In Memory of Traditional Gender Roles and Lessons Learn from Hosting a Bachelorette Party
This was a rather eventful Memorial Day weekend. Friday I went to La Macchina, a new Italian restaurant in Evanston, with Kevin and Chris and then to see X-Men: Days of Future Past. I'd wanted to go to La Macchina since walking past it and seeing that they serve linguini with clams the way I like it, with full in their shells clams rather than lots of tiny clams or even worse shredded clam meat. The dish did not disappoint, but everything else did. The space takes style over comfort when it comes to seating, service was very mediocre starting with a sort of "everything is good" unhelpfulness when Kevin asked for recommendations, transitioning to a busboy taking our olive oil away for no apparent reason while we still had bread and finishing with a long wait for the check. And Chris and Kevin's dishes were only so-so and pricey.
The movie was much better. X-2 is still my favorite of the series, and my favorite superhero movie, but this had some truly spectacular fight sequences that I enjoyed thoroughly. A lot of the characterization was off though. I wanted to know Trask's motivation and Beast, often one of my favorite X-Men, was nothing but a worthless enabler to junkie Xavier. Also apparently the Hulk.
Saturday I left early to drop Kevin off at Melzer's bachelor party and headed to get my bridesmaid dress taken in for Lassarina's wedding. Despite ordering it months ago it just came in last week so I have to pay the rush charge but I made a concerted effort to not take my displeasure out on the seamstress as it's not her fault. Then it was off to the first stop of the bachelorette party, King Spa, which was also where my bachelorette party started. It's really a wonderful place for some social relaxing and I seriously hope it doesn't take another friend getting married for me to go back. Then I went home to walk Ladybug and met up at Roka Akor where I feel like I somewhat forcefully got everyone on board with their shared plates policy after a lot of "but I really want this" and "I don't want that." I might have been a bully about it but I feel like most people were pretty happy with the decision to try more things and I was extremely happy with not having to play 10 person bistromathics.
Next stop was my house for the drunken debauchery section, which proved the most educational. Things I learned:
Having recovered, Kevin and I devoted Monday to getting things done. We've been talking about getting a new mattress for a while. We got ours because it was left behind the apartment we moved into in 2006 so we have no idea how old it actually is. Plus fitting two people, two cats and a 45 pound dog into a queen size bed is a bit tight. So we dropped into Back to Bed in Evanston because they were having a Memorial Day sale and got the most skeevy experience from their two sales associates. The first was an older dude who'd been trying to help a couple by a mattress for their daughter and kept complaining that she had "Indecision Paralysis" -- apparently to the point that the dad told him to back off and that he was hurting the sale. He immediately tried to sell us on their most expensive memory foam bed, which cost more than $7K. He explained it was worth it because the bed would last through everything with the exception being the time he "had a bitch have puppies" on his bed. I don't care if that's the technical term dude. I don't want to hear it and I don't care.
Then his manager showed up and directed us to more reasonably priced beds but continued to be super sexist. He asked Kevin if I kick in bed and said "They say the woman is the weaker sex, but not when it comes to the covers." When selling us a mattress cover he warned it wouldn't hold "If he goes out partying with his buddies and comes back and gets sick or if she's lounging around and spills a bottle of red wine." It was like a 1950s sitcom and I have no idea why he was giving a young couple shopping together that kind of pitch. But I guess it worked since we bought a mattress, thought that's mostly because the price was right and it was convenient.
After that we went to Gethsemane to pick out and plant stuff in our garden and out front. Our neighbor was doing the same thing with his wife. When he saw me planting flowers he told Kevin "You need a woman to plant the flowers." Even though both dudes were also gardening. And this guy is a professional landscaper. I love my neighbor. He's super nice but that was kind of bizarre.
The final step in Traditional Gender Rolls Memorial Day came at dinner. We went to Revolucion Mexican Steakhouse and both Kevin and I ordered combo plates. I got coconut shrimp and flank steak (a little surf and turf) and he picked their barbecue chicken and ribs. But when the dishes came out the steak and ribs were on Kevin's plate and the chicken and fish were on mine. It didn't matter since we'd planned on sharing everything anyways but we concluded that mix up was likely because steak and ribs are man food and chicken and fish are girl food.
But whatever, I now have a lovely garden, enjoyed my meal and will soon have a new mattress. Now I'm off to walk my dog (who is a female and has puppies but I still refer to as a dog, thanks) and grill some shrimp. Maybe I'll play some video games. Maybe I'll do laundry.
The movie was much better. X-2 is still my favorite of the series, and my favorite superhero movie, but this had some truly spectacular fight sequences that I enjoyed thoroughly. A lot of the characterization was off though. I wanted to know Trask's motivation and Beast, often one of my favorite X-Men, was nothing but a worthless enabler to junkie Xavier. Also apparently the Hulk.
Saturday I left early to drop Kevin off at Melzer's bachelor party and headed to get my bridesmaid dress taken in for Lassarina's wedding. Despite ordering it months ago it just came in last week so I have to pay the rush charge but I made a concerted effort to not take my displeasure out on the seamstress as it's not her fault. Then it was off to the first stop of the bachelorette party, King Spa, which was also where my bachelorette party started. It's really a wonderful place for some social relaxing and I seriously hope it doesn't take another friend getting married for me to go back. Then I went home to walk Ladybug and met up at Roka Akor where I feel like I somewhat forcefully got everyone on board with their shared plates policy after a lot of "but I really want this" and "I don't want that." I might have been a bully about it but I feel like most people were pretty happy with the decision to try more things and I was extremely happy with not having to play 10 person bistromathics.
Next stop was my house for the drunken debauchery section, which proved the most educational. Things I learned:
- Strippers smell nice. Seriously, the guy that came over was good looking and had really ripped abs but I think his smell was my favorite part. I wound up asking him what he was wearing which was appropriately Playboy. Kevin might be getting some as a gift.
- Getting a lap dance will turn me on but it just makes me wish Kevin was right there so I could do something about it. So score one for marital fidelity I guess.
- My friends cannot handle their liquor. Seriously, I went pretty much drink for drink with these girls and four of the seven vomited that night with the bride-to-be getting sick the next day. I guess I drink a lot when I'm bar reviewing so maybe I have more of a tolerance? Though I was mixing my own drinks while many of the others were mixed by the maid of honor and those might have been a bit stronger.
- I will allow my dog to eat vomit if it means I have one less vomit mess to clean up. I'm not proud. She was eager to help.
Having recovered, Kevin and I devoted Monday to getting things done. We've been talking about getting a new mattress for a while. We got ours because it was left behind the apartment we moved into in 2006 so we have no idea how old it actually is. Plus fitting two people, two cats and a 45 pound dog into a queen size bed is a bit tight. So we dropped into Back to Bed in Evanston because they were having a Memorial Day sale and got the most skeevy experience from their two sales associates. The first was an older dude who'd been trying to help a couple by a mattress for their daughter and kept complaining that she had "Indecision Paralysis" -- apparently to the point that the dad told him to back off and that he was hurting the sale. He immediately tried to sell us on their most expensive memory foam bed, which cost more than $7K. He explained it was worth it because the bed would last through everything with the exception being the time he "had a bitch have puppies" on his bed. I don't care if that's the technical term dude. I don't want to hear it and I don't care.
Then his manager showed up and directed us to more reasonably priced beds but continued to be super sexist. He asked Kevin if I kick in bed and said "They say the woman is the weaker sex, but not when it comes to the covers." When selling us a mattress cover he warned it wouldn't hold "If he goes out partying with his buddies and comes back and gets sick or if she's lounging around and spills a bottle of red wine." It was like a 1950s sitcom and I have no idea why he was giving a young couple shopping together that kind of pitch. But I guess it worked since we bought a mattress, thought that's mostly because the price was right and it was convenient.
After that we went to Gethsemane to pick out and plant stuff in our garden and out front. Our neighbor was doing the same thing with his wife. When he saw me planting flowers he told Kevin "You need a woman to plant the flowers." Even though both dudes were also gardening. And this guy is a professional landscaper. I love my neighbor. He's super nice but that was kind of bizarre.
The final step in Traditional Gender Rolls Memorial Day came at dinner. We went to Revolucion Mexican Steakhouse and both Kevin and I ordered combo plates. I got coconut shrimp and flank steak (a little surf and turf) and he picked their barbecue chicken and ribs. But when the dishes came out the steak and ribs were on Kevin's plate and the chicken and fish were on mine. It didn't matter since we'd planned on sharing everything anyways but we concluded that mix up was likely because steak and ribs are man food and chicken and fish are girl food.
But whatever, I now have a lovely garden, enjoyed my meal and will soon have a new mattress. Now I'm off to walk my dog (who is a female and has puppies but I still refer to as a dog, thanks) and grill some shrimp. Maybe I'll play some video games. Maybe I'll do laundry.