This vacation is very different from my general idea of vacation. With a “normal” vacation for me, I’d love to be in a big, preferably foreign, city and peruse the streets taking pictures. Visiting Chicago feels a little like the early days of college when I would visit my home town of Corpus Christi – so many people you want to see, with little interest in sight seeing. And before you know it, you trip is half over and you feel like there were so many people you didn’t connect with.
Also, I thought I would be ALL ABOUT the eating out at my favorite restaurants, and that I would have to fight the urge to order too much when I undoubtedly went to them. Instead, I’m not feeling the urge to visit them all. The only one I *really* wanted to visit has been visited, and anything else, I can take it or leave it.
Last night, I had dinner (at 4:30 PM) with my 92ish Great Auntie Jean, her daughter and son-in-law. I guess when you’re over sixty, your idea of “a good restaurant” is vastly different. It’s about decent tasting food, LOTS of options (but no real specialty), and value. It just so happened that what I ordered came with a salad AND a side AND a drink AND a dessert. Oh my. I nibbled on everything, though left 90% of my fettuccine Alfredo in my Aunt’s fridge.
This morning, when she pressed me to tell her what I wanted for breakfast, I told her I’d cook some eggs. By the time I walked in the kitchen, she had pulled out everything I would need – two eggs, pan, spatula AND… a pat of butter, already in the pan. Guess the concept of olive oil spray has not made it to the pre-boomer generation yet. And so, I had buttery eggs so as not to offend or confuse my little aunt (though I can honestly say I’d have preferred not to).
This evening, I had a great time. I met my friend Linda and her family at a local Chicago pizzeria before heading to a Bulls game (my first!). Again, I did really well (all things considered) with eating, having just one (one!) slice of pizza, salad, and one slice of fried zucchini and one fried cheese ball. I spent the rest of the evening curled up on the sofa dishing with my pal Linda. Perfect day 
