Leña Brava

I am still recapping the weekend my friend was here to attend a funeral.  I stayed low key that Saturday, but we made plans on Sunday to have dinner downtown.  She picked me up and we drove down to Randolph street where we going to meet another friend of ours.  This friend, too, happened to be in Chicago to attend a wedding.  It was nice seeing her as well.  For a brief moment, it felt like everything was normal again.  Until we realized that the last time we all saw each, our circumstances were different.  It was hard to catch up to where we are today.  Yet I couldn’t help but feel fortunate that we were sharing things that were very difficult for us.  I truly believe we need to strengthen our relationships when life is going well.  Because the reality is Life will be completely unfair sometimes, and it will knock you down.  We need to cherish our friendships as much as we can.  No drama should separate the bond that you share with your loved ones. 

Since red is in this season, I wore my vintage Dooney & Burke.

Frida at Leña Brava.

Love them TREMENDOUSLY!!

Floating

Do you ever feel like you’re “floating” through time?  Right now, my concept of time is off balance due to recent events.  I had someone ask me if I’m excited next week is Thanksgiving.  I answered that Halloween passed by too quickly.  Regardless, I’m emotionally pooped.

My friend lost her aunt unexpectedly.  In a matter of 2 weeks I’ve been to 2 funerals.  In hindsight, in the past 2 months I’ve known 4 people in total who have lost their lives.  Every single situation was truly heart breaking.  With the devastation in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria, and the domestic terrorism incident in Las Vegas, I never imagined in a million years some of the events I have witnessed.  My heart aches for my friends who have suffered the unimaginable. 

In the meantime, I wake up in the middle of the night and cry myself back to sleep.  I am constantly sad.  I try to fight off my thoughts and try to be optimistic but sometimes life can be unfair.  I can’t find the silver lining, or lesson learned, or any meaning except that shit happens.  I pray all the time for my friends and family’s safety.  I wish I could find a way to make things better.

At the funeral for my friend’s aunt, the rabbi mentioned to focus on what SHE would have wanted for her loved ones:  to move on.  Even if we are hurting with her gone, she would have wanted everyone to move past this and live their lives to the fullest.  I completely agreed with him.  He’s right.  That is what she would have wanted.  The least we could do is grant her that wish.

I felt anxious when I came home and napped it out since I’ve been barely sleeping.  Once I woke up I decided to go to a birthday party that I was invited to at the last minute.  I just didn’t want to be at home alone with my thoughts.  I made my way to Parlor off Randolph and met up with some friends.  It felt good not to think for a bit.  Luckily, since it was a birthday celebration, everyone was in good spirits.  We ended up at The Mid and danced around.  For this short moment, I saw happy faces, and it was worth it…

After party at The Mid!

Good times...

Up on a roof!

The summer is barely here and I’m already getting bombarded by events.  Unfortunately, Chicago in the summertime is a very busy place to be.  With  concerts, neighborhood food fests and baseball games, the city can get overwhelming.  On top of that, there’s personal milestones such as birthdays, graduation parties, weddings and baby showers to attend!  Oh my!

I was invited to a birthday party on a rooftop during the Bad Axe Throwing Party the week before.  I accepted the invitation, but as the weekend got closer, I can clearly see that it was going to be a very active weekend.  Other invitations came out of nowhere and I had to turn them down due to me getting my chores done.  Lol.  I had to do a ton of laundry, and there was no way around it.  Usually, this is a reminder for me to get some chores in by the weekend, so I don’t spend all of my Saturday cleaning up the apartment.

I did my usual Saturday leg day and then showered up and got ready for the party.  They had suggested to get there by 8:30pm so I took my time.  Out of nowhere, there was another invitation, this one too, a birthday party.  I was already on my way to the first party, I had to turn it down.  What can you do?

I made my way there, but quickly called my mom.  I don’t want to get caught up on my social life that I forget to call her.  FOMO is real here in Chi-town, but at the end of the day, you can only be at one place at a time.  I do not want to burn myself out.

Once inside I found my friends.  It was a nice party, and we got a chance to enjoy the rooftop for a bit.  Afterwards, his friends had the itch to go to Federales, so we walked down Randolph over to Morgan Street.  Luckily, we had some time to get some cocktails before it closed.  At 3am it was all over for us, but then, as usual, you have the one friend that mentions we can still go to a late night spot.  I jumped in a cab and made my escape.  That was enough action for me!      

 

Marching into March

Sorry I have not been posting as much.  I did something rather crazy again and booked another flight to Europe.  I was messaging my friend in Italy how much I miss her so much and wanted to get away.  I figured this time it would be easier on my pockets if I traveled to see her in the Springtime.  The summer anywhere in the world is pretty pricey and I saw some good deals searching the web.  We decided mid March before she gets busy again with work.  I lucked out on a good deal for the flight, so let’s see how this pans out for the both of us.  I love the hot summers in Italy, but this would be different to experience Italy with spring weather.

The last weekend in January, me and my friends got together to catch up with one another.  We were still feeling Trump’s wrath, and it was nice to get our minds off other things going on in our lives.  My friends were curious about my Miami trip during New Year’s.  Yup, that’s how long we haven’t seen each other.  Too bad I didn’t give them enough juicy gossip, but it was indeed gossip in the end.  I like sharing my craziness with the girls.  I miss them a lot. 

We met up at Garcia’s in the northside.  It’s been one of our favorite restaurants to hang out in throughout the years.  We giggled over margaritas and then called it a night.

Once I got home, a friend of mine wanted to meet up downtown.  I haven’t spoken to him in a while and I wasn’t in the mood to end my Saturday night just yet.  I took an uber and headed down to Booze Box on Randolph.  The one good thing about talking to him is our love of fashion.  We talked about clothes for a bit.  I haven’t been out in weeks since everything happened at work.  It was nice to be out and people watch.

He took me to Arbella next in River North.  It was a pretty restaurant with a good crowd inside.  We had some drinks there before heading off to Estate.  There we danced up a storm and had a blast.  It was just what I needed to end January and look ahead.  Too many adjustments and not enough time to deal with the changes was beginning to affect me.

Much needed margarita with the girls...

 

Later on, admiring my friend's Yeezys...

Birthday Weekend!

This has been a busy week to say the least!  I can officially say as of now I'm done planning my 2 day trip to Athens.  Just booked the hotel and now I'm looking into where to stay when I arrive at the islands.  Since I knew what my points of interests were in Athens, I booked the hotel near the center of attractions within walking distance.  I am not sure yet when my friend in Italy will arrive to meet me so I opted for a hotel for safety concerns.  In trip planning, you have to keep in mind that you will get lost.  I don't think people schedule enough time for that part.  I understand that there are people who just show up and go with the flow.  I am NOT one of those people.  I look into everything!  Transportation; points of interests; reviews from various sites.  I need to know if it's worth the effort to visit certain places.  You could be disappointed so it's good to read reviews.  At the same time, you know yourself more than anyone.  People do complain a lot and you need to read between the lines.  What may be bothersome for one may not be a  big deal to you, so pay attention to what people are saying.  That's my travel tip for the day!


Last weekend, my birthday came upon me with no planning whatsoever on how to celebrate.  I didn't think too much about it since it fell on Father's Day Sunday this year.  Saturday I deep cleaned my apartment because I had a spider wandering around.  He bit me 4x during the week!  I knew I had to wait till the weekend to thoroughly vacuum.  I also had to visit my brother briefly because he had surgery and I wanted to check up on him.  My mother has been worried sick about him and I had to see for myself on how he was handling his recovery.  Luckily he's doing a lot better and was up and about when I came over.  I felt good about his health, so I left his place late in the afternoon to see what was happening in the city.


I was making my way over to Diversy harbor to visit a friend who recently purchased a small boat.  I am terrified of boating in general, but I knew they were still doing maintenance work on it.  I felt I wouldn't be put on a compromised position if they were to set sail.  We sat around with his partners and enjoyed the rest of the day catching up.  I had a great time plus there's so much action going on at the dock.  I saw an eyeful...

Chilling at Diversy Harbor...

Loud music blasting away.  I can't believe each boat were playing their own music out loud.  It sounded terrible!!

The next day was Father's Day and I kept it low key for the first half of the day.  I went to church, then later on to the gym, when my friend texted me to see what's up.  We wondered if we could have a birthday cocktail somewhere.  I called my dad once he got off work and we chatted for a bit.  I knew he was going to watch the basketball championship game with my brother so I didn't feel too bad not passing by to visit him.  I am not into sports so I opted to pass on this important game and join my friends instead.
We settled for Cindy's Rooftop at the Chicago Athletic Club and I absolutely LOVED the view!!  It's beautiful!!  We just talked and had some margaritas up there but I was blown away!

Good times at Cindy's

We decided to check out their game room downstairs and munch on some snacks before we headed  to another spot.  We went back towards Randolph area at Beer Bistro and ended up watching the rest of the game there.  Again, not my thing, but at least we did chat up a storm.

So much for the game.  I was not rooting for Lebron btw...

We walked around the corner afterwards and found Federals.  The roof was open, so it was nice to sit at a restaurant and look up to the sky.  Despite everything that is happening in the world, it's a wonderful thing when you get a chance to make some memories with friends.  It's important to hold on to them tight... 

FUN FILLED WEEKEND part 2

Back to cold weather once again.  I don't know about you, but it's starting to get on my nerves.  lol.  As they say; patience is a virtue ( I guess).  Regardless, I got a chance to enjoy the sunshine yesterday.  Easter weekend, the temperature was a lot nicer.  That Saturday, I went out for a run on the 606 Bloomingale trail and munched on Korean tacos afterwards.  By the time I got home it was around 5:30pm.  I usually clean my apartment earlier in the day, but because I stepped out for my run, my place was still a mess when I got back.  I couldn't take it.  I started vacuuming, wiping down my counters and putting away my clothes.  It didn't take me long to finish.  I figured my Saturday night would consist of jumping in the shower and curling up to my book on the couch.  I knew I had to be up early for Easter Sunday mass the next day.
Well of course that did not happen.  A friend of mine invited me out for a drink at Soho House.  I felt bad because I still hadn't jumped in the shower yet.  I didn't want him to be waiting for me since I still had to get ready and make my way down there.  But he insisted, and I DID want to catch up with him.  Sometimes you wonder about old friends.  Off I went!
Luckily the traffic wasn't so bad.  My uber dropped me off in the Randolph street neighborhood.  I found my friend and we chatted up a storm.  It was nice to reminisce and catch up on some good gossip.  You can't help but wonder about certain people.  Soho House was pretty swanky too!  It seems like a good place to start off your night.  Since I haven't been out in weeks, it was nice to people watch.  Again, I wasn't sure what to wear, so I wore my black skinny pants with a leopard blazer.  It's hard to get a feel of the new Spring trends when it's still cold at night. 

Absolutely LOVED this cocktail!  The Eastern Standard...

I figured I'll throw on a leopard blazer to spice up my black skinnies...

We went around the corner to Más restaurant/ lounge where they were going to have 90s music along with some rock n espanol.  Some more friends met up and we had a little group going.  They started to play music videos on the projector screen and that got the crowd pretty excited.  It's hard to believe some of these songs were over 20 years old!  Regardless, we couldn't help but get up and dance!  

Next stop at Mas for their Margarita de fuego!

Since I had Korean tacos earlier in the day, I passed on these but they looked GOOD!

Of course, I started to feel tired.  We've been out for a while but no one wanted the night to end yet.  We made our way down an alley and ended up in Booze Box, an underground Japanese speakeasy located in the alleyway behind a Japanese restaurant. No sign. Just sake cocktails and Kirin beers.  I passed on the drinks but they helped themselves to the beers.  

Booze Box for some beers...

By this time I REALLY wanted to go home.  I've been out since 8pm (not to mention, I DID go for a run earlier).  Somehow I was kidnapped and we ended up in the Pilsen neighborhood.  I made it inside Harbee's Liquors & Tavern but only for a quick second.  I practically ran out and found a cab on the street and headed home.  I didn't want to be lethargic on Easter mass.  I definitely made the right choice, and technically, it was still pretty early for a Saturday night.  I knew my friends wanted more, but I was done!  lol

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

It's officially the first week back to work for everyone!  The funny thing is, yesterday was pretty quiet.  I'm wondering if  people weren't ready to come back from the holidays.  lol.  That's ok.  I caught up with my work, and believe it or not, I'm feeling pretty good about this week.  It's something about getting things done that can make someone feel productive.  Plus, me and my friends are trying to help one another with our new years resolution on saving money!  I think it's more helpful than doing it alone.
I hope everyone's holidays were filled with love and joy!  Me and my family celebrated Christmas Eve together and the next day I celebrated with my dad and his wife.  For New Year's Eve I kept it low key this year and went to a friend's house in the suburbs.  Over the years, the craziness of New Year's has wore me down.  I like to be surrounded with friends, not drunken strangers.  Regardless, I'm trying my best to finish recapping my 2015 year, and hopefully by the end of this month, I'll be up to date.  My main concern with trying to keep current is to improve on my writing and context of my blog.  Sometimes I feel rushed and worry that I'm not expressing myself.  Let's start with November events!
Back in the first weekend in November, I had dinner at Nia Restaurant back at Randolph street.  We had such a good time in that neighborhood 2 weeks earlier, we figured we'll try it again.  Nia is a Mediterranean tapas restaurant, with an intimate atmosphere.  I loved the fact that I was able to carry a conversation and not feel interrupted.  Some restaurants in River North feel more like a nightclub, but that was not the case here.  It was nice to catch up for a change!
Afterwards some friends notified us that they were going to be at The Mid down the street off Halsted.  We decided to join them to see Crookers play their set.  I miss dancing to good music!  Don't get me wrong, I like top 40 and pop music, but sometimes you want something grittier.  I had fun that night.

Bathroom selfie at Nia...

Wore a black silk top with some flare jeans and leopard pumps.  I'm glad flares are back!

Had a blast at The Mid for Crookers...

Let's eat!

I may not be a foodie but I got a chance to eat pretty well last October.  My friends make fun of me that I never have an appetite for anything.  I rather have a good drink than to have a big meal.  That's because I usually watch what I eat and exercise regularly.  But there are occasions when I find myself out and about trying new things.

My boss wanted to surprise one of our coworkers to a lunch for her upcoming wedding.  She chose the Ralph Lauren restaurant on Chicago avenue.  I was excited to check it out because I've never been.  We made reservations and noticed how full the place was.  Luckily we got our table and ordered a way!  RL is beautifully decorated in Ralph Lauren fashion.  There were sections that looked like a library and then there were sections that reminded me of a horse stable.  There are tons of pictures hanging; some are photographs of old Hollywood actors and  some are of Chicago's iconic skyscrapers.  I missed the feeling of being back in time.  Our city has had our share of up and coming restaurants with a new age/ fusion twist.  It was nice to be in a luxurious country club-style restaurant and enjoy some traditional American food.  By the way, my club sandwich was to die for!  I will say I was pretty envious of their monogram RL coffee cups with matching saucers.

That same week I had dinner in Avec restaurant on Randolph street.  If you head over to this trendy neighborhood, you'll see a string of restaurants back to back.  I haven't been in that area in a while.  It was nice to enjoy a night out in the city.  This tapas restaurant was delish!  I enjoyed the dishes very much and would highly recommend it for a date night out.  

Afterwards we wanted to have some cocktails.  I was curious to see the new Loews hotel, so we headed down there.  We ended up catching the World Series game there.  I loved the lobby bar and even though I'm not a sports fan, had a great time there with the fellow spectators!  Congratulations Kansas!  That was an awesome game!
Tonight me and my family will be celebrating Christmas Eve.  I'm excited to see my mom.  I bought her a vintage brooch and I hope she likes it!  I will let you guys know.  As for everyone out there, please have a safe holiday and enjoy the time spent with family and friends.  If you are spending it alone, there's plenty of Christmas specials on tv as well as blockbuster movies out (hint: Star Wars) for your viewing pleasure.  I'm single so I know how it feels to be alone sometimes.  It's moments like these you go out and try to enjoy your holiday regardless of your circumstance.  Not everyone has it so easy.  No matter how down and out you feel, remember Life has a way of reminding you how blessed you are!  Live life to the fullest!!  And Merry Christmas!!!!!!

 

Check out that mirror!  Loved the décor in RL restaurant!

I cannot find these anywhere, but I need them in my life!



The best club sandwich I've ever had, hands down!

Cheese spread in Avec....

A bottle of pinot to go with our dinner...

I love healthy dishes like this Trout we shared. 

Kale salad with shrimp!  SOOOOOO good!

What I wore to Avec and Loews hotel.  I chose an off the shoulder sweater with bootcut jeans.  Pretty basic since I didn't know where we were heading to.