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Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Firefly's back in MN....

....but a little bit tired. Plus I had only 2 hours to relax before I headed to work. Oh ick! Plus I had some time to talk to my husband, Eric, about some personal stuff. I will hold off on talking about it in the blog until at least after the weekend. Details are still being worked out. Well, anyways, now I will go into the details of the awesome trip in Chi-town. (Warning: LONG post, people! Long post!) Sunday - New Year's Eve Well, the night before I left for Chicago, I worked until 11:00 pm and then headed home to finish packing. I headed to bed around 1:00 am, but had a lot of trouble sleeping. My husband was still up at 2 am even though he worked a double shift that night. I dragged him into bed so I could sleep. Well, that did not happen right away, I ended up heading to the couch to see if I could sleep. I was SO damn wired and excited for the trip that I could not sleep. I did not even take a nap after my long run on Saturday so I would fall asleep right away. NOT going to happen. Well, after text-messaging on Josh to see if he's up or not while on the computer, I find out that he was in the same boat as me. After a couple of messages, I went back onto the couch and then fell asleep within minutes. Um...6:45 really sucked that morning even thought I knew that it was really good reason to be up that early. I was up, showered, got my hair done, and the completely packed by 7:45. My husband took me to the airport by 8:15 for my 10:10 flight to Chicago. (Do not even ASK why I was there 2 hours early...it's the damn holidays! Geez!) I got my suitcase checked in and was through security by 8:45. I grabbed some $3 bottle of water at the first (and only stand) to be open that morning. Then I sat in front to the TV near my gate watching CNN until they started boarding at 9:50. When I boarded the plane, I thought I was in the middle. Ah... fuck NO! It was toward the back again in a window seat. To make matters worse, I had a kid with a barking cough two row BEHIND me coughing every 5 to 10 minutes. UGH! The flight was only 75 minutes long, but seemed like FOREVER to get there. When we took off, I heard a siren that sound like an evacuation siren. First thing that was in my mind was OH SHIT....abandon ship, abandon ship. But everything was fine. Along with that, there was some turbulence and the engines on the plane were LOUD. Once I arrived at Chicago-Midway, the landing SUCKED and very bumpy. Once we finally slowed, the lady sitting next to me and I gave each other high-five for surviving the landing. Personally I wanted to kiss the ground when I got off the plane, but that was not an option for me after I saw the carpets in the gate. Ewwwwww...no! When I passed security, I saw Josh and greeted him with a big hug. We headed to the baggage claim to get my suitcase, which was already in the baggage carousel. Then we headed to board the train to his place. When we got closer to his place, since we were very hungry, we grabbed some lunch at a Vietnamese sandwich shop before reaching his place. I was amazed with all of the smells from his neighborhood. It was wonderful and yummy! After we purchased our sandwiches, we walked to his place. When we reached his place, we were greeted by Sadie. We ate our lunch after getting settled and given the official tour. Later in the evening, we headed out to dinner at Agami for some awesome sushi. I have not had really good sushi in a long time and Josh recommended this place since it was near his place. It was very good place plus the plum wine was very good. After dinner, we grabbed a taxi and took it to the Small Bar to meet Barb, Mike, Jason, and Leah...and yes, bloggers, it was a SMALL BAR. We met them in a corner of the bar. They had been there since 5 pm. It was so awesome to see them in person. We had a good time that night. Lots of drinking. It's my first time out drinking for the first time going with a small group of friends in over 2 1/2 years, which may explain my sillyness that night. (No, I am not kidding!) But I learned another important lesson (at least #5000 or so...but who the hell cares) at the bar that night: Make sure you specify to the waitress or bartender RASPBERRY or CRANBERRY kamikazis - not just Kamikazis (Sorry, guys! Ooops!) I never had that problem myself at bars here in MN. After the midnight countdown, we left the bar to attempt to catch another cab. We ended up sharing a cab with Mike and Barb (that's another hillarious story itself - not going to go into it for the protection of some innocent people). All of us came inside of Barb and Mike's condo (mostly so Josh could look at the new cabinets). It was a good idea because it gave me some time to sober up before heading back on the train to Josh's place. I also got to see the famous Phog and Wrigley while I was there. The Diceman also called Barb while we were there - and the guys were walking Phog outside. It was so nice to talk to another blogger friend. We also watched Mike's Chicago Marathon video, which was awesome. Josh and I ended up leaving around 1:45 and walking towards the Red Line train. The trains were VERY crowded. In fact, right behind me some drunk guy PUKED on the floor of the train. EEEEEEEEEEW! (Note to Josh: WE ARE TAKING A CAB next time...PLEASE!) We got home around 2:45 (the train was REALLY damn slow...TOO slow!). Josh was very hungry and I was too so he cooked a little snack while we drank a lot of water to sober up and watched "Little Miss Sunshine" before going to bed at almost 5 am. Monday - New Year's Day After being up so late, we thought we would sleep a little bit later. Ah...NO! I was wide-awake and sober by 11:30. We were really hungry so we decided to find a place to eat brunch. After getting dressed, we ended up eating at a place called Tweet...let's eat, which was a place in the Uptown area near Josh's place. When we got there, we ended up waiting for a table for 35 minutes. Josh had a Bloody Mary served in a Tiki glass and I had a Mimosa myself. The food was very good. I had the pancakes myself. They were SO good, but they were way too filling. They stuck to my ribs literately. I was SO full so fast. Both Josh and I highly recommend this restaurant if you are in Chicago. I just recommend calling ahead and making reservations ahead of it. Later that afternoon, we took a train downtown and walked down along Michigan Avenue. The lights on the trees were beautiful. We attempted to go to the American Girls doll shop, but they were closed early to the holiday. I will have to make another attempt when I am in Chicago soon. Instead, Josh and I headed to the ESPN shop to get souvenirs for my kids. Afterwards, we stayed to have a drink while watching the USC-Michigan bowl game. After we watched the game, we headed back to his place to eat the beef pot roast that I made in Josh's crock pot. It turned out very good. In fact, it is officially Sadie-approved. She LOVED getting a little treat that Josh gave her. In fact, the meat was gone within minutes and continued to lick her bowl. After dinner, we watched "Amelie" together, which I LOVED very much. It was a wonderful movie. Sadie really enjoyed sitting with both of us during the movie. Tuesday We woke up around 8 am. In order to work off all of the goodies and drinks, we Josh and I headed to his gym. It was a very nice gym. I used the incumbant bike since the eliptical machine was being used. I was able to bike over 11 miles in 30 minutes. I was going about 22-25 MPH on the bike using the endurance program. It was totally amazing. After the work-out and shower, we headed to a cafe and had a post-workout lunch. After lunch, we walked back to his place to drop off our gym stuff before heading off to Lincoln Park to do some window shopping. We walked from Lincoln Park towards Wrigleyville. We even went to Josh's favorite secret clothing store that loves to go to in Lincoln Park. I can not tell you where...it's a secret. After the shopping, we took a taxi to the Uptown area again and went to the Hopleaf Bar for drinks and dinner with Josh's friends, Jay and Jeanne. I really had a great time with them. After dinner, we headed back to Josh's house so I could pack to return home today. Today We were up by 7:30 am. After showering, we were off toward the airport for the 11:00 am flight back to Minneapolis - but not before having some breakfast at the Vietmanese bakery to take with us on the taxi ride to the blue line train to O'Hare. My flight left on time, but arrived home early. I was actually able to have the entire to myself. I was able to move from the middle seat to the window. It was AWESOME! Well, that's the end of the post. I hope you all enjoy it. If you want to see all of the picture that I posted on Flickr, click on the link. Now I need to get some sleep and hopefully get another cross-training workout in tommorow. Good night!

9 comments:

teacherwoman said...

Sounds like you had tons of fun, Denise! Welcome back!

Wes said...

Sounds like you had a great trip! Way to ring in the new year!!

Kurt said...

Awesome trip! Loved the pics and hope things continue to go well for you in 2007. Now get out and go run and continue to work out!

Full Metal Lunchbox said...

I had a good time.  Thanks for hanging out.  Come on back to Chicago some time!  I assume we'll see you for the Shamrock Shuffle.

ILYMTICS!

Jess said...

It sounds like you had an awesome trip. Man, I want to go to Chicago and party with Mike and Barb; it seems like every other RBFer has made the trek to Chi-town and had so much fun!

Laurie said...

Sounds like you had a great time! I am jealous you got to hang out with such cool RBF peeps.

Full Metal Lunchbox said...

It's true we are cool.

Danielle said...

Sounds like fun...but come on, heading home that early?? I was drinking till 5!! Aren't you and endurance athelete now?? :)

Rae said...

Sounds like a great NYE to me! Love the pics!