What a year!

What better to bring back the blog than a 2011 Year In Review? This was a special year, as it was quite possibly our last full calendar year in the great city of Chicago, that is until our mid-life crisis when we pull our school-age children away from all their friends in Texas and move them to the Windy City. "It's okay kids, Kevin McCallister lives there." At any rate, I'm gonna do my best to review one of the best years I can ever remember having.


The year started off right, with NYE 2011 at the home of our good friends, Tim and Fran Caprio. We had a great time, in spite of the fact that I had to cover at the VA the next day and fell victim to the iPhone alarm glitch. People don't believe me, but it's real. http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/01/apple-iphone-alarms-broken-until-january-3rd/. January was kinda slow for me since I was on service at the hospital, but the silence was broken at a great Super Bowl Party at Casa de Nelson (our friends Courtney and Jeff) when Christina Aguilera brought home the national anthem with a 15 second "braaaaaave", and I lost 20 bucks to Bruno taking the 8 second 'under'...good times. Snowpocalypse took over Chicago on Februrary 2, dumping in excess of 20 inches of snow in 24 hrs. I was enjoying a rare day off that day watching quite literally a shit storm, while Wendy was off galavanting around Dallas for Super Bowl.



March brought a couple of big birthdays (at least). Our good friend Courtney turned 30, and celebrated by taking us all around town on a trolley, definitely a Chicago bucket list item. I enjoyed a healthy amount of "summer beer", a few pulls from a honey badger-sized vodka bottle, and lasted all of an hour and 45 minutes on the ol' trolley. It was a strong showing. Wendy had her 29th birthday which she spent with some of her girlfriends getting dolled up at Benefit Cosmetics. We did also get to celebrate, just the two of us, over a super nice dinner at Joe's Seafood & Crab, one of the many new Chicago restaurants we got to try this year.


The first part of the year was also taken over by interview season for GI fellowships. I ended up interviewing at eight programs, six of which were in Texas and Chicago. I also interviewed in Portland at Oregon Health and Science University, during which Wendy and I made a long weekend experiencing, without a doubt, one of the best cities in the lower 48. I also had the pleasure of making my second trip ever to NYC for an interview at NYU. I stayed with our wonderrful friend Ali and got to hang with the other third of Wendy's old roommate trio, Amber, during a couple of great nights in the Big Apple. Interview season culminated with me matching at UT Southwestern (HOME!) where I'll be spending the next three years of my training. Yes, folks, the journey continues.


April brought another month on service, riding out the winter, whereas May brought less work and more fun times. Bob Seger hit Chicago the second week in May. A group of our friends decided to rent a limo to take out to the concert and work on our night moves. We held strong the whole night, like a rock, and then turned the page for a night cap at our buddy Jason's place before rolling away to the house. Later on in May, I took a trip back to Texas for Mark Bullitt's bachelor party. Bullitt is one of my great high school friends, with whom I played football and baseball. The whole crew (minus my cousin Timmy) was in town for it, and we had an awesome weekend at the lake talking about old times, pitching horse shoes, and enjoying the warm Texas sun (and wind).


Summertime in Chicago was its typical self, just awesome. I blogged quite a bit about the events of the summer, so see prior posts. Highlights included a host of street festivals (Burger fest, Sausage fest, Summer fest, May fest, Taste of River North, Wells Street Art Festival, Food Trucks at Mars Gallery, among others), Movies in the Park (Ferris Bueller's Day Off at the Chicago History Museum), The Chicago Challenge (a scavenger hunt around the city), Dave Matthews Band Caravan, Jazzin' at the Shedd Aquarium, lots of grilling on our new outdoor grill. And who could forget the Ken Cluley family storming Chicago for my dirty 30 in August. What a weekend!


Wendy spent much of the summer in training for the Chicago Marathon which she rocked on October 9. Wendy's parents, Ludy and Chet, and her Uncle Charlie Ortega made the trip up to Chicago and Wendy's good friend Christen Terry provided signage (and drinkage) and we all cheered Wendy on as she accomplished this amazing feat in a stunning time of 4 hours and 4 minutes, not bad at all for a first timer. After the marathon, Wendy and I both made a little investment in our personal fitness, joining David Barton Gym, an awesome but slightly over-the-top gym in our neighborhood. In spite of me not having a faux-hawk and a tribal tattoo, I've enjoyed getting into a little better shape during the latter part of this year. SPEAKING OF TATTOOS, Wendy made her love of Chicago official when she got her first ever tattoo, a rendition of the Chicago flag, permanently placed on her left flank. Ask her to show you next time you see her.


We attended several weddings this year. Cindi (Wendy's Cousin) and Adam tied the knot in El Paso/Las Cruces in June. I was unfortunately unable to attend secondary to questionable career choices but Wendy reported back that it was an amazing party. Jami and Jud Kinnucan got hitched in September. This is one of the more unique weddings I've been to considering that the ceremony and reception were both held at Carnivale, an enormous restaurant here in Chicago that they rented out exclusively for the event. Quite a party! Jenny Derita (a work friend of Wendy) and her fiance Jeff got married at the Harold Washington Library on Halloween, also unique and fun.

We had some fun nights out on the town- too many to remember- that are worth mentioning. Wendy and I had our first Korean Karaoke experience as we celebrated Rene Ramos' birthday in Koreatown. An epic evening at the Map Room was had with the Northwestern/MICU crew in late October. Some Emergency and Internal Medicine people joined forces to take down Wicker Park - Salud Lounge and later Cans- on a crisp November evening. You can never have enough happy hours at Timmy O'Toole's during Northwestern Medicine interview season. A tradition was started to follow up Timmy's happy hour with dance party at the Kerryman with DJ Ruki. Jason Biehl had us all over for a good old-fashioned housewarming at his new home in Lincoln Park followed by beers and Jukebox-takeover at Flounder's, his neighborhood watering hole, and late-late pizza at Pequod's. Wendy and I were able to catch a few Texas Football games at both Brownstone (with Rosh in town) and Stanley's (with Cassie, Dan Sarles, and Erika Grim). When Mandy and Erin were in town for my birthday, we hit up The Violet Hour for the first time. I've never been happier to pay $12 for a drink. Thanks to Bruno, I lost my pants (think Risky Business) and got pelted with Cap'n Crunch Berries at TBOX (Twelve Bars of Xmas) 2011, a huge pub crawl in Wrigleyville. We had a fun night celebrating Christen Terry's birthday at Cafe BabaReeba and reunited with McClurg crew for Frances Caprio's birthday at Quartino. We were also lucky enough to be entertained dinner party-style at the homes of Jeff and Jovina Young, Chris and Ashley Therasse, and Amy Packard and her boyfriend Jon.


While we did have some wonderful times in Chicago, we did do a little bit of traveling, but it was all domestic this year. Wendy and I traveled to Portland for a long weekend when I had my fellowship interview there. Highlights included The Pearl (awesome neighborhood where we stayed), amazing food truck dining, really nice homeless people, and a scenic drive along the Columbia River checking out some breathtaking scenery and several waterfalls including Multnomah Falls. In July, we made a weekend trip back to Texas for a lake weekend at my parent's. We also roadtripped back to Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin for a lake weekend at the Nelson's place. We took the opportunity of being in Texas for Thanksgiving to head out to the Texas Hill Country for relaxation and wine-tasting. We had an amazing experience at The Lakehouse Inn Bed and Breakfast, ate some amazing food, and tasted some outstanding Texas Wine. Wendy, as usual, showed me up in the travel department going to Super Bowl in Dallas, Miami for Cindi's Bachelorette, Vegas for Amber's Birthday, Vegas again for Rock'n'Roll half marathon and Rodeo, NYC for Ali's marathon, LA for a Coors Light commercial shoot.


Being Chicagoans, you can always count on a good number of visitors, and we had some awesome ones this year (knowing me I forgot someone, but here goes a few shoutouts):
Joe and Kristen Williams
Cassie Mulanax (x2)
Clark and Tommy Turner (x2)
Jon Wheless (x2)
Wes Wheless
Roshan Gummatira
David Hanss and Sara Mulkey
Sara Litton
Ken, Mary Ann, Mandy, and Erin Cluley
Chet and Ludy Wheless
Charlie Ortega
Dickie Lawson (x2)
Tim Taliaferro
Will Bulsiewicz
Clarisse Bucag
Stephen Santellana
Tim Cluley
Jerry Gutierrez
Chris and Jenna Sobey
Jeremy Jones
Steven Tyler

Though my recall doesn't even come close to doing 2011 proper justice, it's not hard to see that this was a great year. We feel blessed to have wonderful family and countless, amazing friends that get us going every day. May 2012 bring many more adventures and may we all squeeze a whole year of fun into the next six months in Chicago.

Cheers everyone!

'O'd to the 'L' and The Flautista

After sleeping in this morning, I decided I felt like taking a train ride. Now I've made no secret of how much I love riding the 'L'. Maybe it's because I'm from a place where efficient public transportation doesn't exist, but it never ceases to fascinate me that I can pay $2.25 and go anywhere I want in the city. In the spirit of this(and a rare day off from the MICU), I decided to take a little 'L' field trip. As many times as I've ridden the Red Line, I've never been to it's northernmost stop, Howard, which is in Rogers Park. And I had to have something to do once I got there, so I searched Yelp! for some good Rogers Park lunch spots and came across a mexican restaurant with 4 1/2 stars. Done and done. I packed some headphones, a little reading material, and my camera, and I was out the door.

The Chicago 'L' is definitely one of the Top 5 coolest things about this city, along with the Lake Front (see Relishing the Lake Front from June), the Art Institute, Wrigley Field, etc. The 'L' is one of the things that distinguishes this city as among the best in the world. It is a fixture in the beautiful Chicago landscape. It's been featured (and even serves as the setting) in a multitude of TV shows and films, including ER, While You Were Sleeping, Risky Business, Ocean's Eleven, and my favorite, The Fugitive. The "L" is Chicago.

Dr. Richard Kimble (The Fugitive) boarding the Brown Line

A little bit of history and a few factoids about the "L" (with the help of Wikipedia):
- The nickname 'L', comes from "ELevated" rail"; purists spell it 'L' not 'El'.
- It had its beginnings in 1892 when a steam powered locomotive carried passengers from the southwest side into downtown along Congress Ave. (upon tracks still used by the Green Line)
- Consists of 224 miles of rails
- Originally consisting of several private operations, it was taken over by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) in 1947
- Different lines were named after colors (Red, Orange, Pink, Green, Brown, Purple, Yellow) in 1993
- The Red Line is the city's busiest line, averaging 238,000 riders per weekday, connecting North and South Side Chicago to the Loop, and is the rail the connects Chicago's two MLB ballparks, Wrigley and U.S. Cellular field

One of the great things about our River North condo is that we are literally a stone's throw from the Brown Line-Chicago Ave stop. This connects us to the Loop (this is how Wendy commutes to work every day), cool Northwest neighborhoods like West Lakeview, Southport, and Roscoe Village, and serves as an easy connection to the Red Line and the Northern Neighborhoods like Lincoln Park, Andersonville, and Rogers Park, the latter being my destination today.




My best Dr. Richard Kimble beard impression at our home 'L' stop

Brown Line approaching Chicago

After a quick photo op I hopped on the Brown Line train headed north. To connect to the Red from the Brown Line going north, there are a couple of options, but I figured it was only fitting to switch at our former home stop, Fullerton (Lincoln Park/DePaul).

From here, I rode the Red Line all the way to it's northern terminus, Howard, before getting off to find my lunch destination.

It was about a 10 minute walk to Restaurante Cuetzala Gro, the spot I found on Yelp! that's getting rave reviews.

I walked in to find that not a single person was speaking english and the only background sound was the telenovela playing at a robust volume on the big screen TV. I knew I was in the right place.

The waitress tended to me immediately, bringing water and chips/salsa. I also ordered some fresh guacamole and a big glass of horchata, both barometers of a good mexican restaurant and both were awesome here. The guac had an amazing consistency, with big chunks of avocado and the perfect amount of spice. The horchata was super sweet, but refreshing and the perfect contrast to the spicy morsels to follow.

As I usually do at new places, I asked the waitress what her favorite menu item was. She touted the flautas as the best thing coming out of the kitchen. I'm not typically a flauta guy but she was putting on the hard sell. I caved. I wouldn't be sorry.

"Crispy tortillas stuffed with stewed chicken and topped with green chile sauce, sour cream, and mexican cheese crumbles."

Senorita was not kidding around. The flautas were amazing. The description above says as much as you can say without actually taking a bit of these crispy flavor explosions. The navy beans were a nice, mild touch, and something I've never seen at a mexican restaurant before.

With a full belly and a little bit of acid reflux, I hiked it back to the Howard station to head back south. I thought about riding the Red Line all the way down to Sox Park to catch the last half of the day game, but when I saw that the Twins scored 6 in the top of the 1st I thought better of it.

All in all, a great little excursion. Gonna miss that ol' 'L' train.

The Dirty Thirty Edition - Girl and the Goat

A guest blog entry from my lovely sister, Erin Cluley

After a fun filled weekend of great food, crazy cocktails, surprise appearances, mustache culture, beer, rain (we Texans loved it), non-100-degree-temps, friends, family, a Sox win...we still had plans for my baby brother’s official 30th birthday dinner on our final night in Chicago.

Reservations were made by John and Wendy months ago for the acclaimed Girl & the Goat restaurant in the West Loop in the Randolph Restaurant Corridor. I had no idea what would be in store. Although, knowing John and Wendy, I was confident that it was going to be interesting. Interesting doesn’t even begin to describe this culinary experience….

In attendance: Dad, Mom, John, Wendy, myself and Clark Turner (John’s friend from college who made a surprise appearance for the Dirty Thirty weekend).

We arrived and as we waited for our table we noted that the atmosphere was great. Spacious but cozy -- and lively but not too loud. We got seated at a great table by the windows at the front of the restaurant. Our resident music critic, Clark Turner, also observed throughout the night that music selections were top notch.

As we sat and perused the menu we came to realize it would be a shared plate experience. Big Papi was a bit skeptical that what was written on the menu was code for something else. “You mean to tell me -- they serve pan fried duck tongues??” But before long, Marty (the soft-spoken, granola-esque young woman who was our server) was at our table, giving us the scoop and guiding us. She knew the menu inside and out and had an easy personality. This is a big deal and we knew we had a winner.

One of our first questions was - can you tell us about the name - Girl & the Goat? Marty informs us that all chef’s like to name things after themselves (wink, wink). Stephanie Izard (you might have seen her on TopChef), is the executive chef. Her last name comes from the name of a mountain goat that lives in the Pyranees Mountains. So there we have “Goat”. Izard then asked a friend to give her words that described her. One of the words was “Drunken”. So the name became “Drunken Goat”. Soon thereafter (but not before press releases went out), they realized that there is a cheese company of the same name. So it was a no-go. Izard (who may or may not have been drunk at the time) walked by a painting in her own home and was inspired. Seen in the restaurant, it is a fantastical painting (a la Tim Burton) of a goat and a girl walking through a field painted in bright vivid colors.

And so the name came - Girl & the Goat.




Our next question - are there really duck tongues served here? Marty informed Papi that, yes, they indeed serve duck tongues and they were about an inch and a half long each (we asked -- she did not just offer up that info). Her advice - order 14 dishes for 6 people. Make notes on one of the menus. First Wendy ordered a nice bottle of Tempranillo that ended up going great with our dishes (two times). Wendy also led the charge of plate selections. It was fun…no one was shy about what sounded good so we all began rattling off what we would like.

Let’s get 1 of the beef tongue! One of this! One of that! In no time, we had a delicious list of 12 selections with two orders of bread.

In no time, the taste extravaganza would begin…our wine came out along with the bread. The bread is made fresh in house. And as a family that loves and adores sauces and condiments, we were happy. Accompanying the sourdough and faccacia like bread was a fresh herb oil (Dad’s favorite), a tomato aioli (Mom’s favorite), a chive yogurt sauce (my favorite) and a sweet onion butter. Warm and yummy -- the perfect start.

First up was the kohlrabi salad with fennel, blueberries, almonds and a ginger dressing. Next squash blossom rangoon. Mom had recently made her own version of squash blossoms. As she was describing them to us, the dish came out…it was great timing! She was excited to see they looked much like hers did!

Each dish was loaded with so many different ingredients that you would never imagine paired together. Sometimes (such as in the chickpea fritters) the relish or salad that was served with the main ingredient was actually the main event. It was fun to try and guess the ingredients in each one. I kept a menu on hand to read back the description as we were eating. Clark and Mom were pro at guessing the ingredients in each dish.



Our mouth watering selections continued to come out….esgargot ravioli with bacon and tamarind-miso sauce, seared tuna with lamb sausage and blueberries, goat chorizo flatbread, roasted cauliflower with pickled peppers, pine nuts and mint, seared scallops with smoked goat, spiced canteloupe and coconut-cucumber salad, braised beef tongue with masa, beef vinaigrette and salsa verde, chickpea fritters with eggplant tomatillo caponata and mozzarella, grilled pork ribs with tomatillo-mushroom slaw and scallion vinaigrette and last but certainly least - the richest dish of them all - oven roasted pig face with a sunny side egg, tamarind, cilantro and potato stix.



The pork ribs were the crowd-pleasing highlight. Even though after EVERY dish, Clark would say, “That one was my favorite”, I think the grilled pork ribs were TRULY his favorite. They were delicious down to the bone. Perfectly grilled on a delightfully textured bed of slaw with mushrooms and a zingy scallion sauce on top. My mouth is watering…



It was sad to see the last dish come out….but we were all feeling comfortably full. BUT it didn’t take long to declare - we can’t NOT order dessert!

Peaches with blue cheese gelato, honey and almonds. The gelato was overlooked at first and then we read that it was blue cheese flavored. John, Clark and I had another go at it and said - WOW. It really was blue cheese flavored!!

We also ordered pork fat dougnuts with honey yogurt and carmelized figs. Crazy weird but delicious.



Marty overheard John mention that his lovely wife is a fan of chocolate. On the house (and with a birthday candle in it) - Marty brought us the bittersweet chocolate with shiitake gelato and toffee crème fraiche.

We sang an off-key happy birthday to brother. He made a wish and blew out the candle. What a perfect end to a perfect weekend in Chi-town.



Thanks Mom and Dad for treating us to this awesome vacay. And thanks to John and Wendy for being the ultimate hosts. Love, love, love.

The Dirty Thirty Edition - Sunday Funday

Amazing that after an incredible day on Friday and the big party on Saturday, we still had so much to look forward to on Sunday (my actual birthday). In spite of being at English until the early hours of Sunday, I felt incredible, yet again. The birthday gods must have been looking down on me this weekend.

We got ready and headed over to Wishbone in the West Loop for some brunch. Wendy and I hadn't been to Wishbone since we had hit up the Lakeview location for her birthday when I was living in the city as a visiting student and mere fiance. It was March and it had snowed then. On this day, we were dealing with incredible weather; 70 degrees and sunny. What better way to start it all off with some "Southern Reconstruction" cooking, which is the style billed by the folks at Wishbone.

After a short wait, we were seated and started looking at this incredible menu. I believe we all managed to order different items which included: shrimp and grits, crawfish/crab cakes, chicken andouille hash, beef brisket hash, blackened catfish, all served in a brunchy sort of way with eggs and breakfast potatoes. Mandy's and Dad's choices took the prize with shrimp and grits and chicken andouille hash, respectively. The grits literally melted in your mouth with the shrimp creating an amazing contrast in texture, all of which made this dish unbeatable. Dad's andouille chicken hash was to die for. By the time the check arrived we were pleasantly full. Great way to start the day!


After Bruno headed down to meet us, the whole crew hopped in cabs to head down to U.S. Cellular field for the day game against the Royals. (Sidenote: I had decided that I wanted to do this with the family literally the day before. What does Wendy do? Finds 8 incredible tickets for the whole crew!).

It was an amazing day at the ballpark. The wind was blowing hard in the windy city that day, but our seats had us shielded from both the wind and the sun, making our spot on the first base side of home plate the place to be on this gorgeous day. The Sox pulled it out 4-2, as an extra bonus.





After the game we hopped on the Red Line heading north. This would be the end of the line for Mandy, as she had a Sunday evening flight to catch back home to her baby girls and Patsy. Luckily, Bruno was headed back to Bucktown so we had him see Mandy through the Jackson stop to hop on the Blue Line towards O'Hare. We wish you could stay, Sister!





The parents, Clark, Wendy, and I decided to hop off the train downtown and do some sightseeing. We headed east past the downtown public library (an amazing building I had never really noticed before) towards Grant Park. We wandered around until we ended up at Buckingham Fountain. We decided to pit stop here for a bit and enjoyed some awesome Bobtail Ice Cream. We then headed toward the lake and south down the lake front path towards the aquarium to enjoy what I believe is the best view in the city!

This isn't the view from the aquarium, but it's pretty good too.

From there we all hopped in cabs to go home and take a breather before our big dinner at Girl and the Goat!

The Dirty Thirty Edition - The Bash

Three decades of dirtiness culminate in one crazy night...

Wendy had been cooking up my 30th birthday bash for several weeks, so I had a feeling it was gonna be pretty great. We had all the pieces: an amazing wife/master negotiator, all five of the Ken Cluleys, a few dozen crazy friends (old and new), and an awesome neighborhood bar. It was sure to be an epic evening. But more on that in a second....

Earlier in the day I had walked out into my living room to find a big basket of coozies with my mustachioed mug on them. Wendy and Erin had been collaborating on this for several weeks and the finished product was quite handsome, if I may say so myself. As many of you know, a good ol' Texas party isn't complete without coozies to commemorate the occasion.

Standing next to the coozies was a big white board with a picture collage marking several different milestones in my thirty years: my first bath, me riding my Dukes of Hazzard tricycle(Confederate Flag included), my large collection of participation trophies (circa 9 years old), me in my Cowboy gear, and a couple of obligatory 'stache pics, among many other gems. Wendy had left a big white margin for everyone to sign. Essentially, my wife has already knocked this party out of the park, and we haven't even gotten started.


Bruno arrived a short time later with an additional "touch" for which Wendy had arranged. She had placed the coozie design on a t-shirt for me to wear out to the party. Unbelievable. It's also definitely worth reminding everyone that earlier in the day (with no knowledge of this t-shirt) I had bought a different t-shirt with Magnum PI's face on it. The coincidence is just too much.

We headed over to Citizen Bar at about 4:30. Citizen is a great spot that is less than two blocks away from our place. It's pretty unassuming from the outside, since it is essentially one big cube with a rooftop and a deck along the side, but this place is pretty awesome and good times always seem to be had here. We had chosen it for it's proximity and because it is one of the best places to be on a beautiful Chicago evening. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't exactly cooperating so we had to set up shop inside. In hindsight, this may have worked out better since Citizen can be quite the cluster on a nice day. Instead we pretty much got to take the place over.

The parents Mandy and Clark arrived from the hotel a short time after we got there. Wendy had arranged for our favorite waitress, Jamie, to take care of us, and we all had drinks in our hand in a matter of minutes. Let the party begin!

We were graced early on with the presence of Eliya and Erika, both nurse friends of mine from the hospital who blended in seamlessly with the family. Chris Houston showed up a short time after that with a nice clean polo shirt, the perfect canvas for spilled beer. Chris Therasse, one of my best buds and "Texas Forever" partner in crime (he's from Indy) was also one of the early birds. Luckily, he showed up wearing his party pants.

MillerCoors also came out to play. John and Melissa Wilhelm joined us all the way from Ukranian Village on the day before their triathlon. Ryan Hemsing and Jamie Mueller also strolled in from River West, and would prove be fixtures on this evening of sobriety. Rob and Karen Tune made it in all the way from the 'Burbs, leaving their newborn for one of the first times in the name of The Cluley Dirty Thirty. Priorities are intact at this point.

My work friends would continue to trickle in. Tim and Fran Caprio, our wonderful friends who we saw get married almost a year ago, made an appearance (and receive the award for the most creative signage of my poster). Danielle Sterrenberg, one of my favorite co-residents, and her boyfriend Shelby were in attendance. Kristen Scully, a fellow RiverNortherner (or RiNo), can always be counted upon to party it up (she brought her friend Nikki along. Jami and Jud, also RiNos, were also among the early minglers.

The rest of the nursing contingency showed up in a big way. Kristin Busing, Sarah Frazer, and Thara Gagni came representing the MICU with new friends Nicole Santi (a fellow Leo) and Mike Uren. Kris de la Vega, wielding her party camera and dancing shoes, came representing the medicine floor/13E (my home base). Sheri(baby) Rylko and Katherine Hunt, both of whom I also know through 13E made a late-night appearance with their frat-tastic crew. Kelly McCardell and her husband Tim rounded out the 13W representation, along with Erika.

NMH Pharmacy's presence was felt through Yvonne Tsao...always great to see her.

How bout those Nelsons? Courtney and her brother Jeffro rallied (and I mean RALLIED) to come party even after they had spent the entire day drinking at the horse track. Alex Wehrley, aka Alvin, rounded out their crew.

As always, Dan Sarles (our friend from Wendy's b-school days and fellow Chicagoan) was out and in full Dan-mode with his friend Prashant. My buddy Jason Biehl and his twin sister were awesome enough to stop by after taking Grandpa to the ER. Again, solid priorities.

Relatively early on in the evening, an exceptionally large black guy weaved his way through our group and sat down at one of our tables by himself. He took a quick glance at the 'reserved' sign and, being visibly underwhelmed by it, returned to texting. Now I'm not a mean drinker, but one can get a little territorial on one's 30th birthday. I turned to Clark and said, "Who in the (heck) does this guy think he is?" Clark responded, "He's Antoine Walker, that's who he thinks he is." (You may know Antoine Walker from his days playing with the Celtics or, if you're a Texan, the season he spent with the Mavs in 2004. He's not quite what he used to be, currently playing in the D-league and declaring bankruptcy just last year.) Before long, his posse had moved in to take over one of our tables, which was fine by me at this point since we weren't using it and I knew it would make for a good story. Come to find out that Antoine and I share a birthday. Once we discovered this, he immediately ordered us a round of Patron shots. I'm not sure how he paid for them (hot check maybe?) but that didn't stop me from indulging. This all made for some pretty hilarious conversation throughout the evening. After all, what would a 30th birthday be without a D-list celebrity?

Other highlights from the evening included but were not limited to:

- Me, with the help of booze and birthday, thinking I'm Timberlake on the dance floor .
- Our crew taking over the whole outdoor deck at Citizen once the rain stopped .
- An awesome birthday cake!

- Aerial shots of the whole crew from the roof of the bar. (see above)
- Random Midori booth being set up in the middle of our party and me some how drinking like six of these disgusting samples. A couple of which I shared with my dear Mother.

- Heading over to English for late night with all of the troopers .
- Our Citizen waitress being so enamoured with our party that she followed us to the next bar.

What an evening this was! Wendy did an incredible job, as always, of planning and making every detail so special. My parents and my two big sisters came all the way to Chicago to help me celebrate as only an awesome family could. My old buddy Clark made for a big birthday surprise, and now it's hard to imagine having had my 30th without him. All of my awesome Chicago friends came out strong to make this the best 30th birthday ever. Thank you all for making me feel like the coolest 30 yr old around. Love to everyone!

Hard to believe this weekend was far from over...

FEEL FREE TO POST YOUR FAVORITE MEMORY OF THE EVENING IN THE COMMENTS!

The Dirty Thirty Edition - Saturday Pre-Party

Saturday morning was tenuous, but only briefly. A couple of ibuprofen and a Prilosec did the trick; and Moroccan food/The Violet Hour (see previous blog post) narrowly escaped becoming bad decisions. Honestly, by the time Sister (Erin) had the coffee brewing, I felt like a million bucks. As if a little medicine and a caffeine bolus weren't enough of a high, my parents and Mandy showed up late morning with a BIG Texas surprise. At around 11AM, none other than Clark Brodie Turner walked through my front door yelling some East Texas gibberish at me that I only barely understood. I was COMPLETELY surprised.


A little background. Clark is one of my best friends from Texas, and I do not throw that around loosely. The guy is solid gold. We met the first day of freshman orientation at UT while standing in line for dorm registration. We ended up being roommates for the week (and later our sophomore year) and the rest is history. Wendy, my fam, and Clark had kept the secret of him coming to Chicago for two months, which is unbelievable (especially if you know that my family and secrets are bitter enemies). I could not have been happier or more excited to see the Big Guy.

After catching up a little with Clark and a round of mimosas, we headed up to Franks 'n' Dawgs in Lincoln Park for lunch. This is a specialty hot dog place that I've mentioned on facebook as an amazing lunch spot. The majority of people in Chicago think that Hot Doug's is the only game in town when it comes to eclectic dogs, but this place is serving them up in a big way! (And you don't have to stand in line with your thumb up your ass for two hours) Our selections included a Chinese 5-spice duck sausage dog, a Thai dog with wild boar sausage, a Polish dog (potato cakes included), a brat with portobellas and smoked gouda, and, of course The Chicago Dog. Oh, and how bout three orders of Triple Truffle (oil, butter, & salt) Fries to wash down those dogs. Done. What a meal.

Dessert Dog - Sweet Home Chicago (On the house)

From there we hopped in a cab to show the family Wrigley Field (since that's what tourists do) and to get Mandy a Cubs shirt. I was only mildly okay with this, but I suppose I get the fact that unless you're making a rap video Cubs apparel is probably cooler looking than the Sox black-and-white. We also stopped by Strange Cargo, which is an awesome specialty t-shirt and vintage clothing store in Wrigleyville. Erin got a Chicago flag shirt, I went with a Magnum PI shirt, and Clark got a Bayside High shirt--all solid choices. Apparently, Clark's fiance, Krystyl, is an avid watcher of the Golden Girls, so Clark had one of these shirts made for her. Awesomeness.

After braving a little downpour we all hopped in cabs to head back to the hotel and condo, respectively. This was a huge fail on Wendy and my part, as we were actually just a block away from the Addison Red Line station which would have taken both parties directly back to our destinations. Instead, we were negotiating terrible traffic (Rain + Bears Game + Northalsted Market Days = Badness) and it took us forever to get back to the house. I pretty much hate cab drivers at baseline. Add to that the fact that I'm projecting all over this cab driver due to being disgusted with myself for not taking the train, and you can imagine my disposition in the back seat. We ultimately got over that and, after a quick pit stop at Jewel to pick up the cake and a nice "Birthday Boy" balloon, we made it back to the condo with plenty of time before the big par-tay.....

The Dirty Thirty Edition - Friday 8.12.11

What an amazing weekend I just had celebrating my 30th birthday while simultaneously being reminded of several things: my wife is amazing and is an incredible party-planner, I've got an awesome family that travels well, I've got amazing friends that love me, and Chicago kicks ass. Details below...

The festivities began Friday around 1pm when my family texted to tell me they had just landed and were just a cab ride away from getting the party started (I would later find out through a series of tidbits and context clues that one of my VA patients had been their cab driver...this an awesome story that you should ask me about). What would end up being a weekend of gluttony started off appropriately at Rick Bayless' XOCO restaurant, which is just a few blocks away from our condo and even closer to the Merchandise Mart, where the fam was staying. We scarfed down some amazing tortas while getting caught up and talking about the exciting weekend to come.

We then headed over to Michigan Avenue so that I could walk them by the hospital and show them a few sites (which included Marilyn, the Tribune and Wrigley Buildings, Millenium Park/Cloud Gate/Pritzker Pavilion the Art Institute and more).



After an L ride and a quick breather at the hotel, we all headed up to Wrigleyville to one of our favorite restaurants, Andalous, for some yummy Moroccan food. As always, the food did not disappoint. Highlights included a tasty vegetarian platter (spinach, carrots, peppers, etc), several styles of stewed lamb chops, chicken and cream sauce, all with flavor explosions that i could only make you appreciate by putting a plate of it out in front of you. It's also worth noting that my mom was beside herself about how good the food had been both at dinner and lunch earlier in the day. This was a huge plus because as a wise person once said, "If Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."

After putting the parents to bed on Friday night, Mandy, Erin, Wendy, and I opted to keep the evening going by having a drink at The Violet Hour in Wicker Park. This is a speak-easy (owned by the same people that own Big Star) that gets crazy good reviews for their drinks. Now my palate is about as complex as 1+1, but these drinks were absolutely amazing. My drink, the Romeo and Juliet, was a gin drink with mint, cucumber and rose water all of which made up a very distinct aspect of the drink but that melded together to party it up in my mouth. The girls were super excited about their drink selections as well and we enjoyed a great hour or so of conversation in the dimly lit, classy-as-hell ambience of the speak-easy.

Not wanting the night to end, we headed across the street to Big Star to find Bruno and his friend Elodi for a night cap cap. I wish this place weren't so damn cool (they know it over there), but it really is. We worked our way into a nice spot at the bar, enjoyed some Tecates (in cans), and listened to Bruno lay out his plan to be adopted into the family.

After wrapping up at Big Star and dropping Mandy off at the hotel, we found ourselves back at the homestead deliberating over how perfect the day was. Little did we know this was just the beginning of my best weekend ever in Chicago....

CT's Ba Ba B-day at Ba Ba Reeba

Us with CT and Sienna (Sean and Tracey's baby)

One of our wonderful Chicago friends, Christen Terry, had a birthday today. It's a little ironic that last year we (not me) were running a 1/2 marathon to celebrate her day of birth. This year we were stuffing our faces with tapas.

For those of you who are from Chicago, I don't need to tell you how great Cafe Ba Ba Reeba is. For you non-Chicagoans, this a badass tapas joint in Lincoln Park that serves up small plates in a big way. I hit up this place long before I moved to Chicago, and have been here several times since moving here. Wendy and I even spent NYE 2010 here when we were living up in the LP. Amazing place. Highly recommend it.

We gathered around a huge table with some awesome people, most of whom work with an advertising agency (with Christen) called Integer. For those of you who are fans of Office Space, I consistently refer to Integer as Intertrode (which if you remember was Initech's rival company that Michael Bolton and Samir went to work for after getting laid off) for my own personal amusement. At any rate, a great crew. I should definitely hang out with Wendy's peeps more often.

After ordering up a couple of pitchers of sangria, everyone started looking around at each other with hungry eyes (think Kobayashi, not Patrick Swayze). John Wilhelm, a CoorsMiller man (I think he'd like that) and a tried and true foodie, was entrusted with the daunting task of ordering for this big crew. This is the type of thing that you couldn't pay me to do (especially since I'll eat anything so why not dump the ordering on someone else). Wilhelm spent what seemed like a pretty short amount of time talking with the waitress. Several minutes passed by and a couple of puny plates got dropped off and I thought for sure Wilhelm had blown it. No sooner had this thought entered my brain than an onslaught of the best (and the most) Spanish food you can imagine hit our table. Spicy potatoes with aioli, lamb skewers, garlic shrimp, smoked salmon, andalucian meatballs, bacon-wrapped dates, goat-cheese marinara, bistec with bleu cheese, and I don't even think that covers it. It got to the point where people were getting so full they'd pretend not to see the server drop off another round of tapas because they didn't want the plate to get passed to them. What they didn't realize is that Wilhelm and I had also pre-ordered a giant plate of paella as the "main course". Once the paella came out steaming (with loads of shrimp and scallops), I think everyone forgot they were full because it got completely devoured. Everything was unbelievable.

We capped off the evening with some candle-blowing and some BYO strawberry shortcake, which was lovely.

After saying our goodbyes, Wendy and I realized we only had 4 minutes to make it 1/2 a mile on foot to catch our train. After a dead sprint and a little throw-up in my mouth we caught that ol' southbound Brown Line train to our little abode in River North.

Not bad for a Monday night... HAPPY BIRTHDAY CT!!!

Taste of River North - 7.17.11

Sunday, July 17 started out like any other day. We were basically in recovery from The Chicago Challenge, the scavenger hunt that we had done the day before (more on that later). Our big task of the day was to make it over to our neighborhood street festival, the Taste of River North.

Wendy and I moved to River North from Lincoln Park after our first year of living in Chicago. This was a move made for financial reasons (we didn't feel we needed a second bedroom and we certainly didn't need a garage parking spot), but ended up having several other perks. It is much more convenient for both of us--Wendy and my workplaces are almost exactly one mile south and east of our place, respectively. We now have a doorman-- which offers not only a more secure living situation, but I also no longer have to break down any doors due to us locking ourselves out. We also have a huge food and wine market (Galleria Market) on the bottom floor. Needless to say we've enjoyed living in our building.

River North is an awesome neighborhood, to boot. Situated not too far from old site of the Cabrini Green this part of Chicago's downtown was somewhat of a no man's land (depending on what part of RN you're talking about) until as recently as the 90's. Some might tell you a little more recently than that. Now, however, it boasts the highest concentration of art galleries in the US outside of Manhattan, it's teeming with restaurants and clubs, and is a destination for people all over the city. We live in the western part of the neighborhood, which lies a safe distance from the more touristy part of the neighborhood (Hard Rock Cafe, RocknRoll McD's, Gino's) and maintains a good bit of originality. We rarely have to walk more than a couple of blocks to do our banking, pick up a prescription, or even to try a new restaurant. This is the type of thing (among many) that I will miss when we move back to Texas.

Neighborhood street festivals are the trademark of summertime in Chicago, and River North is no exception. After getting ourselves together on Sunday morning, we hit up our home neighborhood festival, Taste of River North, for the first time ever. It did not disappoint. The layout of the festival was different than any other one I've seen, with Kingsbury AND Erie housing a variety of booths in a T-shape (usually these are set up along one strip), all around Montgomery-Ward Park which, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful parks in the city. Food vendors were from several hot spots in our neighborhood, including Moe's Cantina, Pie Guys, Zocalo, Erie Cafe, Citizen, and many more. Highlights included Zocalo's Sangria, Moe's Paella, and Hubbard Inn's Beet Salad. Live music was playing pleasantly (and not obnoxiously) while we ate, drank, and strolled.

There's really no better way to spend an afternoon.

New Music Mondays at Millenium Park - 7.25.11

Thanks to a plug in the weekly update e-mail from my chief residents, Wendy and I found ourselves biking it down to Millenium Park for our first ever concert at the Pritzker Pavilion. For those who have been to Millenium Park this is the hugh amphitheater with the criss-crossing beams overhead and the amazingly soft grass that is just east of The Bean. (I used to think that the overhead beam-lattice served some sort of acoustic purpose other than holding speakers above the crowd, but I think that's pretty much it....and they look pretty freakin cool).





Anyways, I was actually on STAR (our version of a back-up resident) that afternoon and, of course, I got called. After, taking a few reports and admitting a patient, I was on my way, albeit about an hour-and-a-half late. Lucky for us, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists were still going strong when we arrived on the lawn. Wendy had graciously made a Whole Foods run, grabbing a smorgasbord of nice, summer-y salads and a bottle of wine. We parked our chairs and a blanket on the very back of the lawn after fortuitously seeing a group of people get up. Unfortunately, there were a group of high school d-bags who thought they might be more entitled to that space than us. After a few awkward moments of "Who's gonna give in first?", Wendy making some audible, passive aggressive comments, and one of the guys asking me if I was a nurse or a doctor because he was interested in being a nurse (I was wearing my scrubs), they spread out to some newly open space leaving us with our little slice of Millenium Park.





The music left something to be desired but we did not come for the music. It was about 80 degrees at sundown, with a subtle breeze. We had the Chicago skyline, including the Sears Tower and the Vagina building (you know which one I'm talking about), as part of our backdrop. And we had the energy of the Chicago summer all around us. What a great night. To make it even better, Bruno (in true Bruno-style) opted to take a cab down from Bucktown (about 4 miles) as the concert was wrapping up just to have a few beers and hang out on the impeccably manicured lawn of the Pritzker Pavilion.





Unfortunately, our time on the lawn was cut short by the security staff who said closing time was 10pm, not 11pm as advertised on the website. Luckily, we were able to regroup nicely at a picnic table not far from the bean where we finished our beers and Cheers-ed to Monday Funday in Chicago.

Back to "The Sac"

Our good friend Courtney and her family own a lake home in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin on Lake Wisconsin. This is a small town and lake community (which is apparently the home of Dusty Carlson, as I recently found out) about an hour northwest of Madison and is about a 3 hour drive (with traffic) from Chicago. According to my sources, people from this town are called DuSacians (pronounced du-SACK-ians, or my favorite, du-SAY-shuns). We've been there once before and had an absolute blast, so we were super pumped to be invited back for another round this past weekend.




The crew looked to be slightly different this time (scheduling conflicts prevented some of our favorites from coming up) but we still had some solid players as Courtney's brother Jeff (aka Jeffro, aka Fro) and his girlfriend Alex (the next Veronica Corningstone) were gonna be there with us. Also, Chris and Ashley Therasse, two of our great Chicago friends, were our car buddies.




We hit the road on Friday after putting in a full day at work and could not have been more ready to get out of town. That said, I believe we become so ingrained with the day-to-day routine in the city that I don't think one really knows how much he needs a breath of fresh air until he actually gets out on the open road and into nature. And there is no place that satisfies this inherent itch to flee the city than Wisconsin.




A few thoughts on Wisconsin. This place is amazing. I've had a few Wisconsin adventures since living in Chicago including a couple of lake trips (Geneva and Wisconsin), Packers-Cowboys at Lambeau, a weekend in Milwaukee, and ice-fishing in the dead of winter, and this state never disappoints. The people are friendly. The food is fantastic (cheese curds rule). The rolling hills, corn fields, and the frequent farmhouses/silos all make for awesome roadside scenery. This is the stuff I've always thought of when imagining what the Midwest would be like. Love me some Wisconsin.




Anyway, after a few wrong turns, a gas stop, and a dinner run where I became reacquainted with Wendy's dollar menu in a big way, we made our way up to the lakehouse. Friday night was pretty tame as I think we were all pretty tired from the drive up, but we were still able to knock over a few Miller Lites and get in some solid Taboo before the main event Saturday. Quote of the night, "When I was little, all I wanted to be was a Chinese-Japanese......NINJA!"



Saturday was tubing day! The Nelson's lakehouse is just a short distance from where the Wisconsin River is dammed off to form Lake Wisconsin, so beyond that lies a big, lazy river that is popular for canoeing and tubing. This was not much different from what we know tubing to be in Texas, except that the river was much wider and there was actually water in it. It was an absolutely gorgeous day (a day where Chicago got almost 7 inches of rain, so nice timing). Jeffro's friend Kyle Karmell joined us for this and made a big impression on us in a short time. This guy was a complete animal, and gelled with the crew immediately. Tubing highlights included, but were not limited to:

- A plethora of man rugs (all four of us guys where rocking out the chest mane)
- Jeffro telling us he actually owns the domain name http://www.manrug.com/
- Drinking ice-cold Miller Lite in Miller Country
- Lunch stop at a random, but awesome sand bar in the middle of the river
- Stage-frightened Ashley swimming like Johnny Weissmuller thru a strong current so she didn't have to pee in our presence
- A certain someone's swim trunks being shed



After returning home and taking a quick breather, focus returned to what we do best at the lake: eating and drinking. Summer beer (a Nelson family recipe) was flowing like wine and the grill got fired up for some tasty burgers and Hebrew national hot dogs ("they snap right in your mouth" according to Jeff). We also broke out the Bags (aka Cornhole, aka Bag-O), which is progressively becoming my favorite backyard game (Sorry Mr. Washer). As the night progressed, we found ourselves down in the basement having a dance party, which was nearly derailed when I stepped on Wendy's gimp, marathon toe. Karmell remedied this with a bag of frozen peas and carrots reinforced with a toilet paper wrap (using approximately 2 1/2 rolls)....great idea Kyle.



After the dance party died down, we all decided on a late night swim ("clothing optional" as Karmell put it). I can't stress enough how perfect the weather was all weekend, but it was especially awesome around midnight when we went down to the water. It was nearly pitch black with literally the only light coming from the stars above. The water was the perfect temperature and we swam under the stars for about an hour. I even saw a shooting star, which I got so excited about that I momentarily forgot how to tread water. The late-night swim was, quite possibly, the highlight of my weekend.



The rest of the evening and the next morning were pretty uneventful. Chris and Ashley (who graciously provided us with transportation to and from the lake) and Wendy and I decided to spend Sunday afternoon in Madison and have lunch. We decided on the Terrace at the Student Union on the UW campus. I never knew this but the campus sits right out on Lake Mendota. Even as a Longhorn, I was impressed. Madison actually reminded me a lot of Austin, which I've heard many times before. Even the Capitol, while being slightly less spectacular, looked very similar to the our Capitol in Texas.



From there, we high-tailed it back to the city we know and love. I don't think we were quite ready to come home though....



What a weekend! Well played Wisconsin. Well played.

Movies in the Park - July 13, 2011

The crew: Chris, Kristen, Chris, Ashley, Us

Full moon and Ferris

Chi History Museum

Does it get better?

One of the things we've had on our bucket list since we've lived here but have never done is Movies in the Park. This is a genius initiative by Chicago Park District during the summer where they play a series of movies (175 to be exact) at parks all over the city. This is a completely free event to be enjoyed by all, and all movies start at dusk. Reviewing the schedule for July, I saw that they would be playing Ferris Bueller's Day Off (quite possibly the greatest "Chicago" movie) on the lawn of the Chicago History Museum (quite possibly my favorite spot in the city) on July 13. This wasn't a tough decision.

Wendy and I rounded up four of our favorite friends to make a night of it. This was a gorgeous Chicago night: a brisk 70 degrees, refreshing breeze out of the North off the lake, and a full freakin moon. Boom.

This was a great venue as it was multi-leveled with the screen at the bottom. The movie is shown on a giant inflatable frame (think bounce-house) with the screen stretched out in the middle. Our view was partially obstructed, but it was no problem as most of us have seen the movie a hundred times. This was more about the atmosphere....

Ferris was obviously classic, as usual. And I think this is the first time I've watched the movie in its entirety since living in Chicago. So it was a blast seeing some of the spots Ferris hit up that we are now so familiar with. I think most of the crowd, including myself, also forgot that Charlie Sheen makes an amazing cameo. This drew some cheers and a few "winning!" shout-outs.

A great Chicago movie on a great Chicago night at a great Chicago venue. Definitely haiku-worthy.

DMB Caravan, aka The Mulch Festival

The Bruno

At the nudging of my buddy, Bruno, Wendy and I decided to take part in the Dave Matthews Band Caravan festival. This is being held in four U.S. Cities in lieu of his normal summer concert schedule. Chicago-Lakeside was lucky to be one of the cities chosen, so Wendy and I decided to buy a one-day pass for Friday, July 8.

What, you've never heard of Lakeside? Oh wait, neither has anyone else in this city. It is 10 miles south of Chicago and has, according to Wikipedia, been completely barren since U.S. Steel (who formerly occupied the expanse of land) shut its doors in 1992. The concert was a collaboration between the developers and festival/concert promoters. Other than letting the people of Chicago know of Lakeside's existence, I can't imagine what good came out of having a music festival on this desolate tract of land that could not have been more inconvenient to get to. Being car-less Chicagoans (something we're usually proud of), we had to hop on the Red Line to 87th, which is the second to last stop going southbound. We then had to take a 3 mile shuttle ride from the trainstop to the outer edge of the festival grounds. We then had to walk about another mile to get to the front gates. And apparently, no one told Dave and his Caravan that having customers print their tickets from home saves time and man power.

On the train headed up...

Sorry, I tend to be good-before-the-bad kinda guy...

On the way there, we learned there would be some HIGH quality people joining us. A group of MICU nurses (Kristin, Sarah, Katy, and Heather) as well as a good friend of Bruno's from high school and her fiance. Wendy also made good friends (and Bruno, a good impression) with a girl on the train headed down there, Emily from Baton Rouge. Altogether, it was a hodge-podge of awesome people all there to have a good time and listen to some great music.

After mobilizing the troops and snagging some cold beverages (we went with Dos Equis instead of the devil's elixir, Bud Light), we led off the day with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. You might know them for their single, "Home", which is the theme song for a Blue Cross commercial that plays all the time in Chicago and, per Wikipedia, has been in several TV shows and movies. They put on a great show and got our day going in the right direction. We then headed over to Soja for a little reggae, hit up Ray Lamontagne, who is always awesome, and O.A.R. who definitely jammed out some fan favorites. (If you're looking for a detailed review of the music and performances, I'm definitely not your guy). We capped off the evening with a three hour performance by Dave Matthews and his Band. I believe I was the only one in our crew that had not seen him live before. Long story short, he completely brought the house down. This guy knows how to rock out. And he's been doing it since I was in the third grade. It was awesome then (when I was perfecting my one-and-a-half off the diving board) and it's still awesome. I should disclose that we were a drug-free group.

Sarah, Kristin, Katy

The Mulch Festival

Given that the festival grounds were one huge piece of dirt, someone thought it would be a good idea to dump a gazillion tons of mulch down on the grounds. I've been to festivals before where they didn't do this (Austin City Limits, circa 2004), and this actually was a pretty good idea. It tempers the dust if it's dry, and minimizes the muddiness if it's wet. It was still a dust bowl and my feet felt as if I was constantly walking around a baby tree in my back yard, but it could have been a lot worse.

Pros: great music, awesome friends (old and new), accessible food/beer lines/bathrooms

Cons: too far (the train/bus/walk combo is never a good one), too far, too damn far; otherwise the cons are about the same as any music festival (too many people, beer is too expensive, etc)

Totally glad I went. Probably won't go back until they put a train stop there.

P.S. I need to buy a camera!

The 'Red Line' Series

Yet another bucket list item was crossed off the list for Wendy and me this past weekend. We had the privilege of taking part in not one, but two games of the three-game series between the White Sox and Cubs at Wrigley Field. People refer to this as the Crosstown Classic or The Windy City Showdown, but my favorite nickname for the rivalry is The Red Line Series (Named as such since the city's primary north-south rail, The Red Line, connects the two stadiums).
This is the ultimate north-south rivalry, and people here take it very seriously. I'm not even sure I can begin to appreciate the history of the rivalry between these two teams, and the amount of passion and heart that Chicagoans put into rooting for their Sox or their Cubs.

Let me see if I can break down the two organizations, and why they are so different. (Disclosure: I had no biases prior to moving to Chicago and this is all drawn from my own experiences with a little help from Wikipedia) Wrigley Field is the oldest baseball stadium in the National League (2nd oldest overall behind Fenway). It's tucked away in the beautiful, northern neighborhood of Lakeview. The surrounding area, which is a hub for great bars and restaurants in the city, has come to be known as Wrigleyville. Sox stadium, U.S. Cellular Field (aka 'The Cell' or the stadium formerly known as Comiskey) is located on the Southside in a not-so-great part of town. Coincidentally, the two stadiums are nearly equidistant from Madison Avenue (the north-south 'zero' street') with Wrigley Field being 3600N and The Cell being 3500S.

The Cubby faithful, in my experience, are made up of two types of people: 1.) "North-siders" whose personal or family fanhood goes back to before it was cool being a Cubs fan and 2.) people that aren't from Chicago (and who don't really like baseball) but who have heard of Wrigley Field and like to get drunk at baseball games. It's not quite that black and white but you get the picture. And from what I've seen, the latter "type" tends to be the one you encounter more when you go to Wrigley Field. This video pretty much sums it up. Sox fans are, plain and simple, Chicago southsiders. They are less white, more blue collar, and overall seem to be more knowledgeable about baseball. My dad would refer to them as "salt of the earth."

Why did I become a Sox Fan?

People ask me this a lot. And why wouldn't they? I'm a Texan who has only been living in Chicago for two years. The answer is multi-fold, but the short of it is that I like the Sox because they're the underappreciated, working-class baseball team in this city. They have to win baseball games to put people in the seats, but the people that are there are true fans. In my opinion, moving to Chicago and becoming a Cubs fan is almost a cliche, which is a big reason why I couldn't bring myself to do it. It's also worth noting that it's next to impossible to be passionate about and root for a team if you can't watch them on TV every night, which is why it's hard for me to continue being pumped about a revived Texas Rangers team while I'm living in Chicago.

Friday, we were invited to sit in the Miller-Coors box with some of Wendy's work people. It was a great crowd and a great way to enjoy the game (free food and beer and an awesome vantage point from the mezzanine on the first base line). The Sox scored 4 in the 7th to take it 6-4.

After the game we hit up the Cubby Bear, which is a huge bar caddy corner to the Wrigley Field marquee. This place had all the makings of a great party: wood floors covered in beer and broken glass, a DJ playing mostly 90s hip-hop, creepy dudes around every corner, and drunk people everywhere. It actually was fun for about 30 minutes. Then we decided to move on to a place that was a little more chill where we could get some sun, Casey Moran's. As always, it was an awesome day to be a Chicagoan, we enjoyed the company of some great Miller-Coors friends, and we got to watch the Sox take it down on the north side of town.

After a 28 hour shift in the VA ICU on Saturday-Sunday (and a 5-hour energy), we met up with an old friend of mine from Texas, David Hanss, and his girlfriend Sara. Dave and I overlapped only a couple of years when we were in school in Austin, but we have remained in touch over the years; so I was pumped when he told me he and Sara were coming up to Chicago for July 4 weekend. Sara is from a small Texas town (Santo) a couple of hours south of Wichita Falls, so she automatically earned cool points in my book. We had a great Chicago afternoon. We hit up Benchmark (a new sports bar in Old Town) for lunch and then hopped on the Red Line (Dave and Sara's first 'L' experience) to Wrigley for Game 3. Our seats were in foul territory in right field, right in the warm sunshine on an otherwise cool Chicago summer day (upper 70s low 80s). Other than a beastly Carlos Quentin put out from deep right field to home plate, the Sox were pretty flat and lost 3-1, but still took the series 2-1 and the season series 4-2. There was no shortage of great photo ops that day, and Dave and Sara got their souvenir photo in front of the Wrigley Field marquee.

Definitely an unforgettable Chicago weekend.