New Year's Goal: Stay Up Past Midnight on Weekends

It's been so long! The end of the year simply got away from me (and/or I got lazy... one of the two) but still... over a MONTH without a blog post is simply unacceptable from my perspective. Oh well - it's a new year! One of my new year's goals can be to blog at least once a week this year... we'll see how this goes.

Anyway! After a holiday break filled with some serious bumming around relaxing, I realized how much I need structure in my life. I mean, honestly, the amount I slept during those last few weeks of the year (when I had nothing planned to do) could be considered alarming by some. If you know me at all, you know that sleeping is one of my absolute favorite things. But still. Going to bed by 9 PM (on weekdays and weekends)? A little unacceptable, according to some of my peers.

As such, one of my new year's goals involve staying up until at least 10 PM on weekdays and midnight on weekends.

I dream big, I know.

To help me really kick off my first weekend of the new year during which I had to stay up until at least midnight, I coerced invited a couple of friends to join me in experiencing the Map Room on Friday night. I've been wanting to check out this bar for years (literally) because I'd heard it's known for having beers from around the globe (hence, its name) and the ambiance is similar to another bar that I absolutely love (Hopleaf). Because it's located in a faraway land called Bucktown (read: hipster central), I'd kept on putting off this dream of mine... Bucktown is FAR from Lincoln Park, thank you very much.

Well, folks, I'm happy to say... as soon as I walked into the place, I knew I'd found one of my new favorite Chicago spots.

Very few bars have achieved the level of coziness that the Map Room achieved. First of all, it's pretty small... which could make it a bit of a wait to find a table, but we didn't have all too much of a problem (thankfully). We actually snagged a table at the very back corner which was absolutely PERFECT for me and my stellar people-watching skills.

Second of all... OMG, this bar has lines and lines of BOOKSHELVES!!!! And not just filled with books of any kind... sure there're SOME books, but there are mostly shelves and shelves of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICS!!!!!

Oh!! And the DECOR!!! The tabletops alone were SO fun and filled with character.

And the walls are LINED with different countries' flags and maps from around the world... and would you look at where we ended up sitting? RIGHT under my Canadian roots!! Oh, Canada. Oh... Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (doesn't flow as smoothly but it IS my birth place... and, well, doesn't it just SOUND magical?!).

I was excited, can you tell? Oh! And do you like those glasses? How hipster am I?? ;)

But I digress.

Finally, as with any place that I learn to grow and love, it's the people that make the difference. And I have to say, the crowd at the Map Room was top notch. I mean, everyone was just so CHILL and ready to have a nice, relaxing time over a beer or two. And the instant I spotted someone wearing a sweatshirt at the table next to ours... well, that's when I knew that Map Room was going to be on my list of regularly-frequented places. Any place that allows sweatshirts into its establishment on a Friday night totally has my seal of approval.

Oh! And I guess I should mention the beers as well. I mean, they were good.

I guess that sounds like I was underwhelmed. But I really wasn't! I did truly enjoy the kind that I'd gotten... it's just that I'm not a beer connoisseur so my opinion on beers really should be taken with a grain of salt. What I will say is this... the beer I had chosen was only $5!!! And it wasn't like a Bud Light or anything!!! I mean, that's CHEAP for good beer, right?!?! Oh happiness, if you will.

I have to say - time literally flew by at the Map Room. It was 2 AM, before I knew it! (Well, okay, this may be a slight exaggeration as there was one point where I looked at the time, saw that it was 11:24 PM and had to will myself to stay out for at least another thirty-six minutes.)

In any event, it was such a fun night! Special thanks to a couple of my friends that I coerced invited to join me at Map Room and help me start off my new year's goal on the right foot.