Residency check

A friend of mine who owns the northside wedding store "I Do I Do" invited me as her guest last night to a PR event held on the 66th floor of the old Sears Tower. Dining on lamb chops, potato-crusted tenderloin and mango-shrimp spring rolls, to name a few of the delights, I was glued to the panoramic view of the city on what could not have been a more gorgeous summer night.

Here we were standing amongst the tallest skyscrapers in one of the most famous cities on the planet, looking up the coast of a beautiful blue Lake Michigan--with a perfect gaze down at the greenish-brown Chicago River thrown in too. I thought about Jordan's classic "tag line" for the annual Soldier's Meeting: "Reach the world by reaching Chicago."

As someone who, in the late '90s, enjoyed the pleasure of working in a high-rise on Wacker Drive, across the street from the Lyric Opera House, I was filled anew with the grateful acknowledgment that this is MY city and I can be a big fish in a big pond! There's no reason to be intimidated.

Wow, it was definitely one of those "Could have had a V-8" moments and it couldn't have come at a better time! The last time I really hung out with my sister alone was here in Chicago. She drove by herself all the way from Mansfield, Ohio and surprised me at work. I could not have been more shocked by her unexpected visit.

I took her to dinner at Laschett's Inn (a great old German eatery on Irving Park Road) and then on a driving tour that included Leland Avenue. While she was in town we had smoked salmon and rainbow trout with dill sauce at the town's only authentic Norwegian restaurant, Tre Konor. She was so happy being in Chicago. It was a real thrill for her. The least I can do is be thrilled too and stop, once and for all, with the self-pity. There's too much work to be done, as Jordan likes to say.