A New England Romp

Fun fact- Boston was on my top 5 list of cities to visit for YEARS.

Probably even top 3. For some reason, this place intrigued me.

It just seemed like a cool place. And people have neat accents there (always a plus). It was clearly THE place I needed to visit.

Not that it’s any surprise, but I was right.

It was awesome.

Then again, part of that may have been the crowd I was with. Stephanie, Kacy, Jess, and Kelly are just like an extension of my personality.

All smiles while waiting for our names to be called for brunch. By the end of our wait, I was ready to eat my arm off.

We’re a force of crazy. With a little sass on the side.

It’s probably quite scary. We apologize.

Because many of you have already been to Boston, or maybe even live there, let’s keep this brief when it comes to discussing my weekend…

1. Steph hosted us and found a few good spots to keep us entertained. One being Top of the Hub- a restaurant on the top of one of the tallest buildings in Boston.

An open-faced salmon sandwich. By far one of the classiest meals I’ve had in a while. Not really sure how I was allowed in.

It was quite fancy and required our best behavior. Which was like a mean challenge for 5 girls with no filters who haven’t seen each other in 5 months.

Well. It was a classy affair until Kelly took to making sure Kacy didn’t miss a bite of her lobster deliciousness in a bowl. Apparently it was tasty. We almost had to restrain her from licking the bowl.

2. One guilty pleasure of mine in new cities is finding a few super cheesy tourist things to do. This came in the form of visiting Government Center. Which was full of street performers and stands for tourists to waste their money at.

The dudes were just taking turns flipping over lines of people. Blew my mind.

We totally ate it up. The people of Boston were most likely rolling their eyes at us.

3. The weekend was unseasonably warm. Which was disastrous for what I had packed, but perfect for a Saturday of walking around in the park.

The Public Garden in Boston. The beauty was remarkable. The name a bit unoriginal.

Just some cool chicks I met on the interwebz.

It looked like we strolled straight into a romantic comedy. Personally, I was waiting for Ben Affleck to save the day when I misstepped off of a curb or something. He’d say something witty and we’d fall in love at first sight.

Matt Damon would have been fine, too. I’m not picky.

4. Not all inflatable mattresses automatically come with a pump to air them up. We found this out around 12:30 on Friday night.

Kelly and I remedied the situation by asking for extra blankets for padding on the hardwood floor. And a super stiff night cap of the vodka variety. There were a few worrisome cracks when standing up, but we learned we’re still young chickens who can rock out the floor if need be. Success.

5. Toys in bars are fun. This could come in the form of a jukebox where Kacy pumped way too much money into it for some solid jams. Or it could be in the form of actually toys in the corner of the bar.

It’s like they knew I was coming.

6. The only clam chowder I had in Boston, with the exception of a few spoonfuls of Kacy’s one night, was at the airport.

Fine. So it was at the airport. However, it still beat Campbell’s in a can. Win.

Does that count? Probably not. But don’t tell me otherwise.

Don’t also warn me the book I’m reading in the above pic is supposed to be done for book club tonight. I know. And I work somewhat well under pressure. So we’ve got this.

7. As for what happens when I get home from another long weekend away?

Green things. Not seen in my diet for at least 48 hours of the 3-day weekend.

It could go without saying.

Anyway….

It was a wonderful weekend with good friends. Not sure what exactly I was expecting out of the city- but it’s a beautiful town. Smaller than I assumed it would be. But that’s also possibly because I was pretty ignorant of such demographic information.

Now that my travels are over for at least another week and a half or so, it’s time to get back into a normal routine. Whatever that may be. I can’t really remember…

Sorta Spontaneous

As mentioned multiple times before, I’m a planner. As much fun as it always sounds, and as many times as I’ve aspired to be spontaneous, I’ve finally accepted my brain refuses to let me function in such a manner.

About two months ago, a slow twitter conversation started between Pham, The Unnatural Runner, her hubby and I.

We live right next to each other. Why do we never hang out?

Unfortunately I’ve had this conversation more than once with multiple people (I’m really sorry if this includes you). If it’s not planned 2-3 days in advance, it’s probably not happening. Let’s blame my Type-A personality again, shall we?

I really need to find less spontaneous friends. You guys are killing me.

Anyway, so this twitter conversation…

After roadblocks such as traveling, new jobs, more traveling, and birthdays (gah. birthdays. SO annoying.), we FINALLY settled on a date.

The scene: Early Monday afternoon. My desk at work.

My phone vibrates Of course it doesn’t actually ring. The speaker broke and I’ve yet to plan a time to go in and correct the situation. Naturally.

It’s a tweet! Everyone’s so excited about happy hour! Neat! Me too!

Wait. Tonight?

It’s tonight??

I thought it was supposed to be on Tuesday?!?!

The right side of my brain started flipping out.

“You can’t go. It’s not part of the plan! We always stick to the plan!”

But after two months of trying to nail this down? There’s no way.

I’m going.

So I rushed in and out of my apartment after work that evening. And out towards Bad Dog Tavern- our designated meeting spot.

We haven’t been all together since meeting up at the 2010 Hot Chocolate 15k, but none of us missed a beat.

Which made it really hard to stop and concentrate on the menu. Thankfully we finally did. Sort of. My decision was based on recommendations from the group- I was the only person who had never been there before.

I went with the Turkey Bacon Club. And it was fabulous. Which is a good thing- I would have judged them all had it not been. 

Also, the bar was out of fries (how does that happen?!?!), but it was completely fine because the upgrade to sweet potato tots was fo’ FREE!

And, it needs to be said, I have a lot of respect for any establishment that automatically throws ranch in as a dipping sauce.

There was intelligence behind that decision.

Was this me being rewarded for my semi-spontaneity? The world must be telling me something.It’s probably telling me these kids rock. And we should do this more often.

Obviously.

 We should probably start the planning process now…

Best part about our happy hour? Two microbrews, a solid meal, good conversation, and I’m still home by 9:30 on a school night. Win. It’s obvious we’re all in training mode for something or another.

For a girl who is trying to make morning exercise work, this was clutch. Because right now, if I want to run outside, it needs to happen in the morning. We’re in and out of heat advisories this week. And even though I happen to do well running in somewhat warmer temps, we all have our limits. Heat index of 105-110 degrees? I’ll pass.

Stay cool, kids.

Coffee Date

“Sunday coffee sounds perfect. Can we do earlier on Sunday?”
“Sure… uh… what time exactly is early?”
“11 or 11:30?”
“Perfect! I was really nervous ‘early’ was going to mean 8:00 and I would have shown up looking pretty rough…”
“Trust me, I would have too! I know how your weekends go… there are rules to follow!”

This girl totally gets me.

Which is why she is awesome.

Love her!
On a side note- does it bother anyone else that the flower on the vase is broken off? I picked at it the entire time. I wonder if she noticed...

Sarena from Non-Dairy Queen happened to be in Chicago with her husband all weekend and was darling enough to meet up with me for coffee and girly gossip before they headed back home!

If you’ve ever read her blog, you know she’s a sweetheart.

If you’ve ever read mine, you know I’m a…

Well.

I’m honestly not sure. Guess you could fill in the blank. Many answers would be acceptable. Either way, I was excited she wanted to hang out.

We chatted away nonstop over coffee. Luckily, she didn’t judge me and the massive breakfast burrito I ordered to cure my grogginess from the late night before.

Because not all nights are low profile…

Twinsies! Photo credit goes to the only other guy at the cafe who was very nice being as how we interrupted whatever work he was doing. Thanks sir!

After sadly getting ready to leave and hugging like 10 times, we parted ways.

She had plans for the day and I had a mission to beat the rain home.

However, as the girl who is easily distracted, I made a quick pit stop on the way back to the train stop.

This is one of those things I've seen from far away, but never up close. I'm a total nerd when it comes to all the random buildings/sculptures in Chicago. Rain be damned, I had to take the risk to see it!

“Agora” is definitely one of our creepier sculptures. But still kind of cool to see because of how big it is (over 100 9-foot headless men).

Afterwards, I retreated back to my respective spot on the couch to watch Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

You guys were right. Don’t watch with kids or parents.

As disturbing as it was, I still slept like a rock. Exhaustion trumped fear. Which is good. The early morning workout was calling my name.

After some resistance training via the windy walk to the gym, I did my standard routine as of late, which includes 22 minutes on the stairmill and 20 minutes on the elliptical. Followed by a visit to the big bad weight room to pretend to know what I’m doing do a few random arm and ab machines/free weights.

On the walk back home, I noticed the increase in the amount of runners hitting the streets.

I then noticed how much I’ve been missing my regular outdoor running.

I should do something about this.

Tomorrow, of course. I’ll let the kids in Boston do all the work today. Good luck, everyone!

Where was I going with that?

Happy Friday!!!

Guess what I did last night?

I went to happy hour. In the middle of the week.

I KNOW- rare occurence, right?

Well, there was reason for celebration. Tiffany from Simply Shaka is in town!She seems to be doing a road trip across America these days. So when she contacted me about her plans to wander through the midwest, I was more than excited.

After a few good recommendations and a viewing of online menus, we decided to do a little meetup at Coast Sushi Bar in Bucktown. I’m a sucker for a good BYOB restaurant. Mostly because I don’t really feel the need to pay $6 or 7 for a glass of wine when I can bring an entire bottle that costs that much (ssshhh… don’t tell Tiff I’m a cheap date!). I was the boring one with the Philly roll. Mostly because of a craving for something simple. And I heart avocado (duh).

However, to make up for my blandness, I did go crazy with the wasabi. If you don’t remember- we’re still looking into if my stomach is, in fact, made of steel.

All signs point to “yes”.

Overall, I really liked this place. A wee bit dark (I’m getting old and I can’t see!), but still a relaxing place if you’re just going for relaxation and conversation. Because let’s face it- bars/restaurants where you can’t hear a thing are just silly.

The food was fantastic. The wine was lovely. The conversation was unedited.

What? After reading about each other for months, it’s not hard to jump right into the good stuff.  I really need to wear flip flops more often. Hence the reason I’m awkwardly leaning/hunching.

But it was a fun group of girls- me (obviously), Tiffany, Joanna and Stacie.

After dinner, I got to play hostess for the night:Excuse the boxes everywhere- I’m moving. And I suck at it

We then proceeded to chat past our bedtime. And finally decided to call it a night when every story started ending in “I’m not quite sure where I was going with that…”

Tiffany left this morning to meet up with more girlies and to head home. But I’m glad I got to meet her and know she’ll be visiting again soon. Because seriously… who doesn’t love Chicago? 

*And those of you who asked about my guy friend who is running with me during lunch on occasion…

He’s cute (I don’t have ugly friends- duh) and has a girlfriend. But that’s beside the point- we’ve known each other since freshman year of college and instead of the two of us getting together, we prefer to make fun of each other for hookups of college past.

It’s terrifying how much that kid knows about me…

Enjoy the weekend, kids!

Running Around Madison

As we were sitting in a little coffee shop yesterday morning, I was discussing the winter doldrums with two really awesome chicks.

Sure, there’s been a massive blizzard. Some chilly days where the snot instantly freezes inside your nose when you walk outdoors.  The endless bundling and unbundling of multiple layers. Cursing under your breath as you shudder and wait for the car to warm up.

Over the last few years, I’ve found myself disappear from the social scene in January. Only to reappear at some point in February.

Not this year. I’ve been all over the place. And this last weekend was no different.Megan and I visited Holly in Madison. Clearly, us three girls took over the city (and Lake Mendota in this case) for 24 hours. And clearly these pictures are not all from my camera- Holly takes wonderful shots and was kind enough to share them with the rest of us.  So if you think “wow, this picture is really nice”, it’s probably Holly’s.

Yes, we are standing on top of the lake. Yes, this freaked me out. Yes, Holly made us do it.

But yes, I’m sort of glad we did it. Because it was awesome. I wasn’t kidding when I said we were all over the place.  I can’t believe people were just hanging out… fishing… enjoying the weather… what?

We also did quite a few other noteworthy things. Holly was a fantastic tour guide and made sure we got a feel of the entire town.Megan and I were even able to throw in our opinion on some serious legislation…We were obviously skeptical, but willing to listen to both sides. As any good politician would do.

After the capital, we walked around part of campus and Holly took us to the student union to show us how cool the people of the University of Wisconsin are.  I mean… really… drinking on campus?PBR. Because cheap beer is what you drink in college. (although I was more of a Keystone gal)

The student union is also where we accidentally found the theme of the weekend. It was the perfect toast for each round of drinks we would share from then on…Balls 4 Life. Holla’.

I’m going to open up the comment boards here to the best graffiti you’ve ever seen in a public place?

It’s probably important to mention I support observation and finding amusement in it. Please do not deface a restroom stall because I told you to. Because I didn’t.

Moving on.

For me, the excitement really escalated at dinner. Wisconsin is known for its cheese. (Duh)

To Holly and Megan’s surprise, I had never tried cheese curds.And The Old Fashioned fries them.  Crazy, right? Holly even captured “my first time”.Words cannot express how happy I was. Mozzarella sticks have got NOTHING on these things. Sure, the word “curd” sounds gross and rhymes with things that make me giggle. But I don’t let such things bother me. We cleaned the basket of them in no time. Holly could not have picked better eats for us during our visit.

Here’s the funny thing about bloggers.  We sort of “know” each other.  And sort of “know” the same people. And read a lot of the same things.  So we have a lot to talk about. Imagine 24 hours of straight conversation.

Well… not quite 24 hours. We had to sleep for 7-8 of those hours. Which reminds me, thank you SO MUCH Holly for letting Megan and I crash on the futon.  Yes, we both fit on it quite comfortably. I’m pretty sure there was no spooning.

The next day, Holly took us to one of her favorite coffee shops.I never thought I’d go “aawwww” when seeing a building for the first time. But come on, isn’t that just freaking adorable? And yes, it’s snowing… again… how many days until Spring???

Luckily, I didn’t spazz about the weather because I had coffee and carbs to keep me sedated.Holly was right- the peanut butter and chocolate chip scone did not disappoint.

Now I just want to make scones… like everyday.

We got home with enough down time before the Superbowl.

I watched it with my neighbor Bailey. Who happens to be a Green Bay fan. I sat quietly with my bottle of beer as she jumped and cheered a little too often for my liking.

And was it just me- or were the commercials really not that great?  Seriously… I can only think of a few that caused a reaction from me at all….

Everywhere and Back Again

I’m going to be cheap and use a shot of Jake Gyllenhaal naked to catch your attention:I’m not ashamed.  He is quite the handsome man.  And has come a long way from his Bubble Boy days. ;)

But yes, I just made this late breakfast. Yesterday was a whirlwind and I’m all out of whack it seems.

That can sometimes be a good thing. 

I got up early for a coffee date at O’Hare with my fantabulous friend Ashlee.  She had a 4-hour layover and we were determined to take advantage of it.Hey girl… heeeeeeyyyy!

 O’Hare is a huge place.  And I have no sense of direction.  So it took a bit to finally come together.  Which is sad, because I had a plan.  And a sign for when she walked out from the gate:Totally didn’t get to use it.  But it’s the thought that counts, right?

And yeah- we have nicknames.  I call her monkey and she calls me penguin.

You can try to understand our crazy if you want to.  But I don’t really even know how we became so weird…I already had breakfast, and Ashlee’s not a big breakfast person, so we split a cookie from Starbucks.  The white chocolate icing was fab.  But we both said the same thing.  Crunchy sugar cookies are not nearly as good as soft ones.  Truth.

After a couple hours, she had to leave for her flight home.  I’m being mischievous and am already coming up with ways to sabotage her next layover so she’ll have no choice but to stay in Chicago.  For good.  Muhahahaha…

I also had another friend who was in the area for the weekend from Philly.  We went to college together and there was an MU game on last night, so it only seemed natural that we made our way to The Spread (my favorite Mizzou bar in the Lincoln Park neighborhood).The three of us slowly and randomly worked our way around the city. It would have been faster had we not had a cab driver who hated life and decided to tell us why and then the other cab driver who seemed more lost than we were. 

My favorite spot of the night was at Cubby Bear just outside of Wrigleyville.  The big Northwestern vs. Illinios game was played inside of Wrigley field yesterday and ESPN College Game Day had been there.  Needless to say, the streets were packed.  The bars were full.  The drinks were flowing.

The pizza was also ordered.  And demolished.

We crashed at a friend’s house (drinking and driving should never be mixed, kids!) and I woke up with a bit of a headache.  Which is somewhat surprising considering how much we ate at the end of the night.  I’m not a big believer in Advil (seriously- I’ve only stashed one or two sample packets of Advil at home from work for worst-case scenarios), so my cure came in the form of this: They should really come up with a bigger size for their iced teas.  Like a pony keg.  I’d dig it. Because this was obviously not enough (refer to coffee in the first picture that was immediately consumed after my tea was gone).

I think I have a caffeine addiction.

I also think that is not a surprising revelation.

I also think it may be time to lounge some more.  It’s Sunday.  Sundays are lazy.  Truth.

Healthy Living Summit 2010

Can I just say how much fun this weekend was?  (I’m not rubbing it in, I swear!)

But it was so great to be in such good company of so many intelligent and strong women that all share a general common goal in how they lead their lives.

Like I’ve said before, it would probably seem a little redundant for me to go into great detail with everything that happened over the course of the weekend, so I’ll just talk about a few highlights that I would like to mention…

1. The food was fantastic.  Seriously.  I was well fed the last couple of days.

2. A few of the sessions were greatly informative.  Here’s where the shout-out to Morgan at Life After Bagels comes in.  I’ve been following her and her crazy weeks leading up to the Summit, so her presentation on time management/organization couldn’t have been better!

3. The girls are awesome.  The weirdest thing for me was walking into the cocktail party on Friday night, spotting someone across the room, and giving them a big hug.  “Um… I don’t know you, but I sorta do, so we’re almost friends, and I’m excited to see you, so I’m going to hug you now.  Deal with it.” Clearly this happened with Jen.And some of the girls here like Courtney and Andrea.

4. Fun fact about our hotel that we stayed in- I was googling directions on how to get their from work on Friday and what popped up in the search?  Only a website for the top 10 most haunted places in Chicago.  Guess what was number 6?

Yeah that’s right- The Congress Hotel.  I blame the fact that Al Capone owned it for a while.  Such a menace.  At least I had some good roomies around to fight off any possible spirits lurking about:Candice and Paige were fantastic!  Heeeeeeyyyyy girls! 

5. After talking to some kids, we’ve decided that the food-loving/fitness-crazed bloggers of Chicago need to be a bit more organized.  Don’t you kids agree?  So if you’re interested in getting in on a mailing list for possible meet-ups or doing races together (or really whatever your heart desires), please email me and let me know.  So far, it seems like we’re all pretty cool.  So let’s do this!  I’m going to try to get an email list together and would love for all you Chicagoland bloggers/readers to come out to play with us!  So drop me a line!!!  (secondcityrandomness@gmail.com)

6. We’re all good about our morning exercise!  At 8:00 sharp, we were all in the lobby rearing to go.  There were a couple different distances being ran- I decided to do a 5k fun run with a few of the girls because the heat was already a bit of an issue by then and I have workout plans with my girl Annie later tonight.  Sweaty chicks in the city.  This eventually lead to a good breakfast:Whoever at Arnold’s came up with the idea of a “make your own cream cheese” station- you’re my hero.  There were sweet and savory options- I of course went with sweat by having them throw in some honey and almonds.  Simple.  Classic.  Delicious.

We hung out at breakfast until they started to politely kick us out of the meeting room.  I was sad to see these girls go:My good “blend” Beth.  Say that ten times fast.Oh Katie… why does every picture we take turn out blurry?  Fail…This is the group of degenerates that eventually got kicked out of the meeting room.  If it were facebook, I was say “tag yourself please!”.  But it’s not.  And currently I only have Andrea and Megan’s contact info…

I feel like I’m namedropping alot on today’s post.  Either way, you should probably check out some of these girls.  They’re all pretty much hilarious and awesome.  At the same time.  A difficult combo to perfect…

And now here I am.  Back home, living the dream in Arlington Heights once again (can I get a what what?).  This is of course after I made the journey from the hotel to the train to my car to my house.  All while balancing luggage and the swag I acquired.  Me dragging four bags around the city seemed a bit excessive, but at least I got my strength training in for the day, right? 

I’m cutting myself off now.  One because this is getting a bit long.  Two because I have things to take care of (even the dust bunnies are starting to complain of the mess I’ve got going on in my apartment). 

So in summary, the Healthy Living Summit was a great time. 

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!

Was it worth it?

Um… there’s a reason this post is so late.  I’m nursing a bit of a headache…  Sorry.

Let’s start from the beginning.

I woke up to some serious rain yesterday.  And left early as to avoid any issues of getting to work on time. Fail.  For some reason unknown to me, I sat in traffic that took twice as long as normal to get to work.  Needless to say, I didn’t make it on time.  The work environment hasn’t been the most enjoyable and happy one recently, so my mood only worsened.  I won’t get into details, but it’s not exactly pleasant.  And of course, since it’s Tuesday, it didn’t surprise me that I had to stay late to work on a few things because of some IT issues. 

And take a few deep breathes on the way home…

Needless to say, as soon as Mon showed up, I pulled out the wine glasses and filled them up.  And then went on to create this:I couldn’t believe how easy it was to make… and how healthy it was (compared to what I figured it would be).  It was TJ’s whole wheat pizza dough, fat free pizza sauce, spinach, mushrooms, and TJ’s fat free feta.  Magnificent…  While we were waiting for it to finish in the oven, we had more of this:By the time the pizza was done, I was already two glasses into my night.  So I kinda didn’t take pics of the finished product.  I’m sorry.  Please imagine the above pic… just cooked. 

It was awesome.  Wine and pizza should be a new staple in my diet.  When I was checking out at Trader Joe’s with all the pizza goodness, the woman started raving about the dough (with good reason) and gave me a bunch of new ideas to try.  Sweet!  And Mon and I had a good time chit chatting and giggling like regular girls do.  My mood lifted by the end of the night for sure.  So at least our planned fun night did some damage control.  I’ll call it a success.

Because of my affection for wine and hatred of Tuesdays, I used a corner of my kitchen this morning that doesn’t usually see much action in the middle of the week.Oh my head…  I used my new Celestial tea mug for my coffee.  Yep, I really live on the edge by switching it up like that.Don’t give me that look, Vince.  You would have enjoyed one too many glasses of wine after a long day, too.  Hush!  Let me enjoy my oatmeal with way too much cereal and white chocolate chips in peace!

Yoga again tonight.  Run planned for tomorrow.  I’m feeling pretty good about the possibilities of doing the race on Sunday.  Things are looking up!   

I’m gonna go get more coffee… sorry I’m so boring today.  But that bottle of wine last night was totally worth it.  Yep.  TOTALLY worth it.  Just sayin’…

Back to the Grind

Well it’s Tuesday and I’m back at work.  On my least favorite day.  Ick!  Oh well, it was soooo worth it. Ashlee and I had a blast yesterday.  We slept in (until like 8:30- woot woot!) and just slowly got ourselves going and making plans.  We narrowed it down to a museum day- Chicago History Museum and Field Museum.  I still hadn’t made my way into the History Museum yet, so I was ready.

We decided it might be fun to do breakfast in the city.  So I grabbed a Fiber One from the gift basket I got at Jaime’s shower to tide me over.  Thank god I did…  we took the metra in and tried out the bus system.  I never claimed to be an expert on public transit in Chicago.  Never.  I rely heavily on Google transit to tell me what to do.  But sometimes human error occurs.  And sometimes you end up getting on the wrong bus.  And sometimes you end up in areas you probably shouldn’t be.  Like what happened to us yesterday.  Uh… oops.  So the bus ride was a little longer than we thought it would take.  But we got to where we needed to get eventually:

Elly’s Pancake House!  Our brunch we planned to have around noon or a little after turned into lunch because of how late we had gotten there.  And we were STARVING.  Hamburger and fries for both of us…

No pictures, sadly.  Why?  Because my camera battery crapped out on me.  I didn’t realize it was low after the weekend.  Even that morning, I thought, “Should I charge my camera battery?  Nah… it has enough power surely…”  Nope.  I turn it on and get the message “Change Battery Pack”.  Damn!  Enough with the camera issues!!!  And Ashlee’s had died well before mine because she was already on day 4 of her trip…

So, I apologize for the grainy crackberry pics you will be seeing for the rest of the post.  But a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do…

One thing that did go our way?  We made it to the History Museum, and it was a day of free admission!  Score!  So first, we checked out the children’s museum:

My legs weren’t even  long enough for that bike.  And I’m no shorty! 

Then we strolled upstairs… The little Playboy display was one of my fav things to look at.  Apparently the bunny costume was modeled after the measurements of this girl Suzy- who was decided to be the ideal proportions for the Playboy club.  Yeah… her waist was 23 inches.  I’d have to break a couple ribs to come close to that one…  And we won’t even talk about how much help I’d need to fill in the top of the costume… damn “runner’s boobs”.  :pMany of the exhibits had to do with the World Fair.  They had a train car you could walk into and around and pretend to be a member of the times.  Ashlee was Newton- a grocer who enjoyed the moving sidewalk exhibit. My card said I was Matilda- a widow who liked the Agriculture Building.  I decided she was probably a sassy broad.  Just like me.  The History Museum was a lot of fun.  We stayed until close.  Sadly, there was a fashion exhibit that was closed- we were both a little bummed about that one.  But honestly, time-wise we may have not gotten to see it anways.  After the History Museum closed, we decided to skip Field Museum (figuring by the time we got there, it’d be closed, too, if not already).

To Ogilvie we went to catch a metra back out to the ‘burbs.  Both of us just adore Sheldon on Big Bang Theory, so we got some carryout at a little Mexican place near me and made it back to my apartment just in time to watch it.  Turns out it was a rerun we had both seen, but really- it’s still hilarious.  Check out my burrito I got:

It was a chicken burrito the size of my head.  For reals.  Apparently my toes were just curling in excitement.  The awesome people at the restaurant gave us chips and dip while we waited for our food to be ready to carry out, so I didn’t need that at all!  After the pic, I took a knife to it.  Three meals out of this craziness.  Holy crap.

This morning I sadly took Ashlee to the airport on the way to work. It’s funny because we started chatting away as soon as I picked her up on Sunday straight through the entire trip all the way until I dropped her off.  I’m so glad she came!  She said they might try to make another trip up to Chicago over the summer.  I said fantastic.  Everyone loves the Chi in the summer…

Anyhoo, so that was my great weekend!  I loved it.  And now everything goes back to normal…  Back to work.  Back to my workout schedule (Nothing crazy tonight- just The Shred if I’m up to it because I really am a walking zombie today).  Back to my routine.  The sleep will be needed.  But she’ll be missed until I get to see her again! 

Have a good Tuesday everyone!  I’m gonna go grab another cup of coffee…

Mardi Gras Weekend 2010

Sigh.  I think I just caught up on sleep.  Almost 11 hours last night.  Thank goodness I have today off- it was a life saver.  St. Louis was a lot of fun, but the fact of the matter is I didn’t get proper rest one night while I was there.  A small price to pay…

We made good time to get there (always better than when I drive- I still have a ticket or so on my record that I’m waiting to drop off and my insurance doesn’t need to get any higher).  My parents picked me up pretty much as soon as we pulled up.  So I had said a quick hi to Adam, threw the cupcakes in his general direction, and off I went again.  Like I said, my parents love the gambling and so we stayed at Harrah’s.  All the sudden, my brother and I found ourselves standing alone in the casino entrance feeling like we just got sucked into Vegas Vacation.  Our parents had already bolted toward their favorite games.  I stayed for a while, but was tired from the trip and knew I had a long couple days ahead of me, so I snuck into bed earlier than most.

Apparently, Sammy Hagar was making his way to the casino.  So I got to “meet” him.

So Saturday… when the shenanigans begin…

Laura, Mary, and I met up and made our way to Soulard around 11:00.  Traffic was a mess, but we parked about a mile away from the action (not bad).  Mary had her trusty watter bottle of vodka, so we carried our bottles of vodka sprite and started our day (hey, it’s 5:00 somewhere).  We realized once we got to the gates, that they weren’t allowing us to bring anything like that in (something forgotten from years before), so we had two options.  Throw it away, or drink it before we go in.  Something to note for next year- THROW IT AWAY.  Instead, we hung out and drank it:

After meeting up with some of the guys, we went to McGurk’s for a few hours.  Luckily, they let me bring in my beer I had only gotten 10 minutes earlier (maybe not so luckily?).

Things escalated quickly.  At some point (I lost track of time), I wandered back out into the street to meet up with a few other people.  Something to note- never ever walk by yourself at Mardi Gras when you’ve been drinking.  That was stupid and I realize this now.  But luckily, I found everyone again.  I ended up just spending the rest of the day with the boys- Laura and Mary went to a house party after the bar. 

The streets were packed.  I think even more so than last year (last year was obnoxiously cold and windy).  I didn’t see the parade this year.  Oh well.  But I still saw plenty of costumes, debauchery and bad decisions being made.  So I doubt I missed much.

Another thing to remember for next year?  EAT something while you’re there.  I had toast at Laura’s, and a Cliff bar on the way there.  Ten hours later, I needed some food.  And anyone who knows me, would be shocked I let this happen.  Because I don’t.  Ever.  I let the beer and vodka (and the shot or two we took at the bar) get away from me.  Someone mentioned pizza.  Being as how I live in Chicago and have found myself becoming quite the pizza snob (for the record, there were three other boys there who were the same), we finally settled on Pizza Hut.  Who knew we could have a heated argument about pizza?  I actually love Pizza Hut, though- it reminds me of when I was little.  My parents would bring it home as a surprise for when they went to Jefferson City to go grocery shopping (obviously, in my small town, the local convenience store was really all we had for basic necessities- not ideal).  So three pieces of pizza later, I was feeling back to my old self.

Yes, I'm embarrassed, but I did drink that Busch Beer in the corner. Gross...

Another couple hours of hanging out there, our friend Adam picked us up to hang out at his house for a while.  Soon it’s 4:00 in the morning, we’re all struggling to stay awake, and a taxi FINALLY makes it there so we can go back to Jeff’s house to sleep.  Adam already had two other people there who had claimed the couches.  And I was not about to share the hardwood floor in Adam’s “bachelor pad”.  Jeff at least had extra bedrooms and couches.  So if you’re keeping track, I didn’t make it back to Laura’s, but she was already very much asleep and it would have been quite the ordeal for me to try and make it there.  Apparently, I slept around all weekend…

That’s what she said.

And just to be clear, that’s a joke…

Seriously, let’s make sure that’s clear.

The next morning, Laura picked me up and we went to a breakfast spot called Gingham’s in South County.  My one complaint?  We got seated in the smoking section.  Not that it really mattered- it was just one big open restaurant.  And it’s like this in most bars/restaurants in St. Louis.  It’s rough to be hungover and enjoy your omelette and pancakes (see below!  mmmm) when you’re secondhand smoking a pack of cigarettes while you’re there.  And yes, I smoked.  And yes, I do occasionally partake in enjoying one with a good cocktail.  But even when I smoked on a regular basis (in my crazy college days), I would prefer to happily go outside to do so.  I absolutely hate having to wash my hair and clothes twice the next day to get the smell out.  Especially when I’m not the one smoking.  Thank goodness for the smoke-free cities becoming a much more regular thing. 

I was downing the liquids at this point.  But it wasn’t enough.  Dehydration was an issue for us all.  We’re not in college anymore.  This is always a rough realization for us all- that we generally tend to ignore.

Laura and I bummed it out at her house while we waited for my departure time to arrive.  She was treating an injured foot.  Hopefully it’s just a sprain.  House party injury.  Happens to the best of us.

We arrived back in the lovely ‘burbs around 8:15.  The entire drive back was a struggle.  Drivers got switched up because the fatigue was really setting in for everyone.  Dinner wasn’t Wendy’s (like I had predicted), but Taco Bell.  So… uh… a step up or down- not sure, you decide.  My chicken quesadilla was surprisingly yummy.  But I’m pretty sure my foot may have been just as tasty at that point.  So far, no “Taco Hell” incidents to report.  I think I’m in the clear.  I stayed away from the burritos.

All in all, a successful trip.  I got in family time, girl time, friend time, drinking, gambling, good eats (and bad), shopping, and other little bits of trouble here and there…  no wonder I didn’t have time for sleeping.

Now, all I have to say is, “thank goodness we got today’s holiday off.”  That was seriously CLUTCH!  Well, that and I am glad I stayed away from the Hurricanes this year.  No one needs to be drinking those…  I’m going to be a lazy bum for a little while longer, then make my way to the gym.  And Monica and I have plans to catch up about our weekends.  Happy Monday!