I had a fantastic Valentine’s weekend. Yes, weekend.
It started Friday with me coming home to a clean house, flowers, and Joe baking banana bread which we took to BINGO. It was delicious! I didn’t win anything, but still had a nice time with friends.
On Saturday, Joe surprised me with reservations to P.F. Changs and tickets to see Bobby Lee (of MadTV) at the Improv Chicago in Schaumburg. I was very excited!
Dinner was rather disappointing – the chicken was overdone and the flavor was bland. I’ve had better Chinese food at the Vietnamese restaurant nearby. Shoot, even Panda Express makes better food. The atmosphere was lacking too. It was way too loud to have a conversation. Oh well, at least now we can say we’ve tried some place new even if we don’t understand why anyone would eat there a second time.
And boy was the whole area crowded! We had a hell of a time finding parking at Woodfield and once we got inside, it was a madhouse! People just everywhere, reminding me why I avoid that mall like the plague. The restaurant was hopping too which surprised me since we had early reservations (5 o’clock). People were coming in off the street looking to eat and were told there was an hour and a half wait. Not one person agreed to wait, and who can blame them? With the exception of the previous Sunday when we went out for brunch and ran into the after-church crowd, we never wait to eat.
After dinner we had a little time to kill, so we went into the Sephora and I ended up buying $77 worth of perfume. They didn’t give me any free samples though. I thought they always did that? Did I get stiffed? Do I need to send a complaint letter? Because you know I will.
We purposely took our time getting to the Improv since we hadn’t bought dinner tickets and knew we’d be sitting toward the back anyway. Luckily our waitress was a lot friendlier than last time, although this one lady trying to guide people to their seats was bitchy. We didn’t want to get crammed in with the rest of the herd, so we opted to sit in the back by the bar where it’s elevated. It gave us a great line of sight to the stage.
Both of Bobby’s opening acts were ok. I liked the second guy, Nick Thune, a lot. That is until he had the gall to use MY favorite band, The Cure, as a punchline! I could barely believe it. It was along the lines of how it’s better to go to a concert than a sporting event since there’s always a loser in sports. He said “everyone’s a winner when you go to a concert, unless it’s a Cure concert” and then proceeded to talk shit about Cure fans. Douchebag! Joe was laughing at the look on my face.
Bobby Lee is just crazy! Crazy funny, that is. I won’t ruin it by going into specifics in case anyone plans to see him, but that guy sure loves to take his clothes off. Why is it always a thong and socks? Reminds me of “24 with Bobby Lee” from MadTV. We were both a little concerned about Bobby’s stand-up act since we’ve only seen him on TV, but he was great. I only wish his set was longer than a half hour. :(
At 2 am Sunday morning I had what I guess was a panic attack? Acid reflux attack? Stroke? Seriously, I don’t know what it was, but I woke up gasping, my heart was racing, and I couldn’t stop burping. I felt so unreal, as if I was going to die. This has happened a few times before, but years ago when I was still on acid reflux medication. After I got off it and started taking probiotics, I never had that problem again. So I’m not sure what caused it, but it might have been a combination of factors – the caffeine in the latte I shared with Joe that morning, the onions in the tuna fish sandwich I had for lunch, the Chinese food, the caffeine from the regular Pepsi I ordered at the show (I’ve mostly stopped drinking pop altogether), and the rich chocolate cake I also ate at the show (2-item minimum). My left arm has felt weird ever since, though. Kinda tingly/numb, which of course freaks me out because I’m always reading that heart issues for women in particular don’t necessarily present themselves with the classic pain and crushing chest feeling. Joe thinks I just pulled a muscle or have a pinched nerve, and my work friend thinks it’s anxiety related, which is definitely possible. Google hasn’t helped me much since it could be those things or a heart thing. But since I’m pretty young, I’ve been trying to treat it like it’s not a heart thing and just give that arm a rest. Perfect excuse not to exercise after work, which of course is hurting no one but myself but whatever. I hate that Joe has dropped 20 lbs and I’ve got my doctor telling me I should get back in shape. I’m not terribly overweight, but I did gain 20 lbs since last year which for my height is concerning.
Anyway, thanks to that whole fiasco, I slept in on Sunday instead of heading out for brunch and then to an ice sculpture festival as planned. Instead we lazed around in our PJs all day and watched lots of DIY and Home & Garden. And despite being told otherwise, Joe got me a Valentine’s Day gift which he left on my jewelry box so I’d see it after I got out of the shower – chocolates, and a bracelet I had been eyeing at Target for while. I swear, he is way too good to me! I’m very lucky indeed.
I hope you all enjoyed your holiday weekend as much as I did! It was fantastic except for my stroke/anxiety thing. ;)
