Fake it Till You Make It

Ha!  So of course I didn't win the Powerball.  BUT that doesn't stop me from wanting to do the same things I would have done if I won.  I still want to pay off my debt and take care of my family and friends.  It may not be with money but there are other ways I can contribute.  My time, my companionship, my winning personality (lol).  Regardless, just because you wished for something so bad doesn't mean it can't come true.  Riches doesn't come in forms of money.  You can live the life you want by believing you have "that life" already.  If you try this little trick, you will notice the difference in the way you see things.  You will be grateful for what you have and will appreciate the people you share your time with.  Remember, tomorrow isn't always a guarantee.  That's a fact.  Make the most of your experiences, the good and the bad, and you will understand their purpose from a different perspective.
Now we continue with December events!  I usually get my "seasonal" haircut 4x a year.  My hairstylist jokes that he would like to see me more often than that, but in reality, my hair is thin enough as it is.  There's not much he can do to it to make it fuller anyway.  I've been blessed with no grays but the occasional strand here and there.  I have my mom's genes to thank for that.  But I also have my Dad's genes too.  He went bald pretty early in life and I fear my hair has been thinning lately too.  I don't have any patches yet but I know it will be a problem for me later on.  I always ask my hair stylist if I've gone bald yet but he says everything looks the same.  Maybe it's my imagination but I can't help it.  I know my hair was much fuller when I was younger. 
Regardless, I felt fabulous after my haircut.  I was his last client and it was a Saturday night.  My friends called me up and invited me out for drinks.  I figured why not since I was already out and about.  We met up in Wicker Park and walked over to Taus restaurant on Division.  I loved the fact that we made our way to the fireplace area.  It was nice and cozy plus we talked up a storm!  It was a perfect spot for us to tell stories about what we've been up to.  We ended up grabbing something to eat afterwards and the next thing you know, we were in River North heading towards Y bar.  lol.  It turned out to be one of those nights but we were having so much fun.  We finished up at Cuvee before I headed home.  I did not expect to be out all night considering I left the house earlier in the day for a haircut!  Luckily I wore a black tunic with my black fleece lined leggings and riding boots on my way out.  I'm going to have to pay more attention to what I put on in case I end up being out the rest of the night. 

The calm before the storm...

Back in September, I spent the first part in Italy, and the rest of the month attending birthday parties.  Lol.  Once October came around, things had slowed down a bit.  I'm glad it did.  Sometimes you want to be able to stop and smell the roses.  I got a chance to finish a new self-help book, as well as focus on trying to get my apartment ready for the winter (if it ever shows up).  It took forever, but I finally found a picture I could hang over my couch in the living room.  After countless hours spent surfing the net, I narrowed it down to one.  I'm glad how it turned out too.  I knew I wanted something abstract.  From that point it was just a matter of finding the one I liked to go with my décor.  It was an interesting process, because it's so time consuming.  I didn't want to settle for any old picture!  And that's how it should be!  The last thing I wanted to do was to have something hang on my wall for the sake of covering up my wall.  It's easy to get "stuck" with things, but you should have some passion behind the madness.
Regardless, the first weekend in October was pretty chilled out.  Me and my friends from time to time like to have mass group textes to see how we're doing.  Since so many events are happening in everyone's lives, it's a nice way to catch up to one another.  Our friend from the bridal shower at the Drake hotel invited us to come over and check out her new apartment.  She moved back in the city at the end of the summer and is also in the process of planning a wedding.  We drove down to Downer's Grove for a light dinner party.  She cooked with one of her presents from the shower:  a brand new Williams Sonoma iron skillet!  We had a good time catching up.  It was nice not to do anything too crazy. 

I love my birthday scarf!  I wore it for the dinner party.

I wore it with my cotton twill moto jacket.  The weather was changing around this time.  We had light rain/ mist and crisp weather.  Wasn't "cold" yet.

One of her bridal shower gifts.  She bought some cheese and crackers for appetizers. 

Magiano's has a nice spread!

Good times hanging out with the ladies!

The following weekend things DID get a little crazy (but that's my life, you know?).  The funny thing about those nights, they're unexpected.  You can never plan for those, but remember, anything is possible in this city.  I saw on Facebook that one of my favorite spots in the city was closing down.  Japonais!  Definitely one of the best restaurants in Chicago for sushi.  But over the years, with it's massive space, was getting harder and harder to fill up.  There are always new places opening up in the city.  And with Chicago's fickle crowd, you can never tell which ones will bring the patrons back.  Japonais was around for over 10 years, which is a huge accomplishment!  The fact that it lasted so long is impressive in my eyes.  Plus, with it's dock area patio, boats would sail up and park for a quick bite to eat.

I headed down to Public House and met up with some friends who were watching the Cubs game.  At this point, there was hope we could make it to the world series.  But my friends were done for the evening.  That's when I decided to head down to Japonais for their closing party by myself to see who I would run into.  Since I use to go there regularly 10 years ago, I figured I'll run into some familiar faces.  Did I ever!!  I was glad I saw my old friends I use to party with back in the day.  We had some good times.  We decided to go out and make a night of it since we haven't hungout with one another in sooooooooooo long.  We jumped around to Parliament, then ended the night in Cuvee.  I had a blast!  For a spilt second I felt I traveled back into time.  I miss that feeling... 

Missed these guys!!

At Japonais for their closing party.

Headed over to Parliament and met up with some more friends...

Getting silly at Cuvée

What a loooooong night!!  Peace out!