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! 

Sangria and Spa Night

The last weekend of 2017 I got a chance to spend it with old friends.  I’ve known these girls for almost 20 years and it was fun catching up.  One of them moved to Florida, but was in town visiting family and friends during the holidays.  She decided to throw a spa night at her mom’s place to introduce us to a new skincare line.  She’s currently working with them and is very impressed with their results.  Who are we to turn down beauty secrets?  She made it more appealing by having sangria and tapas as well!  I love low key Saturday nights.  I’ve grown to appreciate a more intimate setting nowadays.  Regardless, I was very fortunate to see my old friends during the holidays, and as a result, will try to make it a habit to visit them once in a while wherever they reside now.  I can’t wait to tell you about my recent road trip to Detroit!  Until next time…

Simple button down to hangout with friends...

Frosty’s the Christmas bar!

Being a product of divorce, my dad wanted us to come by for dinner.  Trust me I worked out everyday during my time off for Thanksgiving.  Lol.  His wife wanted to host and we decided for Saturday night.
Things didn’t turn out the way we had planned.  Dinner ran late, and for some reason tension filled the air.  Me and my brothers decided to try to turn our night around.  I heard of a soft opening of a new pop-up Christmas bar named Frosty’s.  We figured why not?
Luckily we got in on time because the bar got slammed pretty quickly.  Sometimes the city is a little quiet because people go elsewhere to visit family during the holidays.  But I think that night everyone was curious about Frosty’s.  Me and my brothers loved it.  It will definitely do well the rest of the month.  If you’re in Chicago go check it out.  It’s a hoot!

#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…    

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. 

Day Three: Amsterdam

Since I had technically booked my hotel for 2 nights; I knew I had made a wrong choice.  I bought my flight to Florence on the last minute and figured I would break night on the 3rd day in Amsterdam.  It was Saturday after all and I've done it before in the past.  But now as I've gotten older, I knew I was kidding myself.  My flight was leaving at 9:55am and even if I got to the airport at 8am, what was I going to do with myself this whole time without a room?  I needed to rest at some point.  I booked another night but because my room was given to someone else, they assigned another room for me.  I still had to get up and checkout in the morning.  I woke up early and packed my things.  Luckily my new room was ready, but since I was up already, I got hungry.  I decided to grab breakfast and search for some Dutch pancakes!

I walked my way over to the same area where I had brunch the day before.  But with some many restaurants nearby, I could find a place that served the pancakes.  I DID see however, a crowd of locals standing around a deli.  That's when I realized they were serving the hering sandwich.  A decided to try this favorite Dutch treat.  I was nervous the fish would have bones, but a customer informed me it didn't.  They added the pickles and onions and I took my bite.  It was definitely different but I managed.  I was proud I tried this healthy treat.  Not bad, but I'm not sure if this is something I would crave.  But who knows?

I suddenly got a wave of tiredness that came over me.  Since I had been out the night before, and checked out in the morning, I got super tired.  I had a cup of espresso but it still didn't help.  I decided to go back to the hotel for a nap. 

What a nap it turned out to be!  I slept until 3pm!!  I was losing my day again.  Ugh!  My new friend was messaging me to see what I was doing but I told him what happened.  Both he and my friend in Italy had suggested that I should book a boat tour in the canals.  I went down to the hotel and arranged one with the front desk man.  

I made my way over to the coffee company to have my 2nd cup so I could wake up.  I was so groggy.  The deskman gave me directions to take the tram down to dam square where my tour would start.  It seemed simple enough.  

I found my stop and hopped on.  I got a chance to see just how many people visit Amsterdam.  There were so many people.  Once I entered Dam Square it reminded me of time square.  There were so many people.  I got off my stop and continued my walk over to the boats.  That's when I noticed two guys eating the famous Belgium fries with mayo.  I asked them where it was and they showed me to Minnekan Piss.  Here were the infamous fries.  There was a line but luckily it went quickly.  Hence; that was my lunch.  

I found the spot where my tour was meeting.  Boats run every 15 minutes and I just made one starting now.  I hopped on and found my seat.  What an amazing tour!!  I enjoyed the whole thing.  It was truly breath taking seeing the city this way. 

Me and my new friend had made plans to meet up around 8pm for drinks at my hotel.  By the time I got off my tour I still had time to walk around dam square.  I saw some many interesting stores.  

I took the tram back and made my way to the hotel to get ready.  I was getting nervous because I didn't know where we were going.  He came right on time and he drove us back to museum square.  We took a walk and made our way to Weber Bar.  

There we got a chance to get to know one another.  He was very sweet.  We were having a good time.  He wanted to take me to Red Light District.  I was going to pass up on this if I was by myself, but now that my friend was with me, I figured why not.  

What a change of scenery!!  First of all, there were so many people.  This area is very busy at night.  It was overwhelming but my friend was with me so I felt safe.  I was mostly concerned with walking through a crowd like packed sardines but we were fine.  

He took me to a peep show and that was something I'll never forget.  But there were so many people trying to get in, all curious to see what was going on.  People from all over the world. 

He got hungry and went to a vending machine to grab a burger and drove me back to my hotel.  My flight was at 9:55 to Florence.  So far, Amsterdam was amazing!