using this post as an easy place to put a message I’m sending to a friend, ideally I’ll have retooled this by the time anyone who is not Jess sees this but who knows
OK, getting back to you before I go to bed, apologies for the delay! So I think broadly for weekday evening get-togethers, I think they tend to be made of one or more of the following components:
- dinner
- dessert
- alcohol
- activity
I’m unsure if “conversation” should be listed as a component optionally right there or assumed to be included in all of them but I need to be awake in like 7 hours and diminishing and I will leave debating the finer points of hangout theory to future Kiva, but rest assured I like talking about stuff and broadly prefer get-togethers that have some amount of unstructured socializing (ie. not just about the activity).
Anyways, for components, each of those things are available at one of the two types of place:
- somewhere open to the public
- someone’s house/apartment.
That’s a really broad scope, so narrowing things down, my partner has an appointment they’re dreading on Wednesday and have “be anxious about appointment” penciled in on tuesday and “be anxious about/go to/recover from appointment” scheduled for wednesday, so I’m gonna let them do that and not volunteer our apartment for anything this week.
I’d be happy to do a thing or just shoot the shit at y’all’s place, but I’m not going to suggest things around that because not inviting yourself over is a good social heuristic.
If we want to do an out-and-about activity as part of the out, broadly it makes sense to me to pick the activity first, then pick the dinner/dessert/alcohol part based on geographic proximity.
So some potential activities for that are:
- go watch a thing out and about.
- @ music box theater - “looking for an angel” - a queer japanese film that’s part of “bleak week - cinema of despair” from 9:15-10pm on Tuesday night.
- catch a tuesday deal at a chain somewhere, current movies in theaters I’m looking at that I’m not planning on watching with my partner (they have an appointment they’re very anxious about on wednesday so they said I shouldn’t rely on them being able to make it to a thing) happen to all be horror, namely
- sinners
- final destination: bloodlines
- bring her back
- I was gonna put the Community episodes showing at rooftop cinema club, but it looks like things are pretty sold out 😭
- Altman’s
M*A*S*His playing at the siskel film center on wednesday
- This mini-golf place + bar with a weirdly upscale website
- This incredibly large arcade that requires a car to get to in reasonable time
- Escape rooms!
Some “sample” outings would be
- literally just get food and/or drinks somewhere and chat.
- I like The Pasta Bowl in wicker park when I’m feeling OK about eating indoors. It’s really tasty food and really large portions, I’ve always gotten two meals out of it lol. Also a good deal on Moscow mules on Fridays but that isn’t applicable here.
- It looks like it’s supposed to be raining on Wednesday, so trying to be good about covid safety while dealing with that, I’d look at
- Rice Arepa in Lakeview with a heated/mostly enclosed patio. Probably not enough air changes but I’ve also never seen it terribly crowded.
- Best Intentions in Logan Square, it’s a dive bar with food that’s the only place I know of that takes covid really seriously, they have 50 air changes an hour + far UVC lamps
- Go to “Metal Horror Bingo” at Kite String Cantina on tuesday night, which I just discovered was a thing (listen to metal, watch horror, win prizes). They have a big window that they tend to open when it’s warm, alcoholic punch in bubblers that’s good + very solid tacquitos.
- Go to Port and Park, get food and or alcohol + talk, then watch the thing at Music Box
- I’ve been meaning to get Music Box membership at some point to support what seems like a cool little theater and with it includes 10-20% off the bill at some partner restaurants listed here, with Port and Park being one I identified that seems to have outdoor seating.
- Watch Sinners at the Logan Theater on Wednesday + go to either best intentions or somewhere like Pizza Lobo’s Logan Square Location, which I heard has a nice patio, but also it seems like it might be raining
Anyways I need to stop writing this cause it’s 4am and I have an online thing to do in uh 6 hours because i wanted to be sure I got this out tonight and then it was suddenly way too late 😭 but uh yeah generally open to a lot of things