Chicago: Land of Good Things

At about 8:15 last night we pulled into our driveway happy and satisfied after a quick visit with friends in Chicago. On Saturday afternoon Rhonda picked me up at my department meeting in Waukesha (which I like to say very fast, with emphasis on the S-h-a!), and we headed to Chicago to see some of our closest friends. It was really exciting to catch up with folks from grad school (even briefly, Yang), walk around Millennium park with Lauren, and spend a good 24 hours with Vince and Ji. A lot has changed in the nine months since we left Seattle, and yet it felt as though it had only been a few weeks since we saw each other last.

At the core of our friendship with V & J is a love of good food. In Seattle we would regularly plan big, extravagant meals to cook together at our house. Thanksgiving with them was a must. Another notable event was the time we went in together on a bushel of peaches from the Farmer's Market, and then had a peach-themed meal (including the amazing peach barbeque sauce). So, combine our love of food with Rhonda and my good-food deprivation, and you get a Chicago food fest.

The quick run-down: We chowed down at Little 3 Happiness on Cermak. The meal included salt-n-pepper squid (sorely missed since we left Seattle), pea shoots in garlic sauce,rice noodles with Chinese broccoli and beef, and honey walnut shrimp.

Breakfast the next day was *really good* lattes and pastries at Intelligentsia.

There was a quick driveby of an ethiopian grocery where we purchased injera for a homemade ethiopian feast.

And lunch was an amazing repast of falafel, pita, stuffed grape leaves, and chicken shwarma at the Chicagoland institution, Pita Inn.

All of this foodie-ness was topped off with a routine stop at Woodman's in Green Bay where we bought lot of good food to stock our northwoods pantry.

how i got the job

we are in brooklyn visiting Hollis, Maggie, and Jane. we walked their dog to Prospect Park this morning where there are off-leash hours until 9am; there were more dogs in that park than students on the UW-Marinette campus. There are more restaurants on this block in Brooklyn than in the 2-3 mile radius around our house. (There are also oodles of non-white and/or non-straight people. Crazy!) This morning, Rhonda saw a squirrel run by the window with a styrofoam cup in its mouth, and she responded by shaking her head and saying "it is just not right. Just not right."

we are enjoying good company and good food. At the same time, the time to return to our midwestern homestead is nearing, and I am appreciative of this fact. It has been good to get away from life-as-we-now-know-it, and it will also be quite good to return to our new home.

Hollis made me dig up this video I made last year as I was preparing for the job market. please accept it as a token of my utter lack of sanity and as an insight into how I landed myself a gig as an english prof.