over to Union Station.  I arrived to Detroit 30 minutes later than anticipated.  I still don’t understand how that happened.

My friend and her family were excited to see me.  The best part was another friend of hers fly into Detroit from Baltimore.  He was going to arrive around 9pm.

We decided to head downtown and have a birthday cocktail in the meantime.  Detroit has definitely changed since my last visit over a year ago.  More new restaurants and bars have opened up.  I am excited to see what will be next for this city that has so much potential.

We picked up her friend at the airport and headed back to the burbs where my friend lives.  Luckily they picked a wonderful restaurant that was opened late.  We were having a great time catching up. 

That night we stayed up drinking champagne and munching on Sprinkles cupcakes.  One of the girls had picked some up for her birthday, and I brought them along on my trip.  They were delish!

#VegasStrong

After seeing my friends the night before, I took it easy on Leg Day Saturday.  I slept in; did my chores and went to the gym like I usually do.  Me and my brothers were celebrating my mom’s birthday that night and we decided to take her out to dinner.  We were having trouble figuring out where to go.  Luckily my mom had a suggestion and we were relieved.  Usually my mom has a terrible time deciding, that’s why we would have a ton of suggestions so she could choose from. 

She wanted to go to Legno on Central avenue, which is in her neighborhood in Portage Park.  I was surprised she knew about it, but apparently it’s nearby her church, and they give out vouchers to the attendees from time to time.  Lol.  I have to say, me and my brothers were very impressed!  It’s connected to a banquet hall next door, but the restaurant served us right away, despite it being a Saturday night.  Some restaurants in the north side of Chicago do not take reservations, but we lucked out with this one.  It was nice to catch up to my mom and my brothers.  We were obviously talking about Hurricane Maria and my dad’s family out there in Caguas.  Still no word on anyone, but people off of Facebook were checking in that they had spoken to family out there whenever they received word about their safety.  

Never in a million years did anyone expect what was to come next.  Sunday night, at a country music festival, Las Vegas encountered the worst domestic terrorism attack in United States history.  My mom cried to me the next day on the phone.  With the tube terrorist attack I had missed in London a few weeks earlier and now this, for the first time, she was worried about me.  “I know because you love to travel and go to concerts; I don’t want anything happening to any of my children,” she cried.  I was at a loss for words because I knew she wanted me to say something that would console her, but instead I said the opposite.  I told her that I was sorry for making her feel like this, but I can’t stop living.  I can’t help but feel this way.  At the end of the day, we are truly living during a dangerous time.  If anything, I want to experience more.  In the end, what would it matter anyways?  We all gotta go sometime…    

Heartbreak at Hubbard

I’m still trying to catch up on August events!  I finally decided that I will also visit Paris when I’m in Europe next week.  It’s been difficult these past few days trying to coordinate something with my friend who moved to Italy.  Unfortunately, I decided in the end that I will not be seeing her this time around.  I didn’t have much to work with and time was working against us.  I will be taking the Eurostar to Paris so I’m excited I won’t be hopping from plane to plane like I’ve done in the past.  I’ve been having trouble with my nerves again, and haven’t been able to hold anything in my stomach.  I hate myself whenever I go through this.  I can’t believe I still have trouble THINKING about getting on a plane.  Even the sound of a plane flying by creeps me out.  Maybe I should work at an airport part-time so I can get use to all of the noise and commotion?  I don’t know anymore…

Well back to part 2 of our friends visiting from North Carolina.  It turns out it birthday boy number 2 wanted to celebrate as well, and his dinner was going to be held at Mercadito.  I woke up not feeling so great that Saturday, and started to do my chores around my apartment.  I got a call on the phone that changed my mood completely.  Even as I’m writing this, I’m tearing up.  It’s nothing bad.  No one died, has cancer, etc.  Just one of those calls that makes you realize how much time has passed since my breakup.

I couldn’t stop crying afterwards, and my usual Saturday routine would be to hang out at my apartment so I could unwind from my job.  Not this Saturday.  I knew I was going to drive myself crazy with my thoughts, so I got dressed and ran out of the house.  The air and water show was happening that day, but I wanted to see what my friends from out of town were doing.  Unfortunately I was on the phone for over 2 hours that I missed the show.  By the time I was getting downtown, my friends told me they were heading back to the hotel.  

I mostly walked around.  I went to my favorite beach on Ohio and just sat and watched people.  There were a lot of boats on the lake.  It dawned on me how much I couldn’t wait to leave and see new faces.  I’ve been feeling this way ever since.

I did some window shopping and headed home to rest.  I was not in the mood to go out at all but my friends insisted.  I let my girlfriend know ahead of time what was going on in case people noticed the change in me.  The night before I was happy to be out but now I was a complete mess.  I was worried I would start crying out of the blue, but my girlfriend understood and told me she would keep me occupied. 

I got to dinner pretty late.  Everyone was finishing up.  They decided to stay a bit longer at Mercadito to have some cocktails.  I haven’t been there in a while so it was nice to see the hustle and bustle of a Saturday night.  In the end we decided to go to Hubbard Inn to continue the party.  I started to feel better there.  Our birthday party crew got bigger with more people arriving to join in on the fun.

We went across the street to Disco (again) and danced around.  My feet were killing me at this point, but I tried to stick it out as long as I could.  I went home.

What I learned is sometimes you need to be “distracted” in order not to be consumed with your own thoughts.  Whoever said you are your own worst enemy was not lying…    

Rocking at Ronero!

I’m going to try my best to recap my events before I leave on my trip, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to catch up.  My emotions have been all over the place.  So much tension around me.  I concluded today that I do indeed need to get away because I need to reflect on myself.  People are so intense around me.  I wish things weren’t like this.

In the news right now are more natural disasters, political mumbo jumbo, and basically no reason things should matter because the world will be ending soon anyway.  It’s hard to be optimistic when the worse-case scenario is constantly in your face.  How can anyone live like this?

Back in mid-August some friends of ours were visiting from North Carolina.  I was excited to see them because I wanted to get my mind off of things.  Unfortunately, it first seemed plans were not working out, but in the end, luckily it did.  We had dinner at Ronero and then headed upstairs to the main lounge.  We had bottle service and lived it up.  It was such a random thing to do.  We wanted to keep going and not end the night so we headed to Disco for some more action.  I got so tired once we got there.  I felt bad that I had to leave.  Talk about running out of steam!  lol 

90 Miles Cafe

I got my meds from the doctor Thursday night, but my first official day on them was Friday.  I had them send it to my pharmcist near my job.  It’s the one where I usually get my meds from, so I figured it wasn’t a big deal to wait on one more night without them.  But that Friday I ended up leaving early from work.  I had too many sleepless nights that week and I was plain tired of being sick.

The following day Saturday, I had a birthday party to go to in Lincolnwood.  It was for my friend’s mom.  She had turned 60 years old!  What a milestone!  They chose to celebrate it at 90 Miles Café.  Another plus?  They were going to have a live band as well!

My friend and her boyfriend came to pick me up.  We quickly went to grab some flowers and balloons for our friend's mom.  Of course, once we got there, our other friends had not arrived.  Luckily the host showed us to our table.  Other family members were seated along with the birthday girl.  We were greeting everyone when the rest of the party showed up.  Like I said, I’m glad the restaurant had showed us to the back room where we had reserved our tables.  It’s hard to coordinate this stuff with such a big party.

It was nice catching up to everyone, although my voice was still hoarse from my cough.  I noticed that the place got slammed and that’s when our waiter notified us that the restaurant was running behind on all orders.  Yikes!  It was the night before Mother’s Day, so maybe they were not expecting to be so busy.  Regardless, we chatted away.

The samba dancers came out and were very friendly to the customers.  They even let us pose with them for pictures.  I was impressed how they got the crowd going.  Everybody loved them and the band was exceptional.

We were getting to the hangry stage when the food finally arrived.  Nonetheless, we were drinking by then so we got over it pretty quickly.  Lol. 

Grammy Viewing Party

I’m still recapping my brother’s birthday weekend!  Lol.  I’m telling you, he was spoiled rotten this year.  The following day my dad wanted us to come by for a birthday dinner for my brother.  It also happened to be the day the Grammys were on.  FINALLY I wasn’t going to be watching some sports game on tv!!  It was my moment, and I told my brothers to make sure the channel was on for the Grammys.  Both my brothers and my father are obsessed with sports.  As the only girl, it has its drawbacks.  You would think I warmed up to sports with mostly men in my family, but it never happened.  I DO although, love music, so I enjoy the Grammys very much. 

Since we were going to be hanging out at my dad’s, I dressed super casual.  I bought a pair of Puma sneakers with collaboration with MCQ online.  They’ve been out for a while, but I found a good deal and was super excited about getting them.  They were my Valentine’s gift-to-myself this year.  Lol.  I’m not a sneaker head, so I am still trying to figure out a way to wear them.  I chose a pair of straight leg jeans with my knitted beanie to complete my outfit. 

My brother was very humbled by the birthday dinner.  It’s challenging sometimes being a product of divorce.  The fact that our dad’s wife took time to prepare this little party was very sweet of her.   And on top of everything, I got some good photos of my dad smiling too!  Another candid moment caught on film!