Pierogifest

Saturday July 24th, 2010

Another restless night, was it the wicked storm that flooded Chicago, the suburbs & the Ike(aka. the Eisenhower expressway = I-290)? The bad night was cured by our sister who made homemade Malt-O-Meal muffins and decaf coffee. Goody-Goody. I tried taking a nap before our outing, but time was not on my side. The shower did refresh me before we left.

Jenny, Marie, Paul & I headed to Whiting, Indiana for Pierogifest on Indianapolis Blvd. & 119th St. This is the 3rd time this week we were there, remember we had attended our cousin's funeral. It's down the street of the funeral home. They had decorated the birds in the fountain with babushkas and aprons, they had signs for the restrooms saying "P-rogi stations", we came across Miss Paczki, and Paul knew one of the ladies where their attire exaggerates the native Polish & Slovak dress with heavy makeup, their decorated babushkas, aprons and rolling pins. They had made a calendar with different recipes for jello molds & they autographed it for us. We ran into our cousin, Carol, who was working behind the scenes. It's such a small town but our mom's side was so big, everybody knows somebody. They had dancers performing native dances and craft kiosks where we purchased the tabletop versions of cornhole, that bean bag toss game and T-shirts honoring our heritage and the festival.

It was 90 degrees plus and sunny outside but it didn't stop us from eating sauerkraut, potato, beef & cheese pierogis, potato pancakes, stuffed cabbage rolls, funnel cake w/ ice cream & chocolate sauce. F.Y.I. certain chemotherapies make you more sensitive to the sun, so wear sunscreen 30 SPF or higher or cover yourself with a long sleeved top & hat. My sister had sprayed me down before we had hit the festival. On the way home we stopped @ Dairy Queen and got ice cream cones. We had bought Kettle popcorn for home too. 4 little piggies. BURP! We reached home and my brother started to make tacos for dinner. Even I had to rest my belly for a few hours before I ate 2 of them. Loading up on my calories before my next round of chemo. Lord thank you for the good food, good weather and spending it with wonderful people.