Hey, how was February? And the beginning of March?

Well, funny you should ask. A lot of awesome stuff has been happening. In the beginning of February I was sick.



I was talking online to Janna, my old roommate in Seattle about how I was home alone sick and nothing sounded good, and she helped me to figure out something that sounded good: chicken pot pie. AND THEN SHE HAD A CHICKEN POT PIE DINNER DELIVERED TO MY HOUSE.



HOLY CRAP. It was delicious. And from a fancy steakhouse. It looked real nice in our new white plates.



She even got me dessert. This incredible apple pastry thing, with a separate container with a scoop of ice cream covered in streudel. FANTASTIC. And there was also a bag full of fancy bread from the restaurant, which I made into French toast in the morning. It was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me.

Thankfully I recovered from my sickness in time for Valentine's Day. Ben and I had a nice breakfast at Lovely, where we sat for a long time reading and crosswording, and then got ingredients at Whole Foods for a Hopleaf-style dinner of Belgian beer, frites and mussels.



We rearranged our living room this month, as you can maybe see in the photo. It's way better. After the dinner we biked to the Whistler (trendy new Logan Square hotspot) for Poppy's annual erotic fiction party, which this year was also a fundraiser for the Women's Heath Center. Totally cool.



MEN



And then we biked to the Hideout, where their third annual "Makeout Party" was taking place, complete with super cheesy 70's lounge tunes performed by mostly members of Mucca Pazza.



It was a good night. We're trying to get Mucca Pazza to play at our wedding, so we've been trying to see them a lot and let them know how much we love them. Ben and I, seperately, have had several serendipitous run ins with the leader of the band. We also keep seeing band members in their side projects and we saw Mucca Pazza as well. It's definitely helping our chances.... yay! It's kind of a fun thing to type "Mucca" into that "Search blog" bar on the top of the page and see the thousands of times I have recommended that everyone I know see that band. If they play at our wedding... EVERYONE I KNOW WILL SEE THE BAND. YES.

Chris K visited, and we heard all about his recent trip to Central America and went to a Mardi Gras party hosted by the mom of one of my students! Kind of crazy, but really fun. They couldn't have been nicer, and even brought me a sack lunch of muffaletta and gumbo and party leftovers in class on Monday!

I have been doing tons of recording this month. I recorded more songs for this guy, which is a strange project to be a part of but if he wants to keep paying me I'll keep singing his crazy songs. I recorded also with Come Sunday:





And with It's A Girl:









I love being in those bands. I'm super stoked for our recordings. Played with Come Sunday this past weekend at Elastic. Pretty good show, good turnout. So fun to play music I love with talented awesome people I love to hang out with!

Ben turned 27. His parents visited and we ate at Mado where they specialize in smoked meat and crazy homemade sausages, which they served on a pig shaped platter:



Emma also visited schools and we discovered some new favorite places: Metropolis Coffee in Rogers Park and the Bourgeois Pig in Lincoln Park. Oh the sandwiches! AH!

On Ben's actual birthday we ate Brazilian food (and flan dessert) at El Nandu:



And then drank the cheapest pitchers in town at J & M.





Then Molly turned 29 and we drank not the cheapest but maybe the trendiest tastiest drinks in the hood at the Violet Hour.



We had to wait over an hour to get in. But look at those fine ladies!!





Birthday speech after we all sang. "Is this thing on?"



And then we found cheap pitchers after all, at the Innertowner. Check that freakin' amazing mohawk!!!



In the morning Ben took me to "surprise breakfast," which is when I'm too sleepy/decaffeinated/hungry/hungover to decide where I want to eat, and he drives somewhere and I'm happy. But it was a real surprise, because we went to Lou Mitchell's, Chicago breakfast institution, where we had never been and where they greet you with a complimentary house-made donut. Dang it was tasty.





Other stuff: I started taking a songwriting/creative process class with Sue from Come Sunday, and it rules and is totally jumpstarting my creativity. I've got a kids show booked at the Beat Kitchen on April 26th where I will be joined by my fabulous and talented BROTHER. The wheels are in motion for the recording of a kid's album, which I will HAVE DONE by June 17 so I can sell it at my summertime gigs. The money from that will go towards an album of my more grownup songs. I lost two of my private lesson students but am gaining 3 (including one guitar student!) so it works out. I hung out with Emily all day yesterday, and we had coffee and played each other songs and had wings and beer and walked in the light rain. I love Emily.

This blogging thing is hard to keep up with. I'm going to try to do a little post more often because I like keeping track of stuff but I get bogged down if too much time passes. Plus I have this sweet camera now so I can show you all the cool stuff. And, as a reward for reaching the end of the post, cat in a bag.