I’m Amanda. I’ve got wide eyes, a smart mouth, and a MetroCard. And I’m not afraid to use them.
Millennium Park also houses Crown Fountain, two 50-foot glass brick towers that project LED images while also serving as a watering hole.
Videos of Chicago locals play for a few minutes at a time. The same faces can be seen in the city’s classrooms, community centers, and churches.
Chicago’s Millennium Park has this huge stainless steel sculpture by Anish Kapoor named Cloud Gate.
But everyone calls it “The Bean,” as well they should. I have a cousin who went by “Booger” his first 12 years. Because, you know…
I went to the circus every year until I was 13. It was my dad’s idea, and I eventually had to tell him I didn’t want to go anymore. It featured the same cheesy acts every year, with the most dangerous, bespandexed one occupying the center ring and dog tricks and juggling on either side.
I’m not sure how my dad survived all those nights of the same family entertainment spectacular. Maybe he was doing his taxes in his head? Dozing? Who knows?
I was invited to attend and blog about the UniverSOUL Circus last week. I hadn’t heard of the event, as it’s never toured anywhere I lived. Thinking about the “SOUL” part of the name, I started imagining clowns dressed as Otis Redding.
For our one-year anniversary of knowing each other, which I know is not the same as a one-year anniversary of dating or being boyfriend and girlfriend (you know we’re not going there), TBID and I wanted to do something new. There wasn’t much time to plan anything too extraordinary, so we needed something local.
At dinner that Friday night, we still weren’t sure what to do. A trip to Rhode Island was suggested. I’ve never been there, and I’m not sure what one does there. But someone does something, and I have a camera and a good companion! It was an idea.
Skydiving was also being considered. Because nothing says “I love you,” like getting strapped to a stranger and then jumping tandem out of an airplane. And potentially crapping your pants. We can’t forget that part of the milestone.
Sometimes you meet someone and you fit like you’re Tinker Toys, and all you want to do is stick your parts together and see the world. (This simile is not intended to be pornographic).
Bucket List Goal #4: Be part of a cranberry harvest.
On my second Thanksgiving in New York, which was actually celebrated in Pennsylvania, I discovered whole berry cranberry sauce. It rocked my world. I’d previously abstained from the tart treat, because people in the South - and sadly, most of the country - think it suffices to serve the canned kind. It doesn’t. Trust me.
Do you have a bucket list, those 10 or 20 or 100 things you want to accomplish before expiring? Most people don’t. Not only is thinking about death something we don’t like to do unless we’re like totally emo, it’s rather daunting.
Previously on The Best Saturday Ever: Our heroine and TBOHID (the boy our heroine is dating) managed to wake up early, travel upstate, and pick apples off of trees, actual trees made of tree materials.
When we last left off, our heroine (that would be me) wanted to drag the guy she’s dating to the country. Or at least some place where there are drive-thru windows.
Saturday marked a turning point in my time with TBID - our first sausage fest. He and I met up with three of his guy friends for a day of boating. The weather was beautiful, and we loaded up plenty of libations and snacks for some salty speeding.
