Friday the 13th at Taste of Chicago

This summer Friday the 13^th fell during the Taste of Chicago.  I decided to take a walk down to Grant Park after work to check it out.  I knew that I was I was going to be busy the following day.  I obtained tickets for the Def Leppard & Journey concert at Wrigley Field and wanted to be low key that evening, (I never go out on Friday the 13th btw).  It was another hot weekend in Chicago.  I was sweating up a storm once I got there.  I was craving a jibarito sandwich.  I figured I would walk in and walk straight out to enjoy my meal when I heard some house music playing.  I found the Chicago Summerdance stage and people were slowly gathering around.  I stayed for a bit and watched people dance.  I did not want to stick around when it closed because of the rush, so I left early.  Regardless, I’m glad I treated myself to my sandwich.  Quick fact:  the jibarito was invented here in Chicago!

West Fest 2018

This year I went with my friends on a Sunday for West Fest.  Normally this festival runs all weekend, but over the years, we noticed the crowd was usually significantly better on Sundays.  Again, Chicago was battling hot temperatures.  I laid low the rest of the weekend and was ready for my friends to pick me up after church that day.  We luckily found parking and decided to have a late lunch at the infamous Tecalitlan Restaurant right by the corner of Wood street.  Believe it or not we also lucked out getting a table.  Again, we had a great time catching up with everyone as little by little more people joined in our group.  We spent a good amount a time at the restaurant and decided to join in on the fun by finding a spot not too far from the stage.  There we listened to some good old house music before heading home early.  We didn’t want to stay out once the festival was over since it would be hectic to get an uber.

Chicago Summerdance 2018

I am so scared.  I get this incredible rush that goes straight to my stomach.  I’ve been trying to fight off feeling at least once a day.  My anxiety now has been giving me migraines, tension at the shoulders, as well as vivid dreams at night.  I’m pretty much miserable.

I finished a book on “Less is More” and have been going over my notes.  Sometimes, reading soothing passages makes me feel better.  I’m wondering if I should bring a book along this trip.  I am trying my best to be strong about this, but I’m so nervous.  I am also doing my best not to worry my mom about my insecurities.  She is going to be flying out to Mexico once I come back to visit her friends.  She hasn’t flown in over 20 years and I don’t want her to get the way I do.  I know through experience that fear is taught.  I  would feel horrible if I jeopardize this for her.  She is very excited.

Back to recapping my events in July.  My friend out of nowhere texted me that she was going to be downtown.  It was Friday, and I had just gotten out of work.  I wanted to do some window shopping, and decided to go to State street.  Luckily I was still in the neighborhood.  She was attending Chicago Summer Dance at the Spirit of Music Garden stage.  I made my way over there and found her with her family.  It was nice catching up to her.  I miss her a lot and wanted to see how things were going for her.  Jesse de la Pena was mixing too.  Chicagoans love a free house party!

Memorial Weekend! Part One

So far I’ve been enjoying my summer.  For the most part I got pretty down after I came back from Italy, and my birthday creeping up on me in June did not help my mood.  But I started to feel more myself once I focused my attention on other things.  I’ve been reading “Less is More” by Goldian VandenBroeck and got into the World Cup tournament.  Now that it’s over, I’m looking forward to planning my next trip out of Chicago, and to finish catching up on the blog.  Time to recap Memorial Weekend!  Lol.

Like I mentioned earlier, I was in a funky mood once I returned from Italy.  The annual house party at Millennium Park was taking place the Saturday following up to Memorial Day.  I’ve enjoyed this festival in the past and knew I didn’t want to miss this.  Plus, dancing to good music ALWAYS puts me in a good mood.  I needed to do this!

Luckily my little brother was available to accompany me.  We made our way down there late afternoon and caught a few sets before heading home.  I was not up for clubbing whatsoever, but I did get my dancing fix in.  I love watching people enjoy themselves.  It automatically lifts my spirits and I found myself smiling at everyone.  My brother loved it as well.  This was his first time being there and he thought it was amazing.  For putting on a free festival, Chicago knows how to do it right!

My souvenir t-shirt from Rome 

Happy hour and Housemusic

Now that the weather warmed up a bit in Chicago, people took the opportunity to go out and enjoy themselves.  I got a chance to see my friends on tax day Tuesday for happy hour at Union Sushi.  My friend will also be in Europe the same time I will be but traveling in different locations.  It was nice comparing notes.  I am reminded how fortunate I am to go once again.  We ended up at Concrete Cowboy to check it out before we all jumped in our Ubers.

Inside Concrete Cowboy 

That Friday I found out that one of my favorite djs had passed away.  I was quickly saddened and decided to play his music all weekend at home.  Avicii brought a different element to edm that was recognized throughout the dance scene.  I was going through my breakup when he was at the top of the charts.  His music helped me cope with the sadness I was dealing with.  To hear that he is gone too soon shook me.

A few days later the media announced that his family implied he might have taken his life.  NOW THIS HURTS.  I had watched his documentary Avicii True Stories at home earlier, and to hear this news brought a new perspective on what was going on in his life.  He was exhausted about his work schedule, but his management team would not lay off the grueling tours he had been committed to appear in.  Eventually he took some time off to recoup, but reports suggest his management team were continually pestering him about returning to work.  

It made me think a lot about what success means to people.  For some, it’s having a lot of money.  With that in mind, it gives off the notion that you would be free to do whatever you want to because money would be there to provide for you.  But is that true?  Avicii employed a crew for his tours and business.  He was the talent of course, and without him involved, how would the business survive?  There is speculation that Avicii never liked the spotlight, and had anxiety whenever he performed live.  He just wanted to make music behind the scenes.  

I have my struggles too, on “Meaning, Life, Happiness”.  I sometimes look back on my life and see the mistakes and wrong turns I’ve made.  They lead me to a different path that was not what I expected.  I can’t help but feel responsible about the outcome, but I try not to beat myself up too much about it.  

For Avicii, I pray that he didn’t suffer much on his final hours here.  I can’t help but wonder if people would have left him alone this all could have been avoided.

RIP Avicii 

Chicago House Party at Millennium Park

I hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day Weekend!!  I had an eventful one despite it raining heavily on Friday.  I wanted to do some window shopping but never got a chance to because of the rain.  By the time I got home I decided to take a nap thinking the rain would eventually pass, but it never did!  I was a little annoyed because I was excited about the three day weekend, but the weather definitely killed my vibe.  Oh well.

The next day was a different story!  I was excited because I woke up to a sunny apartment.  I laid out for a bit on my balcony hoping to get some color.  I did my usual Saturday routine which was cleaning up my place, but I noticed that the forecast was not including rain for a change.  I went to the gym earlier so I could get Leg Day out of the way.

Once I got back and showered up, I grew anxious.  I wanted to go out and enjoy the sunshine, but everyone seemed to have prior commitments.  I knew the house music party at Millennium Park was taking place.  I figured if people showed up later on, I’ll find them eventually.  What a party it was!!  My brother and his girlfriend showed up towards the later part of the evening but I had a blast regardless.  I love that our city celebrates house music.  It started here in Chicago and the music spread all over the world!  I have included a mini history of Chicago House Music from Wikipedia.  At least it will give you a better understanding how much dance music means to me!  

House music became popular in Chicago clubs in 1984. It was pioneered by figures such asFrankie Knuckles, ^[19] Phuture, Kym Mazelle,^[20] and Mr. Fingers, and was associated withAfrican-American and gay subcultures. House music quickly spread to other American cities such as Detroit, New York City, Baltimore, andNewark – all of which developed their own regional scenes. In the mid-to-late 1980s, house music became popular in Europe as well as major cities in South America, and Australia.

Chus & Ceballos

I’m still not done recapping the month of February.  Looking back, I did not think I did so much, but technically, our winter was pretty tame this year.  It started to warm up mid month and Chicagoans took advantage of this opportunity!  Lol.  Earlier in January, I saw that the dj duo Chus & Ceballos was going to be in town.  They’ve been on my radar for a while and I am constantly listening to their podcast series.  They are originally from Spain and travel globally to perform, but FINALLY they were coming to Chicago!  I bought my tickets right away and was looking forward to see them live.

I found out as the weeks went by that a birthday party that was intended for that weekend Sunday was now changed to a day earlier.  UGH!  I wanted to make the most of my night out, since I knew I wanted to hear them til the very end.  But since they were performing on Friday, I had to be conscious of my time because I had to be up early in the morning the next day.  Oh well.  What can you do?

Since I had worked early that morning for work, I went home to take a disco nap before getting ready for my night out.  I had invited some friends to see them with me, but no one was around.  I have gotten use to going to these shows by myself since none of my friends really like them very much.  They feel the crowd  might be “too crazy” or they feel “too old”.  Whatever!  I love dance music and enjoy watching the crowd respond to a good dj.

Earlier that day I received a text from some friends.  They were going to attend an art show in the Gold Coast.  Coincidentally Primary Night Club is also located in the Gold Coast.  I figured I would attend the show and spend time with my friends before making my way to the club.  I knew that Chus & Ceballos probably wouldn’t be on til much later but the weather was so nice that night.  I had a feeling Chicago was going to be busy downtown.

I met up with my friends at the art show and we had a good time catching up with everyone.  They don’t usually don’t step out much so it was nice seeing them besides a family event.  Lol.  Once the show was finished they wanted to go home right away.  I wasn’t successful trying to persuade them to stay out longer.  I stopped by Public House to have a cocktail before the show started.  I have to admit, I’m getting a little old for this.  I was SUPER TIRED but finally they came on and they were awesome!!  I miss dancing to good music.  Luckily a friend was there so we hungout together.  I have gone to festivals with him and his girlfriend since we have the same taste in music.  In the end, I DO have to admit, you have to like this kind of stuff in order to truly enjoy a dj set.  

Day 10 Gallipoli

We messed up.  Because we had a long day we ended up oversleeping.  That was definitely not the plan.  I packed up my suitcase because we were not sure how long we would be out on the road.  I had a train ticket to leave Foggia on Saturday for Rome, but we weren't sure if we were going to head up north.  If we were, she was going to drop me off in Rome herself.  I was excited for our road trip.  I didn't know what to expect.  We quickly had our coffee and made our way to the auto shop.  We crossed our fingers when we walked in.  The problem with not being able to get a car to rent was the fact that most Europeans were still on vacation.  They were not returning them in time, and kept holding on to their vehicles.  Low and behold they had a car for us, but they still had to run a maintenance check on it.  We were told to come back after 3pm and we should be all set to go.
What did we do in the meantime?  We went for gelato of course!  I was craving it real bad.  We went to our usual parlor in town and treated ourselves to our delight.  I ordered a double scooped fig gelato!  It was delish!!

THE BEST!

So many flavors!

When we  went back again to the auto shop, we  FINALLY got our car!  By now it was close to 4pm.  My friend decided to go south again.  We felt it was late in the day and figured we would enjoy more of the night life in the south.  After a 4 hour drive we made it.  Of course, we were pulling into Gallipoli when everyone was getting off from work.  The traffic was coming from everywhere.  It took us about an hour to find parking.  Back at the auto shop we made reservations at a hotel.  Looking for that took us another 40 minutes.  We were frustrated, hungry, hot because of the humidity, and nervous lugging our suitcases around in such a massive crowd.  There were so many people around us!  We had trouble trying to get through.  We were going in circles.  Eventually, we asked someone who gave us the right directions and sure enough, walked right into it!  We were so relieved.  The bad news was we might have parked in an area that might give us a ticket.  The concierge told us to make sure we give her the plate number of the rental.  She was going to find a way to take care of it for us if we did get one.
We made our way to our room.  It was beautiful!  We had the patio to ourselves.  I was curious to see who else was staying with us at our hotel.  The bad news was our room had no air conditioner.  We both took turns taking a shower to cool off.  I got my second wind and was feeling pretty excited to checkout Gallipoli at night.



Changed into a tunic dress with my converse.  I wanted to be comfortable, and since we were in a new town, wore my fanny pack as well.

We were starving at this time.  We walked down to the fish market.  There was so much going on.  It was overwhelming.  A lot of people knew right away that we were tourists and were trying to get us to come to their restaurant.  We settled on a place and my friend went over to see what they had.  She was in charge of the menu, so I trusted her selection. 

We finally got our meal and we devoured it.  As usual, we ordered la fruta di mare (fruits of the sea).  I do enjoy fresh seafood, and the scampi were huge!  We were very satisfied with our meal.  Afterwards, we went for a stroll around il centro.  By now a lot of the shops were closing up.  We heard music up ahead and found a dj playing house music outside of a restaurant.  Everyone was sitting outside at the patio listening.  Again, I was surprised no one was dancing because he was very good.  I still feel Italians are pretty reserved, but at least a group of little kids were dancing for him.  It was too cute!

So many restaurants to choose from!  I was surprised how many people were out on a Thursday night...

We ordered a glass of spumante and then afterwards walked around some more.  We were tired after a long day of driving.  We figured we'll get up in the morning for check out and then experience Gallipoli in the daytime.  After that who knows?  Anything was possible!

Chicago Summer Dance!

Last week my migraines were in full effect.  I noticed I wasn't feeling so well at Sunday's Lolla, but I dismissed it as being out in the sun all day.  As the week progressed, I woke up with a terrible migraine Thursday morning and it never really went away until Saturday.  I kept taking Advils left and right, but I finally figured out it was my sinus that was giving me problems.  It's frustrating when you can't function due to pressure build up. 
All Advil did for me is subside the pain since it's not necessarily for sinus pressure.  I did my best to enjoy my stroll on State Street after work Friday when my brother texted me out of the blue.  He was making his way downtown with his girlfriend and wanted to checkout Chicago Summer Dance.  They had another house music party happening and he was curious about it.  I decided to wait for them and make the most of my Friday night. 
Unfortunately, they got there pretty late.  It was almost 8pm when they arrived and the party ended at 9pm.  He misread the information but we had a blast regardless.  Since we didn't want to end the night so early, I wanted to take them to Cindy's rooftop to checkout the view.  They loved it!  We were having a good time until I realized I was missing the opening ceremony for the Olympics!  Oh well.  I guess I'll have to stream it somewhere and watch it another time...

Back at it at the Spirit of Music Garden in Grant Park!

I love seeing my family happy...



Chokers are back!  Just picked this up at Forever 21 on State Street.  I love a great bargain!

Obsessed with snap's filters!  Who doesn't look good with a flower crown??

Follow me on Snapchat at meeukee1

Cindy's rooftop!

We enjoyed the night view!  So pretty!!