When life hands you lemons….demand coconuts*

Greetings, blog watchers. Well, its never a dull moment, is it?  This post will be fairly short and sweet - as you all know, I have a rule about not posting about work (too much of a potential social media quagmire).  However, last week was a fairly exceptional one - and one in which you, dear reader, may also have some investment in.   To put it in a (coco)nut shell - yet again, I find myself in a period of uncertainty with my job.  My company announced on Tuesday last week a complete restructuring that has left me - and many others in my part of the organization - without a definite role.  There won't be any certainty about how things shake out until mid-October, so until then, I just have to try and do the best I can to keep focused, work hard, stay optimistic and not Completely Freak Out.

Oh… and drink lots of rum-based cocktails with similarly shifted colleagues.  Yep, after a rough week, really the only thing to do was to get our coco on and head for this spectacular tiki bar in Chicago called Three Dots and a Dash (I'm not entirely sure the rationale for the name - maybe after an evening spent consuming their potent potions, the power of speech will have left you and Morse code will your only form of communication?).  The Three Musketeers for the evening were my good self and two awesome colleagues, Jonathan and Lauren.   Both live in the city so the choice of venue was theirs, and I had made sure to wear my finest tie-dye tiki-chic for the occasion.

Well, I'm pleased to say that it was just the job after a crappy week.  We had an absolute blast - the atmosphere was fun, the drinks were mind-crunchingly strong and the witty repartee was flowing (amazingly, we seemed to get even funnier as the evening wore on).  But it was the garnishes.  Ohhh…. the garnishes.   Words cannot express just how spectacular they were.  Especially after the rum had started flowing.  Each new beverage seemed to attain dizzying new heights (or maybe that was me?), with banana dolphins, minty bushes (ahem), clouds of dry ice, before the finale of the Flaming Crystal Skull.  Bloody marvelous.

Needless to say, I had a bit of a crushing hangover the next day but it was worth every last sugary drop!    If you are looking for a fun night out where you can forget about it all for a few hours, then this is your place!!  http://threedotschicago.com

Yes.  That IS a dolphin fashioned out
of a banana, an olive and pineapple leaves.
Sheer bloody genius.

Zombie Skull in preparation

Our professional garnish arranger at work

Stand back, light blue touch paper and retire..

Eyebrows still intact

Ta-da!!!  Shazam!!!  Not at all unsafe to be drinking a
cocktail with a big open flame on the top.

See?  We're all (hopefully still gainfully
 employed) professionals.  We got this. 

Close-up.  Indiana Jones ain't got
nothing on this baby! 

Our bar neighbors' mini-frosty skull

*shamelessly pinched from the latest Coco Vita ad campaign.  Thanks, creative marketing professionals!