st. patty's

Yikes! It's been a week since I blogged! Although I thought the time while Nick was away would creep slowly along, it has actually passed very quickly. My week was busy with rehearsals and teaching, but I managed to have a few dinner and lunch dates with friends. Some nicer weather finally came our way which put me in a fantastic mood for most of the week -- not having to wear my giant comforter coat and feeling the sun shining down on my face made this Chicago gal extremely happy! Spring makes me want to shop! I treated myself to a couple of new clothing items this week and this lovely springy table runner and candles from Crate and Barrel:



Now I really need to have a dinner party...

In other news, my weekend has been somewhat of a flashback to younger, more irresponsible days...yesterday I attended at St. Patty's Pub Crawl in the Lincoln Park neighborhood with my friend Jessica, her husband, and their friend from out of town. I was really pumped about the awesome t-shirt I got (for free!) to wear for it:


(my camera is broken and Nick has his in Greece, so I am taking these pics with the camera on the computer. They come out like mirror images for some odd reason...)

I joined up with the group at about 2:00 pm after my St. Matthew Passion rehearsal. We started with lunch and beers at a pub in Bucktown, then took at cab over to LP, where the scene was ridiculous. Drunk people in green everywhere. It was definitely not my usual scene, but it was fun to run around to all the different bars, and I saw no less than 5 people I knew from either high school or DePauw. That's Chicago for you. By about six we had had enough of the bars on the crawl, which were all ridiculously crowded, noisy, and no specials, so we headed to some dive-ier bars that were less crowded, cheaper beer, and more fun. We ended the night at Arturo's Tacos in Bucktown, which was quite possibly the best tacos I've ever tasted. Jessica's husband is Guatemalan, so he knows his Mexican food. I came home at midnight and promptly went to bed since I had to get up for a rousing Palm Sunday service this morning. Ride on, King Jesus!

So thus begins Holy Week. My week is looking pretty fantastic, since the high school where I've been teaching is on spring break, which means I only have my afternoon teaching this week. And...my mom is coming to stay from Wednesday to Sunday!!! I'm so excited! Wednesday night we are going to see Jersey Boys, which should be great. No plans for Thursday, besides attending (working) Maundy Thursday service at church. Friday we're planning to go to Ikea in the morning, which is right by where I teach in Palatine in the afternoon. Mom's never been to Ikea, and I think she's going to love it. Saturday will probably be shopping and a fantastic meal somewhere, and Sunday is Easter of course, followed by soloists brunch at our director's house. And then Sunday night I will get to pick up Nick at the airport! Good things.

Now I must go scrub every inch of my apartment in anticipation of Mom's arrival. Can't have her thinking she didn't bring me up right, keeping a dirty house. :) Happy St. Patty's, everyone!