Tales From The Weekend

Wanna know what makes me feel extra lazy when I wake up a little bit later than I should have on a Sunday morning? When I walk outside my door and see thousands of people running the Chicago marathon. As in people choosing to run twenty-six miles just for the “fun of it.”

The marathon path is about four houses away from me, so naturally Harlow and I got up to go cheer them on. And let me tell you, they all looked pretty damn miserable. Even so, I am dying to run one. I tried to sign up this year but the website had a crash the day of registration and thousands of people who tried to register were unable to do so (like me.) I took it as a sign from God this year wasn’t my year. No, this year God wanted me to brunch on this day instead, and I was okay with that. Next year though, I plan to be one of those miserable people trucking along, permitted I can get Harlow a pass to run with me.

Since we didn’t run the marathon, Chris and I decided to do the next best thing and go out for breakfast instead. We tried out a new place in our neighborhood called Eleven City Diner. As you can imagine, it has a real old-timey feel to it. Just look at their candy selection.

They brew their own soda, apparently. Can you brew soda or did I just make that up? I’m not sure, I just know they really went “all out” for the 1950s feel. And even though I’m not usually into places like this because they remind me of Johnny Rockets which reminds me of screaming children at Disney World, I actually really liked Eleven City Diner. It’s like Johnny Rockets’s classier, older cousin.

And the food was phenomenal. I ordered the Mexican Scramble, which is what I pretty much always order. Basically if I see “chorizo” on a menu I’m probably going to get it. It’s hard to take a good photo of eggs, but trust me on this one, they were delish.

Besides not running a marathon, we also did a lot of eating, a little bit of drinking, and a lot of relaxing this weekend- oh and Chris did some belly dancing. Friday we got adventurous and went to a little Lebanese restaurant called Kan Zaman in River North with a few friends.

There was a lot of hummus, pita bread, and falafels. Along with a huge tray of meat.

It was somewhere in between the hummus and tray of lamb, when Chris decided to get up and do a little duet with the restaurant’s belly dancer. As you can see from these terribly grainy photos, he really gave her a run for her money.

After Chris’s performance we were all feeling the music vibe so we decided to continue the fun at the Zebra Lounge, a quaint little piano bar in the Gold Coast. No photos were taken at this point in the night, thank God for that. Well that’s not entirely true, for whatever reason I did snap a photo of Rock’N’Roll McDonalds on the way to the bar. At least I didn’t try to snap a photo of the Rainforest Cafe like I usually do.

Saturday was spent strolling around the neighborhood enjoying the wonderful fall weather Chicago has been graced with for the last few weeks.

And isn’t Harlow a great guard dog? No squirrels are getting by him. Not on his watch.

And Saturday evening we watched a wonderful movie called The Kings of Summer. It’s an indy flick that was a huge hit at Sundance this last year. I absolutely loved it. I can’t pinpoint why I enjoyed it so much, because like Chris pointed out it was a little bit slow, but there was just a certain beauty to the film that had me smiling almost the entire time. I know that sounds trite, but just watch it for yourself and you’ll understand.

And I ended the night doing a little online shopping in preparation for my trip to Cabo that is just about forty days away. Since 2005 my entire family has been going to Cabo to celebrate Thanksgiving (we took a minor break last year and we went on a cruise instead.) So I am more excited than ever to go this year.

Last night I stumbled across this awesome online boutique called Roe Boulevard where I found so many great dresses and tops for Cabo, as well as a lot of cardigans and chunky sweaters I know I will be obsessed with in just a few short weeks when the weather starts to change in Chicago. I’ve mentioned before about my love for cardigans, and this store only seems to feed my addiction. Here are some of my favs, however I should note I probably could have added at least ten more, like the Nadia Sweater I just noticed popped up on the site today. I might need to put a restraint on this site because each time I stop by I see something new I want.

I may have ordered the top right maxi dress you seen in the corner.

And I also may have ordered this “Chicago Cardigan” because it just felt right.

I will anxiously be awaiting the arrival of both.  And that has been my weekend in a nutshell. Enjoy your Sunday, as we all know, Monday will be here far too soon!