I love a weekend of “firsts.” Meaning a weekend filled with things I’ve never done or seen before. This past weekend contained several firsts:
The Ceili
On Friday, Patrick, Ruairi, Liam and I went to the Irish American Heritage Center for the Midwest Fleadh Cheoil and Ceili Mor. It was a lot of fun, watching the oldsters and youngsters enjoy the music and also watching everyone dance. Totally worth letting the kids stay up late.
The Swimming
Saturday morning, Ruairi dived into the swimming pool for the first time. A real dive, not just a flailing, whining, coerced face-flop. And Liam actually kicked his way across the pool, unaided by the coach. After nearly a year of weekly swim lessons, the boys finally may be understanding that we’re going to keep doing this until they actually learn to swim. :-)
The Reptiles
Saturday afternoon, we went to the UIC P.E. building for ReptileFest, billed as “the nation’s largest educational reptile and amphibian show.” It was pretty cool, and as with every activity we do that involves something semi-geeky, I actually enjoyed it as much or more than my sons. And I may have been convinced that our new family pet should be a Crested Gecko.
Chicago Fire Academy
After ReptileFest, we drove around downtown for a bit. A traffic jam conspired with my desire to grab a geocache, and we ended up at the site of Mr. and Mrs. O’Leary’s former property and the alleged starting point of the Chicago fire in 1871. The Robert J. Quinn Fire Academy is where trainees become Chicago firefighters. In front of the building is the “Pillar of Fire,” a bronze sculpture by Egon Weiner commemorating the great Chicago fire.
I’ve lived here since July of 1999, and I’d never visited this spot until Saturday. If it weren’t for my husband and my geocaching hobby, I’d never see most of the cool things in this city.
Butera
Sunday morning, I attempted to buy groceries at Butera. Mainly because my mother-in-law (whom I love a LOT) guilted me into going there by making Grampa dig the weekly circular out of a giant stack of newspapers and telling me that it really is cheaper than Jewel. So, I gave it a whirl. I’m down with cheap groceries, but I also crave predictability.
I love to shop at Aldi because I know exactly what it’s all about: the cheapest possible food. Everything from the quarter-operated grocery carts to pay-for-your-own bags means cheap food. And on the other end of the spectrum, I also love to shop at Whole Foods: high-end food in a blazingly gorgeous store with a sushi counter and wine bar. Jewel is a step or two down from Whole Foods, but still pretty predictable.
But Butera? I still have NO IDEA what that place is supposed to be. It looks super cheap from the outside, but you don’t have to pay for your cart; it has some recognizable brand-name stuff inside, but nothing cutting edge. Bad lighting, a horrible, confusing layout, and people wandering aimlessly blocking aisles and generally clogging things up. I was in there for 30 minutes and had exactly two things in the cart (feta cheese and a box of generic cereal) when I decided to bolt and hit the Jewel. $140 later I had a car full of groceries and had rehearsed a whole story in my head about why I went to Jewel instead of Butera. Then I came to my senses and realized that Grandma would not be inspecting the grocery sacks and sighed in relief. :-)
Gasoline
Oh yeah. I also paid $60 for 14 gallons of gasoline. I’d like to think this “first” would also be a “last.” But I’m pretty sure it’ll only get worse.
