I went MIA for a little, at first, it was because I went on vacation and then I got insanely sick. Then my sickness led me to have barely any motivation to do anything. 
The second time around I got sick was due to food poisoning because my stomach cannot handle anything. If you sneeze near my plate of food, I am out of commission. After 24 hours of vomiting and other stuff, I was unable to take my anti-depressants since I was unable to keep anything down. That meant my body would start to withdraw from the meds, so what would have been a 24-hour stomach flu prolonged the whole ordeal for an entire week and a half. I missed so many things I had planned. I had tickets to see 29rooms exhibit and expected to go to the Women’s in Digital meeting. I had to cancel all and stay in bed while watching Love Island all day long. 

Aside from the terrible sickness I endured, here are the fun things I did when I occasionally left the house. 

When my mom wasn’t berating me to unpack, we found time to go out, mostly to the movies. Our AC dyed during the heatwave and one way to keep ourselves cool was to go to the movies. We saw Ant-Man and the Wasp and Incredibles 2. Both were perfect summer movies. Before she headed back to North Carolina, we went to Taste of Chicago to try out many of the eateries in the area. AND I finally saw the Bean.  

My friend Jana took me to an excellent Jamaican restaurant in Evanston. So excited to be in a city that has multiple options of Jamaican food whenever I feel homesick. And a friend who is down to eat Jamaican food whenever. 

I released a podcast with Cleveland Blogger/Event Planner Abra Said. It’s called Le Broque Queen.  Just two millennial girls who are trying to figure out this whole thing called life. 

I went on a really good date. He took me to the Navy Pier where we ate way too expensive Chicago hot dogs and rode the Ferris wheel. We also hung out at the beach for a drink and chat. Chicago, your beaches are ten times better than New York’s. Plus one for you! Then I went on a really awkward date shortly after (different dude) and decided "yeah, i'm good on the whole dating thing."

I met a Twitter buddy. After almost ten years of following one another, I knew when I moved to Chicago I wanted to meet Vince. We were on Twitter when it was mainly 1000 of us on there and fighting with celebrities until we were blocked. Not our proudest moments but that was what Twitter was for before it became a place of promotion and white supremacists. We had drinks at the Robley and dinner at Big Star; it was like we were friends for ten years. 

I can finally live in my truth and admit I love Charlie Puth. I thought he was lame when he first came out (and he was, the first album was trash) but his recent record is fantastic. There’s a whole episode of Popcast explaining how Charlie Puth is the perfect new pop singer. I went to his concert in late July, and it was everything I wanted. Grown women were acting like they were 16 again, Charlie singing around shirtless, me singing at the top of my lungs to my favorite songs… Good night. I wouldn’t say he’s a great performer, but he’s insanely talented and so dreamy.