Dom and I had a great time attending Chante Moore's concert in Joliet's Rialto Square Theatre. The inside of the theatre itself was very beautiful with interior architecture that reminds you of what you'd see in Italy or Spain. We had good seats near the front of the stage which allowed me to take some great pictures. Dom hadn't heard much about Chante before even though I have played some of her stuff here and there over the years. But he was thoroughly impressed and enjoyed the performance.
Chante puts on a great show and her band also did their thing as at various points in the show as she gave her bandmates a chance to shine. Chante sang a lot of her hits from her first two CDs and others from her other CDs (8 in total). She also sang a couple songs from her forthcoming album which will be her 9th. She also has two additional albums that she did with her ex Kenny Lattimore.
There was one song I prayed that she wouldn't sing called Bitter off of what I call her "attempt at being more urban" project Exposed. I winced everytime she sang the N-word in her recording of the song. But Chante knows most of her audience and did sing it. But instead of saying the offending word, she had the audience sing it. I couldn't bring myself to sing that but I was singing along to everything else she performed. She also did snippets of other artists songs like Tevin Campbell's Can We Talk, Quincy Jones In The Garden, and El Debarge's All This Love among other songs. Overall we really did enjoy the show.
The journey getting there was interesting as well. Since the show was in Joliet, which was about an hour and some change from us, we decided that we would eat something beforehand. Dom of course had a hankering for Chinese so to appease him I tried to find some places along the way that served Chinese. I looked primarily in Matteson, IL since our route was mostly along Lincoln Highway.
I found a place but surprisingly Dom turned it down after not liking how the food looked in pics. So we decided just to do a random stop (which I knew would mean a fast food place but it was alright). Dom spied a Subway and we decided to stop there.
We ordered our subs, I did a 6-inch and the bread looked like it was smaller than that. Dom opted for the foot-long. We decided to eat inside the restaurant. Fifteen minutes into eating this "homeless" guy came in begging for change. Dom immediately went into attack mode but I foolishly thought I would give him a dollar. I didn't have anything but a $5 but of course the guy was like I have change. So he puts change on the table and after I give him the $5 he proceeds to take the change back and saying that he's homeless.
All I could do was laugh and say 'ok, you got me' as he proceeded to walk away. I resigned myself to being conned but treating it as my "good deed" for the day. Dom did try to stop it but I had to be foolish. I saw the Indian folks in the restaurant looking in at us from the back area. They clearly had that character come in before. We also couldn't help but notice they had a bunch of chairs strategically placed to block direct access to the restroom. I'm sure they've had issues before with non-paying customers wanting to use the restroom. Needless to say that is the experience of doing and patronizing business in the hood.
It also reminded me of how blessed I am. I don't know if I would survive out here in these streets hustling to try to make a buck. I am blessed that I managed to hold a job and was able to save and find an affordable place to live. Aside from my blood pressure, my health is fine. My old car is still running fine. I don't take any of that for granted.
As we drove on, I was annoyed as I saw other places that we could've stopped at to eat that would've been better. But the Subway did provide sustenance so it was alright.
Parking itself was another issue. It was mostly street parking with a few garages sprinkled in. After circling the streets a couple times, I decided to park at the local casino Harrah's garage. I did freak out when walking out of the garage as I saw a sign mentioning towing cars away that weren't patronizing the casino. But Dom told me it'll be alright. I did feel bad because Dom and I had to walk a few blocks to get to the theatre and Dom isn't able to walk as quickly. I did wind up walking back to get my car (which thankfully was still safely parked in the garage) and resisted the temptation to go to the casino. I then picked him up from outside the theatre.
We decided to visit the IKEA in Bolingbrook the next morning so we stayed at a local hotel in Bolingbrook for the night. I got us a handicap room so we had a higher toilet seat and wider hallways to make it easier for him to navigate around.
The next morning I went to pick us up some continental breakfast to enjoy in the room. I got us some Belgian waffles and a banana which tided us over till we left for IKEA which was 15 minutes away.
Dom saw a Michael's craft shop in the same area as IKEA so of course we had to stop there first. Well Dom did and I was along for the ride...LOL. We then made it to the IKEA just after 10am. There weren't too many folks thankfully as we went through the aisles and ultimately spending just a little over $200 on various knick knacks and snacks. We even stopped for some Swedish meatballs and mixed veggies for lunch in their cafeteria.
We then made our way back home but not before I made a quick stop at a Sunrise Health store in Lansing, IL to get Ice Cream For Bears, a natural brand of ice cream that is only sold in a few select stores. Then we made it home.
Thankfully I have a day off from work for the Memorial holiday so that gives me one more day to relax before getting back to the work grind.
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