My Home Team

adminCorey Lambert, Coreylambert.com, friendship, goodbyes, memories, new jobs, Square, travel, Uncategorized%s Comments

This is my home team.

My middle-of-the-night, no-matter-what, through-thick-and-thin, help-yourself-to-a-glass-of-water-without-asking-when-they-come-over people.

Home team member Corey is making a big move to San Francisco to take an incredible job opportunity.  I snapped this picture during his going away party on Saturday night.  We have been friends for 21 years, since the day I invited him over for “band practice”.  We were 5 and none of us could play an instrument but we were forming a band, goshdarnit.

My mom tells me “the Band” lasted for about 15 minutes before we all ran out to play.  My dad tied Corey’s shoes so he could join us on the jungle gym.

Over the years, the 6 of us have lived all over: New York, Chicago, Italy, South Africa, and London, not to mention the glorious college towns of East Lansing, Ann Arbor and South Bend, respectively.  While adding San Francisco to the mix is fantastic (new place to visit!), I can’t help but tear up a little- for the last 2 years, we have all been Chicagoans and therefore, able to have that everyday, stop-over-at-the-last-minute kind of friendship.  That being said, I could not be more excited for Corey and his new adventure.  Corey is a big deal kind of person and he is going to do very, very big deal things in San Francisco.

Corey, I love you and I am so wildly proud to be your friend.  Best of luck on your new adventure!

Little Things

adminChristmas Day Run, Corey Lambert, Holiday meaning, iPad, Little Things, Reindeer Food, text messages, Uncategorized%s Comments

(Via Text Message)

Corey:  “So good to sit next to you a couple nights ago.”

Me: “Couldn’t agree more!  I was thinking on the drive back to Chicago about how nice Santa Tracking with you and Cole on Christmas Eve was.”

Corey: “It truly is the little things.”

I had a lovely holiday, filled with great meals, lovely gifts, fantastic parties and busy weeks.  But when I think about what made Christmas 2010 special for me, it’s as simple as sitting snuggled up to my buddy Corey and his nephew Cole on Christmas Eve with an iPad on our laps, keeping a keen eye on the Santa Tracker.  It’s getting to quote The Santa Clause with my Dad, learning what reindeer food consists of from 4 year old Marilyn (oatmeal and glitter, in case you didn’t know) and going for a Christmas Day run on a snow covered trail with Ryan.  It’s getting a text that bring it all home, like the one Corey sent to me today.

The little things, indeed.

Cooking and Family’ing

adminbest friends, Corey Lambert, Family, flatwater, kitchen clambake, luxbar, Magic Hat Brewery, Man Friend, summer cooking, Uncategorized, Volare%s Comments

Exhibit A: Hazel Wegrich.  93. Grandmother. All-Around Amazing Lady.

My 93 year old grandmother got on a place for the first time in years and ventured from Florida to Chicago this past weekend.  A good dinner at Volare (minus the rave that was happening across the street- strobe lights and glow sticks don’t exactly say “welcome to Chicago, let’s have a nice, classy dinner”),  lunch at Luxbar, brunch at Flatwater and a kitchen clambake at our apartment made for a lovely weekend.

I love to cook.  Feeding the people I love is, to me, another way to love them.  With my mom and grandmother in town, it was only fitting that 3 of my best friends came over for dinner.  I am so lucky to have people in Chicago who are every bit as family as those as I am related to by gentics.  It’s also a lot of fun to be in a relationship with someone who loves entertaining as much as I do.  After flipping through The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, Man-Friend and I decided on a Kitchen Clambake–potatoes, kielbasa, shrimp, clams, mussels, salmon and crab steamed in white wine and, because Man-Friend got creative, Miller Lite.

Exhibit B: Our pot was not big enough for the mass amounts of seafood we bought.  So we improvised.

Since we have yet to put together our 4th kitchen table chair, we brought over the ottoman and all crowded around the table, digging into the caprese salad, cracking open crab legs, reaching for more mussels, breaking off pieces of delicious crusty bread.

Exhibit C: Finished product.

It was my favorite kind of meal, the kind that are filled with people I adore, tons of food, wine, “remember when” stories and last for hours.  It turns out that exactly 6 years ago, Corey, Amanda, Mike, Linda and I were in car on our way to New York City.  It was an amazing time in our friendship, a time when we were still young enough to have nothing else to do but be together.  That trip will forever be one of my favorite memories.  It was really special to be with those same people (minus Married Mike), celebrating the exciting changes that have happened recently in our adult lives and belly laughing over being 19 and stranded in Long Island at 4am.

There’s a month left of summer and I want it to be filled with nights just like last Saturday- cooking, story sharing, glass toasting and being with family–both the one I was born into and the one I have been lucky enough to have become a part of along the way.

Fingers Crossed

adminChicago apartment search, Corey Lambert, love, Luna Bell, Ryan, Uncategorized%s Comments

There is a good chance that Luna Bell, Ryan and I will not be homeless come July 1.  I saw my 18th and 19th apartments yesterday and loved, loved, loved both of them.  After several pros and cons lists, we made a decision.  I’m waiting until papers are signed and it’s official but I thought you would be happy to know that I most likely won’t be begging to live on your couch in 2 weeks.

And b y couch, I mean couches.  And by couches, I mean all 5 of yours, Corey Lambert.