weekend in Chicago

Even with their flight delays, I was the last to arrive, so David, Lauren, and Ryanne picked me up at the airport. We just chilled at his house for the afternoon and then went with Viralyne to Wildfire for dinner. Lots of steaks and carbs. Good times. More important were the wine flights we did. Lauren and I both did “4 jazzy reds” and “4 premium reds,” which got us off to a great start. We all went to Hangge Uppe for hip-hop and ‘80s nights on different floors. Lots more drinking. Lots of dancing. David’s friend Paul and some of Viralyne’s friends joined us. As did Ted and his entourage, including familiar faces David and Justin. Fantastic night.

That Saturday after a nice breakfast of croissants and blueberry loaf, we went directly to lunch at a drive-in, SuperDawg. We spent the day in the city at Lauren’s love, Cloudgate (“The Bean”) and watching kids play in the face fountain. (I don’t know it’s real name.) We walked down Mag Mile and stopped at both Hershey’s and Ghirardelli chocolate stores. I stocked up with some ammunition for that night’s dinner dessert, as Gisela had requested chocolate be involved.

I’d promised her and the others a high-end meal and recruited Jack, once again, to be my culinary partner. We stopped by Jerry’s for vegetables, Binny’s for wines, and Whole Foods for proteins. Jack and I decided on ingredients and recipes in a completely spontaneous, impromptu way. (Save for dessert because pastries and chilled items usually require a little more prep time than other things.) I had texted Tara our decisions once they were made, so she, fresh out of sommelier school, could do some pairings. The guy at Binny’s took her type-and-region recommendations and even further refined them to bottle-specific. Whole Foods was out of duck, so we changed that dish to lamb at the last minute. But everyone still seemed to be really happy with the Jack-Andrew Tasting Menu:

• Chorizo seared scallops with shallot sauce
• René Muré Gewürztraminer France ’04 from Marlborough, France.

• Veal tenderloin “al ajillo” wrapped around fontina cheese and fresh sage
• Sauvignon Blanc’06 from Le Clos Redon, New Zealand.

• Asparagus artichoke risotto with pancetta bits
• Chateau de Mattes Sabran Corbries ‘05 from Altos de LuzOn, France.

• Center cut lamb tenderloin in sriracha coconut curry
• Cabernet Sauvignon ’05 from Pacific Rim, Spain.

• Dark chocolate mousse with rosemary vanilla crème anglaise and straciatella whipped cream
• Vin de Glaciere Riesling ’06 from Washington State.

After that, we all entered a food coma until Sunday.

Breakfast of champions: Shots while barhopping, specifically Patron and “break the curse” which is blue curacao and 100 proof Absolut. Lunch of champions: Ball Oark hot dogs with mustard and onions, peanuts, crackerjacks, and beer (Pabst Blue Ribbon and Bud Light). The Cubs won the game, by the way.

After the game, the four of us and Viralyne’s friend Kris got a few more drinks at Vines with one of David’s friends who was really nice and even drunker than we were. He recommended a film one of their old classmates currently stars in, Wauntown Skank.

We went to get some Chicago deep-dish pizza at Giordanos in Buffalo Grove with Gisela, Laura, and Becca. Then some of us hit up Culver’s for custard and discussion about upcoming marriages and the intricate complications of cheating. I wasn’t going to get dessert, but when I saw the flavor of the day was Snickers, I changed my mind.

my week so far

MONDAY

My parents were still in town, so between classes, Adrian and I went to lunch with them at Hana. I ordered a Hana Special Roll to share and the combo lunch (tempura, katsu, and shumai) for myself. I had my long calc midterm and after that we went (Adrian-less) to The Columns for happy hour again before hitting up Saltwater Grill for the aforementioned (in the Friday part) 25¢ oysters and red beans and rice with grilled andouille. We hung out at the hotel for a while before grabbing a very late dinner at K-Paul's.

Mom and I both started off with a cup of champagne cream of shiitake soup with sundried tomatoes. We all split a plate of fried green tomatoes with shrimp remoulade. My entree was a plate of duck tenders and shrimp in creole pork sauce over basmati rice. So good. K-Paul's makes their creme brulee with buried sugar pecans. Nice crunch and texture.

Then I took my parents to Harrah's since neither of them had been there yet. Mom doubled her money - at Money To Burn, Chad! - and we called it a night.

TUESDAY

No terrorism, no lunch with Tara, no screenwriting, no dinner with ben. (Canceled by Dad, canceled by her, canceled by professor, canceled by him.)

My father asked me to skip class in favor of family lunch at Felix's Uptown. Fried alligator. Sampler of red beans, jambalaya, and crawfish ettouffee.

Ben un-canceled dinner because he stopped caring about his midterm (at least for an hour), so we had dinner and caught up on each other's weekends before saying "have a good break." Just in case we don't meet up again before he leaves for Spain on Thursday.

WEDNESDAY

Adolescent Psych. Debate. No paper due, luckily. I actually took up Dining Services on their "Take-A-Professor-To-Lunch" program. So after lunch Cunningham and I went to Bruff, for free. It was fried chicken day. Awesome.

Calc. Music. Blah. Phone Calls. Fun. Nap. Great.

Lauren, David, and I went to get cannolis at Spumone in Mid-City. It was probably her best idea ever. We got cannolis, half chocolate, dusted with powdered sugar and crushed pistachios. I also sampled two flavors of gelato. (Both were so good, I couldn't pick just one.) "St. Joseph's Chocolate Almond," which was the daily special and tastes exactly like it sounds (minus the holiness), and Baci (which some of you know is Italian for "kiss"), which must be made of pure Nutella. They probably changed the name so they wouldn't get sued.

Lauren and I had dessert and then dinner. Kind of backwards. While on this Italian kick, we asked Whitney to pick us up a foot-long when she went to Subway. She was sooo nice about it, even checking exactly what we wanted. Parmesan-oregano bread, provolone or mozzarella bread. She asked if we wanted vegetables, and I replied "Are you kidding? It's LAUREN. No vegetables."

I've decided my favorite new show is "The Search For The Next Pussycat Doll." It's like America's Next Top Model but with singing, dancing, and non-clothing. I guess they want a seventh girl so that Nicole can stand in the middle.

At least it was what I watched while waiting for LOST with Whitney.

Closer to midnight, Lauren and I decided to go out. We didn't want to have to drive, so we walked to - unbelievable - TJ Quills for swiller night. We were the oldest people there. All freshmen. We saw one junior (Teddy) and one sophomore (Shivani)we knew. We played a great game of "I Never..." which is really hard when you play with someone you know well, and I managed to screw it up.

We decided to go somewhere more appropriate and wound up at Uptown Cajun. We enjoyed the Flogging Molly playlist and pitcher special for Abita. We decided to call Ted (H) since we missed him. Speaking of whom, here's my new favorite music video for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, the "group project" from last Wednesday.

hung up... on Ted

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back by popular demand

Once upon a time in October 2006, Andrew never actually updated his journal, which has happened before but not during school, so he wrote an entry after the month ended detailing in run-on sentence that his high school English teachers would detest exactly what he did during that month: With Stephanie free of the LSAT, her birthday was finally celebrated and involved a good amount of Harrah's, drinking on the patio, drunk people at the piano bar, and Pat O'Brien,s Tara turned 21 about a week later, and she and Andrew celebrated by making a spectacle of themselves with a spectacular pub crawl that semi-began with margaritas at dinner at Taqueria Corona and pre-gaming at home but really began with Abita Amber at Cooter Brown's, then bypassed the closed Daiq-Shack, and into Madigan's, then Uptown Cajun, then TJ Quills, then past an early-closed Vera Cruz in favor of both Bruno's, and after Phillips was sadly closed as well went to The Palms, and then The Boot, and then The Palms again for a long timg, dancing and drinking and dancing and drinking and then doing five shots each to hit the 21 mark before going to Big Easy to get laughed at by the workers and then taking a picture with the Tulane sign before the sun came up, there were more birthdays and parties (kegs for Curry, Chris' graduation celebration, and the noise-violatin' gettin' shut down Freaky Friday the 13th all come to mind) that were fun as well, and lots of barhopping and picture-taking, some of which the subjects don't remember, but that's okay, and Cowboy Mouth played a show for homecoming (which Tulane won against Army), and Andrew couldn't refuse to go since Curry was in charge of it and it was his birthday and personally invited and recommended that people go, and it was loud but the band basically forced people to have fun and brought Matt on stage because he didn't look like he was having fun, and as a finale brought literally everyone on stage to sing their last song, and Lauren got into med school, so that was celebrated with brownies and champagne after anticipating the victory a few nights earlier by going to Phillips after David and Andrew went to AEPi's Original Sin and Zeta Psi's Bayou Bash and tried to remember how they went to several of these parties freshman year and didn't get tired of them then, went with David and Peter to go see The Departed which was violent but amazing, and everyone should see it, and watching the new mini-season of Lost which will be over sooner than it should be, and random nights of hanging out with Adrian or running into him and/or his friends at various nightlife locations here in uptown (funny that Adrian and Andrew both went to the Jazmine Café on separate occasions without hearing from each other and really liked it and thought it was cheaper yet better Viet food than at home), Halloween was suddenly here and began a couple nights early, naturally, and there were lots of parties, and people madly hunting for costumes last-minute, and most of the girls dressed like sluts because that's what the holiday celebrates, and there were lots of Quail-Men (Nickelodeon's Doug, anyone?) but they were all cool, and there were at least five of them throughout the “long” weekend even though the best costume this year I think was the Two-Face walking around Frenchmen with half a head of make-up, half a wig(?) or half a dye job, a suit half in animal-print and “matching” shirt, tie, and probably hands and shoes even though they weren't seen, and Stephanie and Andrew went to The Rocky Horror Picture show which was disturbing/entertaining as ever and got hooked up with VIP passes (thanks David) and sat in the front and experienced rice, water, the actors, the candy, and all such antics even though Stephanie thought the walk to McAlister was really long because they were dressed funny, and Ted suddenly decided to tell us that he was leaving for Texas but with much less notice and fanfare than last time and apparently this time for real, and conversely Jacque was back in town, so that was fun and it was like old times except with legal drinking and going to the levee with her and Tara and talking about how no one - not even Jacque surprisingly – knows what they're doing with their life, what the Pitt St. Pretties are doing with their Thursday is going to Vaughan's Lounge to see Kermit Ruffins and drink with professors and eat late night red beans and rice, which is fun and they've taught Andrew to go (he goes to Café Luna, their workplace, a lot to visit also), Tara is really into the red wine and split a bottle of it with him and Alifun even though Alifun only really drinks a glass, but it was the thought that counts because red wine is medicinal for tragedy, and then St. Joe's and Monkey Hill and other places twenty-one year olds can go, and pictures that people don't remember. The end.

So if you really want to kill some time, wrestle your way through that. It'll be like reading James Joyce but without the intellect and deftness in the writing or Victor's chapter in The Rules of Attraction without the sex and drugs.

There will be pictures as soon as Microsoft PictureIt repairs itself.

T.G.I.F.

Hmmm. Last night was the dwell magazine launch party at "the periscope house" to celebrate its feature in the publication.

keg of amber + architecture students = pretty amusing

I thought of my mom, so I sent drunk text messages over to her in the Philippines.

Shannon and I spent most of the night dominatin' the second floor since downstairs was crowded and loud and the balcony was crowded and hot. After devouring a few handfuls of chips, we realized we were hungry so went for a “second dinner” at Fresco's (ran into Tara and Alison and then Ted and Kunal inside) before returning for more fun. Lots of dancing and playing with Tony's souvenir hats from Vietnam.

Decidedly my new favorite picture of us

Today for lunch we brought Adrian to voodoo BBQ, which was delicious because I've been craving brisket for a few days now.

I was on the phone with Chad for a while today. He's in DC, and I am here, and we both miss those places and each other. That kind of sucks, I guess. Haha. He saw a bunch of kids on the 'tro covered in purple paint and wearing Gonzaga t-shirts, so he thought of me.

Lauren's birthday celebration is tonight. It should be fuuun.

blah blah, whatever whatever

Sometimes celebrities do things for publicity to coincide with a new release. (Jessica Simpson is dating John Mayer? Whatever.) Sometimes they don't. LOST's Adewale "Mr. Eko" Akinnuoye-Agbaje was arrested on the Hawaiian road this weekend. (This clearly has nothing to do with the season two dvd release today.) At least he wasn't drunk like Cynthia "Libby" Watros and Michelle "Could probably kick my ass" Rodriguez. Stop getting arrested! I want to watch LOST with you on it! Hell, even I can drive in Hawaii. USA Today

But he should be fine. I never watched Oz on HBO, but it's my understanding that Adewale's character on it made just about everyone his bitch. I wouldn't start shit with him if I was a cellmate.

But I digress from my life.

Last night I went out with Ted and some of his friends for his birthday. Curry was kind enough to let me hitchhike down to the quarter with him and back again. Flaming fountain, sing-alongs, and a Ted roast with everyone's favorite "warm and fuzzy" (or possibly embarassing) memories. Good times. Oh yeah, and lots of hand grenades hurricanes.

Never let me get drunk and order "a hand grenade" at Pat O'Brien's again, but always allow Curry to get drunk and threaten Kunal with the words "Stop talking. I will kill you. I will throw you into the volcano."

"The Volcano" or fountain, whichever you prefer

Maybe I should start calling Pat O'Brien's my favorite bar since I think I've been there more times since turning 21 than any other bar... except Bruno's.

Speaking of Bruno's... People don't like The New Bruno's or The New Facebook so let's hope The New Rat puts an end to this "Which New Thing Can Suck The Most?" Contest... by not sucking.