Big Weekend (Sweet Mandy's B-day and More)

Wow, I am really awful at updating this blog! Especially since I have so little actually happening in my life!

Butt.

Last time I wrote, I was coming to you from the New Wave Coffee Shop, where I was with a MeetUp writing group. It's too bad that that group doesn't meet every day, because that would be the easiest way to make sure I keep blogging consistently, but you're left to deal with my whim. After I hit the "Publish" button, I did take some pictures of New Wave to show you all just how hipster it is. I included the butt painting that I described because I don't think words can do it justice.


Friday night, I made a rookie mistake. My friend, Tatjana, has been in Chicago for a whole year now and was having a housewarming party. I asked if there was anything I could bring and she basically left it up to me, so I decided to get a 12-pack of Angry Orchard (she invited 70 people on FB, I thought she'd need it). I went back and forth between six and 12 but like I said, she invited 70 people! And when I'd Googled it, it was only going to be a half hour. I could easily manage that. Once my credit card had been charged and I was on my way, I found out that the estimated 30 minute travel time was BY CAR. I don't have a car here. I am public transportation all the way and it was going to be an hour plus some via train/bus...during rush hour. As I said, it was a rookie mistake. But it did lead to my first ever successful train to bus transfer! (I'll even say that it was my first real Chicago bus ride. I took the bus with Mandy in February, but she plotted our course and did the navigating, I was, quite literally, just along for the ride). The party itself was great. I know Tatjana through MCT so there were a few other TADs there but also other people she knows from having lived here for a full year! I took an Uber home because it was late and much easier than reversing the whole bus to train situation.

Literally anything can be a performance space.

Saturday was a rather lazy day for the most part, but I went out in the evening. My future roommate, Janell, is a dancer/choreographer and had a show so I got back on the subway (I'm really nailing this public transportation thing) and went out. Chicago will literally turn anything into a theatre/performance space. I swear this was just a studio apartment where they'd taped some marley to the hardwood. There was a kitchen behind me! The pieces were interesting. There was one that was mainly juggling, a piece performed to a poem, one that included a projection screen and one that was about Jesus where the dancer basically found every way humanly possibly to turn his body into a cross. Janell's piece closed the show and was about spring (she's done another piece about winter and will probably continue the series). The show, by the way, was in Wicker Park, which is a neighborhood I really like and want to spend some more time in.

Sunday was a special day because it was Mandy's birthday! I did the math and I have been in Mandy's life for 6% of it, which is a large percentage, especially when you consider that we spent a really large amount of that time just the two of us completely secluded from everyone else we'd ever known with just each other. She wanted to go to a movie so we made plans to do that, but after I asked if she wanted birthday cake, she decided that she couldn't just have cake but needed to go to Sweet Mandy B's, which is a cupcake place that I have now visited three times, twice with my own Mandy B, so we found a movie theatre near there and met up to see Sausage Party. I'm not sure how I feel about that movie... I loved it but I don't think anyone ever feels completely sure about enjoying a movie about sexually-repressed food that decides to wage war against man-kind in the most politically-incorrect way possible.

After the movie, it was cupcake time. As I said, it's great to go to Sweet Mandy B's with my sweet Mandy B and even sweeter to go on her b-day. I got the snickerdoodle cupcake, which I got the last time I went and it's pretty great.

Next, we came back to my apartment so that I could make dinner (and show off the apartment... because why not?). I made her jalapeno popper mac and cheese because we all know that it is my signature dish by now. I have the recipe memorized, people! We laid back on the couch and continued to catch up -- I'm not sure we'll ever fully be caught up. We need a lot of time!

Once again, we had to say goodbye too soon, but I'm going to help her move on Thursday, so I will see her again this week.

Today was kind of exciting. I got dressed up because I had an interview with a theatre company that I've been talking with for a while. It was probably the world's most casual interview ever, because it was at a coffee shop. It was at Metropolis Coffee, which I was going to guess is hipster headquarters of Chicago. They only have this one shop but I've seen a lot of Metropolis cups all around the city since I've been here (including at New Wave). It basically looks like every hipster coffee shop in the city serves Metropolis coffee! This is all great, except that I don't drink coffee. I got a "cocoa," which is legit the most hipster way I've ever ordered hot chocolate. Even though it was hot outside, I figured it would still be delicious (plus people drink hot coffee in the summer all the time, don't act like it's weird). It looked super classy and I managed to take a picture of it even though I was at an interview. In case you haven't already figured it out, this was basically the chillest interview in the history of ever and I left with a very loosely defined agreement of an internship. So yeah, I have a theatre internship now; very little besides that has been determined, but it's a thing, so in the upcoming future I will have a source of income (through temp agencies and probably other places... I'm still looking) and a creative outlet (through this internship). Also, if I liked coffee, I'm sure that I would like Metropolis coffee because the cocoa was delicious.

Also, in a strange turn of events, Mandy is now working on a show in Logan Square, where I'm moving, and this internship is in Edgewater, where she is moving, so that's either fantastic or tragic. I'm going to go with the former because it hopefully means that I'll get to see her a lot more often.

I happily got back on the train and went to Target to buy a pillow before returning to the apartment. (I'm going to need a few more pillows, but I figured I would start with the one to make sure that I had something for when I moved it because I had exactly zero pillows for my new place). Speaking of the new place, tomorrow, I'm going over there to sign the lease and start moving things in. I'm so excited to make my three-floor walk up and 80.75 square feet bedroom feel like home!