Say "Yes" to Ketchup

When moving, there are obviously a lot of new experiences to be had, things to figure out and lessons to be learned. This past week for me was filled with all of the above, with a particular focus on learning lessons.
My first lesson has come in parallel parking. Now, this actually used to be a skill that I was relatively good at, then 10 years of living in Burlington, Vermont where I either was spoiled with a driveway, found big open parking lots, or just drove around the block to avoid parallel parking and I have lost my touch. On our street is a man named, Al, who we met the first day we were here. One day, I was driving and Scott saw him pointing to an open spot, conveniently located right across the street from our apartment. We pulled into a driveway to turn around and in an utter panic, I jumped out of the driver seat and told Scott that he was going to have to do it. We quickly swapped and then the nice man helped navigate us into the available spot. When we got out, he introduced himself by name and then proceeded to say that he is the "Mayor of Hyde Park" and he told us that he takes care of the street. It became immediately clear to us that he is not the actual mayor, but a very friendly and helpful person to know, so we introduced ourselves and then listened to a speech about being grateful for living, standing on two legs and breathing without the assistance of a tube in our throats and not getting worked up over the small things. I quickly decided he was one of my new favorite people. Also, I promise to get this back on track about a lesson in parallel parking, but when meeting someone like, Al, it is really important to describe him first. Ok, so here we are unloading our car, listening to a lesson on life (one that I probably needed at that very moment) and we thank him for helping us find a spot. He then informs us that Hyde Park is known as "Hyde Hard to Park" or something along those lines and tells us that spots get snatched up right away, so you better grab them when you can. This week I have seen that he is correct, spots get taken pretty quickly, but we have also been able to find ones pretty close, but I have definitely had to up my parking game as basically all of them need to be reached by parallel parking. So, one morning I decided I would go out and practice. Lessons learned...always check in with Al, start with a big space first, and when you are pulling out of a space for the third time to try again and someone offers to coach you through the steps, say "yes, please!" without hesitation. Oh, and shamelessly take pictures of your parking efforts.

My next lesson was at the Chicago Hot Dog Festival. It was a gorgeous Saturday and we wanted to explore North Chicago a bit. Scott had done some research on different events going on in the area. He became very excited when he read there was a hot dog festival going on. I was a bit more hesitant thinking, "how may hot dogs can we eat?" First part of the lesson learned that day (not for the first time though), always listen to Scott. The hot dog festival was a blast and included way more than hot dogs. There was actually a presentation called, "In Defense of Ketchup" taking place right when we got there. With one of my childhood nicknames being, "The Ketchup Queen" I knew this was going to be a good event. While we were standing in line to get "Dog Dollars", which are worth the same as a regular US dollar, we were handed some free ones from people leaving the festival. Score! After getting our money, we started searching out the best hog dog stand. This ended up being a bit more challenging than you would think, because there were so many to choose from, and with all the lines being long and our stomachs being very empty, we didn't do a very thorough background assessment of the different options. The one we ended up picking though offered the standard "Chicago Style Dog" and "Loaded Tater Tots", so it was a winner in our books. As we got closer to the front of the line, I saw that the back of all the vendors' shirts was the phrase, "No Ketchup". This was probably the only downside to picking this line, because I hesitated for a moment and considered not putting one of my favorite condiments on my lunch. Then, at risk of getting picked on by strangers, I used the last two pumps of the canister on my hot dog and boy was it worth it. So, there was my next lesson, despite what the shirts say, say "yes" to ketchup.

With bellies filled with tater tots and Chicago's famous food, we walked around with some ice cream to other non-food vendors. We learned about a really cool business called, A La Card that sells decks of 52 gift cards to different restaurants in Chicago. Each card is worth $10 off your meal price and has a description of the restaurant, where it is located and what type of food they serve. We pre-ordered next year's set and got this years for free! Another big score came at a vendor just a couple tables away. It was for the White Sox and you got to spin a wheel to earn some prizes. We were actually considering going to a game that night, so this was the perfect table to be at. We saw that on the wheel there were 2 spaces to land on and win tickets to a game, my fingers were crossed, but I was a bit doubtful because the chances were not in our favor. That didn't matter though, because my spin landed on one of those two spots and we won tickets! What a day! I was reminded of the first lesson of the day again, always listen to Scott.
Let's see what this week's lessons are. If I play my cards right, not the restaurant ones though because that would be silly, maybe I will learn what Chicago job is best for me.