bryan and i managed to get out the door on time, even though i nearly had a panic attack about leaving the baby and wanted to abandon all plans. i only got out the door knowing that it was just the new mama crazies. i even managed to restrain from calling to see if he was ok and had eaten (1.5 miles from the house, when i first wanted to call). we got on the highway and had a breezy ride down to chicago. we hit some traffic about 10 miles from our exit, but it wasn't too bad. we arrived, checked on the baby (who was doing good; lots of giggles, eating, and a good nap), and rang adrianne to let her know we had arrived.
we drove to the theater and attempted to locate parking. we ended up parking in a lot across the street... for $20. i meant to take a picture so everyone could see what a $20 parking spot looks like but i forgot. let me assure it: it looks like every other parking spot you have seen. but, we were in a lot where a guy was watching the cars and we were right by the venue (and bryan hates chicago drivers with a venomous passion and this got him out of traffic quickly), so i guess it was worth it. sort of.
at this point it was 6:30, and we were pretty hungry. we wandered over to carmela's taqueria, which had the fortune of being across the street from the theater. and wouldn't you know it, they had some real tacos al pastor. this brought back memories of tacos on isla mujeres; going to the taco campos stand by the stadium at dusk to order large amounts of tacos to share with friends;
sitting at plastic tables under the fluorescent lights of el medina to have a snack of tacos al pastor, preceded by radishes with lime and salt, after much tequila sipping. we got all excited and ordered 2 each (con cilantro y cebolla, por supuesto) along with pina jarritos. oooo yum. we ordered another round of tacos (con queso for me), and daydreamed about mexico. the place was pretty empty when we had arrived, but was full of gringos when we left (including a totally adorable 2 year old who wanted to sit at the counter and watch the guy make tacos). 
adrianne arrived via the train just as we were finishing dinner, so we met up and headed to the theater. the riviera was once grand and beautiful, i am sure, but is fairly run down. lavendar, eggplant, teal, and gold paint cover the walls (where it's not cracked or patched with white spackle). it reminded me a lot of the tabernacle in atlanta. since we're old and can't handle the jumping kids anymore, we sat in the balcony so we could thoroughly enjoy the whole show. the ike reilly assassination opened, and they kinda sucked. they were pretty boring. the group also seemed to have of an identity crisis: there was the mod, the shoe gazer, the balding guy, and the junior banker (the lead singer was wearing a button down shirt and pleated dockers, both too big for him... very momma dressed me in my big brother's hand me downs). they were trying to act all hard, saying they loved "drinking and burning shit", and singing about dying, but no one believed them (not a single one of them had a drink on stage, losers). there was a group of well behaved guys in front of us, who kept heckling the band, to our amusement.
as we waited for the pogues to come on, bryan looked up the review for the previous night's performance. they came on late and apparently weren't good. we think maybe the reviewer wasn't a pogues fan or just wasn't familiar, because our show was awesome!
they came on shortly after 9. shane came slowly, wearing a black suit, sunglasses, and a top hat, carrying a "coffee" mug. every few songs, shane would leave the stage, and the band would do a song or two without him. between the brogue and the drink, you couldn't understand much of what shane mumbled between songs, though i did catch "fucking", "tossers", and "dirty old town." :) they were phenomenal. at the
end of the set, shane attacked his microphone with his top hat, and knocked it down. :) they came out and performed their first encore, at the end of which shane mocked hanging himself with the microphone cord (and needed some help getting untangled). they ended with the song siesta, and banged tin lids from the food service tray on their heads to make the proper percussion noises. :) after their second and final encore, shane sent drinks into the crowd (he had a bottle of wine and some cup on the stage with him).all the pics are posted in the gallery.
we zipped through the city to drop adrianne off at a friend's apartment, then hit the highway. i didn't think i would be able to nap in the car, but i dozed off pretty quickly. we arrived home just minutes before 1am and crashed. the baby was down until 3:30 or so, so i got a nice little nap, but was pretty excited to see him. :) he and bryan slept in a little before heading over to day care; bryan took the day off and i am working from home.
we took oliver to meet with a new doctor. we took him to the family practice where i have my new doctor. i was very impressed with their facilities, which include a full lab. so we met with the doctor to see how he was, and ask him some questions about feeding and such. we questioned him on what the other doctor said, without being too judgmental or evil about it (and so bryan did the talking), and he had never heard anything the other doctor told us, and said it was very odd. what he said instead did make sense: that ollie would be ready for solids sometime in the next 2 months, and that if we decided to start him now that would be fine; he gave us some signs to look for, and walked through how to do it. he also said that he may be getting up more now at night for comfort, and the fact that he is eating more at night may be why he is eating less during the day. light bulb moment! :) he said he is old enough and hefty enough to make it through 4 - 5 hours of sleep without eating, so that we should let him cry at night and make him wait, and that he'll switch his eating pattern around. which definitely makes sense; he was only eating a bottle or 2 during the day, but eating tons at night. backwards boy! so we're going to try that tonight, and in a week or two probably start some rice cereal. he said that there is no worry about over feeding him, since as we're breastfeeding, i'll only produce what he needs and he'll only eat what i produce. and oliver won't eat when he's not hungry, so we're not worried anyways. we really liked that this doctor presented all points of view of the medical community on the issues we discussed, without necessarily taking sides. he presented why each argued the way they did, and basically indicated that no one side is right. he is a mentor to interns, which is also comforting - we know he has to live up to certain standards. :) we'll be switching over to this doctor full time.
i am so happy it is the weekend. oliver has his first real baby sitter tomorrow. katie's friend jessie is going to watch him for a few hours in the afternoon so bryan and i can do some research shopping for the kitchen renovation. i'm pretty excited for that. other than that, lots of snuggles and giggling baby!
we have started a march 2008 gallery, and i leave you with a cute baby picture from this set:
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