Let's start with the not so great news that I received over the past couple of days. I would hate to end a post on a negative note, but I also don't want to give off any impression that everything here is rainbows and cupcakes and Sweet Mandy B's. Unfortunately, I just found out that my sister's trip to Chicago has been cancelled. Even though it was for work, it was still going to be nice to see her. I still don't think either of us are clear as to why it was cancelled, but it is what it is. I know we are both disappointed, but hopefully we can work something out for another time! Secondly, as mentioned in my last post, I had a job interview with a nonprofit organization. The interview went great and I found out I was a finalist for the position. Unfortunately, I got the call yesterday that I did not get the job.
So that's the update on the more disappointing side. On a brighter note, I did get the part time job at DePaul in the admissions office. So, I am no longer unemployed and I am now contributing again to society! The couch today feels so much more comfortable knowing that I can just relax on it and not spend hours searching for jobs. Since it is just part-time, I will look for another part-time job but probably not until the end of August or September. I am going to try and enjoy as much of the summer as I can before I have to face the miserable winters. I know - I already have such a great attitude about the winters here. But I can't help it when everyone I meet says "just wait until the winter..."
Side note - this is why I hate soccer. Two French players just went down along with Abby Wambach. Wambach is up right away and not whining. The two French players? They could win an Oscar for the amount of acting they are doing right now. Basketball players fall all the time without any kind of padding. The majority of them get back up immediately. The opposite of soccer. The players go down and the majority of them spend a good minute or two flailing around like they are injured, only to get back up like nothing happened. Good thing USA players have more pride than that. USA! USA! USA!
Back on track - more importantly, Dad came to visit this past weekend! He was supposed to land at 3:30 on Friday, but ended up not landing until after 4:15. I knew it would take him a while to get to the apartment just because it was a Friday. Sure enough, he got caught in traffic coming from the airport and didn't get here until about 6:00. Even still, it was great to see him pull up in the cab - he was really here! We got him settled into our modest apartment when we both realized we were starving. Just like mom's trip, our first night out, we at the local pizza place up the road from us. Nice thing about this restaurant is that they will take your cell phone number and call you when the table is ready. So, since we had a 45 minute wait, we put our name on the list, then I walked dad over to campus so he could see DePaul.
We walked around campus for about 30 minutes, and I know I talked his ear off, telling him all about the neighborhood. We made it back to the restaurant just as they were calling our name. As always, the pizza was delicious, but the meal was not going to be complete until we made a trip over to Sweet Mandy B's. I knew that if anyone would appreciate this bakery as much as me, it would be my dad. Unfortunately, I underestimated the amount of people that would be there on a Friday night. It was packed. We couldn't even see half of the goodies they had waiting for us. And both dad and I HATE crowds. So, we moved to the back of the line, and eventually ordered our peanut butter cookie with chocolate frosting and plain cheesecake with chocolate sauce. Seems to be a pattern here.
Saturday morning, we got up and headed to Einstein bagels which is about an 8 minute walk from our place. I was surprised that dad wanted to eat there since we have one in Richmond, but I love Einstein's, so I wasn't going to argue. We spent the next 2 and half hours walking around the neighborhood. We started by heading down to the beach. Poor dad. I think I took a couple of years off his life. On a Saturday, the beach in PACKED. And not just the beach itself, but also the running and biking lane as well. I told dad just to keep an eye out for the people riding their bikes, but I had no idea it would worry him so much. I had to tell him that I have only seen ONE biker hit a runner and that was because I am pretty sure the person on her bike was texting. She also committed this hit in front of the cops. I am pretty sure she got a ticket for texting and riding. Dad was not convinced as I am pretty sure he was silently cursing the people on bikes whizzing by us. Courtney - I KNOW you can picture what I am talking about :) Other than that, I think he enjoyed the beach!
After walking around for a couple of hours, we finally made it back to the apartment. We rested for a little bit before heading into Old Town (2 miles from here), to get on the waiting list for Second City. Second City is the famous improv and sketch comedy club where some of the most famous comedians and actors like Tina Fey, Chris Farley, Steve Martin got their starts. Since the show was technically sold out, we had to get there at 2:00 to put our name on the stand-by list for the 4:00 show. After getting our name on the list, we walked around Old Town looking for a place to eat. Obviously. Because that's what most of this weekend was based around - FOOD!
We found a placed tucked away between a couple of buildings. It was a pizza place (shocking), but more importantly, it is home to the JUMBO slice. And by jumbo I mean each slice of pizza was bigger than a laptop. I opted to go with a Greek salad, but silently cheered when dad went with the jumbo slice. I knew he wouldn't want to eat all of it and would share some with me. Needless to say, it was delicious. I mean, you can't go wrong with a pizza place that is home to the jumbo slice. We had some time to kill, so we decided to have some italian ice while we were there. Not a bad lunch at all.
We headed back to Second City with our fingers crossed that we would score some stand-by tickets. Sure enough, the luck was in our favor. We were escorted to our seats where we ordered sparkling water. That's right - we are fancy. The show was absolutely hysterical. At one point, the entire audience was involved, and dad and I were one of about 5 audience members that were asked to stand up and give the finger to another group of audience members. I must have been harboring some frustration because I gave them both fingers. I was so glad dad talked me into going. Initially, when we found out we would have to wait stand-by, I wasn't thrilled about waiting. But, I decided, why not? I know dad really wanted to see it and I am glad we went. I didn't realize it was so close to our apartment so now I am going to have convince Matt to see a show.
After the show, we were somehow hungry again despite our jumbo slice of pizza and italian ice. So, we decided to try another restaurant that I had not tried since I moved here. John's Place is home to the "Best Burger" according to last year's Burger Fest. Naturally, that's where we went. We sat outside on the sidewalk, enjoy a couple of drinks and of course, finished it off with cupcakes that we had waiting for us back at the apartment. Great way to end the night.
Sunday morning was the day of our 8 mile run. As some of you know, Dad and Courtney are both training for a half marathon that they are running in August up in Rhode Island. Dad had to get an 8 mile run in while he was here. By 9:30, we were out on the streets starting the long run. Best quote from dad of the entire run: "Why are there so many people out this early already?" HAHA. He is used to running in Glen Allen where he could run 8 miles and not see another runner at all. Here, you are bound to see another runner every 3 minutes. I don't know about dad, but what got me through the run was the delicious brunch I knew awaited us once we finished. It brought me back to my basketball days where the first thought in my mind after a game was "now where are we going to eat?"
After we both finally cooled down, showered and slowly got ready, we were out the door for the BEST BRUNCH EVER! I took dad to the new restaurant that Matt and I found where we had gone for dinner and brunch. Dad had the fruit and granola parfait and I had the scrambled eggs with cheese, toast and hash browns. I pretty much did everything but lick my plate. I forgot how far 8 miles is. I have run 2 half marathons, but am not training for one currently. Therefore, I consistently run about 5-6 miles. But that extra 2 miles makes a huge difference. And my brunch did not stand a chance.
Afterwards, walked next door to the local sports store that sells apparel for any team, college or professional, that you can think of. This is where we watched the USA steal the World Cup game from Brazil. Everyone in there went nuts. Speaking of which, THE USA JUST SCORED ANOTHER GOAL IN THE SEMI-FINAL AS WE SPEAK!! USA 2 - France 1! Eat it!
Ok, back on track. After celebrating with the random people in the store, we headed home where I watched SportsCenter for the next hour to get the recap of the game. Dad took a little power nap because we were headed to a movie that afternoon. We walked the 15 minutes to the movie theater to see Super 8. Dad had been wanting to see it, and having sat through numerous
WAIT FOR IT - USA SCORES AGAIN!!!!!
alien movies with Matt, I figured, why not one more. $22 later, I don't think either of us were impressed. But, it was nice to just sit after an 8 mile run and hours worth of walking over the past couple of days. It was a nice change of pace for a couple of hours. Best part of the movie - Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights played one of the lead roles in the movie. I could look at him all day no matter what type of movie he is in.
Naturally, we had to stop by Sweet Mandy B's on the way to get dinner. If you are keeping track, we stopped there twice in three days. After picking up dessert, we picked up dinner at a hot dog shack right on campus called Devil Dawgs. I am convinced they are they best hotdogs in the area. I was so excited to take dad there since I know how much he loves hotdogs. And I am pretty sure they did not disappoint since we both devoured ours. The cheese fries didn't stand a chance either. And since we ate all our dinner, we treated ourselves to our desserts. And that, my friends, is why I run and work out on a daily basis. So I can eat my face off and not feel terrible about it.
We spent the rest of the night flipping through channels while dad finished up a book that he brought on the trip. I eventually had to go pick Matt up from the airport. I know I bad mouthed my TomTom when I first started this blog, and I believe I have been justified in those comments. Thank goodness I went to google maps for directions as well, because TomTom definitely tried to get me killed on the way to the airport. TomTom always gets me to the right highway. That's not the problem. The problem is HOW it gets me there. Normally, its via back, dark, sketchy roads. I turned the TomTom off about 3 minutes into my drive.
Dad was already sleeping when we got home, so Matt finally saw him on Monday morning. When Matt went into work, Dad and I went back to Einstein's for breakfast and stopped by Dunkin Donuts on the way back. We picked up coffee and doughnuts for Matt since we were stopping by his office. I wanted to show Dad where he works and where the women play their games. Dad got to meet a couple of the staff members before we headed back to the apartment. Dad had to check into his hotel, but Matt and I were going to meet up with him downtown for dinner. I spent the rest of the day on the back porch enjoying the weather and getting my butt kicked in my Jillian Michael's workout.
Around 7, Matt and I headed downtown to Dad's hotel. Dad wanted us to come up to the room so we could see the view. He texted me the room number. Turns out, it was the wrong number. We knocked on 2501 instead of 2105. No worries though - no one answered :) When I called dad to get the right number, he was laughing so hard when he realized he gave us the wrong number.
We headed out towards Michigan Ave to find Giordano's, Chicago's most famous pizza place. Dad tried multiple times to whip out the map, but we would not let him. We promised him we would get him to Michigan Ave without the touristy map. Just for the record, we succeeded. Unfortunately, once we got to the restaurant, we found out it was a 45 minute wait. At this point it was 8:00. Matt, knowing me so well, asked if I could wait 45 minutes or if I was going to get cranky from being so hungry. I decided that I could wait because in all honesty, this place has the BEST PIZZA I HAVE EVER HAD. Its indescribable. As promised, I did not get cranky.
After dinner, it was time to say goodbye to Dad. He was still going to be in Chicago, but the next two days were dedicated to his conference he was attending. I knew it was going to be hard, but it still doesn't prepare you for it. I tried to fight back the tears since Matt and I still had to walk to the subway and get home. It was tough though. The weekend went by entirely too fast and it didn't feel like enough time. But, it was by far, one of the best weekends I have had since I moved here. I hope Dad had as much fun as I did! I was so glad he was able to make the trip, even though it meant having to attend a conference as a result.
Next up, meeting tomorrow with DePaul to discuss the details of the job and a Cubbies game this weekend. So, I am going to enjoy the next couple of days relaxing before getting back to work. I hope everyone is going well and enjoying the summer! I know the weather has been brutal in Virginia, so visitors are always welcome here in the 83 degree weather :)
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