MMMBopp: June 27-29-- Kim Visits!

Kim came to visit this weekend! She's one of my great friends from law school and as a result, it was a great weekend. We started with dinner at Hopleaf and getting Kim drunk on wine. Then over to the Brauhaus for boots of beer. Kim did a little polka and then back home to rest up for Stevie!

Satuday Kim & I went for mani-pedis at the sexy Havana Nights. It took everything we had to get there by 11 am. But it was well worth it. Nothing better than a foot massage. Then over to lunch. Kim was happy to be in the Midwest where cheese fries come with real cheddar cheese and lots of bacon. Afterwards, me, Kim, Alex & Tim got our cooler together headed down to see Stevie Wonder in Grant Park. By this time Tim had had a 5th of tequila. His story is that morning he had met his friend whose uncle just died. He was drinking with him in mourning. I think he was just trying to cope with an entire weekend with Alex. But that's just a theory. But Tequila Tim made the L ride a little more entertaining.

I had sworn that I would NEVER go to the Taste of Chicago again after working it a few years ago. But for Stevie I made an exception. It was so worth it too! He came out and started by saying he was disappointed in the Supreme Court's gun decision. We were like, "Huh?" Yep-- started to talk about politics, started to do a "Go Barak Obama Go" cheer. Crowd loved it. Then he introduced his daughter-- the subejct of "Isn't She Lovely?"-- and she's a grown-up. Like in her early 20s. And one of his back-up singers. And hot. Anyway, he played for about 2 hrs. Jesse Jackson came on stage for a while and yammered on about God only knows what. He stayed and also became one of the back-up singers. I was super excited that Stevie played "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing" (which got me through my divorce) and "As" (which Kim introduced me too). Kim really wanted to hear "Master Blaster" and that's what he started with. She was recognizing all sorts of songs that I didn't. We were all singing and dancing and drinking. Well, Tim had to take a little rest bc of the tequila. Anyway, the crowd was great. There was a group behind us doing the electric slide at one point and Lisa joined in. There was a guy in a Celtics jersey that was singing every lyric to every song that Kim took a shine to. It was a great day.

Post-concert we headed in search of karaoke because Kim's voice kicks ass. So we went to Four Treys in Roscoe Village. We got there at about 9 pm and it was empty. I really like this place-- I mean, the tamale guy comes by (we went through 10 tamales that night). People were skeptical that there was going to be karaoke. But sure enough, it started at 10 pm. The place was PACKED by 10:15-- bachelorette parties, birthdays, etc. Tim did a lovely rendition of "Born to Run" and Kim tore-it-up w her version of "Killing Me Softly". See the video below. By the time the guys did the horrible, horrible version of the humpty dance we were starting to fade. Well, I was. Kim had energy so we went back to my place and listened to tunes, sang more and drank in my backyard. It started to rain so we headed inside to order food-- I believe Tim ordered every item in the Chicago Pizza menu. I passed out on the couch but woke up for the delivery-- I had 2 jalapeno poppers and then to bed.

Sunday was rough going. We had a tough time getting up and our plans to go to the Pride Parade went out the window. No WAY were we going to be up, showered, dressed and down to Boystown by noon. Alex brought me & Kim Mc D's and as always, that seemed to get us straightened out. We wandered down to the Belmont Arts & Music Fest which was nice enough but empty since it was windy and there was sporadic rain. We ran into my friend Mary and her little boy Joshua which was a lovely surprise. We all headed to Beat Kitchen for shelter and a couple of beers. Then later we headed to Cody's for darts and singing along to the jukebox. There were some sweet, sweet dogs at the bar. So btwn petting the dogs and singing to Diana Ross, Kim was pretty happy. We headed down to Piece (owned by a BU grad) and gorged ourselves on pizza. Then it was home to crash. We ended the day with the White Sox beating the Cubs (Go Sox!) and some QT with Millie.

Kim's headed home right now. I had such a fun weekend and it makes being back at work on Monday that much tougher. But I wouldn't trade it for the world. Thanks Kim!

Kim & Alex at the Brauhaus