Serendipity

When one door closes, another opens, and with God's grace, two.
Around the second week of April, we got the dreaded call that someone wants our
little Mrs. A's Cupcakes & Cookies store at Westfield in Old Orchard. Our home since February of 2008 after closing our first location at Northbrook Court.

This was devastating to us, all four of us work the store as our only source of income and we had no intentions of going anywhere. We weathered the downturn in economy, struggling but slowly building our name, and this year, as we started seeing an uptrend, comes this tension causing news. The chipper leasing manager whom we hardly knew showed her corporate claws and played it as an everyday thing. Meanwhile we were grieving and worrying.

But the Lord has His ways. A guy came in asking how our cupcakes were compared to Georgetown Cupcakes, a place we've heard of many times from customers who've been there saying the lines were out the door at that place, and we deprecatingly always say ours would probably be just as good. We noticed his jacket and immediately noted it as he mentioned it was a company his family owned. A few days later he came and said we had good cupcakes. Whew. Would we be interested in checking out their place? At that point, we had not gotten the news. So we went for a look see and called for an appointment to check it out.

A few weeks beforehand, Les who has always patronized the donut place on his way to work, befriended the new owner from last year, and gave her tips, advice and gave her new vendors to try. Jason from Bear Stewart thanked Les for the new business and said, hey she wants to sell the place to you.

Yesterday, Thursday May 12th, the Pickwick Theater management team of 2 brothers-in-law allowed Mrs. A to sign a lease and anent weeks of working with Park Ridge, we look forward to an August opening.

Today, Friday the 13th, we signed papers to take over an owner financed Wheeling Donuts, because Kim Hok Chong believed in us.

Thank you Lord, thank You for loving us and opening two doors to the one that was taken away from us. Each of this was serendipity. Thank You for your love.

Easter2011

On our way to Bambi's for our Easter meal, we reflected on the fact that, we who own a bakery of sorts, did not have any Easter Lamb Cake or cookies to serve the kids. Also,as we saw lines of cars in chocolate shops, we realized that we also worked in these stores (Long Grove, Fannie May, See's) and sold tons of marshmallow eggs,caramel and peanut butter eggs, solid chocolate Easter Bunnies ; we did not have any to eat. hahaha.
Our menu this year was Roasted Lamb with a balsamic mint sauce courtesy of Sam , Bambi made the sides of lemon baked asparagus, petite french beans casseroles style, Baked Ham,mac and cheese, and my lengua in a mushroom cream sauce. Mary Bell brought the scalloped potatoes and fresh fruits, Kylie made her fruit salad and we made do with a store bought flan. Ate many times throughout the day and watched 2 movies. We missed one family who drove to Indiana, and Migay came before her road trip to Los Angeles.

The weather was cool to cold but not rainy or snowy. My mind's eye brought me back to Easter Eggs hunts at our home in San Juan, dainty baskets with us looking for painted boiled eggs with gumpaste hand painted eggs filled with imported candy from Rolling Pin. Holy Week was the time for visita Iglesia, and we mapped out 14 churches, choosing at least 2 new ones each year and ending with a trip to Aristocrat or Magnolia before heading home after a 7 to 8 hour trip. We got sophisticated one year and made 14 churches as we drove up to Baguio for Good Friday.
One Holy Week end was spent with the Bulakena clan in Baguio, another time in Cielito Lindo in Laguna, then there were times in Botolan or Nalinac.
But here we are in America, where Holy Week is not recognized, where people work even harder on Good Friday, where church is put on the back burner and we can't even find Jesus movies to watch and feel the Lenten quiet.
But it is the belief in Easter and the hope He brings plus the food, traditions and camaraderie and a bit of relaxation that makes it an event worth looking forward to, plus seeing the kids and apos. No pictures this year, we were not complete. Here's to the next one.

Gloria Y. Nichols/me vs Arlington Rehab/Carter Korey

When mom was in the ICU, hardly breathing because of pneumonia, and we knew it was only a matter of time, there was a moment of lucidity and she said to me, "be prepared".
When she passed, we were unable to give her the funeral service she deserved, with a grand Ruby plan from Funeraria Paz, but too far away to let it matter, we had a private cremation and a memorial service 40 days later.

But the "be prepared" did not mean her passing. It was what happened next. Arlington Rehab sent me a bill which I belieeived to be wrong. When we brought mom to the rehab center, Tricare was paying only the first 60 days and Patty and I said we would have to take her out if her Medicaid was not approved. Thankfully, it was and the way it works is, medicaid pays the rehab any amount after mom's pension is deducted. Which means that regardless of the rehab cost, the payment would only be her pension check minus any amounts paid for her insurance and personal needs.
The amount in the bill was too much. I told the accounts person that there was a mistake and to please check. With arrogance she said everything was correct.
From this came a series of calls and counter calls and then a sub poena as instead of calling me in to settle and check it out, they hired the services of a seeming ambulance chaser, a lawyer who also did not want to check my request. After two years of wrangling and threats from the lawyer, and my pleas for checking with medicaid, I had many sleepless nights and payments to my lawyer whose forte is not this kind of ridiculousness where he could not get the other lawyer to give me the billing. Instead there was a series of statements from the rehab and each time I questioned the bill, another came with a change of the bill when I pointed out there were errors in that they did not acknowledge the payments I had made. It became a series of changed statements and each one still reflected the wrong amounts.
The lawyer did not want to check why I was asking for the Medicaid statements. Sleepless nights and threats and requests to now look into patty's income status and her entire life aside from mine made me do what I should ahve done from the beginning, go to Medicaid.
Surprise, the woman said no one ever checked with them for the past 2 years....and that there was an error and it was corrected. And that why were we being charged for the month of GYN's death when Medicaid paid it in full knowing that her pension check would not be paid for that month.And then another round of statements again changed each time I pointed out the error. i still lost the case but for the correct amount. That was so exhausting and scary as the ambulance chasing lawyer continued to bully me and instead of writing me for payment plans went on to shut down my personal account and then file an arrest through the cook county sheriff. Finally, with the grace of God and as we celebrate GYN's 94th birthday, it is over.
Now I wonder if justice can really be served. They wanted to bill me the wrong amount and did not want to check. And billing me for when they were paid in full, stinks of fraud. And that if they checked my request from the beginning, I did not need to pay court fees nor lawyers fees. Smart lawyer, each time he re sets this, he got paid. I would have had to pay his fees if I did not show that the bill was wrong.
Sigh.
Anyway, after two years of stress, thank goodness its over. And we are celebrating GYN's 94th at a Polish Buffet, having decided to choose a cuisine from a place she has visited. She enjoyed her trip to Poland, just when Pope John Paul II was named Pope and Poland was still a communist country.

Mom in church

It is February, superbowl Sunday and no one is at mass. Frank is one of a few in the choir who showed up and was given a chance to sing a solo for the first time. Frank who has known mom, GYN since we first started going to St. Mike's. Frank who has always looked young, vibrant, happy. Frank sang and I started to tear up, mom would ahve been so proud. As I looked to the left of the pew, I realized why i never sat there by the aisle, because I always reserve that place for her and know she must be there. Tonight, she definitely was there. I had to tell Frank and it was amazing that even he knew that mom was there, he also felt her. She would have been so proud and so was I. When I went to him, he already knew....he also felt her.

February Blues Superbowl Sunday at mass

Not even 50 were at mass last night but Father Tom gave a homily that struck a chord in me. I keep telling this story of going to a charismatic bible reading group with my late MIL Leonor, to please her and to bond. Being Catholic, but in a non-religious school, I knew the bible stories but not the books. Besides, at this time I was already infected by Johnny Midnight's question of WHO WROTE THE BIBLE???
Anyway, Father Tom gave this excerpt from a book where all the religious, good guys, holy guys were all waiting to get into the pearly gates, then a rumor wafted through that HE was going to let everybody in. This drew anger and indignation amongst the group and they got angry because they have been good all their lives and then when it came to entering heaven HE was allowing everyone in......so in that moment of anger, they damned themselves. They did not recognize God. So in that little seminar where I behaved like the good daughter in law eager to embrace the Lord, my MIL introduced me to the head of the group. I enthused that it was interesting and that I was also inspired by the fact that Jeanne Young, a bad girl turned Charismatic, spreading the word of the Lord, was so prominent in this movement and I was touched by her ability to reach both Catholic and Christian groups. The dude then said, " Yes, BUT we want her to focus on the Catholic groups and not the Christian groups" DING DING DING, I kids you not, I felt a curtain falling in front of me and heard a big THUD, I can still remember it after all these years, with goosebumps, too. And a voice yelling GET OUT OF HERE. I blinked and smiled , went back to the afternoon session struggling to renew my interest, left and never went back.
And here comes Father Tom and his amazing story. An answer to my search. Of course, bible readers will note that the Prodigal Son and the workers in the vineyard all have that same theme, Love. And that the Lord will forgive and let everyone in because He is Love. But if you are really deeply into anger, have taken a life, then the universal TIME OUT is in place until you can get in there. But in the end, we all have to die, there is no great leveler than this, it is an equalizer. It is in our hands where we go after. Right?

Another red neck moment

The grandstand filled up with people from all over. Eager Boy Scouts peddled pop, popcorn and earplugs. EarPlugs?????

And over the muddied grounds of the inner tracks, those farm trucks I keep seeing across fields all over Illinois, were polished and sputting, ready to compete. There were these huge flatbeds called Iron Man, the purple had a 5000 LB weight that would swing from one end to the other as eager tractor racers tried to pull the flatbed towards the 300 yard line. Often times, the hapless tractor would get bogged down at the 250 yard line and the racers (who woulda thunk these huge heavy tractors could fly with their front wheels in the air like a motorcycle instead of the monsterheavy weight, like the hippo dancing in fantasia) were competing like crazy to top the one before them. Ear plugs??? OMG, the next set of races were these Hot Rod exposed fire breathing black smoke spewing NOISE RIDDEN tractors with aggressive names roaring to the point of sonic boom each trip. The ear plugs were definitely needed. i used the old fashioned two fingers in my ear trick because it wasn't worth a dollar to get two pieces of plastic to cover my ears for a few seconds at a time.

Another bit of Americana for me.

A bit of Sandwich

I always heard of Sandwich from daughter in law Dawn as she has been there with Anamite and kids for a few years in a row. So I finally took the trek to Sandwich, getting lost along the way with that stupid GPS, aughh.

Sandwich is a little town like most little towns with history. Old buildings and historic homes mingling with the new ugly box like homes. The Sandwich Fair is held in a dedicated fairground structure, that i gathered from the mini railroad that went around and around, plus the barn type permanent buildings interspersed with gaudily loud food booths.
But it is the food that was the draw for me. Huge mobile food booths with steaks grilling right in front of you with the accoutrement of onions, peppers, mushrooms, cheese along side the steaks, brats, dogs, ribs, corn dogs etc. My mouth watered with every wafting scent of the different fair ground foodstuff. There were corndogs, waffles, mini donuts from a mini fryer dropper, funnel cakes, elephant ears dusted with powdered sugar, cinnamon and other mouthwatering dusts. You name it, it was there. Interestingly enough, no Chinese or Asian food booth, no spring rolls, rangoons, noodles.

My top faves? It was my first time to have an apple dumpling. There was this one dedicated booth for Hot Apple Dumplings, topped with vanilla icing and a slathering of caramel sauce, piping hot from the convection oven that continuously baked the dumplings. The pie pastry was a bit gooey with a taste of cinnamon, but the apple was perfectly round, peeled, scored, must be granny smith as it held its form and had a tartish sweet taste. Along with the vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce, it was one of the best Americana food I have had in ages.

Dawn and Anamite told me the Pork Chop place was a must. The lines were long at Fay's but moving fast. Around and back were charcoal grills that were filled from end to end with huge thick pork chops, and the other side had grilled chicken just being flipped over (imagine your barbecue griller but in gigantic proportions) by eager young Caucasian boys, must be generations of them going through this summer ritual as a rite of passage working the grills for this destination Pork Chop stop. Undaunted by the long line, $12 got me a combo of a pork chop and quarter chicken, a small drink (coffee of course) and sides like the ubiquitous sliced bread, cole slaw, baked beans , applesauce and cottage cheese. Augh ...saan ang kanin at banana ketchup? Sa uulitin nga...magdadala ako. Of course, the food was good, chicken moist, pork chops just right, not raw. Wish it had a thicker layer of fat, sometimes lean pork chops can be too much....But these were finger licking good. My inner oink wanted to get ribs and totally stuffed potatoes but, this was it.

Until I saw the home made pies made by the Christian Church ladies, berry, apple and peach. Going back was the promise. Until doing so, later after walking off the over eating tummy, berry pies were gone, suddenly, pie was not that interesting anymore.

After the tractor pull show in the grandstand area, of which another short blog dedicated to this is next, found the Rollin Pin Bakery mobile that bragged of the Wisconsin State Fair staple, Chocolate Eclairs and Whipped Cream Puffs. And of course, Maridel had to have these. And man, were they good although I could've enjoyed the eclair better slightly thawed more. But understandable that with that home made custard, and in the quantities they were selling, these had to keep frozen. The whipped cream cream puff was already overkill but I did have many bites till I almost burst like the puff.

I need to plan the next fair better. Eat slowly and gradually. Spend the whole day there instead of the few hours. And of course, lose 4 pounds before going to the fair.Advice to all, it is a must to go to the Sandwich Fair at least once (or twice or all the time as this man, who probably belongs to one of the founding families of Sandwich boasted of not having missed the fair since he was 8 and he sure looks like he was a bit over 80). Oh and I did forget to mention all the other exhibits, antiques, competitions, livestock and fair rides...I overwhelmed myself with the food.