Recovery

hey kids, in the vein of revealing all and just keeping you up with how things are going, I headed out on the town (for the first time in a long time!) last Friday night. I had been staying in because dating Tony long distance made having extra cash hard (the phone bills were horrendous!) and I used to enjoy staying in and getting a chance to talk with him sometime over the weekend. So, I gradually stopped hanging out other than the occasional dinner with friends and for a while, even that had stopped.

But, of course, with things the way they are now, it was high time to go have some fun. In that light, I had planned a fun night of bar hopping and talking with two of my girlfriends on Thursday night (it was all free, by the by) but they both had to cancel for various reasons. I was bummed but figured other opportunities would arise. So, open on Friday evening. It is cold, pouring rain, and just generally a night to stay home. Even the traditional late walk with the dog was postponed until it had stopped raining as heavily and even when it was a little better, we were out for about five minutes and then I dragged her home. As I am laying on my couch, my friend Patty calls me to say that she really wants to head out that night.

Well, I was in the mood to stay in (did the way I described the night give you guys any clues?) so I put a limit on how long we would be out and said I definitely wanted to be home by twelve as well as wanting to do something low key. So, we agreed to head to this neighbourhood bar that has pool tables in the back so we could just hang out and play. Well, by nine thirty, I was out of my house and waiting to go. Kind of excited about a night out but not expecting much. I should have known better.....

First off, I end up talking to some random guy in my building as I was downstairs waiting for Patty to show (I actually saw him twice more that weekend and met him - his name is Kelley(? not sure on the spelling)). Patty shows and a friend of ours, Sandhya, is in the car. So fun, girls' night out. Patty was a little disappointed that both Sandhya and I wanted to bail early but she was okay with leaving by about midnight. Just in case though, she had called a couple of our good time guy friends just to see if they were interested in hanging out and possibly closing some places down.

We get to the neighbourhood bar (called Gingerman's) and it had a decent crowd but was not overly busy. Plus, a pool table freed up in about twenty minutes or so. Karl (one of the good time guys) also ended up showing and we decided to play teams: one good player, one kinda-ok-on-a-lucky day player. I got Karl (who is the good player - guess what that makes me??? smile) and we started off. We played pool for maybe five hours straight and just had a blast. I actually ended up being a semi-decent player and I think the reason was that unlike other times before, I was not drinking (not exactly true: I ordered a - as in one - Johnny Walker black with a twist and half way through I was shit faced - antidepressants give alcohol that extra bang for the buck!)......

We ended the night by trying to find a decent wings place at two in the morning which is actually harder to do. We drove down to my neck of the woods because we knew Yakzies (a decent wing place) was open til four but there was a line - a long one - which meant standing in the pouring, freezing rain. Thankfully, being my neighbourhood, I knew a 24 hour diner that was open and close by. We went, we ordered pretty much every appetizer on the menu, talked about our darkest secrets, had a good time til about three-thirty. I called it a night at that point, went home, went out with the doggie, showered, and then stared into space unable to sleep until about five.

The "busted at ten part"? My mom calls me at ten in the morning to check in and make sure I am doing ok (she knows that I am taking meds for depression) and had that secret smile voice when she asked if I was still sleeping. I think she knew that I would be okay if I was getting back into my old routines of going out once in a while and living it up. And maybe I will be okay. No, no maybe. I will be.

Shennigans

hey kids, you may have thought I took a hiatus or that I was actually hard at work with my prelim/dissertation but you might be wrong if you thought that. the most time intensive and fun thing I have done recently is to host a dinner party last week with a competitive slant that involved reminiscing about the eighties.....

so, here is how the whole idea shaped up: I was home, looking around my apartment and realizing that I had let the whole cleanliness next to godliness thing slide. I figured if I was going to clean, I might as well have something to show for it. So I sent off an impromptu email inviting about a dozen or so of my friends over Friday night for food. Then, to entice them further, or at least keep the crazies at bay (HA!), told them we would be playing "Totally Eighties Trivial Pursuit" for prizes.

Well, my friends brought their game faces and empty stomachs. I had a great time - Cel inspired me to do an all Italian theme (and after spending two days cleaning the apartment, I wanted some quick and easy cooking). Everything turned out really well except for the completely full tray of stuffed Manicotti left back( I cook to feed an army, even if only two people come over) and over half of the chocolate-cream-strawberry layered cake (I am not complaining about the latter - just trying to incite a bit of salivation in my readers).......

Then it progressed to the competitive part of the evening and the questions were both hard to answer and annoying as hell to read. Think Yoda trying to sound educated - who writes the phrasing of the questions? It also did not help that the team I was on was trailing behind every other team for about 3/4 of the game. But lo and behold, we rallied, got a slew of answers right and then managed to pull of the game winning question which asked about what movie the theme "Rodents of Unusual Size" came from (hint: talk to Cel and you certainly know).

All in all, it was a great evening reminding me that I know some very good people who know how to make a good time of anything. It also reminds me how much I love to cook and why being motivated to do chores for the enjoyment of others is more fun than just for your own sake. So, since I am in Chicago all winter (no Christmas plans to go home), the next one will be in mid-December featuring my famous three-alarm chili, corn bread, and home made apple pie! If you want to fly up (or down) to enjoy some home style cooking as well as possibly lots of cold, windy, snowy weather, it is an open invitation to all.....