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Last week I got to grab lunch and catch up with my old intern Shimon. After his stint at 3sixteen, he went on to intern at Unis and is now working at Nepenthes NY. I remember when I first brought him in for an interview; he shared that he  had graduated from college and got a job at an ad agency, only to find that it was not something he was not excited about. He decided to leave the ad world behind and try to gain some experience in fashion to see if it could work out for him. Two years later, I’d say that he made the right choice. Many of our interns really inspire me with the risks that they take to pursue their passions and Shimon is no exception.

Being that I haven’t seen him since I had my son Logan, Shimon came bearing gifts. One of them was a small box of cigars. During his internship, we had taken more than a few afternoon cigar breaks on the red benches at Allen & Stanton to decompress, and so he thought to bring something that would let me take a few “forced breaks” as I like to call them.  These particular cigars are dubbed “The Old Man and the C” – the single cigar is the old man, and there’s a strange bundle of three intertwined cigars to form the sea. I wonder how the bent cigars will smoke, but they came recommended from a customer of his at Nepenthes so I’m sure they’ll be good.

The other gift is a candle from Nepenthes to help burn off any lingering cigar smoke smells. Very thoughtful.

Some long overdue pictures from my trip to Chicago last month. We went to visit longtime friends of mine, two of which had a baby girl quite recently. For those who don’t know, I spent 7+ years in Chicago for both school and work. I love the city and the people there, and wish we could go back more often. Another milestone for the trip was our son’s first airplane ride – he performed admirably and slept the entire way there and back. Like father, like son.

Giordano’s stuffed pizza. While the merits of which Chicago-style pizza joint is best can be debated endlessly, I’ve had many a good spinach stuffed pizza here and have yet to be disappointed.  Call me a creature of habit.

Logan doesn’t like to be teased with food. He’ll grab.

I lived in Chicago’s south side for two years – specifically, in a blue collar neighborhood called Bridgeport, the home of the Chicago White Sox. When I had left, the area was still family-oriented, diverse and relatively ungentrified. I was pleasantly surprised during this last visit to find a small coffeehouse called Bridgeport Coffee Company flourishing, where they serve in house roasted single origin coffees and blends. The espresso was subpar (mostly due to the machine and the preparation) but the made-to-order pourover coffees were excellent. This place serves flavor shots – they’re clearly not trying to be a cool guy shop, but they do roast some good coffee. Right across the street is a bar called Maria’s Packaged Goods & Community Bar; it used to be a neighborhood dive but has been transformed into a bar that serves up craft beers and liquors. Where were these places when I lived there?

Beyond all the good food and drink that Chicago has to offer (and there’s a lot of it), I was especially grateful to be able to reconnect with longtime friends who know me well. It’s also exciting to see us all growing up together and starting families together. Surreal, but exciting.

My good friends Wilson and Carol returned from their honeymoon recently with this generous gift for Logan. It’s a child-sized replica of the walnut Eames LCW that already resides in our living room… as soon as they saw it, they knew it’d be perfect for us.

There are a few design adjustments to make it more kid-friendly… most notably, the angle of the seat itself: the child-sized chair doesn’t angle down as much to promote better posture. It also doesn’t use rubber shock mounts on the seat or the backing, which results in the seat having less give. Otherwise, the construction and shape look to be just as nice as our existing one.

While it’ll still be at least a year or two before Logan is able to sit in this chair comfortably, it’s such a nice looking addition to our living room that I’m happy to leave it out until he’s ready for it.