windy city

i was able to make a trip to Chicago this weekend, which was probably exactly what I needed and wonderful.

i left friday morning pretty abruptly. i must tell this story because it's a great one.

karen and i went to bed around 1:30 ish friday morning because we just had stuff to do after the muny and such. we needed to wake-up at 5. karen apparently sub-consciously turned off her alarm when it went off, but lucky for us she woke-up at 6...well sort-of lucky for us...my train left from downtown at 6:30. she looks at the time and says Lisa we need to go. I say "what time is it?" then i look while i'm asking and we both burst out of bed to the other room where i throw on clothes and she grabs most of my stuff and we both run for the door (i brushed my teeth on the train). she drove very fast and long story short we made it, but i did run through the train station to my train and karen gave one of the workers a high-five that i made it.

so i was off.

i took amtrak for the first time and will never recommend it to anyone. i took it because the megabus was sold-out (which is cheaper and faster) and i couldn't justify paying the high prices for flying. on the way there we were 1 hour and a half late and coming back on sunday a half hour late. so i wouldn't recommend it, but it got me where i wanted to go...eventually. it's funny because when i complained about this to isaac he didn't think it was strange at all...oh mexico.

then i had the afternoon to run a few errands around chicago: buy new running shoes-the old ones were shot after the marathon in mexico city and running all year-, a walk on the lake, recycling my old running shoes, and picking up my packet to run in the half-marathon for sunday. then i got to meet up with SARAH! which was just lovely! She was nice enough to host me all weekend in her and Caitlin's new apartment, which was beautiful.

They now live in Andersonville so we headed out to hit up a restaurant on Clark for dinner. We ended up at (i think) Andies a mediterranean restaurant. It was great! We got outdoor seating, which I forgot that I missed until we sat down and it instantly hit me. I got a couple appetizers to enjoy. I really liked my spinach pies, but i was disappointed by the veggie stuffed potatoes. But overall really enjoyed the meal...maybe it was the company =)

Then we met up with some of my other great friends for a little bit at Duffy's. I think I forgot what a bro bar it is, but i enjoyed catching up (as much as you can in a bar) with my friends and having beginning lessons for salsa dancing with some of my friends. that's as far as i can go though...beginner.

Saturday we had a wonderful brunch at Oak Tree. I have no complaints. I can never complain about brunch...ever. I just love it too much. And they all put me at the seat so I glanced up and had a wonderful view of the john hancock building and Michigan ave.

Then we headed over to a pool downtown for a littlelaying around time. Before we knew it it was dinner time at Anteprima. We put our name in when we got there and waited almost 1 hour and a half. And it's a good thing the hostess liked Bryan or we probs would have waited longer. I swear I wasn't all that hungry when we got there, but by the time we sat down I was starving. this is probably very very bad but i think i liked my food a lot, but it probably could have been bad and still tasted very good to me at that point. Overall, great!

sunday started out quite early with sarah and i running in the half marathon starting at 6:30 am. i ran it in 1:57. I am satisfied, but i think i could have done better. At the end of the day it was a great time running in chicago again and especially at the end on the running path that i missed so much! =)

around mile 7 we went through this tunnelish thing. it was funny because sarah brought it up how unsafe she thought it was because the ground was wet and you couldn't see very well. I agreed with her, but had to say i thought the most annoying part was that i mean people were starting to smell and it stunk in that tunnel. when we got out and i felt fresh breeze and fresh air i was SO happy! =)

we went back to take showers and remove our stench. although sarah was smart and able to change her shirt right after the race. me not so smart. we started chatting again and both of us fell asleep in the middle and caitlin woke us up in time for me to get on the annoying train again to head home.

a wonderful reunion with my friends and i can't wait until i'm actually there to do it more often! i missed my friends so very much while i was gone so there really aren't words for how it was to see them again.

sarah and i were filling out some paper at the expo for the half-marathon and it said address and i just looked at her and said "i'm homeless"