Zoo Bucket List (post 1)

As I walked through the brisk winter air. I realized I had a large grin on my face. Because I was going to check something off my bucket list.

The thing about Bucket Lists are, I think, people wait till they are older to start checking them off. Why wait? Life is to short, things happen, people die, people get sick. I’ve been checking things off my list since 1978. And today I was able to do another one.

Going to one of my favorite places, like I have SO many times before. But this time. By myself.

Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo.

Some people see the zoo as a bunch of animals in cages to show off. But little do they know HOW much more then that the zoo really is. It’s about conservation, and teaching, not only the public about animals but teaching themselves. Learning something new everyday. Through observation, and study.

I spend a good amount of my day chatting with the amazing volunteers, or as they are also called, Docents.
Patricia was the first I had encountered. She was in the Australia house.

I did spend some time in the beginning of the Australia house, watching the boa’s and other small displays they had. It’s a smaller darker house, and while most people run through it. I stroll.

I was first drawn to where she was because the keeper was hosing down the Kookaburra birds, who are housed with a Tawny Frogmouth birds (seen here)

Super cool to watch. The keeper was hand feeding fish to the birds.

Which excited the Kookabura’s and they starting their amazing singing! It’s not often the public gets to hear them. I felt lucky.

Patricia and I chatted about wombats, the baby they just had there. Their age, weight and how strong they are. Being that it was feeding time, and no people, this was the most moving around I’ve ever seen the wombats do. They were scratching, sniffing, and moving about.

I was too excited to move onto my favorite place in the Australia house, and one of my favorite places period in this zoo. The free flying bat area.

Well there is one thing to learn about me, it’s that I don’t fear animals. Don’t get it wrong with the fact that I respect them. I know their dangerous, and could at any time, harm me. BUT I also know enough about animals that I know what to fear, how to act, and how far to trust.

So when you go into the free flying bat area, know that the Rodriques fruit bats will fly around. They may even fly close to you. I did hear a story where a lady had one land on her. She wasn’t amused. Myself? I’d be thrilled only hoping it wouldn’t go to the bathroom on me.

Patricia taught me about how the bats are named from Rodriques Island that is off the coast of Madagascar. I learned the one’s you see in the open area are neutered males and females. (they like to breed!) With out a flash you can still capture a great shot.

Hard to see the bats. They are usually above on the screen. But to the left on the ground is one crawling.

I spent about 45 minutes chatting with Patricia. Found out later she’s THE know all of docents that volunteer at the zoo. So happy I was able to spend so much time with her.

After our conversation. She said I’ve got something to tell you. I was nervous. She said “Thank you. You are an exception to many people that come to our zoo to visit. You WANT to learn about animals, you also appreciate what it is we do here. You seem to be teaching your children all about the animals. But you are teaching them about what it is we do here at the zoo. You have a great respect for the animals, and a great want to learn all you can about the animals. I’m thankful for people like you.” She touched my arm. And said she had to go off to her next station. It was a great visit.

THIS is what I wanted out of my day. Not expecting a compliment like that. But time to chat with keepers, and docents. To explore the quiet of the zoo. The winter life. The Zoo to me is so much more then the summer rush of too many people and those damn tour busses that drive around, forcing you to move out of the way. I’m not a fan of crowds, and at this rate I’m spoiled with quiet time at the zoo.

To be continued…

JCat McGack

Life Lesson while getting spoiled.

This little girl of mine had a WONDRFUL Monday and Tuesday.

On Monday her Papa brought over the BIG GIANT two story bed he had been hand crafting for the last two months.

Mia has been smitten with it every since! Loading it full of her stuffie friends, putting her reading nook below, along with her art desk as well.
Then on Tuesday she was taken up to Chicago’s famous Water Tower Place to shop at the American Girl Place store.

Where she was able to pick out accessories for her American Girl doll, Kit. They now both have their ears pierced, matching glasses, Kit has a tote bag, and new shoes. Of coarse they wore matching dresses there. And this picture was taken in their excusive American Girl dining room.

We enjoyed the day, full of family, laughter and memories. While walking outside, freezing in Chicago’s 30 degree weather, on Michigan Ave. Mia saw her Gigi walk over to a man and give him some money.

Mia said “Why did she give that stranger some money?”
I took this as my cue to give Mia, a life lesson.

I said “Mia, do you see where he’s sitting?”
She said “Yes. But it’s cold outside. He should go home.”
I said “That is his home.”
She looked at me… confused. And said “I mean his bed, in HIS home” I then said “No Mi. He doesn’t HAVE a home. He doesn’t HAVE a bed. He doesn’t have ANYTHING. THAT is where he will sleep tonight, he won’t lay down, it’s too cold. He only has that thin blanket to keep him warm.”
She looked at me. Sad face. She said “But I HAVE so many things, and I can sleep anywhere in our big warm house. Where are his toys?” I said “Mia all he really wants is simply things. Food, water and to stay warm.” She bowed her head. As if she felt bad for having all the nice things we did.
I said “We are SO lucky. A home. Heat. Water. Food. Clothes. And our families that love us so much. We need to remember how lucky we are. Toys are just an extra thing, and this man only wants the things that we assume we will always have. And Gigi knows this, so she is giving money to him. Because she can.”

We walked away hand in hand. She smiled and said “I sure am lucky. I’ve got you.”
If only she knows that I am the lucky one, and that I’m thankful there was that moment in her spoiled loved weekend that she was able to see that not everyone has it as wonderful as she does.

I can’t help that Mia and Alex are the only two Grandchildren that the four grandparents will get. That everyone loves to spoil them. That is fine with me. My job is to raise them to appreciate everything. To respect their toys, and the people that give them things. And to know that they are lucky to have this kind of life. And to pay it forward to those who are less fortunate then they are.

JCat McGack

Date Night with some Late Night

Planning dinner Friday night, Blue asks me if we have any gift cards with money left on them. I check and we’ve got a Lettuce Entertain You, gift card. This covers a good amount of restaurants… BUT it’s not a cheap night out, and we’ve only got $50 on it. It needs to be a date night out.

So he asked me to look up the restaurants, and pick one in Chicago… I about fell off my chair. I mean a DATE… AND Chicago?!

We decided to eat breakfast for dinner that night, and set up with his parents to take the kids Saturday night so we could go out.

I DE.STROY.ED our closet and bedroom, trying like hell to find ANYTHING that would look good for a date night in Chicago. I mean it’s Chicago. The last time a “Date night” in Chicago existed, it was July 2008. The restaurant had a dress code. So no jeans. I’ve got only TWO other pants that fit me. Black dress pants (those are good for a family Christmas party, NOT a trendy Chicago night out) or my black leggings… damn why I didn’t diet sooner… so the black leggings won. With a purple top. It was TIGHT and long enough to cover most of my ass, pair it with my Happy Place black heels, and I was good to go. And Blue, by the way, gave me hell about what I did to the closet. HE did the same thing! 

Plans for the night were to go as such…

Reservations for 5:30 at Hub51 restaurant downtown. Then after that possibly some walking on Michigan Avenue.

This is how it went…

Dropped off the kids at his parent, he was visiting with them, I said I don’t mean to be rude but we have 1 hour and 25 minutes to be IN Chicago AT our reservation. LETS. GO.

He gave me a hard time, joking that it’s a 40 minute ride… obviously he forgot it was a 60 degree December night in Chicago on.a.Saturday! It was a ZOO down there!

We made ONE wrong turn, AND if you know anything about Chicago, that damn upper and lower Wacker will get me EVERY time. YES there are TWO street levels to Chicago. YES the are both at ground level. If you are not confused yet, try it yourself and understand I was driving back and forth on Michigan Ave. State Street and just COULDN’T figure out how to get DOWN. I did a HUGE U turn in the middle of Michigan ave I was so frustrated!
(I studied the map, knew the area, and am VERY good at directions… sadly it didn’t work out that way)

Thankfully his good friend, 101 works downtown, so we called him to help us get there, and we were ONLY 45 minutes late. (I did call the restaurant and told them we were coming!)

Parking was a breeze, I prepaid online for a ticket in a garage. $8.50 for the night! That’s about $20 less then you normally pay in Chicago for parking!

We only had a 20 minute wait for a table, the restaurant was crowded! It was everything from dressy to casual. Bouncers at the door. Décor was dark, contemporary and fun.

Food was bar food, some GREAT bar food. Prices were not outrageous, as in we figured $50 could cover most of the meal. I enjoyed my first day of eating healthy by destroying THIS… man sized pulled chicken nachos. OMG it was a never ending bowl.

Ed went with the First-rate Cheese burger and fries. THAT was a good dinner.

 

Sadly I didn’t get a picture of their carrot cake and giant brownie we had for desert. It didn’t last long enough to get a picture of! Note their carrot cake is A.MAZ.ING. and they are known for it.

We both said we’d go there again. Wish we wouldn’t have had a table next to the bar with rude douche bags leaning on our table. I MAY have poked him with a fork on accident a few times. Asshole just WASN’T getting the message.

We did say we’d want to go during the week, where we could enjoy conversation and hoping no bar side view! I came prepared with a list of questions to help date night go smoothly.

YES questions to talk about. I found them in a magazine over a year ago, and have had them in my wallet. It’s questions for parents who’ve been married for a while. Questions that did NOT involve the kids. They were fun, like “What would you do with $10,000,000?” or “What would you do for a whole day by yourself?” we had a good time thinking out and talking out ideas and dreams, and then we ended up coming up with some of our own. Happy that Blue played along, and we had fun with our questions.

Blue’s good friend 101 and his wife JUST so happened to be having a date night in the big city themselves! JUST down the street from us. So they picked us up and we headed to a fun place called Eno, right next to Michael Jordan’s restaurant on Michigan Avenue, It was a wine tasting place.

Now understand this Blue and I are NOT wine people. I drink Boones farm. So this was ALL new to us, but we went with it. It was A TINY little restaurant, full of bamboo looking tables (or IKEA) dim lighting and a menu with things called flights and stuff.

Blue ordered a beer, I had a Sprite (driving!) and we checked out the chocolate list. I had seen when we came in a large display of ALL the chocolates, and saw Espresso. So I chose the trio called “Late Night”

Starting at the top I had…

Chai Ganache. Organic Masala Chai tea and buck wheat honey infused into amber milk chocolate.
That was GOOD.

Cinnamon Cappuccino. Hint of warming spice, with bittersweet chocolate. Again good.

THEN there was Epsresso Fusion. Fresh ground medium roast espresso with vanilla. 70% dark chocolate. LOVED it.

YES we paid $11 for three tiny chocolates, BUT you cut them up with a knife, and enjoy them! Not like the bag of MnM’s where you shovel handfuls into your mouth. These people knew their stuff, telling us about what pairs well with each other, I was just happy eating chocolate and having a good time with friends.

Afterwards we walked to our parking garage, but enjoyed the stroll down Michigan ave one more time, this time on foot and not frustrated in the car. Each couple holding hands, smitten with the idea of freedom from our kids for the night, conversation as adults, dreams of our futures, and life together.

On the road and into bed by midnight. Pretty much a perfect night out in my book. Now THAT’S how you start off December!

JCat McGack