Mom and Dad's Halloween Visit

Oh brother, to say I have fallen behind on my blogging would certainly be an understatement. Please accept this post about Mom and Dad visiting in October as a little bit of a catch up.

OCTOBER 29: Mom and Dad DROVE from Chicago because they were going to pick up a bunch of Greg’s stuff. They got to my place in the late morning and then, after they settled in, we enjoyed a Chinese take-out lunch.

After my workday ended, I walked through Midtown to meet up with Mom, Dad and Jeff at Empellon for some fancy tacos, wild desserts, and lively conversation.

After dinner, Jeff and I dropped Mom and Dad off to see Dune and went over the Festus’s Halloween party

OCTOBER 30: What’s the point of driving to the city if you can’t use your car to leave the city while you’re there? Saturday we drove out to Storm King and had a great walkaround looking at all that gigantic art. Even members of our party who were unsure about what they were getting themselves into found themselves liking it quite a bit, if I may say so myself. After our Storm King time we went and had a great dinner at a suburban Parm and payed a visit to Ikea, but by then my battery had died so, sorry, no pictures of me in heaven eating fried shrimp at Parm.

OCTOBER 31: Kicked our Halloween off with brunch at Anton’s in the West Village, the “new concept” inside what used to be the West Village Frankie’s. And this is what I have to say about this “new concept” — What a concept! To open a restaurant that is very extremely good! We all had a great time.

After that? Church. And after that? A slightly Halloween-y Linger Longer. And after that, a walk through the Village, which was getting all ready for the Halloween parade. Had never considered that one of the major perks of living in a Greenwich Village Gold Coast townhouse is sitting on your stoop and handing out candy to Trick or Treaters. AND after that? A very nice pasta dinner at Rezdora. Very, very nice. NYC meals with your folks are back!

NOVEMBER 1: All great things must come to a temporary end, so Monday morning I saw Mom and Dad off as they headed to their Main Event: packing up the car with Greg’s stuff. By the afternoon I had received word that they succeeded in this endeavor and then the next day they were safe and sound, back in Oak Park once more.

September 2021

Surprise! Guess what? Here’s a blog post about things that happened in New York way back in September 2021!

September 2 In August I started a new job, but on September 2nd I met my coworkers for the first time at our team outing to the New York Open. And guess what? I’d never been to the Open, either. It was a big night for firsts! I got to see the guy that everyone hoped would win win a match and take in the whole US Open vibe, too. Knowing next to nothing about the current state of the professional tennis world, I still had a great time and would definitely go back and suggest you definitely go some time, too!

September 11: Jared was in town conducting art business so I met up with him and Jeff at the Center Gallery and got some lunch at Parm, too.

September 18: Set out to have a fun Saturday by visiting an old favorite, Taqueria Portales in Queens, before walking to a new hot spot, Taqueria Ramirez, in Greenpoint. I trekked through many a part of Queens I had not seen before and you know you’re on your way to an historically Polish neighborhood when you walk across Polaski Bridge. Made a Chicagoan’s heart feel good! Portales hit its usual spots and Ramirez was extremely CDMX in there. Spent a good bit of time in line with first timers googling what “suadero” and “campechano” meant. The nice thing about the Ramirez line is it distracted people from the Paulie Gee Slice Shop where I was able to get a nice little pepperoni slice without much trouble.

September 24: Now here’s something fun, I went up to Tarrytown to see our friend Ryan do his comedy. It was my first time taking Metro North from my neighborhood, it was a cinch! I should take these kinds of little adventures more often.

September 25 & 26: Things are kind of getting back to normal if I’m walking around midtown taking pictures of strangers on a Saturday and then enjoying rooftop dinner parties on the Upper West Side on a Sunday night!

August 2021

I just wrote that little July post and felt so full of blog energy that I whipped this post about August up, too. And then saved it as a draft until I felt it was time to post. And now it’s time to post!

AUGUST 4: Went down to the MoMA to see what’s up and to check out their car exhibit in particular. Really expected a car exhibit to have more than 9 cars but, hey, I’m no curator! What do I know?

AUGUST 5: Dad and Walker picked me up from the SLC airport and we had lunch at Tapatio’s and then had a great time at the Mexican supermarket and visited Dad’s old house. That night all of us family ate dinner at Sol de Something and whenwe got back to Kristen’s Cory was showing off his new Jordan IV’s that had just arrived and even let me wear them. What a guy!

(Ok now here’s when the family reunion happened)

AUGUST 10: Had a little bit of SLC free time so I got Vegan Vietnamese with the Mackenzies and popped in and checked on the Beans.

AUGUST 11: And surprise! Then I went to LA with Mom and Dad. First things first: Celebrating Aunt Louise’s 98th birthday at the Tam o Shanter! Let’s hear it for old Los Angeles and prime rib!

AUGUST 12: Up and at ‘em and checking on the turtles at CalTech!

And then we went to Petit Trois in the valley so everyone could experience the burger I had experienced on my birthday! We also had a really, really good tomato salad, among other nice things.

That evening we saw some historic graffiti and walked around Bungalow Heaven then picked up a bit of Kogi for dinner.

AUGUST 13: Another morning, another walk to CalTech. And then I went and got an AmBoy cheeseburger for lunch.

That evening? Major, major night! Collin and Mallory brought Blair over to meet Mom and Dad and we all enjoyed Howlin Rays chicken sandwiches.

AUGUST 16: First day of the new job! Here’s what I wore and the shirt I put on for calls.

I wanted to show you my three special big books: The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition Omnibus, which is BIG, but here stands in the shadow of my tremendously tall and deep Evening Edged in Gold and the astoundingly thick Bottoms Dream. Both of these were tricky to get my hands on, even with the internet, so I am proud just to look at their outsides. Thank you for looking at my three special big books.

AUGUST 28: Oh and here I am waving goodbye and thanking you for your blog visit from the new photography exhibition at the Center Gallery.