So, our trip, if you can call it that, was pretty successful. We left late, of course, and by the time we got to the hotel, we only had enough time to run to the room and shower before we had to head downtown for our dinner reservations. Traffic SUCKED because of construction so it took us over an hour to get into the city, which meant our reservations went out the window and we decided to try and find somewhere near the venue to eat. Food is important to us! The traffic also meant that I was the world's worst backseat driver and I spent the whole ride down freaking out over the people darting in and out of traffic. Seriously, fine people of Chicago, what is the deal with your driving? Oh a lane is ending, well you make sure you floor it right until you get to the orange cones and then dart back into traffic, cutting off whoever is there. NO PROBLEM. Oh you don't want to wait in the line with the rest of us? Well then, go ahead and drive on the shoulder so you can be 4 cars ahead. That'll make all the difference and totally doesn't make everything worse, right? RIGHT?! No, it doesn't. It makes other people very mad.
Anyway, we got to the venue and scored on $4 street parking although we still had to find somewhere to eat. We ended up at a place called The Fat Cat and had to most delicious appetizers called Reuben Balls. They were, well, Reuben sandwich filling rolled into balls, covered in pumpernickel breadcrumbs and deep fried. DELICIOSO! After we filled up, we walked down to the concert. This band is my sister's favorite so we all went for her so all I'll say about the show is that SHE had a fantastic time and that's really all that mattered. It's prog rock, which is not something I enjoy but they would have been more tolerable had the place not been 85 degrees and humid. It was awful and poor Jeff kept squirming in his chair because he had sweat running all the way down his crack. By the time it ended and we were trying to get out through the throngs of people, I was about to pass the hell out and contemplated pushing everyone down to get out. We made it out only to realize it had now started to rain so we had to run 4 soaking wet blocks to the car. If I hadn't been so hot I would have been a lot more pissed off but that rain felt SO GOOD so I ignored the fact that my shoes were like sponges.
We were up early the next morning so we could be at Ikea when it opened because I only had 2.5 hours to shop and that's just not enough time for me. It takes me an hour just to gather myself enough to focus. Anyway, even though I had a list, my head still exploded and by the time I got to the bathroom fixtures, I was totally stressed out. I managed to get the countertops, backsplash panels, shelves and some other crap but really nothing fun and I had to practice deep breathing when they gave me my total. I could have bought about $10,000 worth of stuff and I did decide on the cabinets I want when we do our actual renovation so I got that going for me. We were under the gun by the time we got to the check out so we only had time to throw everything in the car, grab a very quick bite to eat and hit the road. We were home by 6:30. It was like 33 hours of driving and/or rushing around. I told Jeff that now I need a REAL vacation with sand and fruity drinks so we're in negotiations on that. I'm suggesting a place that rhymes with Bawaii and he's more "let's drive to Florida!" We'll see who wins.*
*probably not me
The cake was HUGE so I assembled it on site. I set up 80% of the decoration before transport. Here's the start of the bottom two tiers.
And the top two
Since the tiger and donkey represented the bride and groom for this affair, I made him a donkey groom's cake. This was apparently a bigger hit than the actual wedding cake. Go figure.
The finished product.
