..:: Chasing The Starlight *

One of the best feelings in the world to me is making a meal for my friends.

By nature, I’m not the most talkative person, and I’m certainly not always capable of talking about how I feel (which is why, during the winter season, I’m thankful that my boyfriend has the patience of a saint).  But the second I turn on a stove burner, everything comes pouring out.

I realized the other night that I was totally stumped on a Christmas present for one of my friends, until I had one of those “well, DUH!” moments while driving home from work (pretty sure it was complete with the little lightbulb going on above my head, too).

I can safely say that my friend Matt is one of my BEST friends in the whole world.  We met less than a year after I moved to Chicago, when I started working for “that evil video rental company that went bankrupt (which makes me laugh everytime I hear their name)” aka Blockbuster.  After he left the company, he started working as a DJ in a bar downtown.  Of course, seeing as how I wanted to support my friends, I started going to the bar on the nights he was working.

2 years later, I started working for the bar.  Then another bar in the company.  Then in their management office doing little odd jobs.  Next thing I know, I’m the graphic designer for the company and its 10 bars.  In the midst of all this, I had moved from the suburbs and around the city a total of 6 times.  I wrecked a car.  I lost another one.  I ended up in the hospital multiple times.  I had a relationship I thought would go the distance crumble around me.  I took two trips to Europe to follow my favorite band.  I had ridiculous highs and the lowest of the lows.

Throughout all of this, Matt has always been there for me.  He’s helped me move, given me rides home when I had a bit too much to drink, loaned me money, called in favors on my behalf, been a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on.  He has single-handedly hooked me up with more friends, roommates, and jobs than I can count.  Most importantly, he’s also the reason I met my boyfriend Chris (he works for their DJ company, too!).

Needless to say, my debt to this kid is pretty substantial.  So this year I decided to give him something from the bottom of my heart.

I watch a lot of cooking shows (and I mean, a LOT), and I’ve fallen in love with a show on Cooking Channel called Extra Virgin.  The hosts are a husband (born and raised in Tuscany) and wife (an actress out in LA) who make unbelievable food and are constantly sharing it with their friends and family.  I’ve made several of their recipes on other occasions, like a batch of homemade limoncello that won me serious brownie points with my boyfriend’s mom, and there is just SO much love that goes into their food.

Knowing that Matt has always been a fan of my cooking (even when *I* was a little less confident in my culinary abilities lol), I chose my 3 favorite recipes from their show and website (www.underthetuscangun.com) and decided to give Matt some tasty, convenient omnoms for his busy schedule.

Despite having a rather crazy week myself, I picked up the supplies and knocked out all 3 dishes in a single evening.  I made him Sausages with “Fagioli all’Uccelletta” (kidney beans with a tomato sauce), Pesto Lasagne and Ricotta Pancakes.  I portioned and packaged everything (including pieces of french bread to dip in the tomato sauce and garlic bread for the lasagne), so he could just pull a container out of the freezer, reheat and nosh away.

He was THRILLED to receive all the food.  Not only did he immediately eat a piece of lasagne (despite it being closer to breakfast than lunch time) and call me later in the evening to say he had pancakes and lasagne for dinner, he begrudgingly shared a piece of the lasagne with his boss, just so he could share the awesomeness with someone.

Knowing that he will have quick, easy and tasty food in the midst of his insane work schedule?  Definitely makes me feel good to help a friend like that.  Knowing that he enjoyed my food enough to seriously tell me every time I’ve seen him since which of the dishes he ate recently?  Best feeling in the world  :)

My arm hurts.

While I realize that it’s kinda silly to complain, as it WAS my idea to get repeatedly poked with a needle over multiple days and multiple hours, I just felt like sharing.

The TARDIS has entirely peeled at this point (not surprising, since it’s constantly rubbing against my side), and the MK Ultra artwork is starting the process.  I’ve pretty much had a tub of Body Shop’s vitamin E body butter at my side for the last two days to help the healing process along.  Putting nice, cool lotion on a healing tattoo = the best feeling ever.

Earlier this week, I started training under the always amazing Matt Nolan to take over a karaoke gig at a place called The Spot on Wednesday nights.  For the most part, it seems like a pretty straightforward and fairly easy gig, since they have quite the following there.  Matt was pretty much doing non-stop singers (as in, not even playing music between them) for most of the night, so as long as I have a small, dance-y playlist waiting in the wings, I should be good to go.  It’s just going to be interesting dealing with the crazy, pushy karaoke people like some of the crazy ones I had to deal with doing Rock Band.  Matt and Chris both have a fabulous hashtag they use on Twitter, called #ihatekaraoke.  Let’s hope I don’t have to use it often…

I’ve never actually run a karaoke gig before (done DJ gigs for them, yes.  Then of course there was the 2 1/2 year run of Rock Band down at Mother’s), so I’m a bit nervous.  I’m not exactly what you’d call ‘comfortable’ on a microphone, and if you saw how good Matt is you’d understand why I feel like I have a lot to live up to.  But, as I’m not only a fast learner but incredibly stubborn, I WILL get the hang of it.

Since I’m going to be taking this gig over, I’m also making some changes to my normal work schedule.  Trying to work out a deal with Diana to swap Sunday and Thursday with her.  She’s wanted Sunday’s off since I started so she actually has a day to hang out with her husband, I want a day where it’s relatively quiet so I can get our website work done, and now that I’m working in the bar til 2am on Wednesday I need the Thursday off so I can sleep (getting up at 7:30am after being at the bar til at least 2?  Noooo thank you).

Only downside for me is that now Chris and I will only have Thursday and part of Saturday to actually hang out and do stuff (he’ll be working Wed, Fri, late Sat and Sun once they sort his schedule).  But, we’ve gotta do what we’ve gotta do to make that $ and pay the bills.  All the money we’ll be able to save up for the UK/Ireland trip in March will be soooo well spent tho  :)