Chicago top ten: Experiences (Part II)

Billy Elliot

This was a little early Christmas gift from my dad. When mom's plans to head to California for Thanksgiving got derailed, she decided to come visit us in Chi-town instead. So dad sprung for three tickets to Billy Elliot at the Oriental Theater. That's where dad and I had gone to see Wicked when I first visited Chicago, and we were just blown away.

Dad made me promise to keep quiet about the ticket, so we only told my mom the night before the show. We surprised her over dinner at a little Italian restaurant, and the next night, we all got decked out and bundled up and hit the el heading downtown. At the theater, we toasted with champagne and then sat back to watch the show. I have to say, Billy Elliot wasn't nearly as impressive as Wicked, or some of my other favorites like Lion King and Phantom of the Opera. But I love to sit back and have some Broadway folk belt out songs and dance circles in front of me. So exciting.

All gussied up!

Monte's opening

So the whole Chicago thing came about when Alex's friend from college gave him a line on a job at the photography firm where he worked. Lucas was working as an assistant to the company president, and though Alex would make a good assistant to one of the photographers. When he got the job and we moved out here, Lucas let us crash in his guest room for a month while we found a place of our own. So for the first few weeks here, we had two roomies, Lucas and his then-boyfriend (now fiance!) Monte, a very talented artist. In fact, when we arrived, the guest room walls were covered in Monte's sculptures. But they moved out shortly thereafter, and moved into the studio space where Monte had a very successful opening a few days (weeks?) later.

This event sticks out in my mind because I feel like it marks the night when I stopped feeling like such an outsider and began to feel more comfortable in this new little crowd. I mean, Alex and Lucas knew each other from way back, Alex had met Monte when he went to Chicago for the job interview, and Monte and Lucas were a long-time couple. I was new in so many ways. Even my relationship with Alex still felt very young. Probably because it was still very young.

So the night of Monte's opening, I got to meet some of Alex's coworkers, some of Lucas' and Monte's friends, and I got to check out Monte's incredible artwork, all in a sweet studio setting. He ended up getting some great press for that show, and I remember feeling super lucky that I had gotten to see it.

Over the past year, we've spent lots and lots of time with Lucas and Monte, and I just adore them both. But I look back on that opening as the turning point. And things seem to have come full circle, as they always do, because Monte is getting ready to unveil another (slightly different, I think) show in the next few weeks here. I just hope we'll be around to see it again!

One of Monte's many gorgeous sculptures.

Check out more of Monte's work here.