Monday, November 3, 2008

Windy City Weekend

I am a great planner. I organized an incredible weekend for me and Erin in Chicago. We tasted new and delicious foods. We saw exciting things. We bought makeup.

Erin arrived Thursday afternoon. We rushed home to have cocktails and snacks. Since nothing was on TV and Erin had never seen My So-Called Life (unacceptable), we popped in the first disk.

For dinner, we went to Spring, Chicago's fancy locavore spot, with Joe and Alie. I expected a lot and got very little. The service was incredibly bad (very attitudy) and the food was only ok. So you don't need to go there! You're welcome for saving you $$$$.

The next day, we headed down to Roosavelt Rd. for Manny's lunch with Mom.

We really over did it, but that's kind of what Manny's is for. Mom was upset they didn't serve warm gefilte fish anymore, but she got over it. Erin and I took a walk around downtown after lunch. Erin bought tons of makeup. Pretty!!!! Then we got pedicures. I got the razor THANK GOD b/c my feet were totally dying to be scccccraped. Then we went shopping, bought a malted milkshake, and walked home. My So-Called Life Cocktail Hour commenced. We plowed through a few more eps before picking up Jason and heading to Penny's Noodle Shop for dinner. I love Penny's. It's so good and reliable and cheap. Then we went to Goldstar to drink brews and watch Halloweeen. Scary! Erin and I got in a minor tiff about whether or not people our age listen to bands like Journey ironically or because they genuinely like that music (I said ironically and, of course, I'm right). We freaked Jason out a little, but he has to grow up sometime. Luckily the tension was diffused when we decided to get a snack at McDonalds. We ordered a few things, drove up to the window and gave the woman money. Next thing I knew, she handed me BACK the money I'd just given her along with our food. She got so flustered from all the drunks that she thought she was giving us change or something. FREE MCDONALDS YES WE FINALLY BEAT THE SYSTEM TAKE THAT THE MAN.

High from our Mickey D's coup the night before, we headed to Rick Bayless' restaurant Frontera the next morning. We drank alcohol brunch drinks and got really full on chorizo and eggs. It was so delicious. After that we got various things waxed and went to see Happy Go-Lucky which was worse than expected. Erin thought it was ok. I fell asleep. We rushed home to change for the night. We stopped by the Empty Bottle to pick up Lykke Li tickets. Thanks Peter and Robin for helping us get into the sold out show!!! We got stamped and then headed to the Skylark for dinner.

I LOVE THE SKYLARK. It's my favorite bar in Chicago because it's never that crowded, the beers are cheap, there is great food and it's in a funky location. We shared a burger with onion rings on it (God bless the Midwest), salad and tots with sauces (disappointing). We headed back to the Bottle just in time to see that Swedish songstress sing and gyrate her little Aryan heart out.

I was pretty impressed with her live set. I'm not a huge fan of her music in general, but she had a lot of energy onstage. There was a heavy drum sound in all the numbers which was unexpected. Lots of dancing and moving. It was nice to see how she modified songs that are pretty mellow on the recording. She also covered Tribe's "Can I Kick It" and one other one.

Sunday we went to an awesome new brunch place near my house. It's a fancy grocery store slash cafe. Erin and I shared the best turkey club I've ever tasted and bread pudding pancakes. SO AMAZING. We also had brunch alcohols. The nadir of the whole weekend came after brunch when we tried to go to an all ladies dance class and it wasn't in session. God. That was so depressing. We were all decked in our work-out wear and then NOTHING. Erin even brought her Danity Kane shirt. So annoying. We went shopping to make ourselves feel better. We bought dresses. Then we came home for more MSCLCH. We put on our new dresses (pretty) and went to dinner in Andersonville at a new Korean restaurant JinJu. It was super cute and sexy. Great date spot! Then we headed to the lesbian wine bar Joie De Vine. Jason met up with us and we all had a great time with Erotic Photo Hunt.

We watched more MSCL and went to bed.

Monday we went to lunch and then headed to Midway. Great trip Erin! THANKS FOR COMING I LOVE YOU!!!!

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