Home and Back Again

After my last final, I hit the South Side for the first time. I went to a NU EPP's holiday party, where we talked hopefully about the upcoming Northwestern vs. UCLA game at the Sun Bowl. (We now know how that ended. We SHOULD have won. It was a totally winnable game, where we should've scored 2 amazing touchdowns in the last 5 minutes. (Who else but NU can get an extra play after the clock has run out at the end of the first half?) Unfortunately, our kicker was not at his best that day.) After the party, I met up with friends at Fat Head's where they have an extensive selection of beers on tap, including my favorite Belgium-style raspberry beer.

The next day, I headed to California to meet up with Rich. We had a great time, especially since his sister received word that someone had found her 2 lost dobermans in the woods. They'd run off in the hills a week earlier. They came back skinny, thirsty, and a bit bruised and cut up, but alive and well. In their absence, they'd gotten a 3rd doberman. Several people were around: we met up with Daniel and Massie in Berkeley, and we saw Rose and Josh, Chris, and Guillaume of Rich's Livermore crowd. A great time was had by all.

A few days later, we headed to Chicago. We met up with Xcott and saw King Kong. We headed into the city to meet up with Julie, Paulette, Jeremy, Dargan, and others. I highly recommend Kiki's Bistro, and I even got in some Ethiopian food at Mama Desta's on NYE (my former favorite place, Addis Abeba, is not closed). To celebrating 2006, Julie, Rich, Xcott and I headed to Schuba's to see the Changes. A good time was had by all.

Oh, Paulette's boyfriend Carl's band Charlemange is heading out on tour. So, check out their website, and if they're in town, go check them out!