April, this month is so premium.

April flew by here in Chicago, highlighted by several fun events...

First, Cary Anne and I had the chance to see some live theatre, which, sadly, is not something we get to do very often. Luckily, I found a good deal on some tickets at a small theater in Evanston the week before the show closed. The production was "Everything is Illuminated," which was an original adaptation of one of mine and Cary Anne's favorite novels. I decided to make the date a surprise for Cary Anne; I told her to get dressed up and made her wear a blindfold during the car ride. The production was very entertaining, and now Cary Anne is insisting we be more deliberate about seeing live theatre.

Not long after that, my parents had the opportunity to come visit. My father's work sends him to the area for training every now and then, and, of course, my mother insists on tagging along. The last time my parents came to visit, CA and I were still living in our studio in Roger's Park, so we got to show them our new(ish) apartment and neighborhood. Though we were only able to spend about half a day with them, we still got enjoy lunch and take a walk along Lake Michigan. 

The next weekend, a group of us from church went to see our friend Lana's piano recital. Lana was graduating from Moody, a local Bible college, so it was her final senior performance. Of course, she did amazing, and now she has moved off to New York to pursue her dreams. After the recital, Kelly and I hopped on the train and went to the Chicago Theatre to see Jim Gaffigan's newest stand-up show. We had bought our tickets a little late, so we weren't exactly close to the stage, but there's not really a bad seat in the Chicago Theatre. It was a great show, and I'm sure Cary Anne grew tired of us quoting it for the next several days.

At the end of the month, our friend Craig announced that he was moving to Kentucky, to be closer to his family, so we invited him over for a farewell dinner. We told Craig that we were going to cook up some steaks, and he offered to bring over some crab legs that he had won in a local meat raffle. (Yes, I said meat raffle.) So, the dinner turned into surf and turf night, which is probably the fanciest meal we've had in this apartment so far. The evening was great. Craig was a huge part of the muscle that helped get all of our stuff into this 3rd floor walk-up, and he has been a big part of our church over the past several months, so we're really going to miss him.