Dear Johnnie's

Apparently, Johnnie's Beef in Elmwood Park is legendary.

Back in the good ol' days, when Frank Sinatra was around, he made it a point to get out to the suburbs to hit up the little sandwich shop every time he visited Chicago.

Or so my dad says.

When Johnnie's came up in relation to a story I was writing for the paper, I asked my editor what the big deal was.

His email reply: "It's JOHNNIE'S!"

{Actually, he spelled it with a "y" at the end, not an "ie." I'd hate to be accused of misquoting.}

The caps made me a little nervous. Was he angry with me? Had I committed some cardinal sin in not knowing the story on a greasy spoon?


He wasn't really mad. But I'd say it's tough to describe the charm of Johnnie's to someone who hasn't been there.

I am no longer that someone. And I dragged Alex along as a witness. He's glad I did.

Now, I'm not one to go chasing all over town for a big beef sandwich. And French fries, you can get anywhere, right?

But there was just something so nostalgic about standing in a line that stretched out the front door, waiting to reach the counter where a cashier periodically yelled out orders to two workers running around behind him. "Beef!" he yelled. "Combo!" and two sandwiches materialized in front of us. "Ice!" and our waxy paper cup was filled with lemon Italian ice.

We carried our grub outside and sat at one of the picnic tables in the sun to enjoy the feast. The Yelpers don't lie -- the bun is a little on the soggy side, but that's only because the beef is so juicy. Alex and I split a side of fries, which came old-school McDonald's style in a little paper pocket. And the ice, oh my Lord, was the best Italian ice I've ever tasted. Hands down. And I was something of a slush connoisseur as a child.

It came with one of those straws with a little spoon at the end, and was garnished with frozen lemon wedges.

So, I finally made it to Johnnie's, after a year of my dad pestering me to do so. And let me just say, the rumors are true. It's just as good as everyone says it is.

I think with a week and a half left in town, we have plenty of time for a return visit. Or two.

Savoring Chicagoland

In our last few weeks in Chicago, it seems that every event has taken on a "going away" theme.

Case in point: The backyard barbecue where the host helped us screenprint images of the great lakes onto old tee-shirts.

Now, I know that Chicago's not the only area of the country that enjoys one of the great lakes. In fact, when I was growing up, I spent a crapload of time at my girlfriend's summer home on Lake Ontario. So this could easily be an Upstate New York-themed tee-shirt too.

But them Chicagoans sure do seem attached to that Lake Michigan. And I dunno. Something about the shirts just makes them seem like a sweet souvenir of the midwest.

Alex made two tees. One was a green shirt with the image in black, and the other was a royal blue tee with the image in teal. Mine was plain and simple black and white, naturally. I toyed with using a fitted girly tee, but in the end I went with one of Alex's white undershirts. He liked it so much he ended up stealing it back to wear over the weekend.

They're a little hard to see, but it was dark out!

The next night, the peeps at my newspaper put together a joint going away party for me and another girl whose last day was last week. It was very low key, on the rooftop patio of a bar not far from the newsroom. I sipped vodka and soda with a twist, my first of the summer, though in the past it's been my go-to cocktail for the warmer months. And knowing September is right around the corner, I drank that summer in slowly.

I also finally got to introduce my coworkers to Alex, and everyone really hit it off.

Just in time for us to pack our bags and hit the road.

But really, I'm glad. It was an great time, and a sweet reminder that while I'm certain my future is not in the newspaper world, I did get to work with some mighty nice folks before I left.

On Saturday it flip flopped, and I got to spend some time with Alex's coworkers. We headed up to the northern suburbs, for his annual summer work bash in the company president's backyard. There was a soft breeze in the air as the sun went down that called for a thin jacket, and I sipped margaritas to hold onto that summer feeling just a little longer.

My portrait of him.

His portrait of me.

The only hitch came when Alex hopped on the back of a motorcycle, driven by the photographer he assists. They went for a spin around the neighborhood, and weren't 30 seconds out of sight before I started to hear sirens roar up nearby.

Of course they came back in one piece. But not before my heart jumped out of my chest and flip-flopped around like a fish on the brick patio.

BBQ grub

Squinty

This weekend will likely be more of the same. Lots of lasts. Last visits to our favorite restaurants, last picnics and sunbathing sessions in Wicker Park, last lazy sleep-in sessions in our little apartment, followed by last indulgent breakfasts of French toast and mimosas in our sunny kitchen.

In 11 more days, we'll be on the open road, heading east.

Style guru

Last Wednesday, I finally got to meet the first style blogger I ever started following.

Back way in 2009, I was in the midst my own initial {*ahem* amateur} efforts at blogging, and I began trolling the internet for experts in the field.

So, despite the fact that my blog consisted of movie reviews, that's when I found style bloggers.

And that's when I found Jessica.

Jessica Quirk, for those of you who don't know, is a style blogger at What I Wore, a sort of daily fashion journal.

Now, I'm a clearance rack shopper. A tee-shirt and jeans kind of girl. In the summer, I throw on a dress and I'm done. You won't catch me sporting an animal print, and I don't do ruffles. A colorful scarf is about the most daring accessory you'll find on me.

But I love to see the way other girls dress. It fascinates me.

Jessica is like the epitome of chic in my book, and yet her clever outfits just seem more accessible, somehow, than other style bloggers and icons of the fashion world. I can actually wear some of the things she posts. I generally tone them down a bit, but still.

In the two-plus years I've been following Jessica, she just seems to have been on a steady path of success. Early on, she was able to quit her day job in the fashion industry and pursue her blog full time. She met and married her sweetheart, Adam, who now also takes her daily photos, and they moved together from New York City back to her native Indiana. And she wrote and published a book. Girl is living the dream!

When I found out she was coming to Chicago for a book signing, I RSVP'd to her event ASAP. My last few weeks in the city, and I'm going out with a bang, dammit.

It was held at Julie Watson Style at the very fawncy 900 N. Michigan Shops, and the event was complete with free champagne {with berries!}, finger foods, and dessert.

I met some awesome fellow bloggers, picked up a copy of her book, and got to sit down for a few minutes with Jessica, who looked fabulous in her multicolored, floaty Marc Jacobs dress.

Jessica at her Chicago book signing.

Photo via

Unfortunately, I only got one fuzzy shot of her on my own camera {and by camera, I mean phone}. She still looks lovely, in my opinion, but it was snapped while she was buzzing past. Not the best photo op.

Candid shot

I took some other randoms at the event, the most important being the one of the Jelly Belly-filled martini glasses. Best party snack ever, if you ask me.

And a few of the general scene:

Sweet treats

Bubbly

As you can see, I've discovered the Instagram app and now I fancy myself a photographer. So sue me. It's so much fun!!

I'm so grateful I got the chance to meet Jessica. And even though I acted like a total SPAZ when I sat down with her {hey, I was nervous! She's famous!} she was just completely sweet and gracious.

And so much blog girl crush continues...

Borrowed

I totally stole this blog post idea.

I was pouring through the archives of Newlymeds, a blog written by K about her life with her M.D. hubby Doctor J. K left a comment on my blog a while back, and I was so overcome with joy at discovering a new pair of eyes looking at my blog that I decided to mosey on over to her site and cyber stalk her. Yay for K!

Just kidding. Yay for me. K's blog is great. She loves the farmer's market, recently made peach cobbler (so did I!) and doesn't mind a little dirt on her fresh-picked berries. I think we'd be friends.

But anyway, I shamelessly shoplifted this little list from her blog. Here's a little about me, at this moment in time:

reading: Faithful Place by Tana French (read more on my French fixation here).
loving: Mint chocolate chip ice cream in a sugar cone. I think it's safe to say I'm overloving this one.

enjoying: The sunny, breezy 75-degree mornings that come before the sweaty afternoon heat and thunderstorms.
running: I have big plans for running. I'm determined to run a 5K for a good cause this fall. Training starts....tomorrow.
hoping: To find my bliss. Professionally, anyway. I believe it's out there somewhere.
favorite meal: Of the day? Dinner. Specifically? This summer I can't get enough portabello veggie burgers topped with grilled onions and provolone, with sliced sweet potatoes on the side. Cooked on the grill and crispy, thanks.
excited: To have been asked to do a reading at my cousin's September wedding. Can't wait.
working on: My last few stories for the paper. T-minus two weeks until I am no longer a journalist. Weird.
eating: Baby carrots dipped in tzatziki. Yum.
drinking: Fair trade Bolivian coffee from Trader Joe's.
latest find: A flowy white sleeveless blouse on the clearance rack. Gorgeous. I didn't get it because I'm on a shopping freeze. But I'm seriously considering going back. Clearance, people!
found: The little silver back to my new stud earring. I did not find the earring. Fail.
channeling: The career gods. Please figure out my dang life path for me.
cooking disaster: Made a beautiful, golden, bubbly veggie pizza and didn't put enough cooking spray on the pan. It came up in shreds. Curses.

Before

After

preparing: To start feeling very poor again. No income for the road ahead.
latest obsession: The Cults
craving: Green Mountain Gringo salsa, medium. I can't buy it anymore because I just eat the whole jar in one sitting.
wishing: For the good Lord to please take away my jiggly bits. And for world peace.

Okay now, will someone else repost this with their own answers and send me a link? Good idea?

Good idea.

This photo has nothing to do with this post. But I thought it needed a picture, and this one's an interesting one. That's a mural painted on the back of the photography studio where Alex works. The artist's name is Roa and he does similar work on buildings all over the world. I got to see him in action painting this one. Very cool.

Field trip

This weekend, I finally made it {back} to the Field Museum.

My first visit wasn't exactly the ideal time to be checking out exhibits. Not in heels and a cocktail dress, with a glass full of bubbly.

The last time I went, it was for my office Christmas party. That's back when, for two brief and interesting months, I worked for Groupon. I have lots of nice things to say about my favorite coupon seller. But right at the top of my list is that they were not stingy about giving back to their employees. I felt quite posh that evening, walking up that stone staircase in stilettos, with a museum full of cocktails and party fare awaiting me.

View from floor two.

What party is complete without an ice sculpture?

We did get to wander around the building at the party, but most of the exhibits were closed. So we were left with Sue:

And the few other displays we could sneak a peak at from the atrium.

We also got to take some photos in a photo booth. Lucky for Alex, we didn't find the thing until the end of the night. Had I discovered that baby earlier in the evening, I would have subjected him to enough shoots to fill an entire album. Who doesn't love a photo booth?

But anyway. This past Sunday, at Katie's request, we decided to do the Field Museum right. Ever since she saw The Ghost and the Darkness, Katie has wanted to see the lions featured in the film. Do you know the story? It happened way back a zillion years ago, when somewhere in Kenya, a pair of man-easting lions wreaked havoc on some railroad workers. They killed more than 100 men. Scary stuff.

Not so tough stuffed, are ya?

The whole day turned out great, apart from the fact that Katie ended up getting a super late start on her long drive back to Columbus. But it was well worth it. We didn't get through all (or even many) of the exhibits at the Field Museum, but I got my chance to coo over the stuffed baby animals (as long as I didn't think too hard about the fact that they had to have died somehow at those tender ages before being stuffed).

And we visited our T-Rex friend Sue again.

Teeth.

We also saw an awesome exhibit called Design for a Living World, which featured all of these designers using of natural materials to create all kinds of sustainable products. Clothing, furniture, tools, and lots of other stuff. It's a little difficult to explain, especially because there were like 10 designers with a whole range of materials and ideas, but you can check out the site for yourself here.

The day ended perfectly, too. Katie hit the road at about 5:30, leaving Alex and I just enough time to relax for a bit before making a quick dinner and watching a movie. He got home Saturday after a week in Oklahoma City (his last out-of-town work trip before our big move. Yay!)

Of course, I was thrilled to have him all to myself again.

And now we're really into the countdown. Less than three weeks left until we head east for my cousin's wedding and apartment hunting. We're working right up until the day before we leave, and we have barely started to pack yet.

Better get a move on.

Sisters weekend

Growing up, my mom always went away for a long weekend in the fall to spend time with her three sisters. "Sisters Weekend," it came to be known over the years.

No kids, no husbands, no itinerary. Just sisters, hanging out, watching movies, antiquing for treasures. To my shorter, younger self, the one who idolized her aunties (still do!) it sounded glorious.

My sisters and I were told by mom that someday, we'd do the same. We couldn't imagine it. It was difficult, when we were little, to spend time together in the same room without gouging one another's eyes out. We couldn't imagine voluntarily choosing to spend an entire weekend together, for fun.

Twenty-some years later, we still haven't actually done it. Who knows, maybe it's something we'll put together when (if?) we all have families. For now, we rely on scattered visits here and there, during the holiday season or whenever our schedules allow.

But this weekend, we did it. Two of us, anyway. Molly's in South Africa. Taking pictures like this, just to make me jealous:

Molly's the one with the wingspan.

So she was excused.

Since my days in Chicago are now very numbered, my sister Katie, who moved to Columbus, Ohio just last winter, decided it was time to take advantage of being relatively close, and drove in for the weekend. She arrived late Friday night, but not too late that we couldn't enjoy the tacos that kept me slaving away at the stove all evening.

Just kidding. They took about ten minutes.

But really, it was good time. The weather was crap-tastic Saturday, but we still managed to get out and do some shopping. We hit up the Salvation Army, which is like my thrift store mecca here in Chicago. It is a huge, giant, two-story mess. Like, there's shit everywhere. It's a little like digging through an overstuffed attic in the home of a hoarder. And some of the stuff is downright icky. But then there are the diamonds in the rough.

I think Katie walked out with about five new shirts, many of them brand spankin' new, and one smart and stylish navy blue three-button Ann Taylor blazer. Grand total? 17 bucks.

I left with a cute flowy cardigan, tags still attached, a pair of Gap jeans that fit like a glove, and some dark khaki chinos that are comfy, slouchy, and have me all ready for fall. I imagine myself snuggled up on a worn leather couch before a blazing wood stove in my new country apartment. No judgment, thank you. That is my fantasy.

After that, the drizzly rain got the better of us, and we grabbed a couple sandwiches from Red Hen Bread, which you might remember from my top ten list, and headed home to gorge ourselves and watch some of our favorite childhood movies. Parenthood and Father of the Bride made the cut. It was a Steve Martin kind of day.

Later on, I dragged Katie to my last meeting with my book club. We usually hold meetings at a restaurant of the book-choosers choice. This time, we headed over to one of the girl's apartments and ordered take-out. We drank some wine and enjoyed some fantastic Costa Rican food from a funky little restaurant called Irazu.

I also filled the ladies in on my plans to go back east. They already knew about the move, but wanted to hear some details. And when I admitted a tinge of disappointment about leaving the city that had been my dream for several years, one of the women pointed out that, hey, I'd tried it, hadn't I?

And it got me thinking. What if I hadn't? It makes me cringe to think of all the things I would have missed out on, despite the speedbumps I've hit along the way. So much of it has been wonderful. I started to cook, started a blog, found a delightful little apartment and took my time dressing it up. I finally made the time to start reading again, and once I did, I couldn't stop. I didn't make loads of friends, but I made a small handful that made a very lasting impression. I also came here with a newish boyfriend, and get to leave with so much more. Our relationship was still so very young when we made this move, but in the past year, he's grown to be my best friend, my cheerer-upper, my confidante, and a huge and important part of my support system.

Most importantly of all, though, is what I've learned about myself. I'm not saying I've got all the answers now, but I sure do feel closer to finding them. I'm not sure where I belong, but maybe I'm not such a city girl after all. And I may make a decent writer, but perhaps I'm not cut out for the whole journalism scene after all. It's not much, but it does take me a few steps closer to knowing who I am.

Okay, so I know I got a little off track there for a minute. Back to Sisters Weekend.

We topped off our Saturday back at my place with a final glass of wine and a giggly episode of South Park. Might sound boring to some people, but we felt like we really made the most of a crummy weather day.

And Sunday was even better...

Sisters. On the el.