El Weekend Fabulouso

In true JW form, I'm a weekend behind with this post. El Weekend Fabulouso was last weekend, spent at my seester's posh abode in Chicago. I am officially kicking myself for not going in to see her sooner than now after being back in IL now for four months. The drive was actually pretty painless. See, I have this major driving-to-Chicago fear. Don't ask why. It's illogical, it's dumb, and really doesn't make any sense at all. It's just something that IS and always has been. In fact, I have NEVER actually driven to Chicago. Usually I would just ride the train and then use taxis. The fear I would get when driving on, say, I-90 or similar... would nearly send me into a panic attack that was almost blinding. I have no idea where this fear came from, and freeway driving while living in Arizona never bothered me, either, so I just don't get it. Once, while attempting to go on a 2nd job interview in (the Chicago suburb) Palatine in 1997, I took a wrong exit and the panic took over. I pretty much just kept on driving and wound up in some other suburb, far, far, away. Had to cancel the interview. It was actually pretty embarrassing when I had to call the woman interviewing me and explain that while I made it there fine for the 1st interview (yeah, because I talked someone else into driving me) I got lost for the 2nd. And yes, I still got the job. Anyway, I digress.

The weekend I had at Seester's was the best I've had in quite some time! She had her guest room fitted with every accoutrement you could possibly need for a 2-night stay, complete with personal carafe and bedside tray, along with "personally selected reading materials". Love it! I teased her about "a place for everything and everything in its place!" I arrived on Saturday morning, and was immediately treated to some fabulous hot tea and biscuits with the lingonberry preserves I had brought for her. We hung out for awhile, then decided to go to lunch at this FANTASTIC Pan-Asian restaurant called Grande Noodles at the corner of Wallen Avenue & Clark. We split a seaweed salad, sweet potato maki, and a red curry with tofu and crispy noodles. YUM! It was incredible. Highly recommended.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon window shopping and browsing through many of the fancy little shops in Lincoln Square. I bought some kitchen gadgets (my favorite) at this great kitchen shop called the Chopping Block (I was later teased back at home for buying yet more spatulas. I can't help it! These are the multiple use cooking implement!) Also bought a tongue scraper at Merz Apothecary where they have just about every medicine cabinet and bathing item a person could ever need in a lifetime (this girl I work with swears by these things so I was extremely curious to try one. It's amusing now to think about having a coversation about that, but anyway...) We also checked out the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative, which is a working studio to Chicago printmakers but they also have very affordable, original prints for sale. VERY cool. In an effort to grow my small collection just a little more, I came away with two small woodcuts - just $15 each! I'd love to try and go there over the holidays sometime because I understand they have a spectacular show with LOTS of original stuff. After that, it was getting pretty late, so we went to visit my sister's friend, Heidi, at her very cool shop called Body Chemistri where we had fun sampling all sorts of essential oils and custom-blending some girlie lotions and stuff. Then, it was time for some late afternoon coffee at Julius Meinl where Heidi joined us (and treated us!) I think my teeth fell out of my skull after guzzling down a super-sugary toasted coconut latte. We stayed awhile, then decided we had better get back... it was just about time to eat again (ha!) We picked up Steve and headed over to Indian restaurant Arya Bhavan for their spectacular evening vegetarian buffet (which, sadly, did require almost a full roll of Tums from 7-11 and a late-night trip to the bathroom. Yikes.)

On Sunday, it was out to brunch at Tweet! Let's Eat! where we had spicy-delicious "bloody's" while waiting a full hour for our table (the eggs florentine with hollandaise, lox, and a side of marvelous plum compote were worth it!!) More shopping followed as we took a trip to Evanston to go to the Spice House and I stocked up on a ton of their blended spice mixes including some mulling spices (can't wait to try those!) After getting a pretty late start on Sunday, we got home and Seester made some roasted veggies, pasta and sauce with the sun-dried tomatoes and fresh fennel I had brought, and just took it easy and watched a bizarre-o movie called Primer and called it a night. Pretty much a weekend of indulgences, eh?! Love it! Back to work on Tuesday, then, and it was an amazingly long week for just being four days long.

On a side note... the bat is still on the fly somewhere in the basement and cannot be found. In fact, we think he has a friend. Intermittent squeaking, followed by silence, followed by squeaking. Pretty sure there's a bat brothel going on in the wall, and we can't get him out! Pat left a chunk of apple sitting on the window sill to see if we might lure it out, but then, I guess this probably isn't some sort of Transylvanian fruit bat. Oh well. I just know that the minute I take the bat-catching nets back to the woman at work, they're going to be flying into my face with their rubbery bat wings-a-flappin'. Gleeeeeehhhhh!!