Writer Samantha Irby's Best Day Ever in Chicago
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Samantha Irby. Photo: E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Before heading to Hollywood to write for "Shrill," "And Just Like That..." and "Work in Progress," Samantha Irby developed her voice in Chicago.
- And though she's found success writing for others, she shines brightest in her personal essay collections, like her latest "Quietly Hostile."
What she's saying: "It's the only place I get to be 100% myself and write 100% of what I want to write," Irby tells Axios.
- "My solo work is like emotional pajamas. Just slip in and get cozy."
What's happening: This Thursday, Irby will chat on stage with the host of WBEZ's "Nerdette," Greta Johnsen, at Mundelein Center for Performing Arts in Rogers Park.
- On Friday, she'll speak at her alma mater, Evanston High School.
We asked the writer what a perfect day would look like when she returns:
🥞 Breakfast: "Southport Grocery! I'm not gonna front for these very grownup readers: I like to order breakfast like a child. I could lie and pretend I might order something called a 'butternut squash omelet' but I don't even know what those words mean.
- "I'm ordering a beermosa to take off the edge of a dawning new day filled with unexpected horrors and a single bread pudding pancake."
🛏 Morning activity: "GET BACK IN BED."
🥗 Lunch: "Cross-Rhodes in Evanston!!!!!!! I’m getting a large Greek salad topped with gyro slices and an order of lemon potatoes, but also: Could this be a different day than the day I go to breakfast? I feel like my intestines might pop."
🚙 Afternoon activity: "Finding a 1988 Ford Escort to drive around the land of my birth, stopping every 10 minutes to visit all my diaper buddies and their parents while blasting 'Exile in Guyville' on cassette."
🥃 Dinner: "Well, if Maude's hadn't been a victim of the pandemic, I would absolutely be ordering the Lyonnaise salad coupled with the cassoulet and accompanied by an icy gin smash, but since it died (RIP) we'll just scoot on down the block to Au Cheval.
- "I'm getting a horse's neck to sip on while we wait for a table to open up (let's be real, I'm getting two because that place is always packed) and then once we're seated I'm starting with the green salad followed immediately by the fried bologna sandwich with some hash browns."
🥱 Evening activity: "If I don't fall asleep in the back of the cab after all that French food? I'M GOING TO THE CLUB. (Definitely gonna poop my pants in the bathroom line around 2am but that's a sexy story for a different kind of interview!)"