Menage à Trois Bingo

For my birthday, my lovely loves got us tickets to a stage production of Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman's TV miniseries/novel (now also available in a graphic novel adaptation). In Chicago!

Saturday was the day of the show, and we made a weekend of it.

Friday
Friday just after noon we left STL, foster kitty in tow, for Chicago. Kitty was not too thrilled to be travelling, but she calmed down about halfway there. We planned to meet my parents at 7 at a restaurant that Tammie used to frequent when she lived in Chicago, The Lucky Platter in Evanston. Mom & Dad came down from Wisconsin and spent their day at the Shedd Aquarium and then drove to the restaurant. I got a call at 6 to say they were there...

"Yikes, that's early! We did say seven...and it looks like we may be late, traffic is being very ugly."

"We brought books, we'll just sit here and wait."

Traffic on I-55 northbound was horrific from south of Joliet all the way in. Our directions would have had us going north on Lake Shore Drive, but we bailed at I-294 after it took almost an hour to travel 20 miles. We finally arrived at Evanston about 7:10.

Meanwhile Mom had visited the Lucky Platter and felt that it was not passable for Dad's wheelchair. (They actually do have a ramp, it turns out, it's just you have to ring for someone to bring it out.) They suggested a different restaurant around the corner, the Firehouse Grill. Dinner was delicious prime rib for everybody except Chris (and the cat, who had to suffice herself with kibble in the van).

After dinner, the cat transfer was made, and Mom and Dad headed home. C&T and I went to our hotel, the Holiday Inn in Skokie. Our passage to the lobby was briefly impeded by an Indian wedding party. In fact we saw Indian wedding parties no less than five times over the two-and-a-half days; in one case a musical number broke out in the parking lot (saluting the bride and groom into their limo or something like that, maybe?) I don't know whether these were all different weddings or the same one, but the saris were lovely.

Saturday
Saturday morning we went back to the Lucky Platter for breakfast. Delicious! Amusing kitsch and found-art decor (sculptures made of tin cans, chandeliers made of colanders, aluminum foil balls making a pattern on the ceiling...). The most surprising thing was the Gingered Fruit side dish: strawberries, green and red grapes, and pineapple all in ginger syrup with chopped red onions and fresh cilantro. It was amazingly good.

Colandelier


Then Tammie and I walked (and Chris drove) to the Close Knit yarn shop location from the Windy City Knitting Guild website. Along the way, we saw this sculpture in a park. Beyond it, a couple were taking pictures of small animals: guinea pigs! The piggies escaped a couple of times and had to be chased. By the way guinea pigs can lollop surprisingly fast, in case you were wondering.

Sculpchairs


Close Knit's space was deserted; I called their phone number and got a recording with a new address and directions (back to the main street we'd walked up and two blocks further north). On looking around a bit we did also find a small sign in the shop window next door with the new address. Waited for Chris to catch up and then walked the remaining few blocks to the new location. Found a ball of the Kidsilk Night color Macbeth (deep purple) that I had wanted but couldn't get when I was making the Eerie, so even though it was only one ball I bought it. And some other stuff of course.

After that we went back to the hotel to get ready for the show. Our plan had been to wear corsets and jeans, but it didn't entirely work out. Tammie decided to wear her steampunk vest and gaiters, while I wore her corset instead of mine. Chris wore his tux.

Arrived at the theater's parking lot just in time for the last shuttle (it was about 1/2 mile away) and got to our seats just as the show was about to start.

Neverwhere, the stage production
IT ROCKED. EVERY GAIMAN FAN SHOULD GO. There, that's a review for you. To use a few more words, Lifeline Theater in the Rogers Park neighborhood does an excellent adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere to the stage, as adapted by one of their very own. The minimal set works very well to evoke London Below within the small space, with sewer pipes, ladders and ducts that are climbed into and out of as the characters move about their world. Characters also enter and exit through the middle of the audience space. The dialog comes straight from the book in most cases, and all your favorite characters make an appearance, from RichardRichardMayhewDick and Door, natch, to the Rat Speakers.

We were the only ones who dressed up in quasi-costume for the show, though one man did pay tribute to Gaiman by wearing a Dream t-shirt.

This chair is in the theater lobby. Notice the shadow under Chris's feet!

Please be kind to the big chair: only two people and no food or drink


Saturday night
After the show, we had dinner with our friends-of-no-LJ Chris and Rob, whose wedding we attended last summer. We had planned to eat at the hotel's own Indian restaurant, but it turned out the restaurant was being remodeled so we decided to go to an Indian district and find something there. Parking was a nightmare, so I finally said a prayer to the Asphalt Fairy--and just as we were about to give up, a space appeared. The first restaurant we tried was very busy so we decided to try a different one. Dinner was tasty and the company as always was wonderful.

Then we all went back to the hotel to hang out and talk over Woodchuck and Red Stripe until midnight-thirty, when they regretfully had to leave for their hour's drive home.

Sunday
Sunday morning we ate at Sander's Pancake House next door to the hotel (very tasty but not as memorable as the Lucky Platter) and then after checkout we went to Fuzzy Wuzzy yarn shop in Arlington Heights where we were able to catch up with transplantmom and her family for a hug and a brief chat before they had to go home and we went to the mothership (IKEA for the uninitiated). IKEA was its usual self--we spent not too much money--and then we finally headed home about 3:30.

Cat report
Dad and kitty are settling in together. He reports that she is very affectionate, as I had told him--she loves to be brushed--and she is also very very talkative. They're not sure yet what she's talking about, or to whom (perhaps herself). He is probably going to call her Furbie-short-for-Furball. As god is my witness, I suggested four good names, as well as telling them we were getting the feeling she's a Maggie, but you can lead a horse to water, y'know? He says it has to be something they'll actually call her, and Furball certainly qualifies. I feel that's a nickname, and a cat should have a proper name, but...not my cat.

That was lovely. I needed some ~culture in my life after all this cleaning and packing and manual labor. A nice little wine and cheese reception for Christine's University College friends, and a student production of Shakespeare. I'd never seen or read Twelfth Night before, so I really had to concentrate to catch some of the jokes--and my dirty mind made jokes where maybe there really weren't any, though Shakespeare is pretty damn' bawdy.

After lunch this afternoon I took a walk around the park and went shopping at the garden store--which occurred to me afterward could have passed for an artist date: the colors and shapes of the flowers were inspiring me to design my flowerbeds and garden. I didn't buy anything yet though, because I simply don't have time to garden yet, and also because I need to figure out where the sunny and shady parts are, and clean out the undergrowth before I'll know where I can put new plants.

It finally occurred to me to be surprised that I'm still able to connect to the 'net. I canceled my phone service here...but they apparently didn't realize that meant both lines! I'll have to call and straighten that out.