My Baller Day (is this how the other side lives?)

Last Friday, Nick and I each took the day off work and got on an airplane to Chicago, to attend the wedding of our friends, Chris & Abby. We had a 7:30 am flight, and we landed in Chicago bright and early and took the L downtown to our hotel. While on the L, I was busy texting with friends, making plans for weekend brunch. Halfway through our ride, the following conversation occurred:

Nick: What time is the wedding tomorrow?
Me: Hang on let me check... I open up wedding website on my iPhone. CUE COLD SWEAT!!!!

Why, you might ask? Because we were in Chicago on the WRONG weekend!! *FACEPALM*

So there we were in Chicago; no hotel; no wedding. Thanks to some extremely efficient customer service from United, Nick and I were booked on the 5:30 pm flight back to Cleveland. But we had so much time to kill! So what did we do? We shopped, ate, and drank, and totally lived the baller lifestyle for the day!!

Lunch at Publican Quality Meats. The delicious Bloody Mary's come with a chaser of beer. The food was so so good! Reminded me a little of Market at Flying Fig. 

Drinks on the rooftop patio at Little Goat with the future newlyweds! 

Finishing up with the champagne of beers, because, why not?

Overall, a very unexpected day in Chicago, and all because of a silly mistake I made. Although to be honest, we had so much fun, that we may intentionally take a day-trip to a nearby city using our United miles next year! 

The Best Baby Shower. Ever.

Bad Blogger!!! I'm figuratively slapping myself on the wrist for leaving you for so long. On the plus side, I've been doing a lot and shopping a lot, so I have plenty of material for the next few weeks!!

This past weekend, I was in Chicago visiting some of my friends (T, CJ, and Aneesha) from my very first "grown-up" job. We were fresh out of college, in the real world, making a ridiculously small salary, and for the life of me, I can't figure out how we managed to pay rent, have fun, and eat!! Anyway, we're all grown up now, and one of our very own, the very fabulous CJ, is expecting a baby in June!! Seriously, CJ is THE cutest preggers person I know (not counting Victoria Beckham)! If you look at her from behind, you can't tell she's preggers. You also can't tell she's preggers if she's sitting at a table, and it covers her belly. Its ridiculous. I don't think I want kids, but if I do, I only want them if I can look like her when preggers.

CJ is definitely the type of person that wants a non-traditional baby shower, so T planned an afternoon at the spa, filled with mimosas (not for the mommy-to-be obvi; she stuck to sparkling grape juice).  Off we went, 10 women at Reina Spa, getting pampered with mani's and pedi's. Here's what I love about Chicago: you can get a mani and pedi for $40!!!! Come on Cleveland, get it together!! I hate that the pedi itself costs $40!!! Maintenance in Cleveland gets really pricey!!! Amidst lots of laughter and catching up, I got myself a manicure with that new(ish) shatter/crackle polish, that I really really love!!  About 4 hours later, we were ready for some food, and headed to dinner at Club Lucky. More wine and some delicious food followed, and we called it a night.

Seriously, such a FUN baby shower!!!! Its funny, none of my Chi-town girl friends, myself included, make much effort to keep in touch; We'll email every now and then, but by and large, we're pretty bad at it. And then I make my annual visit to Chicago, and its like nothing every changed. The distance and lack of contact is nothing; its like we never missed a beat!! Do you have friends like that? I really hope you do. Everyone deserves that sort of effortless, drama-free, endlessly fulfilling friendship!!