Dom and I had a date night in downtown Chicago last night. We went to none other than the Chicago's Gay Men Chorus's annual Christmas show which has been a tradition of ours for almost the last decade. Thankfully my work day was light after three stressful Sev1 days. One of my cases the customer literally demanded wanting a meeting with the tech team because the resolution was not fast enough for them and they were losing millions. I'm not thrilled with my new role dealing with Severity 1 cases but I'm hoping I can find a groove and make things better. I have dusted off my old resume though and am in the process of finally updating it so I can be ready for new opportunities when they arise.
So back to our night in the city. We started out by driving to the train station to catch the train that would whisk us to downtown. It's the only way I prefer going to the city these days as I hate driving there. The train car we were in was pretty full but we lucked out and found an open two seats together.
Once downtown we took to the city sights. Thankfully the weather was beautiful for a December evening. Not too cold at all with just a light breeze. It was in the mid-50's, a temperature I wish it would stay at all winter.
We had about 90 minutes to kill before the show started. Some Facebook acquaintances were ranting and raving about this fast food place called Jolibee that serves what they call "comfort food" but with a Filipino twist. They serve chicken, burgers, and even spaghetti & meatballs. I was curious to try it but their location is a bit too far from the part of downtown that I work so the opportunity didn't arise. But the theatre we were going to see the show was only a few blocks from their Michigan City location so I suggested it to Dom as a dining spot.
We quickly spied the place when seeing the distinctive bee mascot just outside the main entrance. We went in and the space itself was open and inviting. I did notice there were a lot of Asian folks dining so clearly it was a place they enjoyed.
Unfortunately that's where it ended. The server we had was so preoccupied with her cell phone that it took five minutes before she finally looked up to place our order. I saw that they had a spicy chicken sandwich and was immediately told they were out of it. I opted instead to get a two piece chicken meal with fries. I also ordered their peach mango pie since it was all the rave with my Facebook acquaintances. Dom was expecting a more Asian theme meal so was disappointed at the onset. He settled for 6 piece chicken tenders. But the server said they were out of that too. Finally the server relented that it would be a fifteen minute wait which we were fine with since we had some time to kill. He also ordered the peach mango pie.
I was shocked to see that the chicken tenders were $16 when I reviewed the receipt after sitting down. I went up to check to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me and confirmed that was the price. When we finally got our meal the tenders were so tiny. Dom had me try one and it tasted good but I felt they were way overpriced for what it actually was.
My two piece chicken and fries tasted fine. It was half the price of Dom's dish and probably could've been two dollars less if I was nitpicking but compared to the tenders, it was a bargain. LOL. I had one drumstick and a small thigh.
We both hoped the peach mango pie at least would be the highlight of the meal. The outside crust reminded me of the old school McDonald's apple and cherry pies with the fried crust they used to serve up until sometime in the late 90's when they went for the more baked type crust. The pie itself was tiny and unfortunately it was probably sitting in the warmer area for a bit too long as they were not particularly hot. Dom didn't like it because it didn't taste fruity enough. I tasted the fruit a little bit but I wasn't impressed with it either. To top it off they didn't serve napkins initially and when I went back to ask, they gave me only a few thin pieces of napkins. It's like they were trying to hoard the napkins.
At least I got my curiosity out of the way. I definitely won't be going out of my way to go back anytime soon.
It was a busy night in the city as we slowly made our way to the Auditorium Theatre. It was both of our first times in the historic theatre. We loved the outside architecture of the building and the inside theatre was a thing of beauty. Dom needed to use the restroom and we immediately was told about one that unfortunately required going downstairs, something that is a challenge for Dom to do these days. We initially had seats in the Front Balcony which there was an elevator that could be taken. We then learned there was a restroom on that floor as well that would've been easier for Dom to get to. Then as we were about to sit down, the usher was telling us about a "free upgrade" to the pit area since they did not sell all of the pit seats.
Dom quickly said yes and I was okay with it too since I had thought our initial seats would have an open area to stretch. So we went to the pit area and had two seats in the DDD row which was four row from the stage. There was a young-ish twink guy that was sitting in the seat near me already. Dom had an open seat next to him that he placed his coat in. But another bearish gentleman wound up sitting there. He was cute and I saw that Dom and he exchange pleasantries. I couldn't help but stare at him from time to time. The seating was a bit tight so all four of us kept brushing against each other. Finally during intermission Dom discovered that the seats were all connected to each other and could be disconnected which gave us a little more breathing room.
We enjoyed the show and we got to see a gentleman that used to go to our Church performing as part of the choir. Daniel really seems to be enjoying himself. He's retired from working and pretty much CGMC is his life now. Dom was thinking that it would be nice for Daniel to have someone in his life since he's been single for a long time. But I reminded Dom that I'm sure Daniel is having some fun since he is in a gay men's chorus and I'm sure there are single guys among them.
Sadly the bearish guy next to Dom took off quickly by the end of the show. He didn't even stick around to have small talk with during the break like the twink guy next to me did. Twink guy next to me was pretty cool as he explained the rules for some side contest that went on before Act 2. It's possible bearish guy saw Dom and I holding hands and he figured he didn't want to be in the middle of things. Though it wasn't like anything was going to happen anyway.
We had an annoying loud lady sitting behind us. Dom reminded me that no matter what show we go to, there'll always be some annoying person(s) around us. In the grand scheme of things, she wasn't the worst we encountered but she's up there on the list.
We didn't get home until well after midnight. I was tired but had some dishes and cleaning in kitchen that needed to be done before I went to sleep. Well it could've waited but I don't like leaving dirty dishes overnight.
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