Chicago and Back

I woke up in Chicago today. That sentence makes me smile. The travel home was kind of terrible- I left the hotel at 10 a.m. this morning and took two el trains to get to the airport only to have my flight delayed for 1 hour before boarding and another hour on the runway. I had a layover in Northwestern Arkansas ("XNA" for those of you into airport codes; before today, I had never heard of that one) because I was trying to be fiscally responsible and use airline miles for the trip. I missed my connecting flight and spent an extra two hours in the 10-gate, 1-terminal XNA, drinking a glass of wine and commiserating with other stranded travelers. I wasn't traveling with small children, so my only real inconvenience was that I'd already read both books I downloaded for the trip, but JP had to drive to Austin tonight for an early meeting tomorrow (three days of meetings, actually), so he was waiting for me to get home before he could leave. That was a problem. I got on another flight to Dallas two hours later thank goodness, and he picked me up with a little baggie of rolls, cheese, and an apple. He was concerned I'd be hungry after all my travels. Love that man. (Will MISS that man- due to our serial trips, we're spending five nights apart which is a new record since we've been married. I'm displeased by this. Five nights!)

Anyway. I was in Chicago for one of my very best law school friend's weddings. It became a reunion of sorts, with friends and classmates flying in from all over.

(from San Francisco, LA (bride!), Ft Worth (me!), San Francisco (date!), Hong Kong (rehearsal dinner date!))

I didn't bring my camera, so I had to rely on my iPhone, which resulted in all of my photos being either blown out or blurry. Or both. That picture was kind of west-coast heavy, we also had buddies in from DC, NYC, and more. It was so great to see them, but the beautiful bride stole the show in her Vera Wang dress and vintage cape. I had a hard time picking out a dress to wear. I posted this picture below on facebook to get an informal poll, but everyone voted for red v. black, which wasn't all that helpful when the dresses were actually magenta v. navy. Again, I blame my phone.

 

I ended up in the navy. I decided that since it cost more money (the pink was $40 at Ross), I needed to wear it more often so the cost/use could decrease faster. Financial wizardry- I have it.

I wore an off the shoulder dress to the rehearsal dinner at Spiaggia. I bought this dress from Express back in 2003 when Express sold dresses of the non-short-tight-shiny variety. It's been worn so many times I think it's now free and should be retired, but all my other dresses were too big when I frantically tried them on at 10 p.m. Thursday night before I left.

 

The wedding was at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Center near Lincoln Park. It's a beautiful venue, made extra memorable by the giant Canadian geese that decided to fly into the little outdoor ceremony spot and honk very loudly at us. I took a photo while trying to avoid eye contact (which I thought might be a sign of aggression). Of course it is my clearest, best photo of the whole night. The fact that I hadn't yet had any champagne might have been a factor, but I really prefer to blame the phone.

 

My roommate/date for the event was another best law school friend who left her husband and child at home like me. We mamas were out on the town and we partied like it was 2006. Which means we drank mostly responsibly, danced up a storm, and took a cab home before we got too sleepy. We all went to Chicago Law- we can only get a certain amount of crazy.

Another highlight was meeting the beautiful Frenchie, who is a best high school friend of the bride and a bridesmaid in the wedding. She is super funny and stepped in as my dance partner for a few romantic rap songs. There was a lot of jumping. Her amused husband took a picture of us, hopefully I'll get a copy.

I love weddings. I cried during the vows, as always, and I remembered my own wedding (in which I cried during the vows) and I missed JP and wished he was next to me so he could squeeze my hand and then make fun of me for how I cried during our vows. Such happy memories of that day nearly 7 years ago, and such fun times at my friend's big day on Saturday.

Now I'm home, unpacked, exhausted, single-parenting it for the next 4 days, and FREAKING OUT because a painter is coming tomorrow to paint our living room, entry way, and kids' room and I haven't picked out colors for any of the above. I was supposed to do it last week, but I was so busy and then suddenly I was gone and now JP is gone and I think I'm just going to hand him the paint we used for our master bedroom for the living room/hall. I want a neutral grey/blue and I think this will do it. But I feel like I should be trying samples and getting opinions and looking at more colors. Also, for the kids' room- I want a very light blue that isn't too pastel. Is that an oxymoron? Claire will have bright pink bedding and Landon has navy. I contemplated just going with bright walls and then dressing it up with pictures on the walls and a big colorful throw rug... actually, that may still be what I do. I have a whole 12 hours to decide, no problem, right?