New Years Eve

It's been a whirlwind, the past couple weeks! 2 trips to Southern Illinois in Dec. so far. Christmas at mom's, last week was fun. I had asked mom to dig out my birth certificate so I could get my passport. (Scott had a surprise, which required a passport . . .) Anyway, my sister, bro-in-law and nieces came down, and we had our family Christmas on Wed. The girls were being angels, knowing how excited they were to open all their presents under the tree. They sat at the family room table with me all evening, while I worked on Scott's book, and we made a book for them to color, too! Then we all came back to Chicago on Thurs. (I had to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.)

An Arctic blast zapped the midwest that week. I was lucky and didn't get stranded. (The National Guard was called out to rescue people off the highway I take, a stretch, just East of where I travel on I 70.)


Scott and I met our friend Richard (aka "The mayor") at the Drake for High Tea, the Monday before Christmas week. It puts Marshall Fields to shame! A model train in a snowy Christmas village, in the upper lobby area, a huge Christmas tree decorated with gigantic ornaments, ceramic angels flying from the ceiling, giant wooden soldiers flanking the great staircase, carollers in authentic turn-of-the-century English clothing, a harpist - spectacular event! The "Mayor" brought me back some cigars from S. America - (he just returned from a trip where he hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu, then on up to Lake Titticaca - the "Lake in the Sky".) I brought a box of liqueur - filled chocolate for him. We opened gifts to the strains of live-carollers, beneath the bubbling fountain, center-stage, having tea and those little finger sandwiches and biscuits with clotted cream and marmelaide!


We said our goodbyes, and Scott and I walked over to Marshall Fields to see the Jackie "O" Christmas Tree from the 1962 White House. Walked down State Street to see the beautiful decorations, shopped for gifts at Carsons, had a really nice time!


Scott and I had our Christmas on Monday, when he got back from his folks (Carlinville - downstate Ill). He really loved his handmade book/art ablum I made, including original artwork of his new kitten, photos and an original story! I got him a silver cannister to put the kittens registry papers (Tonkanese) in, when they come, next month, a Parker Bros. game from back in the 70's (Ouija Board), a big box of Omaha Steaks, and a bottle of champagne to sip while we opened gifts!

I got a new Andrew Marc leather thermostat jacket, the latest from NY, a matching Mont Blanc pen to go with the mechanical pencil he got me last Christmas, a box of assorted and sinful Teuscher chocolates from Switzerland, 2 dozen WOODEN coat hangers (my wire hangers were driving him crazy! lol) - AND . . .

. . . Passport mystery solved! The surprise of my life! Scott handed me an envelope after we were done exchanging gifts, and said, "Oh, by the way, here is a little something, not much of a Christmas present, but just a little something . . ."

I opened the envelope, and it said "Merry Christmas from Scott" - a two-week European vacation to a destination of my choosing - with some suggestions, printed from an Internet travel board, like- biking the Chambord region in France, Vienna/ Salzburg, Italy, Scotland/Iceland - England, etc! Stay tuned for that. (It's leaning towards the Iceland biking adventure, right now!)

I got home that night, and was talking on the phone with my friend Ed (who was in on all the Christmas mischief) - and as I was unpacking the gifts, I came upon a small envelope . . .

Inside were 2 tickets to Lyric Opera's "Tosca" (which I've never seen) - on - of all days - VALENTINE'S DAY!) OK - we had tears. Sorry, I never do that - but they were just welling up inside, by the end of the day - and boom! Tears of joy - how often does THAT happen???

I've been on cloud 9, for obvious reasons! Well, the Sunday after Christmas, I got off work a couple hours, and went to Caribou for a couple hours to finish up Scott's Christmas book. (Backtracking just a little, here.) But, I met the most interesting guy, Martin - a rancher from Texas. We sat and talked for another hour. My friend Joel - one of Caribou's most fascinating clientelle - dropped by, and I introduced the two of them, and we had a wonderful time.


I was so wired on caffeine - that I stopped by the Jail House for a drink, on the way home, and met another really interesting guy - Jim (Jimmy) - in from the far-west suburbs. He was off all week for the holiday. We had a great time talking, and we ended up walking over to Sidetracks for a night cap! So, the whole evening was one of those where everybody just clicked and jived. Not often, that happens!


So, the next week . . . Monday, Scott and I did our Christmas . . . Tuesday, I met our friend Ed for more coffee, at the new Caribou. Talked about his trip to Minneapolis - where it got down to 30 below and were hit by that blizzard. He counted 96 trucks off the road on the Interstate! I walked him to his house, and went grocery shopping and spent the night in.


Wednesday, we had a coffee outing with one of my groups. Ed met me and we had a nice time learning what a 'small world' it is. They knew "Our Doug" and we had a good time comparing notes. I left after an hour . . . I had previously made dinner plans with Nina to have our Christmas dinner. Even tho she is Jewish and Buddhist! We dined at Cornelia's and had a great evening.


Well, that pretty much brings us up to NY Eve, today. Our plans kinda fell through for tonight. Scott ended up having to work till late, and has to go in early tomorrow, so we decided to skip it, this year. We can't top last year seeing the B52s at Navy Pier, champagne, and fireworks across the Chicago skyline!


Monday, we plan on going ice skating down at the Garfield Park Conservatory, then a nice dinner somewhere and a movie. He is invited to the Golden Globes, on Jan 16, so he wants to try to catch up on some of his movies. . . Happy New Year, to you, may it be the BEST YET!

November 15 - December 15, 2004

Dream Blogs


Hi! Welcome back! A lot has happened since I last blogged . . . The weather in Chicago has been beautiful. Spent Thanksgiving at my sister's in W. Chicago. Mother drove up in a blinding rainstorm from Southern Illinois. My friend Ed and I drove out from the city. We each brought a dish, and had tons of food. Turkey, stuffing, (called "dressing" in So. Ill., chicken and noodles, (like our Grandmother Rhodes used to make), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes w/marshmellows, apple salad, green beans, lima beans, and 3 home-made pies! Yumm!


I had to be at work on Friday, thru the weekend, but it was slow at work. Got a lot done on my websites.


The next weekend we went shopping downtown for some new clothes for the holidays. Found just about everything at Nordstrom on Boul Mich, lunched at Papa Milano's on Rush.


Last Friday, we had our first big party of the season. The annual Dr. Teplica Christmas party. He hosts a big bash for 300 people at his mansion in Buena Park, right next door to the mansion formerly owned by former Gov. Thompson. This year, we feasted on Coho Salmon, capers, ham, and ostrich! (There were 40 ostriches according to the catering staff!) A live choir entertained with Christmas songs, as we entered the main foyer, upon arrival, and the place was already starting to fill up at 6:30pm!


We saw our friend David Campbell, (from the Scottish Campbell Clan, one of Dr. David's models), and his beautiful wife Lisa, (managing editor for The Reader), who we met at the party 2 years ago. We had fun catching up out on the porch during smoke breaks! (Last year David wore his plaid kilt, (showing of his skier legs,) which he left at home, this time.)


We met a couple upstairs (in the airline industry), in the master bedroom, where we were mugging for the cameras, rolling around on top of the covers of the original and ornately carved 4-poster (to the ceiling) bed of King George II, whose canopy had to be removed, as well as the chandelier in the ceiling, in order to accomodate it! Stair steps had to be installed in order to climb into it, btw!


Downstairs, we spotted Chuck Renslow, (IML founder), who came up to chat, when we were saying "hi" to Dr. David. Chuck was dressed in jeans and a leather jacket, which looked very out-of-place in the more formally - dressed crowd, and had some haggard-looking man, with him, trolling about. He came, ate and left. Surprise - surprise!


Dr. Teplica is a world-renowned plastic surgeon, and an accomplished professional photographer. Most of his subject area centers on twins, and nudes. He has travelled the world, photographing the most interesting people, and has several coffee-table books he's had published.

So, later, after having champagne and wine, (Dr. Teplica flies in twin-blonde bartenders from LA, every year to serve us) - we migrated over to the lavish dessert tables for coffee, and Swiss Chocolates (piled up to the ceiling), and circulated among the diverse crowd, and noshed. We toured the sizable mansion (used solely for entertaining, accomodating out-of-town-guests, and the Doctor's offices, NOT his residence, btw) - laughing until it hurt, we roamed the massive halls and rooms, took pics, and finally said our goodbyes, around 10pm - and made a quick exit.


We hopped a cab, out front, down to Sidetracks, where we met our friend Ed, who was hosting an out-of-town guest - Cameron - a 20-something single ex-co-worker of Ed's - from Minneapolis. We had a great time, there, talking and watching videos on the giant screen. After about two hours of that, we decided to go over to (of all places) Little Jim's - since Ed had never been. (We all had just enough alcohol in us to venture the 1 block hike. lol) It is kind of an institution in Chicago!


We no sooner walked in, when we ran into Barry Allen, aka Paula Sinclair - an old friend, who used to live, coincidentally, in the upstairs apt. of Ed's building, on Buckingham. We had a great time 'catching' up, and he invited us to his 'live' show at "Circuit", next Sunday. (Which we missed.)


We finally called it a night, and had to get home and get some sleep, since we were getting up early to go down to Southern Ill to see Scott's mom's Christmas choir, the next day.


We got up and had a quick breakfast in W. Loop, fed the kittens, and got on the road. We got to his parents house around 4:30pm - sat and visited with his folks and his brother, then got changed and went to the concert.


Scott's brother came up from SIU (where he is the purchaser, there, for the univ.) He and their Dad, went with us into town, and toured the Macoupin County Courthouse, circa 1860, before the concert. It is a massive structure, on the scale of the State Capitol made of solid iron doors each weighing one ton, and iron staircases, leading up to the main courtroom.
No expense was spared in erecting this behemouth! (The sole purpose in building it to such proportions, was to "break" the County [budget], in order to block splitting the County in-two, back in the mid-1800s!)


The concert was really good, and we all went out to eat at a local pub, afterward. We got home and called it a night.


Sunday night they had their belated family Thanksgiving feast, and we had a wonderful time sitting around the family Wurlitzer piano, singing Gospel songs and Christmas Carols (his mom brought home the score from the concert, which included a medley of the Charlie Brown Christmas Program) - The next day, we visited some more, went and had a nice 'goodbye' breakfast in town (Carlinville) - and we made the 4-hr. trek back to Chicago, with no problems. We were both exhausted, and after looking in on the kittens, called it a day!


Tuesday, I worked out, then met our friend Ed, Our Doug, and a friend at Buck's. Stayed out way too late, but had a great time.


Wednesday, we had an Executive Bd. Mtg, at the condo, and Tommy (Board Prez) and I went out to grab a bite, afterward at Chicago Diner (great vegetarian place) and talked with our waiter-friend, Robert who is an actor, here in Chicago. Stopped by Buck's, again for a nightcap, then back home. We ran into Joe (prop. supvr.) and filled him in on the goings on of the mtg, earlier. Got home way too late, again.


Thurs, I called my friend 'the mayor' and we got together for lunch at Butch McGuire's down on Division. (http://drdolphin.com/index2.html) We had a great time catching up. He just got back from Machu Pichu, where he hiked the Inca Trail up the mountain to see the spectacular ruins, there. Then continued on to Lake Titticaca - the 'lake in the sky', also in Peru. He was on his way to Rotary Club - where he was helping with a children's benefit, that afternoon. We set a date to have High Tea at the Drake, in 2 weeks. . . (Stay Tuned) (Pics forthcoming).