winter warriors

tuesday and wednesday of this week, i was graced by the presence of whitty, one of my close friends and sorority sisters from auburn. she is now training with her company in milwaukee and was in the windy city for a conference. for the perfect fit, whitty and i are able to himm and haw over the winter, which makes her my fellow winter warrior.

on tuesday night, we met at my new fav pre-broadway lounge, "encore" before we walked next door to see dirty dancing at the cadillac palace theatre. the atmosphere is city chic and uptown trendy with an intimate feel. encore's bar is circular and crafted from marble. the perfect centerpiece for this venue. within the lounge, businessmen were talking "the after 5 pm" talk while stirring their drinks on the rocks and drinking their green bottle beers. you also had your usual happy hour crowd sitting in the private half-moon boothes sipping their martinis and indulging in appetizers.

whitty and i caught up on all of the happenings between mutual friends and of course, the happenings of our new adventures in our snowy cities. making great time, we enjoyed our delishy food, and for me, i had to try one of the dirty dancing themed martinis, "the crazy swayze." finishing our last bites, we made it to our seats at the cadillac for the start of the show. one word describes this musical. chillwondermazing. chill because i got chillbumps or gosebumps every time the next song was performed. wonderful because i could not ask for a better musical to see with a better friend that enjoys dirty dancing just as much as i do. amazing because the lead for baby sounded, looked and acted exactly like jennifer grey from the original dirty dancing movie.

on to wednesday night. whitty's 23rd birthday! i met up with her, her coworkers and her friend, whom i will call o-town (because he is from orlando, and i am pretty sure my blog will encounter some stories with him in the future since he lives in LP as well) at ed devebic's diner. it is a diner in river north where the waiters are suppose to be complete assholes and purely sarcastic and intentionally try to offend customers.

running late, i was nicknamed by our waiter whose nametag seriously read "ted e. grahams" as "the late girl." personally, i thought it was a pretty lame nickname. why could he not have picked a nickname like "the bitty who can't be on time" or "the friend that works the street corner late and makes her friends wait to order." no, i was just "the late girl." totally lame. so to be lame just like "ted e. grahams," i kept calling him "ted e. bears," and when he got up to dance on the bar to james brown, i threw out a couple of my infamous whistles. apparently, the dance is for entertainment and to add the extra shock value to the whole experience.

finally, dinner was over. i said my goodbyes and until next time to whitty. instead of walking to the EL in the snow, i cabbed it back to LP with o-town because he is mos def not a fellow winter warrior quite yet.

both nights ended on good food and good notes with great friends, old and new.