Eat to the Beat

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My friend and co-worker Rebecca invited me to see her dance in a lunchtime program called “Eat to the Beat” today.  In her email, she said that she sees us all every day but doesn’t feel people can really know her until they see her dance.  Umm, I get it now.  I was absolutely BLOWN away by her amazingness, how talented her company was and I am so happy to know that incredibly talented side of her now.

After another fabulous Yoga Booty Ballet class at Indigo Studio, I scooted over to the Harris Theatre with my lunch so I could literally eat to the beat.  I sat and I ate along with 300 other patrons of the arts as DanceWorks treated me to a phenomenal 45 minute performance.  Broken up into 3 dances, the show was so stylistically diverse that I was wildly entertained the entire time.   Modern and classical dance, mixed with great beats (one by Illinois Institute of Art student  Christopher Perricelli who snuck out of his midterms to see DanceWorks perform to his music) and even some comedy–the last piece, title “Dance Sport”, was a classical piece set to commentary, like figure skating or basketball, complete with instant replays and fast forwards!  “Eat to the Beat” was over much too soon, just like my lunch.  I must say, however, that I am looking forward to my next DanceWorks experience much more than my next almond-butter and jelly sandwich.

High Five of the Day: Rebecca.  Thank you so much for sharing this fantastic show with me!  You and your fellow dancers are incredible!

Restaurant Week and Japonais

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It’s Restaurant Week in Chicago, which means that for $34 you can try a 3-course meal at some of the top restaurants in the city.  Reservations fill up quickly so I snagged a 9pm at Japonais, a japanese/euro fusion restaurant.  I’ve been wanting to go to Japonais since I moved to the city so I was really excited for Saturday night.  After a fashion consult from my friends Jillian (who told me point blank what I would wear) and Laura (who informed me that black denim is definitely in), Ryan and I cabbed it to this River North hotspot.

After checking in with the hostess, we went downstairs to a lounge-y area to have a drink.  Their signature Floating Orchid martini was fantastic and our table was ready in no time.  We took advantage of the Restaurant Week menu so we samples things we may not have tried otherwise.  My crab cakes and tuna/eel roll was amazing and Ryan loved his rib-like thing and kobe beef carpaccio.  We don’t usually order dessert out but the marscapone-chocolate cake thing was just sinful.  Sushi. steak and martinis…right up our alley.

We really had a great time and I definitely want to go back to order off their regular menu.  The only drawback for me was our waiter.  He reminded me of the pool boy from “The Bird Cage”, which is fine because I loved that movie but I didn’t love his demeanor.  Not very accommodating and a little too attitude-y for me.  All in all though, it was an excellent date night and introduction to Restaurant Week.

Still snowing…

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It’s still snowing.  While it isn’t what the East Coast is getting slammed with, for a city with bare sidewalks yesterday, it is still something.  I took this picture while I was walking to 7/11.  I felt it was too snowy to venture to the gym but felt it was completely necessary to walk almost the same distance to get this:

I love Diet Coke and am perfectly willing to go out in a snowstorm for it.  And look!  Valentine’s cans!  Love and Diet Coke–a match made in heaven.

Here’s how Luna Bell feels about the snow:

She doesn’t want to talk about it.

Snow Plows, Wind and CTA Cuts

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I can’t really complain about the snowstorm that is quickly and quietly enveloping the city right now because, well, it’s February in Chicago.  Having grown up in the Midwest, this sort of thing shouldn’t even phase me.  But there was a part of me that went to bed last night that thought “Ha, they say we’re supposed to get 12-15 inches starting at 9pm and it’s 11pm…suckers.  My sidewalks are staying dry and I’m wearing tennis shoes tomorrow.” 

 7:30am: The sound of snow shovels scraping the pavement.  Dangit.

The snow is being pretty polite as of right now.  Kind of like “Hi, I’m here, it’s Winter so please don’t be angry but I’m going to stick around for awhile and I might get super into this and bring tons of my snowflake friends with me to make going outside the last thing you want to do.” 

Also going on right now in Chicago is the CTA making cuts to the buss and train routes.  That coupled with snow should be interesting.  I haven’t noticed any delays in my commute but I really feel for people who have to be in the snow for longer that usual.

Stay tuned.