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.

 



 

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.

Summer Bucket List 2012 Update!

Summer Bucket List Item: Make pitcher drinks

Done! As you know I went to Mexico a few weeks ago. I brought back some duty free tequila. A nice blanco to make margaritas with. I made a whole pitcher for a Rick Bayless cookbook inspired dinner with some friends. My brother from another mother was in town- hadn't seen him in 3 yrs- and it was good times all around. I made my broke arse strawberry margaritas and even a watermelon drink. I love a good smashed fruit drink. I love them even more when there's been an herb muddled into the mix! Smash some fruit with a nice fresh herb and add the booze of your choice= AWESEOME SUMMER DRINK!

Summer Bucket List Item: Take a family vacation

Summer Bucket List Item: Go to the beach

I was able to know off two things in one weekend! My family took a mini-vacation together! For the first time in a long time 5 generations of us got together somewhere that wasn't my PaPa's house. We rented a place in Michigan City, IN near Lake Michigan for a long weekend. I am now convinced this is the way to do things. We're already talking about doing it again next year. The weather didn't always cooperate but we all still had a great time making memories and spending quality time together. Be forewarned... the recap below can be so adorably Huxtable-esque that you may throw up in your mouth a little.

 















Another wholesome fun family activity was our own version of cupcake wars. We split up into three teams. Each team had to enter 2 cupcakes. Each cupcake had to include one "Michigan ingredient." In the made dash to plate I couldn't find my camera so once my niece sends me her instagram photo of all the entries I'll include more info.







Aren't we adorable?! I think so. I hope we can make this happen again next year! Well, summer is winding down and I still have so many things left to do. Here's hoping I can cram a few more Bucket List activities in before it's apple season.

Hola party peoples....

And by that I mean mostly my nearest and dearest friends. I've decided that since the aughts are done with I should do something super cool and retro. Which is what brings me to this awesome blog. Errr...vlog. Well, it's gonna be a combination of videos of me cooking some of the gazzillion recipes I have bookmarked and other deep thoughts. I'll try to keep it all food related but I do love a good tangent. So, I hope you stop by from time to time and check it out. You could even (GASP!!!) add griotkitschen to your RSS feed. Oh, and if you have an food suggestions... just sent me a shout out (aka comment).