Friday on our way to see the city's famous vintage and specialty shops in Lincoln Park, we ran into a toy store that Jake recommended, Uncle Fun's. Inside were a cornucopia of odds and ends, doodads and whatdoyacallits. They had everything kitsch, from decrepid military buttons to the retro characters you used to find in cereal boxes. You know, before they made you get online and register to get your free prize on the internet. I mean, who doesn't love turning a box of cereal upside-down to get a toy that you will never play with? Well now you can, and you can pay for it.
After walking around and eventually picking up at least half of the store to buy, and having to walk around to put everything back, I settled on a few books about comics and street art, a ballet sticker book, a keychain in the shape of a knot so I can find my keys, and 1970s "Jesus Saves" chest tattoos. I am just thrilled that I am not the only person in the world that not only finds religious relics like this not only novel, but still necessary in our drab world.
As the night grew nearer (4 pm Chicago time, jeez), we headed home to hug and say hi to Jake's folks. Then we walked to the restaurant where we were dining, Gibson's Steakhouse. That is another thing I love about Chicago-the way you can dress up in your best and just take a walk around the corner to your reservations for the evening. Even if you need to take a cab just a few neighborhoods over and be there for a few dollars. On the menu were such items as filet minon, honey mustard Norwegian salmon and something called the Colossal Lobster Tail. I ended up settling for a salad with an entire peppercorn steak on top of it, with my excuse being I didn't want to be too full if I was going to be drinking and laughing at improvisers spill their biz on stage in a few short hours. Hey-a salad is still a salad.
Something we found out a little while into dinner was the fact that Warren Buffet was seated at the table directly behind us, which kind of put the restaurant into perspective for me. Dinner was delightful, and after bringing home a piece of carrot cake weighing 3 pounds for later that evening, we left for The Cornservatory for after dinner improv. Needless to say, for every amazing set of improv you see, there are three times as many troupes that don't know what to do with an open stage and a ready audience. Jake and I sat through 2 exhausting hours of non-humor on stage, with some of the jokes including uncle's suicides and yelling at grandpas. We walked out at the last second, and never even looked back.
Last night we got tickets to the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Live Show at the Lakeshore Theater. Jake and I didn't really know what to expect. What we got were the guys who did several of the voices of the characters of Aqua Teen, minus the guy who does the voice of Frylock. And yes, he is big and black and wears wife beaters. Something I never knew about these guys is that they also make the Adult Swim show, Squidbillies, and have done other acting work prior to their success with ATHF. Most of the time I didn't know what was going on, and Jake and I still maintain that I could have won the Meatwad voice contest, but I don't like getting out of my seat for anyone, so that never happened.
It's a cool and cloudy day in the city, and we had mixed plans to have drinks above the city in the Hancock Building, and maybe even shop at Bloomingdales, a store I have never had the pleasure of not being able to afford.
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