Adventures in SODO: Get you some

The title to this blog posts reminds me of the most important thing about our Chicago visit, that I neglected to report: we saw the Adventures in Babysitting building. Yes, it’s true. Yes, you may touch my arm or item of clothing when next we meet. I know.

I had the day off yesterday due to working the weekend. I do love a Tuesday off. I can sleep in all by my lonesome, be leisurely in my coffee making, putz around in my jammies. I can do all of this with Sky home, of course, but there’s a deliciousness about doing it alone while EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD IS AT WORK!

After I’d taken full advantage of the empty apartmentness, I decided I needed more embroidery supplies. Half the fun of a hobby is the supplies, right? The stuff. The gear. The secret stash of thread I can keep on my person for any embroidery emergencies. Thus I ventured to the Pacific Fabrics Outlet in SODO (SOuth of DOwntown, because we want to be like a big, grownup city with snipped up names for neighborhoods). This place was amazing. I wandered in there for hours – they had things I didn’t know existed, like boobie inserts for homemade bathing suits, and weird little baby heads (for dollmaking) (I think). They had tons of strange, bright, and furry fabrics – if you ever want to make a gorilla suit or something out of the ordninary, I highly suggest this retail establishment. I half hoped and expected a group of “Project Runway” imitators to come crashing through the door with just 15 minutes to find everything they needed to recreate a costume from a Busby Berkeley set. Didn’t happen.

After I had my fill of textiles, I drove off in search of the elusive Big John’s PFI. It actually wasn’t elusive at all – I just made sure to keep my eyes peeled for the green, white and red canopy. That place was amazing. It had a whole WALL of cheese and tons and tons of spices and pastas and beans and other exciting things in bulk. I found tons of weird things I missed from living in London. I also found delicious Italian pastries and french candies. Delicious. It’s billed as a Mediterranean grocery but it’s got oodles of stuff from everywhere. The other people in the shop were either chefs in their little outfits or people speaking Greek. All of the people that worked there were kind of crazy about food which I loved because I am kind of crazy about food. A quote from their website says it all:

“Dodoni Goat Feta is in. It’s peppery, it’s crumbly and absolutely delicious. Get in here. Get you some.”

After all of the excitement I needed some quiet time so I went by our old place: it’s no longer a house, it’s now a coffee shop. I didn’t have any cash with me so I asked if I could just peek around a bit. The owner (who I know) wasn’t there, and the baristo dude totally thought I was a freak who was making up a story about having lived there in order to peer into the cabinets. But that’s cool. It was decorated in a cute way. It’s a very surreal experience, seeing strangers sitting in your house, with all of the wall colors different and things moved about.

I returned to my new cozy place and cuddled with the cats, then put all of my snazzy new thread on little cardboard cards to keep it organized. Sky came home and we had a tasty dinner and quietly crafted the night away. Tada.