top 6 things i learned on my trip to chicago (a little late)

1. i found where i want to live if i ever suck it up and move north of the mason-dixon line. wicker park is pretty much awesome. i could have walked and walked and walked around looking at all of the stores and sat and sat and sat outside at all of the different restaurants all day long. there were a few national chains represented, but for the most part, all of the stores and eateries were locally owned and independent. YAY! THE best store, by far, was paper doll. the cuz, sis, and i spent at least an hour exploring all of the cards and bags here. i even found a great new bag to cart around my computer this summer when i decide to get out of the house and go people watch.

2. listen to your mother and pack socks. while saturday was PERFECT, sunday was freakishly cold. now i know a few of you (jan and joy) are rolling your eyes at me right now and saying, "was it really cold or just sarah cold?" um. even all of the chicAAAHgo people couldn't stop talking about it. this was (of course) the day we spent at wrigley for the cubs game. my mom had warned me about how cold she had been when she went to a game a few years ago, but being me, and it being FREAKING MAY!, i ignored her and did not take socks. but, i am now the proud owner of a cozy cubs thermal and some cubs socks. i can't remember the name of the store where we all stocked up, but other than the guy behind the counter who may have yelled at erin, it was a pretty good shopping option . . . not very crowded and rather inexpensive for having doors that faced wrigley.

3. even though i am now officially old, i will STILL get carded. (it's almost a blessing now . . . not quite, but almost.) the 'bouncer' at cubby bears asked me - and only me - to show him a second form of i.d. to get in. no one else in our group, not even my YOUNGER sister, had to do this. my only other picture i.d., though, is my teacher i.d. - will i go to teacher hell for using my **** junior high school picture to get into a bar? when i showed it to him, i did get the traditional gasp of "wow. you teach junior high?" to which i got to say, "yes. that is why i am here."

4. i like tapas. maybe the best birthday meal (not cooked by mi madre) ever. (that could change in 90 minutes as melissa and kelley are taking me to uncle julio's for lunch.) but right now, i truly believe it was THAT good. i think it also helped to go with uber-sophisisticated erin and jessica who knew what the heck was going on. it may have also helped that we spent the hour wait to get into evanston's best tapas restaraunt at ethel's chocolate.

5. my sister is a walking t-shirt generator. without meaning to, jessica comes up with some lines that erin and i have decided should be placed on t-shirts that we force her to wear for our own enjoyment. our two favorite ica-isms (you like that sis?) were "cotton candy is my beer" and "yeah. at the kanye concert . . ." if you don't know my sister, these are probably in no way any kind of amusing to you. but those of you do are probably laughing so hard right now you fell off of your chair.

6. i am really lucky to have an erin and jessica in my life. thanks yall. it was SUCH a great way to spend moving into the next decade.