My roomie

It's Joanie's bday today! Went went to Chicago Speakeasy on Euclid to celebrate, since her husband Billy is working and couldn't get up here from Diagonal. He did send roses though. Our lil buddy Krissy (Joan's niece, Amy's classmate and friend) is here working and went with us. It was a nice little non-chain restaurant.

My fave part was the great salad bar! I know - hard to believe. I'm usually a lazy salad eater - would rather have the restaurant prepare and deliver the greenery to me. But CS had corn relish, both kinds of olives, pea salad and more! Worth getting my butt out of the booth and getting.

Back to the bday girl. She is such a sweetheart!

I met Joan back in 1990 when we went skiing with her and her fiance Kevin, Bobbie and Jeff (Joan's bro), Denis and Mendy and Moose and Kay. We stayed at a condo in Silverthorne and skied the Summit. Kevin had battled colon cancer but was in remission. We enjoyed meeting those two, and were sad to find out a few months later that Kevin's cancer had reoccurred. He passed way the next year. I remember attending a memory walk in his honor at Drake Stadium - he had a huge family and many friends - it was a great honor and showed just what kind of guy he was that so many loved him.

Joan struggled through - living in the home they had shared. Going on because she didn't have a choice. She eventually took a promotion with FedEx her employer in Kansas City. A change of venue! Paul helped her move - she's got a hell of a lot of stuff as I can attest to.

When Joan was just out of high school she briefly dated Billy Bentley - and while she lived in KC, Billy moved back to Iowa from California and they began to see each other again. Joan moved back to Iowa 5ish years ago, and 3 years ago Joan and Billy got married. They bought property in St. Charles - thinking of living half way in between their two jobs (he trucks in Diagonal). But so far they continue to utilize the "visitation" method of marriage - hey that sounds familiar!

Joan is kind and giving. She is nearly always cheerful and is a very hard worker. And she puts up with me! That's the best part. When I considered my options for life in the big city, I checked out furnished apartments for something like $500/month. A couple months after I moved in with Joanie (she balked at accepting any rent at all from me, but I insisted...still ...$150/month?!?) I saw that police arrested people in a prostitution ring at one of the apartments I had considered. Cooties! Glad I don't live in the Ho House!