Pages

Monday, June 15, 2009

kelley visits!

kelley came out to spend a couple days with me (thurs the 4th & fri the 5th). she had a wedding in PA that she was non to thrilled about going to and thus decided that if she was going to fly all the way there from CA, she might as well stop here for a couple days and hang out. i agreed and so on thursday (the 4th), i drove to mdw to pick up kel. we got back to my house late afternoon and got ready to head out. she has a friend here that she grew up with so we called her to find out where she was. kelley wanted me to meet her and i'm always up for finding new friends, so we met her and a couple of her friends at lux bar in the gold coast. colleen is super nice and we all had a few drinks and a couple appetizers. from there, we went back up north to barleycorn's to watch the lakers win. kyle came and met us there. since it was rather uncrowded, we decided to move on to sheffied's. there we had big drinks and some fun. the bartender there is pretty cute and so it's always fun to have good eye candy! since we decided the night wasn't quite over yet, we went to matilda's which is quite literally my corner bar. we had a night capper glass of wine and then parted ways knowing we'd all get together for dinner the following night. sorry, no pictures from this evening were taken...

on friday, kelley wanted to go for an epic walk around the city and also do some shopping. she'd been to chicago before but mainly stayed downtown and so she hadn't seen the cuteness of our neighborhoods. we were out rather late the night before, so we didn't exactly get an early start, but we did finally set off first stopping by starbucks so kelley could wake up. from there, we walked to the lakefront path. it was an absolutely gorgeous day - warm... even borderline hot! i mean i got sweaty! woah! we walked down the path past north ave beach and the volleyball courts, past the oak street beach and then crossed under the street via tunnel to get to michigan ave where we had to go in to northface. i was good and bought nothing. kelley was not good! she got some cute things and then we headed out to find lunch. she spotted a barnes and noble and she wanted to go in. there, she bought me two barefoot contessa cookbooks as a thank you present for letting her stay with me. i told her she didn't need to do that! but she insisted and so now i have two new cookbooks. yes, she knows i don't cook, but she says these are easy and i have to use my kitchen b/c it is way too pretty to go to waste. get ready for some bad cooking posts coming soon!!

the gorgeous day and skyline, we had to take a pic while on our walk:


after bnr, we wandered around looking for a good spot for lunch. we had two requirements: outdoor seating and no burgers! we found both in le colonial. it was delicious and i'd be happy to go back any time with any one who would like to try it out. fantastic vietnamese food. yum. from there, we started the long walk back meandering through the streets and the park, past the zoo, and on to clark street where we had to stop for molly's cupcakes. possibly the best cupcake shop there is around. we ordered a couple minis for ourselves, 12 for a later bbq at colleen's, and a lemon meringue one to share. we sat on the cute swings to enjoy the lemon meringue one and it was the BEST! oh man, i could have easily eaten another one of those. we then headed out and made our way up to binny's, a gigantic booze store to purchase wine for that later bbq. we finally made it home - i'm guessing we walked 9 or 10ish miles all told. once home, we had about 5 mins to rest b/c then it was time to jump in the shower and head over to colleen's house for a rooftop bbq.

lunch outdoors at le colonial:


with cupcakes and wine in hand, we headed over to colleen's place. funny thing is, kelley gave the address and i thought it sounded awfully familiar bc my friend nicole lives at a 2 something street address as well. but i couldn't remember exactly which street b/c i always take the el to her house and walk - i don't pay attention to the street names, i just go there. funny thing is, colleen lives in the same building as nicole! i called to see if nicole was home, but she wasn't. she was studying for her finals. we headed up to the roof and met colleen and a couple more of her friends. her friend amy is also unemployed and we hit it off - we exchanged numbers and emails and will get together soon. she lives in my neighborhood so i am so happy to have a new friend in the neighborhood! she's married and her husband was there - he was nice. and also another friend, her husband, and their 5 year was there too. i can't remember the other friend's name, but her son is rem! he's part german with blond hair and adorable. we drank wine and enjoyed the evening and talking, but then it was time to go meet kyle and angie for dinner.

at the rooftop bbq:


i had made plans with angie who is someone i knew from high school. we weren't good friends in high school, but i was kind of friends with everyone and so was she. she was a year older and i don't think i've seen her since she graduated in 96! we decided to go out on fri night when kelley was in town and i also invited kyle to the festivities. we met at japonais and as kelley and i got out of the cab, i saw a girl on the sidewalk a ways down talking to another girl and thought 'wow, that kinda looks like kyle - pink dress, dark hair', but 'nah can't be her b/c she's already inside and is coming by herself'. well turns out, i had a total blonde moment b/c kyle walks in with angie and it was the both of them talking on the sidewalk! i had forgotten they had both gone to wittenberg and would know eachother as well! (i met kyle at junior league partly b/c she'd gone to wittenberg in oh and had known laura, my high school friend). so duh, of course they knew each other! it's a small school. so anyways, the four of us sat down a very yummy dinner. after dinner, we went downstairs for more cocktails.



after food and cocktails at japonais, we headed to burton place for a drink. things got a little tense there for a minute as kyle just lost her mom and angie lost her mom a year before and they started talking then kyle got upset and almost started crying so i followed her out and angie did as well. kelley had already gone home b/c she had an early sat flight to catch. we gave kyle big hugs and then this random guy came out who angie'd been talking to and somehow we all ended up at another bar, the store. there was a nice line outside, but kyle knew the bouncer as she lives around the corner and got us in. we had a beer or two, then headed out.

we found this guy walking around outside burton place with a lamp. completely random and i HAD to have a picture with him:



angie and i got to my place and sat outside for a bit catching up more and then headed in. we didn't got to bed until almost 5! i woke up at 730 to say goodbye to kelley who promised to come and visit again soon and then went back to bed. later that morning, angie and i went to nookies for brunch and pick up her car which was parked just down the street. those couple days were a blast!!

2 comments:

Sarah said...

phew! that does sound like an awesome time. it also makes sense why the 1/2 didn't go as well as you'd liked since you were ms. party animal for 2 days before it!

trish said...

fun! hooray for cupcakes and wine!