Hi ya'll! It's been what? A month? As a kinda-sorta teacher that means my summer is halfway over... I'm not ready yet. There's so much to do and so much to see. I have managed to check some things off my summer bucket list though. Want a roundup of my actions? Here it is!!!!

The easiest action item on my list is undoubtedly the ICE CREAM CONE box.. coincidentally (?) there are also multiple of these on my list. Truthfully, I have probably used them all up because: 

IamanadultandcanstopbyMcDonald'sfora99centconeonmywayhomefromworkifIwantto

However, one I chose to count and highlight is when my sister, my nephew, my PaPa and I went out for National Ice Cream day last weekend. There's a small batch ice cream shop in my community called Go! Ice Cream which is amazeballs. I tried their ice cream before they moved into the storefront and it was literally ice cream for sale on the go: a bike food cart. It was great to experience Go! Ice Cream's glow up with 3 generations of my family together. Additionally, the shop had a special sundae/cone just for the holiday. It was a confetti waffle cone, scoops of sweetened brown butter ice cream, chocolate shell and a dusting of Pop Rocks!!!! It was literally a musical treat in my mouth. Do you remember the sound Pop Rocks make when eaten? I do. It was nostalgia and my brown girl bougie tendencies all in a cone! 

Last month I also took a 3 day trip to Chicago and managed to get in a lot of action in a weekend. I must #humblebrag that I was able to do so much in such a small span of time. Usually at some point the reality that I have a chronic illness catches up with my and my side effect symptoms flare up. That weekend I magically got through like an ac tual healthy person! 

Upon arrival I did what any respectable person would do: when my friend Lilly mentioned a street festival with tacos I said "Yes and...." So Lilly, picked me up and we headed to Pilsen for aptly named: Taco Fest. Over the course of 2.5 hours we managed to have a great time while hacking the festival by habitually picking the shortest line no matter what and buying whatever we could at the end of it. There were elotes, tacos of multiple varieties, Micheladas and Coronas.







After eating our fill in the hot heat of Chicago in the summer we walked over to a local brewery to kick back in the AC and "hydrate." Unfortunately I was so bust wiping sweat from my brow that there are no picture. After an afternoon of food and fun I went back to Lilly's for a power nap before my night time shenanigans. What was planned you ask? I found a Groupon for a live comedy show which was actually being taped for the comic's special. My very good friend from undergrad Ben, agreed to meet me at the show downtown to see Barry Brewer crack some jokes. 

An interesting thing happened on my way to the show... My power nap ran late and then my Lyft driver showed up in a minivan (plot twist!) and only drove 40mi/hr on Lakeshore Dr. If you've ever tried to get from north of downtown and taken Lakeshore in Chicago you know that speed is to slow. In short, I was late and my friend Ben being the only White Jewish man in the audience was a champ for being that random White dude at a Black comedy show. He literally had a mote of space around him when I arrived. Later on over tapas at Cafe Ba Ba Reeba he joked that he wanted to announce, "I was invited, I am not crashing this sacred space!!!" I told Ben, I was pretty sure there'd be a closeup of his reaction when Barry made "White people be like..." jokes in during the video recording.




The next morning I woke up refreshed and ready to eat. I had plans for framily brunch with Lilly, another undergrad friend Melanie, and a Americorpse cohort member Gilad. I was super excited to connect with Melanie, and Gilad whom I hadn't seen in ages. They both opened their homes and hearts to me when I used to travel to Chicago on a regular basis. Additionally, Melanie has been working on rehabing her home to make it super hippie certified and LEED certified as well. 


My trip to Chicago, is only part of my month of making summer happen. I also made plans and broke them because I had a flair up of side effects/was too tired/or literally too sick. However, below are highlights of some of the plans I made and kept. Here's to keeping oneself accountable regarding scheduling self-care and "me time."







Whew! I've been busy ya'll. To close out here's an update version of my Summer Bucket List 2017.

 



 

Hello ladies and gents! Homeboys and homegirls! Mostly just the underdogs and the outcasts though because those are my peeps. I am trying to revive this blog because I recently realized how much I enjoyed this side project. I have always been an avid reader which lead to a life long love of stories. Somehow (I'm sure there are some studies out there that prove it.) I was able to improve my writing and storytelling through this habit. I'm out of practice so I'm trying to get my reps up thus this post. 

Despite not writing about my food adventures, I have been cooking this entire extended break. There's been a lot of changes in my life so I need to adjust my practice. I don't bake as much but I do love a dinner party. Here's some of the food gatherings you missed knowing about because I didn't share in real time.

Mother's Day family brunch:

Hey yo! I know it's the holidays and I have been busy doing that kind of stuff. But, I also took a trip with my big sis recently and it was fabulous! I don't get to hang out womyn a womyn with my big sister that often. So when she had to relocate down south for a new job I invited myself along for the car ride. It did not disappoint... and I think she had fun too!

First I took the bus (yeah greyhound!) from the Mitten to Indiana. My bus has some technical difficulties so the trip took longer than I thought. And... because I love to be over prepare I usually end up under prepared. In this case it means I forgot the dohickey that allows me to plug the USB cord side of my phone charger into the wall. As a result I was out of battery once I reach the Indianapolis bus terminal. With thoughts of the bus depot scene from Adventure in Babysitting in my head I devised a backup plan.

• Walk purposefully out of the depot and into downtown Indianapolis
• Have cell phone out as if I'm talking to someone 
• Find a free wifi source
• Use Kindle to send email to let sister know I'd arrived

Just as I was enacting step 2 of my awesome plan I stopped at the crosswalk and a car pulled up. A voice said, "Hey, are you lookin' for me?" Before I could totally freak out I took a closer look at the driver and it was... MAH BIG SISTER! Awesome timing right?! Stars aligned and we road off into the early evening toward her home. The next morning we woke up and began our Thelma & Louise (as her hubby and his brother called it) road trip to Florida. We (thankfully) broke the trip down into two days. The first day we drove to Atlanta and spent the night before continuing on to the sunshine state.

 The first(?) stop was to get gas and eat a bit of lunch. You must realize the as kids my mom NEVER stopped on road trips un-necessarily. And by necessary she meant to get gas. We (her children) were trained to go potty before getting on the road, to limit liquid intake, and to make sure to make a "pit stop" when we made a pit stop for gas. Family legend has it that when my twin and I were around  6 or 7 we road somewhere with my grandma and when she stopped at a rest stop we asked if it was a hotel.





T'was bittersweet dining though because the cafe was closing in a week. The food was good and to quote my sis, "...[That] sure beat the drive through." After lunch we drove on (and on) with the goal of making it to Atlanta in time to see the winter season finale of Scandal. We arrived in the Atlanta Metro area with about 45 minutes to spare. But first... food. We needed dinner. My sister was in the mood for Chipotle but there was no Chipotle in Smyrna, GA. We did find a new place in a shopping cluster called The Corner Taqueria so we hedged out bets and gave it a try.






Over all... not bad. I wouldn't call it a taqueria though b/c those tortillas were not "authentic." Yeah... I said it. A Mexican taco comes double wrapped in a corn tortilla- everyone knows that. I was also bummed b/c their elota appetizer was $5 and change. Five bucks for corn on the cob?! I don't know where they were getting their crema from but that was to fancy for even bourgeois me!

The next morning before hitting the road I begged my sister if we could dine at Waffle House. She obliged and it did not disappoint! I wish we had these in the Mitten. I wish I had a friend in the Mitten I could call up on a lazy Sunday and would drive to Toledo with me to go to the nearest Waffle House. I don't so I had to take the opportunity when it arose.



I got a Greek omlet w/ chicken, side of toast and home fries. We split a waffle.


I must say Keke's was worth the wait. Generous proportions and good food! Also, the OJ I ordered was locally source. My sister plans on bringing her kids when they get to town. After such a BIG breakfast we had to talk it out a bit. So we took a stroll through Downtown Disney. I had no clue what this meant. My mind was like, "Is Disney a town AND an amusement park?" "Does the mean Celebration, FL the Disney city?" I now know that Downtown Disney is like a huge outdoor mall with lots of Disney themed store and kiosks. I'd been joking w/ my sister about getting matching tattoos to commemorate our trip. They had a henna kiosk but I didn't want to wait 30 minutes for it to dry. I can barely sit still long enough for my nail polish to set. I knew I'd smudge that henna and end up looking like I had some weird tan or a new birthmark.












Later that evening we went to a sushi place for dinner... I can't even remember what it was called. But the food was awesome AND I got to try a fancy drink.

 I am on a roll! I've managed to accomplish yet another activity on my 2012 Summer Bucket List!

2012 Summer Bucket List Activity: Use My Passport

I went to Mexico for (not quite) a week! My good friend Juan lives in el D.F. and while Skyping about my summer plans I mentioned wanting to go to NYC or Boston. He kindly reminded me that I could probably get a plane ticket to Mexico City for about the same amount as to either of those place and, once in la ciudad things would cost less. A few plane ticket searched later if scored a roundtrip ticket for under $600 and was on mah way. My friend Zoe B. loved the idea so much she cashed in a Delta voucher and came with!

We both got in late in the evening and there was some confusion as far as meeting up. As luck would have it Juan ended up sick in the hospital that day. Then my flight got in at a different terminal than Zoe's. Out re-planned meeting spots got all mixed up. But, I got to use my Spanish and we eventually found each other.

The first full day Juan was sick so he stayed in to rest. Zoe and I headed out to the young artistic hip neighborhood of Coyoacan to to some touristy stuff. After finding a hippie cafe to get coffee American style (with water) we took a tour of Frida Khalo's studio there. It's called the Blue House (for obvious reasons).





 Afterwards we had a little adventure trying to find the taqueria Super Tacos Chupacabras! We had a map... and an address. As I'm horrible at cardinal directions I wasn't much help. But, we eventually found it and it was amazing street food. No pictures because I was too busy wolfing down tacos on the street to even think about it. However, I highly recommend heaping on the grilled onions and potatoes they offer for free.

That evening Juan and his Boo took us gringas out to the young professional and chic neighborhood of La Condesa for pulque. Pulque is not quite beer. A fermented beverage made from the agave plant. I saw it once on Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" show. It comes in many flavors... I suggest you get a flavor. Jose (Juan's Boo) explained that in many of the indigenous communities women drink it even while preggers. But because of the high protein content the babies don't show signs of fetal alcohol syndrome. Interesting... I wonder if this will be touted as the new ubber traditional and holistic neo-natal practice of super moms in developed nations?












The next day we got up a bit late -a bit to much marcha (hanging out)- and headed to the Museo de Anthropologia. Zoe has a Master's in Anthropology so she was in her eliment. I'd been there before (I went as a H.S. student) so I'd seen all the Aztec/Mayan artifacts. But I did check out some other exhibits I hadn't seen. We also took part in a free tour for English speakers.







The dinner was great. I felt very posh and comfortable being a bit of a third wheel. Everyone was super nice and inviting but you know how being a newbie in a group of longtime friends can be... You don't know the "in" jokes yet. And I was working across languages. I can't be as funny as I want in Spanish. I don't know how to make puns!!!!

The following morning Juan had to go to work. So Zoe and I got up early and took the metro and the tren lijera out to Xochimilco. It's the old area outside of town where the Aztec canals still stand. You can rent a trajinera (boat) and take a tour of the canals. It was the most expensive thing we did the entire time and I had a panic attack about it for like 40 min. But the area was so beautiful and the water so calm I had to get over it.



We took the extra long 4 hour tour specifically so we could visit La Isla de Las Munecas (the Island of the Dolls). It was totally creepy. We spent the entire time pointing and says, "Creepy!" The back story is that a man living on the island saw a girl drowning in the canal one day. He tried to save her but was unsuccessful. So he started collecting and hanging dolls all over the island/his house to protect the young girls spirit. They say he died some 30 years later of a heart attack in the SAME SPOT the girl drowned. I guess she was not happy with the doll collection.












The final day of our exploring we too the metro downtown and walked around. We didn't realize that all the museums are CLOSED on Mondays. We're D.C. people (Zoe still lives there and I used to). Museums are always open and they're always free right? Right? Nope! But we still got to see the Zocalo and some other cool stuff.



We stopped for lunch at the famous Cafe Tacuba. It's really touristy and stuff but it was beautiful inside.










I think a GREAT week was had by all. There were a few snags with Juan being sick but we still got a lot done. Memories were made. Food was eaten. Tequila was drunk. And some secrets shall be kept forever... right guys?