Last weekend

I have been so preoccupied with training this week, the gym, catching up on sleep, hanging with the roomies... that I have failed to write anything about my date last weekend. The date was okay, nothing to write home about (literally) but it was fun to get out in the City and see some of the sights that everyone's been talking about. We went to the Frank Lloyd Wright museum, which was amazing, it made me think of home, and my parents who would have loved all the rooms and clean simple lines of his style. After the museum we went to a restaurant on Belmont called Joey's Brick House. In Chicago there is a progressive radio show that airs on Sundays called "Family Values with an Oy Vey." The people who are on the air own the Brick House and Dan (my date and avid listener) had been wanting to go there, so I obliged. The restaurant and all the characters I met there turned out to be so much more fun than my actual date! I met the owners who were so nice and so funny, the place reminded me of my parents, family owned an operated... everyone taking part. I also met a really fascinating woman from France, a hot bartender who looked to be my age but turned out to be several years younger, and a VERY loud, very rich Jewish Attorney. I felt like I was on a TV show, and I was meeting all these fake characters. They all had such rich stories to share, and pasts that only Hollywood could dream up. I was having such a good time that after saying goodbye to Dan, and watching him catch his bus downtown, I hightailed it back to the bar... for just one more! (I'm sure by now you have guessed the date was less than memorable). But I am so glad he took me there, because had it not been for him I would have never found my neighborhood hangout, and all my new friends; The radio hosts, who actually mentioned me and Louise from France on their show Sunday morning. The Attorney, who wants me to help him find a screenplay writer (when you say your from California, everyone thinks you mean L.A.), and the adorable YOUNG bartender, who was so nice, I actually got up the courage to give him my number!

I guess what they say is true, everything happens for a reason. When I arrived home, I sat for a moment just reflecting on my night and all the fun I had had. I realized that this was only the beginning. I opened my e-mail to find a new message from my Mom and Dad;

Subject: WHERE ARE YOU?????!!!!!!...

It read; What the heck, its Saturday night you had a date with practically a stranger, and you said you would call us when you got home. Its 11:15 our time which means its 1:15 in chi town, where are you !!!!!!!!!!! Please call us just to let us know you are alive. Love marmee and dad

Aren't they so cute. Just as I read their worried e-mail the phone rang and it was them, just making sure I was alive. Have I mentioned that I love my parents!? I got to re-hash the whole night with them before bed, and then passed out, full. Full of wine, full of happy thoughts, and full of hope. The night although not what I expected was perfect.

Sunday morning... I woke up to SNOW... yippee! Needless to say I had a bit of a hangover and didn't leave the house all day! Here is a picture through my bedroom window (obviously I wasn't going out there!)

The good news is, this weekend calls for sunshine the whole way through! A high of 55 degrees, which to me feels like 80 these days! My room mate and I are headed to Aurora tomorrow, a suburb West of Chicago to explore and do some shopping, and Easter I will attend mass at a beautiful Church a mile or so South of my house, and then enjoy cooking a meal and eating with my room mates.

Happy Easter to all of you!