chicago is a magical place.

Last weekend I went to Chicago to visit my best friend Lindsay for our birthday gift to ourselves/each other. It. Was. Fabulous.

My friend Jamie made me a mix CD for the trip so on Friday morning I fired that bad boy up, stopped for a super duper gigantic mocha and headed down I-94 with nary a car seat in sight. Ahhhh... freedom. I totally rocked out to Coldplay, Ingrid Michaelson, Barenaked Ladies, Brandi Carlisle and not one but TWO songs from the Once soundtrack for the entire 4 hour drive. Methinks Jamie nailed my taste in music.

I got to Lindsay's place where she was finishing her packing, and I got some play time in with Ayla, who covered me with stickers, and Annabelle... who took one look at me and immediately fell asleep sitting up in her high chair. I'm hella entertaining.

We took the train to our hotel, checked in and decided to do Michigan Ave. We stopped at the Bean and took pictures, because this is what you do when you go to Chicago. We totally lost track of time and had to book it back to our hotel to get ready for Second City. When Lindsay took off her jacket she had one of Ayla's stickers on her back which was freaking adorable. Miraculously we got to Second City early enough to get awesome seats and we straight up laughed for the entire two hour show. It was quite possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen. And let's just say I fed an olive covered with hummus to a woman dressed as a Russian gymnast as she walked across the bar at which I was sitting. You kinda had to be there.

After Second City and several drinks we went to this great little restaurant called Quartino for tapas and more drinks. It was at this point in the evening that I walked into a revolving door. Twice. It may have been Shiraz-related. Or it may have been klutz-related. Or a combination of the two. I'll let the maître d' be the judge.

On Saturday we had a spa day at Spa Space. Highly recommend it if you're ever in Chicago; Jerry did my massage and Camille did my facial and I wanted to stick both of them in my pocket and bring them home with me. Lindsay's wonderful husband brought us some lunch and some champagne, which we drank once we got back to our hotel. For dinner we went to Karyn's Cooked, which is a fabulous vegan restaurant. After dinner and of course more drinks we pretty much walked around looking for a building with a view of the city. We found a few options but all had crazy wait time so we opted to go back to our hotel. On the walk back we passed a homeless man who basically had the most hilarious quote of the entire weekend. Dude didn't even hit us up for cash... as we walked by him he just said, "Y'all could be jeans models. Both of ya."

We went to bed pretty much right away and woke up the next day, had breakfast and took the train back to Lindsay's house. After a quick walk to the popcorn store to get a bag of Chicago Mix for the family (and a separate bag for my drive home, which my family never knew existed until NOW) I said goodbye to my BFF and her beautiful family and headed back to Meeechigan.

I listened to my new Imogen Heap CD, which I picked up at Borders after the spa on Saturday, all the way home:
"Ransom notes keep falling out your mouth.
Mid-sweet talk, newspaper word cut-outs.
Speak no feeling, no I don't believe you.
You don't care a bit. You don't care a bit."

Good stuff.

This was the most fun trip I've taken since our beach vacation last September. It had more to do with the company this time than the location... but the location was pretty sweet too. Linds has the photos and as soon as I snag them from her I'll be sure to post them. I just wish I had a picture of the revolving door incident(s).

Thank you again, Linds, for an awesome weekend! And you really could be a jeans model.