I knew I had a pretty good weekend, but it was one of those that when a coworker asked me about it I had to take a moment and think, “Now what did I do again?”. Recap follows and (WARNING!) some of it is painfully nerdy.
Friday Night: Met Emily at home after work. Friday is one of the days when she’s not working the second job, so it’s kind of a nice, novel treat to both be at home at the same relatively early hour of 6pm. And I think it’s at that relatively early hour that we started drinking. Not to excess and for no other reason that it was Friday and we could. Watched some TV and then decided a.)it was dinner time and b.)neither of us was willing to saddle up and cook. Because of the afore-mentioned cocktails, driving somewhere was out so we took stock of the walkable options and headed over to Taco Yo, the closest taqueria to our apartment. This is one of the things that Chicago does really well. Most neighborhoods have quality mexican street food carryouts. Love it. Got the food/brought it home/devoured. I am not to proud to admit that I was fading fast and finally fell asleep on the couch before the clock hit ten. A decade ago that would have felt like a failure. Today it feels like… contentment.
Saturday: Emily had a baby shower to go to in Indiana, which left me on my own. We were having company for dinner so I knew there was some cleaning to do. But I also knew that cleaning wouldn’t last all day. So I ate some cereal, cleaned, showered and dressed. Then I had a good chunk of the day left with nothing to do and no desire to stay cooped up inside. <PAINFUL NERDINESS> Since I ride the CTA every day, I decided some time ago that I want to ride the entirety of the ‘L’ system. I’ve already ridden the entirety of the Blue, Orange, and Pink Lines. Saturday I rode the south half of the Red, taking me down to 95th street as well as both branches of the south half of the Green, taking a bus across 63rd street to get me from the end of the Ashland branch to the end of the Cottage Grove branch. It was nerdy railfan fun, but I will say this. I was certainly the minority during my travels. I never felt unsafe, but I definitely felt unwelcome at a couple of points. But I got to see parts of Chicago I don’t see every day and I got to listen to a few podcasts that I’m a fan of. </PAINFUL NERDINESS> After that, it was home to Emily. Her sister and her sister’s boyfriend came over and we headed out to try a new place in the neighborhood. My pork tenderloin sandwich was tasty (if not a little too small) and the beer was good.
Sunday: A typical lazy Sunday morning. Yes, breakfast sandwiches were involved. I think I may have perfected my bacon cooking technique. Lately we’ve been cooking it in the oven, which is all kinds of awesome, but the oven is busted and slow to be fixed – oh, the woes of the renter. Anyway, so this time the bacon was on stove top. In the past, I’ve cooked bacon on high which does the job and does it quick, but can lead to tough, black bacon. Which isn’t my thing. This time I cooked it on medium, flipping each piece three times. Worked out pretty well, ifIdosaysomyself. Didn’t hurt that Emily got the thick cut, so each piece was about a foot and a half thick. Yum. Eventually I got myself showered and put together and headed out to return some shoes that, while they looked awesome, did a pretty good job at destroying my feet. Wore them for eight hours one day last week and was in legitimate pain by the end of the day. Swapped them for some sweet Teva trail shoes and went home happy. Sunday night we watched the Oscars which were pretty boring as far as I’m concerned.
Today, it’s back to work.
This entry has been trite, I admit. But sometimes it’s good just to write.
If any of my regular readers (and hello to both of you) have anyhing you want me to write about, hit me up in the comments.