Team Canada...

This past weekend was 4th of July, or Independence day here in the U.S. Paul and I had no major plans other than heading to a BBQ, and I had to work one day. Wednesday night a friend of mine called who I have not chatted to in a very long time, I met Leslie back in Scotland as well, she is Canadian and we see eachother as often as we can. Leslie is quite the world traveler so it had been like four years since we last caught up in Calgary.

There was a festival going on this weekend in Michigan and she was planning on driving down from Winnipeg to check it out and swinging into Chicago on the way. Plans were not quite panning out and I wasn't able to go with her having to work and all. Come to find out while we were trying to figure out a plan b, the band she wanted to see was playing the Taste of Chicago on the 4th and it was FREE! Who doesn't love free..mind you, you would be fighting of a few million people but what the hell! So she drove the 14hours the next day arrived at our place Thursday evening. We had a fantastic time. Les, got to see the band, even met some guy there. I was at the BBQ, and met up with her later downtown at the show.

It was so great to have a good friend around, not to mention a fellow Canadian. While watching the show we couldn't help but be distracted by the thousands of people around us, and there were some real sights let me tell you. This one foursome was decked out in their red, white and blues, right down to the cane they were using. People were walking around with these giant Bar b qued turkey legs, and extra big, big gulps under the other arm, hollering at their kids, telling they were going to have a good time wether they liked it or not! Les would point out the things that I always noticed, and I would tell Paul about but to him this is normal to see, he though I was exaggerating, having Les here felt like a vindication! Paul was just laugh at us, and shake his head.

Saturday I had to work, so Paul took her around to a few of our favorite neighborhoods to give her a taste of the city she might not otherwise have seen. Then they came and met me at work, and we went to dinner at this great brick oven BYOB funky pizza place just up the road from us. We stroll in with our brown bag, and pull out a forty of vodka and asked for cranberry juice and ice. Before coming to the U.S. I had not been to a BYOB restaurant, I am sure we have them in Canada, I just never came across one before. It was a great time, we got home and Paul passed out early, Les and I polished of the beer, that has been in our fridge for months, the rest of the glenfiddich,which was left from Paul's birthday in January, and when that was done, we found some Whiskey left, and then were eyeing the wine we purchased for dinner on Sunday, but decided best not. Before we knew it, it was 4:30am. Good thing I was off the next day, cause it would have been a rough day. Paul got up at 8am to start laundry, we have a one bedroom apartment and Les was sleeping in the livingroom on our futon, and here is Paul banging and clanging around and kept asking where stuff was, even though I has sorted it for him the night before the debauchery. Finally he leaves, and I hear a knock on my bedroom door, and it Les, asking if I was awake. How could I not be! We were both in rough shape, we tried to catch a few more ZZZ's before we had our girlie day. It seemed like Paul was only gone 20 minutes when I heard him banging and clanging in the doorway again, it was noon! He just laughed at the sights we were.

Paul: Jeez look at you two! If you are going to be hootin with the owls all night you better be ready to soar with the eagles in the mornin! and laughs..good thing he is cute...

Finally we get a move on and we head downtown for our girlie day in Chicago, which consisted of shopping at all these boutique stores that you only hear about back home. I have to say we did pretty good given how much sleep we didn't get, and how much drinking we did the night before, and how freakishly warm it was. Near the end of the day we were starting to feel the effects, but had a great time. I was sad to see her leave the next morning. I don't say goodbye, I say see you later, I have learned you will see them again eventually. Next time I will have Team Canada Shirts made..