My original plan on Friday night was to go to a demonstration of medieval/Renaissance martial arts that britshlez had invited me to, but I checked the gym's website and didn't see any such demonstration listed. Repeated calls from both us went unanswered, so I asked if we wanted to call it off until we knew there was actually a demonstration that we could go to. She agreed and stayed longer at the craft fair she was at, but I had an alternate plan.

I wasn't going to just stay in on a Friday night, so I did two things. I reached out to lisekatevans, whose invitation to dinner I had declined because I had a previous invitation from britshlez, and asked her if she was still having people over, and I also signed up for a dinner through OneTable. It's been a a very long time since I went to a OneTable dinner, but when I checked the list of Chicago dinners happening that evening, one of them was at The Graystone Tavern--or, as it's known for the month of December, 8 Crazy Nights: A Hanukkah Bar. Well, obviously I had to go to that, so I RSVPed, told lisekatevans I'd be over after I ate--fortunately as it turned out, since they had decided to make pork for dinner because originally I wasn't coming--invited britshlez to the bar, and took the L to Wrigleyville after I lit the Shabbat candles. 🕯🕯

I...was not expecting them to go as hard as they did:

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It was packed--there were thirty Jews in there plus whoever had decided to stop in--but it didn't take that long for me to get my food after I ordered. I ate it--it wasn't bad, and I got lucky since everyone who ordered the brisket said it was average at best--drank my "Mensch Mule" (food and drink menu here), and then excused myself to join lisekatevans at her home for drinks. But I'll be back! lisekatevans and I are going next Thursday, when I invited her along to a happy hour that ChiTribe is hosting. Truth be told, I could come back four times a week every week until the end of December, since every single Jewish group in the city seems to be hosting a happy hour there. I've already signed up for half-a-dozen and I doubt I'll go to more than one or two...but I could. And britshlez didn't get my invitation until she was already almost home, so that might be another time I go back.

I'm glad we get a Chanukah popup, amongst the dozens of Christmas popups.

I would have posted this earlier, but I've been trying something new. I'm pretty religious but I don't do anything to set Shabbat apart from the rest of the week other than lighting candles, so lately I've been avoiding checking any social media on Shabbat so I can be more present. Though Dreamwidth is pretty different from Tumblr or Twitter, it still counts. But havdalah has been made and now here I am.

And now, off to a ghost story reading competition!