Chicago top ten: Experiences (Part V)

Thanksgiving with Mom

I kept pestering my mother to change her travel plans for last Thanksgiving. She was all geared up to go to California, to visit her brother, her brother-in-law, and I don't even know who else. But I wanted her in Chicago. Well luck was on my side, and her west coast plans got derailed. So Chicago it was. 

She stayed for a whole week, which in my opinion was not long enough. It was great. I had just started a new job after two months of frantic job hunting, so I was feeling a bit more settled, while still looking forward to my first long-weekend holiday off of work. 


I let mom and Alex take on most of the cooking, as I was still, ahem, working on honing my skills. But I contributed by cleaning up the kitchen while they relaxed on the couch watching movies.

Cheers!

Check out that blustery November evening on the
other side of those windows! So much
cozier inside!

Frosty's sign says "Will work for freezer space."

In that week we covered all the important bases. We stayed up late chatting and drinking wine. We watched our favorite holiday movies, including Love, Actually, the ultimate Christmas chick flick. And we were generous enough to let Alex join in on the girlie fun. Lucky guy.  

We went out to brunch, went antiquing, caught a show. We ate a fancy dinner out, and or course, prepared the whopping, delicious dinner in for the big night, which took us about four nights to eat in total. It was wonderful. We got a small turkey since there were only three of us and made all kinds of delish side dishes, including the classics like creamy mashed potatoes, stuffing and squash. Alex contributed with his grandmother's corn casserole and green bean casserole recipes, and we stuffed our fat little faces until we couldn't eat another bite. Then we watched Stand By Me, which Alex had never seen. I tell you, it's a good thing he has me to show him the way, in all things movie-related. What's life without Lollipop?

I always love Thanksgiving. But this one made our new Chicago home feel so much homier. 

The House of Blues

This wasn't actually at the House of Blues. Actually, it started there, but wasn't supposed to.

My friend Paul, who I met during my semester in Buenos Aires and currently lives in Dublin, was in Chicago for a short visit. We had to get together, just had to. It had been nearly three years since our South American adventures! Time for a reunion!

He told us to meet him and his mates at the House of Blues downtown. So we went. We waited. We called. He said he was already there. We took a look around, but didn't see him. We waited some more.   We called some more. 

And then we discovered the mix-up. Paul was not actually at the House of Blues, but at Buddy Guy's Legends, a nightclub that could certainly qualify as a house of blues, though that isn't its actual name. Luckily, Legends wasn't too far away. Alex and I hopped in a cab and headed over. 

It was so nice to see him, and brought so many memories of my favorite foreign travel experience flooding back to me. So we drank some beers, listened to the legendary Buddy Guy perform at the legendary Legends, and went on our merry ways later that night. 

I didn't snap any photos that night, but here are a few from our travels:

Golf-carting quite illegally on a beach in Colonia, Uruguay.

Celebrating Paul's last night in BsAs at a favorite swanky restaurant.  

At the residencia where we lived. 

Another shot from our weekend in Uruguay.

Two of my best friends and I had a weeklong trip to Ireland all planned out for the Spring of 2010, and  plans to meet up with Paul during our visit, but a volcano grounded planes and screwed up international travel royally for about a week. So we grudgingly went to Miami instead. 


So of course I was psyched that I got the chance to see him again in the States. But next time, I am determined that it will be during my yet-unplanned follow-up visit to Ireland.