Reileen van Kaile

Yesterday, a couple of friends and I headed up to Kamehachi in Old Town Chicago to celebrate the Leo birthdays of Lauren, Melissa, and myself. (Lauren's was the 2nd, Melissa's was the 4th, mine was the 7th.) The restaurant is located on the corner of N Wells St., and is actually quite nice and comfortable despite its tiny size. Lauren had reserved the private room for us, which would've had a shoji screen door, tatami mats, and a private music system and TV set, but something or other must've gone wrong, because we got seated in the general section. Woe. But it wasn't really that bad, because the place was mostly empty (maybe due to the Air and Water Show going on?), so we were all quite comfortable.

The food was tasty, but on the pricy side: I was debating on getting a bowl of udon (because I'd been craving noodles like damn lately) 'til I saw that a bowl of noodles was $10.95. Seriously. I ordered shrimp and vegetable tempura ($7.95, if I recall correctly) and spicy tuna rolls (six pieces for $5.50). My drink was a lemonberry twist martini ($10), which was, uh, fruitilicious. I also stole pieces of fried chicken and chicken tempura off Melissa and Joanna, respectively, because if there's one thing I learned in my high school's cafeteria, it's that sharing is caring. They didn't mind because they'd sat with me at a lunch table for at least one year in high school, so they were quite used to transgressions upon their edible property.

Dessert consisted of two things. The first was a box each of chocolate-covered strawberries and chocolate-covered apple slices that Melissa and Lauren brought, which were very delish. We offered some to our waitress, who seemed absolutely delighted with the treats. After hearing why we'd brought the goods, she came back later with a candle stuck in a piece of chocolate mousse (our second dessert) in honor of the birthdays, and Liz and Joanna sang a birthday song in Polish. Fun times, I say, fun times.

But you know what was even more fun? The presents.

From Melissa, I got $10 and two bracelets. Lauren handed over a cellphone charm that she made herself, a Hello Kitty eraser, and a water lily-scented candle. The logic of Liz's present amused me: her handwritten message in the card she gave me was talking about how I was a Real Live Adult now, but her presents to me were...a Hello Kitty bag, a Hello Kitty change purse, and a Hello Kitty pen. TTLY GROWED UP, AMIRITE??? (Also, I got a sexy lime green journal to decorate my shelves with. Rawk.)

Joanna's gift to me was...interesting. In addition to a tiny box of Starbucks Chai Truffles and a $20 gift card to Kohl's, I received ( things that aren't quite safe for work. )

But that's what friends are for.

-Reileen
they want my treasure, so they get their pleasure from my photo