Month: December 2022

A tale of Christmas Adam

Twas the day before the night before Christmas (also known as “Christmas Adam”), when all through the house, not a creature was stirring… probably because the furnace wasn’t keeping up with the sudden temperature drop, so all the cats were curled up with me on my bed. I would love to have called our HVAC company that morning, but we had tickets to see Dear Evan Hansen in downtown Chicago, and I was rapidly adjusting our plan because of the weather.

Typically, when we see a show in Chicago, we take the Metra in and walk from the train station to the theatre. It’s usually a comfortable walk of about a mile, though the last show we saw (The Twenty-Sided Tavern) was just over two. But that temperature drop had the forecasted high of 2 degrees Fahrenheit, and the wind chills were pushing it into the negative thirties.

We had already tentatively selected a sushi restaurant a couple blocks away from the theatre, and Google showed a parking option in the same block, so I decided we would drive into Chicago instead. If you’ve ever driven in downtown Chicago, you understand that this is not a decision I made lightly: the roads tend to be crowded with drivers who have no objection to darting across multiple lanes to turn at the next light or stop suddenly to let their passengers out. The Chicago taxi drivers mock the Uber drivers as poor drivers, and I suspect the reverse is also true.

Nevertheless, the roads near me looked almost clear of the snow that had fallen the previous afternoon and overnight, so we bundled up with multiple layers and ventured into the city. Between the weather and the holidays, the Chicago roads were the emptiest I have ever seen them. Though we couldn’t spot it at the time, Google’s directions to the sushi restaurant were accurate; it was buried in a food court with just a sign on the window along with several other restaurants. Unfortunately, there was nothing even vaguely resembling the entrance to a parking garage that we could see. We looped the block a couple of times, then headed towards the theatre to find their parking lot instead.

Successfully parked, we trudged through the slushy sidewalks and bitter winds to find that the sushi restaurant – and the rest of the food court – had a sign on the door saying they were closed through the weekend because of the winter storm and holidays. We huddled in their doorway briefly scoping out other nearby restaurants, deciding that the Mediterranean place we had just passed was our top choice… mainly because having walked past it already, we knew it was open.

After a tasty lunch and entrancing show, we reached home to find out that the house was still cold, and cold water was not running from our kitchen sink. After a brief panic, I realized that only the kitchen sink had an issue, and we directed a space heater towards its pipes, which sit against an exterior wall. On Christmas Eve, targeted space heater use brought the house up to a reasonable temperature until our HVAC company could come out.

All’s well that ends well.

Happy Holidays!

We’re in the midst of Chanukah, the Winter Solstice has passed, and Christmas is right around the corner. Whatever you choose to celebrate – or not, as the case may be – have a safe and enjoyable time.

Here in the Chicago area, we’re experiencing our first winter storm, topping off the bare sprinkles of snow with the potential for several inches, followed by a temperature drop that will make clearing the snow unpleasant. It’s the price we pay for wanting a white Christmas, I suppose.

What’s your favorite holiday tradition?

Advent calendars, Christmas crackers, chocolate coins for Chanukah, that delicious pork skin at the Noche Buena celebration after the whole pig has been cooking all day… there’s are so many delightful (and delicious!) traditions around the winter holidays. Last year, we learned about an Icelandic tradition of giving books on Christmas Eve, and pairing that with hot chocolate to curl up and read. In a house of bookworms, that was an easy tradition to adopt. In fact, we’ve expanded on the idea by exchanging book recommendations throughout the year, though Christmas Eve is the only one that’s expected to be acquired specifically for each person. (Book recommendations so far have either been already owned or available through the library.)

What favorite – or new – tradition are you looking forward to this year?

2022 is going out with a bang!

This year has certainly had its ups and downs. I had my first short story published in an anthology (and my second one, which I’ll tell you about soon), we returned to attending Capricon in person (though I apparently didn’t blog about it), we’ve continued attending live shows, and we even went to Florida where we stayed in neat places, did some touristy stuff, ate amazing food, and most importantly, saw friends.

We went to our first WorldCon! But caught Covid. And to DorkStock and WindyCon (sorry, didn’t blog about those either… suffice to say, they were fun). But WindyCon coincided with finding out the old fridge was dying, and the day the new fridge was delivered coincided with discovering that the slow decline of my tires was accelerated by a nail in one of them. (Oddly, this is the second nail in a tire I’ve had this year, since our rental car in Florida picked one up.) Not, fortunately, the type that causes a bang and sudden accident… the “bang” in this title is metaphorical.

With other stuff going on, we’ve been a bit busy, so I apologize… my holiday cards are going to be late.

Broadway in Chicago presents The Twenty-Sided Tavern

Occasionally, we venture into Chicago to see a live performance somewhere other than the Paramount Theatre, and The Twenty-Sided Tavern has a level of geek appeal that most stage performances don’t: it’s essentially a role-playing adventure on stage. In fact, it includes some of the randomness of your average tabletop game… specifically, dice. Oh, and audience participation. There are no real spoilers, it’s improv with reactions to the dice and audience decisions, so each show will be different.

As you enter the theatre, after scanning your tickets, you are told to scan a QR code to access an important feature of the performance: the audience interaction. Your playbill includes a sticker which links you to one of the three character classes: fighter, mage, or rogue. Keep your phone out – you’re going to need it, and please do take photos, they said.

One of the first audience actions is to pick the character for their class between three offered characters. The results are displayed as the votes are still coming in, and you’ll see this functionality at various points throughout the show. You’ll also see the dice as they’re rolled, zoomed in on each character’s dice tray.

The cast clearly enjoys what they’re doing, though the photo above may be when two of them lost the rest of their hit points due to some overzealous audience participation. To be fair, the natural 20 rolled in the fiery skeletal giraffe’s favor a couple minutes earlier set the stage for that crisis.

Twenty-Sided Tavern is playing in Chicago through January 15th, so you still have a chance to see it!