July 31, 2014: Mom's 68th Birthday and Cubs Game

Denise, Cheryl, and I sat around the kitchen table and had chocolate cake for Mom's 68th birthday.   Cheryl bought my mom a Cubs hat and scarf.   My mom looked so cute in her hat.  Cheryl got me a White Sox baseball hat and scarf.   We had some laughs over that. 

Denise showed us inside St. Priscilla's Catholic Church.   She said this church is where she felt at peace from her sisters.

Cheryl, Mom, and I took the bus to the Cubs game.   The Cubs were playing the Rockies.   This is the 100th Anniversary of Wrigley Field, so I wanted to go to a game.   I was on a mission to get a Cubs t-shirt and found one across the street.  It was a fun game.   My old coworker from Information Resources, Tony Dragel, was also at the game, but was sitting in the bleacher seats.   We talked on Facebook.  He had to leave the game early so I couldn't meet up with him.   The Cubs won the game.

We walked around my old neighborhood by the ball park.  I lived at 905 W. Cornelia. I had forgotten how close each building was to each other.   We took the "El" to the North/Clark stop to walk by my first apartment, located at 1030 N. Dearborn.

Mom wanted her birthday dinner at Lou Malnatis Pizza so we went there for dinner.  The pizza was delicious.   Eli's Cheesecake was celebrating their anniversary, so they gave out 1/2 price slices of cheesecake, so we stood in a long line for that.   We ate our cheesecake outside while listening to the water fountains.    We did some shopping at Chicos and Vera Bradley.

I think my mom enjoyed her birthday here in Chicago. It is nice to be able to have these memories.  

July 30, 2014: Chicago

We attempted to drive to Chicago which was a mistake, as the traffic was so bad.   I was so glad to get to Cheryl's sister, Denise's house at 3541 Nora Street.      We were going to stay with Cheryl and Denise which are Norm Schultz's nieces.   Denise is 62 years old, born January 18.   She does a lot for St. Priscilla Catholic Church which is behind her house.   The church has some Polish masses.   Denise takes pride in her job with lighting candles, cleaning, and unlocking the church doors.   She was a real inspiration to me.

Cheryl took us to a Polish buffet called Jolly Inn, which was next door to Galos Caves, which we did another year.   The food was very good.    A few days ago, I found out my job at the Health Department was going to be eliminated, so mentally, I was not in a good place.

Cheryl also took us up to the shops in Glenview.  The shops were built on a former Air Force base.  They used the Air Force base theme around the development.