Bad Influences

To pick up from my last post yesterday, Mandy met me at Two Hearted Queen as my writers’ group was just about to finish up. She said we looked very serious and she thought I was taking a college class outside. I told her that it was legitimately the chilliest thing in the world. She ordered a latte while we finished up (I knew she wouldn’t mind having to go to a coffee shop). A few members of my group have a coffee blog and highly approved of my Koffee Shop Kwest.

We got back on the red line and went to her new apartment in Edgewater! I had told Mandy that I got an internship with a theatre company in Edgewater but when I was looking at directions for how to get to her apartment, I saw that she’d have to walk past their performance space every day to get to and from the train! When I told her this, she asked me if it was the Jackalope Theatre and I said yes (great name, by the way, I can’t get over it). She told me that half of the people who started Jackalope are her new neighbors. They share a porch! So that is a pretty crazy coincidence that I think will work out well for everyone involved (it gives me an excuse to email them anyways, which I need to do again). Aside from sharing a porch with my future employers, Mandy’s apartment is nice. Unlike Mandy’s last two apartments that I visited (her basement apartment on the South Side and her apartment in Berkeley, CA that we’re pretty sure had been used by college kids to make meth), I mean it when I say she has a nice place. Also, these apartments are so much bigger than NYC apartments. That should be obvious, but I feel the need to say it because I keep thinking it.

Mandy gave me the tour and then got ready to head back out for dinner and drinks. Mandy has declared that I’m going to be a bad influence on her now. She says that she’s been doing a great job eating well, dieting and being generally healthy but now that I’m here, all of that is going to go out the window because I love food and trying new restaurants. I’d like to point out that she’s the one who took me to Cheesie’s and is therefore a bed influence on me because I would like to go back there every day for as long as I live.

The second she said “grilled cheese restaurant,” I was in. Like, anyone who knows me knows that that shouldn’t even be a question someone needs to ask me at this point.

I knew this place was for me before I’d even gone in. Just getting off the train, you could see that the entire outside of the restaurant was the welcoming color of cheddar. Pink is my favorite color, but any color related to cheese probably makes the list as well. On the way there, Mandy had asked me if I wanted to look up the menu or if I wanted to be surprised – I decided to go in blind and boy, was I shocked! There were so many options. They had a grilled mac and cheese that I considered for a few moments before deciding to try something else (I’m embarrassed by the number of grilled mac and cheese sandwiches I’ve had. Actually, not embarrassed, people with weaker stomachs would be embarrassed, I just wanted to try something new). They had one called The Popper, which was a jalapeno popper sandwich that I also thought about trying, but at this point, my brain is so hardwired to my beloved jalapeno popper mac and cheese that it felt like I’d be betraying mac and cheese to order that one. (Like, at this point, I can’t think of jalapeno popper without mac and cheese attached. I do mac and cheese without jalapenos, but I still think about them when I get it). I went with the same sandwich Mandy picked -- The Frenchie, which is American cheese, mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese sauce, thick cut French fries, bacon and chives on sour dough bread (with a sour cream dip). I went sans-bacon, of course. I was actually in heaven. I realized after ordering that Mandy and I probably should have done what Ryan and I did when we went out for grilled cheese in NYC, where each one of us ordered a different sandwich and then we split them so we both got to have a half of each, but a lot of Cheesie’s sandwiches had meat on them and I would not want to deprive Mandy of her newfound carnivorous ways. I mentioned this to her and she said we could do it next time… maybe we could order a sandwich with the meat on just one half?

Speaking of Ryan, we’re definitely going here when he visits. I’ve basically sworn off of cupcakes for the near future so we can continue our tradition of “Cupcake Crawls.” We did one for his birthday in December in Boston and then another for his birthday in May in New York (long story, his birthday is in December but we celebrated twice in our different cities). I don’t want to try all of Chicago’s cupcakes without him – I want us to experience them together! But, I can definitely continue sampling Chicago’s other eateries when I have the chance… like Cheesie’s.

After dinner, we went to the bar her roommate, Reagan, works at, which is definitely a nicer spot than it was made to seem, so I was feeling particularly underdressed in my tank top, MCT hoodie and shorts. Mandy had invited a friend from work, Paige and a friend she met when she was living in San Francisco, Derek, and we all planted ourselves at a table outside for a nice night of getting to know each other. Before they arrived, Mandy was paranoid that we wouldn’t like each other but I had faith and things turned out wonderfully. The most difficult part of the night was a debate over whether or not I should start calling her Amanda or if her new, adult, Chicago friends were allowed to call her Mandy (they’re not, and I guess I’m supposed to start calling her Amanda, but that probably won’t happen very soon).

After the restaurant closed (at 10, although we hung out until about 10:30 or 11… sorry!), Mandy and Paige were headed further uptown to another bar and Derek and I headed home. I would have gone with them, except I had my large, pink backpack with me from writers’ group (we spent the evening calling it my “Kimmy Schmidt backpack” because in the pilot episode of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, naïve, innocent Kimmy takes her backpack filled with thousands of dollars in cash out into an NYC night club, where it is promptly stolen. I’m not naïve or innocent and had a happier ending last night, of course, but we were all thinking about it). Derek and I don’t like in the same neighborhood but we live in the same direction so we got off the train at the same stop and then I was going to take the bus (Derek lives in walking distance from the stop but I do not), except, oh wait, ROOKIE MISTAKE, my bus wasn’t running. I guess it doesn’t run late on Sunday nights, so I called an Uber. (Note to self: Look up bus schedule. The public transit here has a very helpful app but I should know the exact hours that my bus runs so I can hopefully save some money on Uber).

I crashed hard when I got home, but so far, Labor Day has been good to me. I don’t have work (get it? Because I never have work because I don’t have a job right now) so it’s another lazy day. Mandy also doesn’t have work so she’s coming over for dinner tonight. We’re actually going to cook for ourselves! We’re going to try making “baked avocado fries,” because Mandy has loved avocado since I met her and I developed a fondness for it in Central America over the summer. So, how’s that for being a bad influence, huh?