Ladies who lounge

My last night in Chicago brought with it a fabulous girls night out.  After taking my final exam and getting in a little bit of office work, my friend Erin picked me up and we headed north to Belmont to meet her sister, Lisa. I was fortunate to meet these fantastic ladies through Teresa in the last six months or so I was living in Chicago.  Although we only see each other every couple years, every time I get to spend time with these two I'm sorry to have to leave, they're so much fun!  (Fingers crossed that Erin's travels bring her to the DC area sometime soon!)

We started our evening at Lisa and her husband Clark's AMAZING apartment.  I think it took me less than two minutes after greeting Lisa to ask if perhaps she wanted to adopt me so I could live there forever.  They're on the top floor of a building near Belmont and Racine, walking distance to the Southport Corridor and not far from the popular locales offered near the Belmont red line stop.  The picture below is the view of the skyline from their apartment.  Again, it's a little fuzzy since it's a cell phone shot, and it doesn't really do the view justice, but when seen live, it's captivating.

After spending about an hour at Lisa's warming up with wine and meeting her friend, Laura, who joined us for the evening, we walked over to a tasty spot on Southport, Coobah, where Lisa had scored a reservation earlier in the week.  This is a latin fusion restaurant that takes a lot of its inspiration from the Caribbean.  I ordered a tasty zazuela, essentially the latin version of cioppino served with a tomato-based broth and lots of toasty baguette.  The dish was filling and quite tasty.

But the highlight of the night, by far, was the company.  It is always a pleasure to sit at a table with three  smart women and just chat.  We're all in slightly different places in our lives with jobs and relationships and everyone had a unique perspective to offer the conversation.  I knew we'd be there for a while when the subject came around to the notions of marriage as a social construction and whether we'd raise different children than our mothers did due to the change in times and attitudes about a woman's role.

When we finally decided that if we didn't get up soon, since three hours had passed, the server might actually throw us out, we chose a close-by watering hole, Mystic Celt, to move on to.  One drink later we were back on street headed for SoPo, a happening little lounge situated unsurprisingly on Southport Ave, having realized we were a wee bit "mature" for the crowd gathered at Mystic Celt.  Just after arriving at SoPo we lucked into a table by the windows after a gaggle of very drunk girls departed (but not before stopping in to make friends with us).  We spent the rest of the evening if another flurry of chatter, talking about jobs and parents and more.  I finally had to call it quits at almost 1AM, so that I could catch enough sleep to make my train out to the 'burbs to meet up with Teresa and Nick in the morning.  Thanks, Erin, Lisa and Laura for a great night out.  I really wish we didn't live to far away from each other!