[89] Cali Cousin Comes to Chicago

Yahoo! Finally, our cousin Pam visited Chicago from Cali. One down, one more to go! She's here for work but whatevs...still counts!

So after she got off work, us Chicagoans (Becky, Darren, and I) took her to a few places around Chicago.

Starting with Pequad's for some Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

The four of us shared one large 14", and we were so full! It was really good. The crust was great....unlike stupid Gino's deep dish. I wish it had a little more sauce though. Oh well... the crust made up for it.


Exploring Downtown
Skyline

Skyline + Us

This is my favorite picture of us.

[88] Eating Spree

Eat... A lot.... Because I Can.....Finally....

Bahay Kubo II

Grilled Beef, Awesome Rice, Mango Salsa, Egg Over Easy 

Da Rae Jung

Beef Naengmyun (Cold Noodles)

Japjae

Daeji Bulgogi (Spicy Pork)

Banchan (Side Dishes)

Banchan (Side Dishes)

Artopolis

*Bread Pudding
*Coconut Yogurt Mousse
 (There are no pictures because my friend keeps forgetting to send them to me, and I'm tired of reminding him ... sigh)

[87] Wisdom Teeth Extraction - Day 7

FINAL DAY!

Not exactly what I what I was hoping for, but I'm about 90% back to normal. I can't eat no sandwiches (or pambazos), but I can eat most of everything else.

I'm so sad about the pambazos though since I went to Maxwell St. Market today with Dan, Emily, and Jeff.

I did get to eat elote (corn in a cup), rica nieve dessert, and some of Emily's churro.

Instagram photo I stole from Emily =)

I wanted to buy a cute little wrench to attach to my keys, but I got the wrong size....two of the wrong sizes. One is too small and one is too big. Woe is me! =(

[86] Wisdom Teeth Extraction - Day 6

I'm just counting out a week since that's around how long it takes for the healing process. We're almost there, so I expect that in one more day, I will be completely fine and I will go back to eating and drinking and brushing like normal.

My jaw still has a little tightness, but I'm continuing to gain more mobility in my jaw. Today was my first day chewing. My bottom teeth can make contact with my top teeth. Imagine that! Before, my cheeks were in the way so if I tried to chew, I would pretty much just bite my own cheek. I had an actual meal today!!

I had chicken wings and rice and veggies and veggies. So good!!

On another note, I finally got to see some more of my family since being back in Chicago. During the day, I visited my little cousins Jerry and Daniel. Jerry told me all about his China trip and Daniel played games in the other room. We ate dinner together though and talked and caught up and stuff. During nighttime, I went biking with my cousin Darren and Becky. We were supposed to catch a meteor shower by the Lake, but we didn't see jack. Lucky Darren caught one, but it was a fruitless trip for Becky and I. Well.... I guess not fruitless. It was definitely a good time, and I finally fulfilled my promise to bike with Darren. Good day.

[85] Wisdom Teeth Extraction - Day 5

I woke up today feeling pretty good. Even though there's still puffiness, there's less stiffness in the jaw. I feel so free....but not that free. I still have to eat semi-solid foods. For dinner, I just ate soft serve ice cream. Womp womp. BUT BUT BUT at night, there was a breakthrough. I think my stitches are finally dissolving. I fellltt them. Oh boy oh boy! I'm so excited. It's only a matter of time until I can eat normally again.

[84] Wisdom Teeth Extraction - Day 4

So I found out today that icing beyond 24-hours-after-the-surgery is pretty much useless. It doesn't help with the healing or swelling, but it maaaayy cause your jaw to be pretty stiff--which is exactly what was happening to me. Ignorant of this information, I was icing and icing and consequently, I couldn't open my mouth wide enough to even chuckle comfortably.

Finally, I stopped, and my jaw feels amazing. Overall, it's been a good day! I could talk and laugh and eat. I ate a lot today! I've moved up from liquid foods to semi-solid foods like mashed potatoes and ravioli. And I even went biking today...I was out for maybe only an hour and a half, but that was a good hour and a half. However, I came home and there was a little blood in my mouth. I gotta be careful. I'm not sure what happened, but yeah... I gotta be careful.

Oh yeah, but my cheeks are still really puffy.

[83] Wisdom Teeth Extraction - Day 3

yEp! Puffiness still getting worse.

However, I'm not bleeding anymore. The holes have pretty much completely closed up. When I eat, no blood. When I brush, no blood. When I rinse my mouth, no blood.

More good news -- I can open my mouth a litttle wider. And I can eat less-liquidy foods such as yogurt and rice pudding. HAHA! It ain't that much better than jook and Ensure, but it is better.

[82] Wisdom Teeth Extraction - Day 2

The puffiness worsens...

And it looks puffier when I tuck my lip in...

The rest of the day, I did little to nothing--I mostly slept, ate jook, and drank Ensure. Though, I did go out with my mom to Chinatown and some friends came over to look and laugh at me. At nighttime, I walked with my family to Dominick's and I bought yogurt and rice pudding. Hopefully, tomorrow, I'll be able to eat it.

[81] Wisdom Teeth Extraction - Day 1

I got my wisdom teeth extracted today and unfortunately, I do not remember any of it until like 5 hours later when I woke up from a nap already at home.

According to Becky though, this is what happened.... as written from my perspective:

When I was finished I couldn't keep my left eye open. She would manually open it, and I would just shut it again. Then, as I sat up in the chair to see how I was, I would do an arm wave ....

When I got out of the office, I stepped away from Becky, who was helping me to the car, and did a little dance that included doing the wave, a spin, and the Dougie

My mom hurried me into the car and the first thing I did was check the mirror. I kept touching my lips, saying "Eew. It feels like fucking gummy worms!" We stopped for gas and I moved to the backseat from the passenger seat using exaggerated climbing movements, exclaiming "See, I'm good." Then, I was doing the wave in the backseat saying, "Easy! It's okay. It's 100% me now". After I sat down. I switched between speaking Taishanese and English when I was talking. Becky kept asking me to repeat myself. I told her that I was really glad to know Chinese,  because I couldn't speak in the doctor's office. She told me that it was hard to understand me because of the gauze, not because it was English. I argued saying it was because I didn't have to use my tongue as much speaking Taishanese. Mom came back into the car while I was talking, and she commented, "Why do you keep talking? Stop talking." We were on the highway home when I fell asleep.

Here's a picture of me when I got home and woke up from my nap.

[80] Hey There! Hi! Guess Who's Back In The C.H.I.

Henry Guan is back!

In the morning, I went school supply shopping with my little cousins, and then ate at Japanese Hibachi Grill Buffet or whatever it's called....something like that. I ate so much that I didn't feel hungry until later in the day at like 3am. I had to eat all I can eat because after tomorrow when I remove my wisdom teeth, I won't be able to eat anything for like a week. It wasn't too bad though. I could've eaten a tiny bit more, but my sister had to go to work.

So, at around 5:30pm, my sister had to go to work so everyone went home, and I biked out to meet up with Wing and Kent and and Kelly Kwan and Law. We played Frisbee and then had a little hangout afterwards. We had some good dancing time and goofing around time and bonding time. It's always a good time!

In conclusion,
It's nice to be back home with family & friends.
Johnny! ("Ja ne （じゃね）")

[79] Hometown Countdown - 1

Finally, going home today...

But not before a last picture with my roomies...

And not before hitting up Mango Fondue & Lounge with Jeff.

This is a restaurant in Peoria owned by our friends Don and Beatrice. We've been meaning to visit it for a while now but just never got around to it. Finally, we made the concrete plans to go on the way back up from Champaign. We couldn't have found a better day either; this may be our last time going to or coming back from Champaign/Urbana together.

Aged Cheddar Fondue 

The first item we ordered was the Aged Cheddar Fondue, which came with an assortment of breads, grapes, and apples. The best combination by far were the apples. It's a quaint blend between warm and cold, crunchy and melty, sweet and salty that just worked.

Top left: Mini Caprese Kabobs
To the right of that: Spinach Artichoke Baked Filo Tartlets
Middle Row: Steak Kabobs with Bourbon Sauce
Bottom Row: Mini Burger Trio

These were the rest of our orders. In general, all the food was really good, but I especially loved-loved-loved the steak kabobs and the mini caprese kabobs. It's ironic too, because I'm usually not a big fan of kabobs, but the kabobs here were my favorite dishes. In addition, I'm not usually a big fan of steak either, but this steak was especially tender and delicious. Poifect!

The mini caprese kabobs was a simple yet wonderful combination of tomato, basil, and mozzarella. It tasted so fresh and was a perfect addition to the rest of the meal.

Yummy yumm!

[78] Hometown Countdown - 2

Still moving out..

Here I am with all my shirts on hangers...

[77] Hometown Countdown - 3

Dan and I had our last Insomnia Bike Ride before I had to put our bikes away and boy, we had to make it one helluva bike ride.

We were out for like 4 hours and we biked a total of 15.59 miles.

We got to explore some dark ass roads, a few campus spots, had some bonding time in a parking lot, and topped off the night at Steak 'n' Shake with milkshakes.