We saw The Meaning of Life

This past weekend went by so quickly it hardly seems like it should be over yet here we are... Tuesday. I did get together with some friends though and that normally doesn't happen so it was nice to get out for a little bit without kids.

On Friday I went to dinner and a movie with my friend Tammy and we saw Isn't It Romantic and save your money- it was completely stupid. Not even a little bit funny. We had a good dinner with good conversation and talked about parenting and how incredibly crappy it is as they get older. Truly. I know people (myself included) really struggle through infant and toddler stage and kids being general jerks but honestly- none of it prepares you for middle and high school ages. There are tons of books on handling toddlers but nothing with real life advice on what to do when they hit those ages. Like a handbook. Kid starts smoking? Page 83. Kids vaping? Page 71. Kid has a friend you don't like? Page 33. Things like that. Nothing is out there. No, don't tell me to write one because frankly, middle school is kicking my ass and I'm not mentally ready for high school in what, two years? I understand why boarding schools exist now.

On Saturday we did lunch as a family and then I drove to St. Paul so my friend Amy and I could see Kelly Clarkson on her Meaning of Life tour. It's been awhile since Amy and I have hung out so I'm glad the roads were good, weather cooperated, and I was able to come. We had a great dinner and catching up, too.

The concert itself was really good and I had a really great time. Kelly had two opening acts, Brynn Cartelli and Kelsea Ballerini. Brynn Cartelli is a winner from The Voice and I'll be honest... she was terrible. I know she's young and learning how to perform live and all that but whoa boy. She sang with a cough drop in her mouth so it sounded like marbles and you couldn't understand that. Then she talked a LOT in between songs and she spoke so fast that it sounded like one really long sentence and you had no idea what she was saying. It was just really terrible.

Next up was Kelsea Ballerini who was better than Brynn and you could tell she's obviously more seasoned with singing live but still... she's not at the level of touring on her own yet. She doesn't really have stage presence because she mostly walks the same path, goes up on the stairs a little, and I don't know. It's just not spectacular. She sounded good though and I think her last song was her song with The Chainsmokers called "This Feeling", so I had to record that quick and send it to Olivia because she LOVES that song. She was properly jealous.

Kelly came out next and she was really great. I honestly forgot how many albums she had, I didn't realize her Meaning of Life album came out in 2017, it seems like that is a recent one but then again my concept of time is really warped so it's probably just me. I also forgot how much I love the song "Meaning of Life" and no lie, I kind of teared up a little. I also love "Whole Lotta Woman" and she did that so that was pretty fun. She did pretty much all of her hits (even the depressing ones), and had a great encore worth staying for. Overall I had a really great time, I really enjoyed this concert, and I would definitely see her again.

My drive home was alright, but I did learn even my max dose (so far) of Ritalin is not enough to perk me up so I have to call about that and maybe get it changed. I stopped at my half way point to get gas and snacks so that really helped and I pulled into my drive way at 1:03 a.m. Needless to say, I felt like I was hit by a bus on Sunday. HA!

We ran for our harvest! Just kidding, we walked. But we didn't DIE.

Remember a few months ago and I told you I was training for my first 5K since my AFE? Well I did really well that first month. I did alright the second month. I did absolutely nothing my third (and most crucial) month. I mean, I did NOTHING. No walking, no jogging, no exercise at all. I did nothing. 

Then I realized the 5K was THAT WEEKEND and I was (rightfully) a little bit worried. 

I mean, I was fairly confident I would finish. I have never, ever been picked up during a race and I was not about to start that tradition now. My fear was the condition in which I would cross that finish line. 

Thankfully, I had my friend Amy with me, and THANK GOD, because had I been alone.... that would have been a sad state of affairs. I know I would have cried. Alone, like a loser. I am pretty sure Amy was trying to keep me talking the whole way so I wouldn't be thinking of the fact we were dead last for most of the race. (Which thank god- because Amy is the best and I am so, SO glad she agreed to do this with me!!!) 

Morning of the race was actually pretty gorgeous out. It was chilly, like mid-30s, but it wasn't awful. If you kept moving it wasn't really that bad, but I am really glad I brought my mittens because I ended up wearing those the entire time. 

Duluth, you're so pretty. 

And you know it. 

The cool thing about this race is that it is almost totally along the shore of Lake Superior but in order to get to the start line, you ride the North Shore Scenic Railroad. It drops you off and you start walking. 

It was kind of cute because as we were pulling up to the starting line, this older couple were standing there waving and suddenly the guy starts running alongside the train!! It was a fun start to the morning for sure. 

This was us, pre-race. We ended up not talking one after the race but I kind of forgot which was probably for the best. Ha! 

Hilariously, once we got off the train we were walking at a pretty decent clip, feeling motivated and like we've got this. 

We got what would be a few city blocks down only to realize we hadn't even crossed the start line yet. 

That was kind of a morale killer. 

So once we got started for real, I felt like we were pulling a pretty good clip. I thought that surely we had some folks behind us and that would be fine. There was a guy, who I think had some disabilities of some kind because he had a guy with him who was motivating him. Telling him to go faster so he'd run a little while and this guy was just walking. Anyways, Amy realized this guy was using us as a pacer. Every time we caught up, he would have this guy run and so he'd take off. After awhile it got a little frustrating because that puts us dead last and by mile two I was starting to feel my morals take a dive and I decide that if we are pulling up to the finish and I see this guy, I'm willing to sprint and push people out of the way. I'm not coming in last. NOT TODAY, SATAN. 

Also by mile two I feel like my cortisol levels are taking a total nose dive and you know those old Energizer Bunny commercials where he starts to slow down and eventually stops? That is exactly what I feel like- it's like I can actually feel my ability to function slow down and then I just can't. I know I hung onto Amy at least once and I'm like- please god just let me finish this because I had enough people telling me this was stupid, I shouldn't be doing this race, I'm going to be sick, etc. Doctors and people who know me had been telling me variations of that for weeks. 

And justifiably so because I really hadn't done anything to show them that I think I actually can do this. 

But by about 2.5 miles in we pass the guy and his coach and I'm like.... if I can just keep this pace... I'll be OK. Granted, this pace is ridiculously slow. By the time I could see the finish line, I actually thought I was going to collapse. 

But we finished. 

I got excited knowing that guy was behind us so we didn't finish last. 

BUT. 

According to the website, her and I came in last for walkers. That guy must have registered as a runner. 

Obviously, that is my worst time for a 5K, for running or walking. 

BUT! 

I am trying really hard not to thinking about how far I've gone down in fitness but focusing on the fact I finished a 5K when everyone said I couldn't. I actually FINISHED. 

In the aftermath, I can't say that I've done a whole lot of fitness stuff, but I can say I'm honestly thinking about it more. I'm pumping myself up. I remember doing this before and that led me to losing a lot of weight, running 5K's regularly, and exercising a lot. So in my time of mentally preparing myself, I've been following Running Fat Chef online through her blog, Facebook, and Instagram and just really listening to what she's saying. It also made me reminisce about the time when I was really hard core about fitness and I did a Weightloss Challenge. Do any of you guys remember that? I only vaguely did but I know going back to watch all of my old vlogs was kind of hilarious, kind of made me cry because I miss that Sara a whole lot, but also made me feel like maybe I can do this again. 

So let's do this again. 

Go back and see my first vlog and we're going to kick this off. 

PS) You guys, it's taken all this time but I finally understand the accent you all say I have. I feel shame. I hate that I have an accent. GAH!! 

We threw on 24k gold because we're beautiful just the way we are

I feel like life is swirling around me and I'm forgetting things left and right. I just found my sticky note to remind me to blog about the Bruno Mars concert and that was already a week, two weeks ago? Good god I don't even remember. 

But I do remember I went! My friend Amy bought tickets and I drove down and it was really nice. I mean, as long as the drive is, I don't mind it like I used to. It's a few hours of time dedicated to singing by myself and thinking about things. Then I get to have fun, and then do it again. It's a few hours of freedom and it's really nice. I have a couple more concerts on my calendar between now and May 2019 so I'll have to keep my eye open for some more. 

We had a great dinner and it worked out really well because Amy ordered our food so it came not long after I got there so that was kind of an amazing idea. They have the slowest service ever but I guess if you're across the street from the venue you don't really have to be awesome because you're convenient. 

But Amy and I did our obligatory concert selfie! I kind of love this picture of us. 

 Biggest disappointment of the night- the opener. It was bad enough that Cardi B bailed, and she had a good reason and that's fine. But I saw it advertised as Ciara, Boys 2 Men, and two random acts and I was like, HOLY CRAP- it's going to be a 90's party!! 

Yeah. 

You know who we got? Random Charlie Wilson. 

Like who the hell is that? 

I'll tell you who he is: someone who is feeling his damn self. He must have said his name 76 times during his set. It looked like a rainbow threw up on the stage. The backup dancers/brass section/backup singers (they were a three in one package) came out with jackets with sewn in glow bracelets and everyone LOST it. Like, have you people really never seen neon colors? Glow in the dark bracelets? Come on, no need for freaking out, this isn't cool. If it was 1993 this would have been banging, but it is 2018 and this is not cool. We do this kind of thing at little kid birthday parties and even they aren't impressed. 

 Anyways. So after he was done it was time for Bruno Mars. And I'm not a mega fan, but I have all of his albums and he's been on my bucket list of concerts I'd like to see. 

 Was I wowed? No. Was it good? It was. It didn't blow me away like it apparently did with everyone else. It was good, I sang along and the crowd was really fun. It felt like his concert was really short. Like the opening act sang longer than he did so that was weird. 

 He did sing live though, so that was really nice. He has a really great voice and he is professional through and through. Absolutely no doubt. 

 Maybe the second best thing about the show was being able to see stuff happen behind the scenes and the stage come apart. We were sitting beside stage but I've never gotten to see how the stage opens up to bring a piano up or down, see people walking around underneath, etc. So that was kind of cool. 

Drawback- holy EXPLOSIVES, Batman. I'm all for pyrotechnics and all of that but holy crap those were actual explosives. Which, OK, but literally no disclaimers anywhere. And maybe because we were next to the stage it was louder but it was SO LOUD. Thank god I don't have a heart condition because the sucker would have failed me. And my ears were absolutely ringing the entire way home. I had my stereo turned way up and it sounded so far away and when I turned my car on the next morning everyone started crying because it was so loud. I absolutely should have taken the ear plugs Amy offered. HA! 

Overall it was a really fun night. I don't know if I'd go out of my way to see him again but I definitely wouldn't say no. I'm just happy to have gotten out for the night!

I know I'm not the only one.... to go to a Sam Smith concert.

I feel like as summer is winding down (which feels disgusting to even say out loud) that the days and weeks are really starting to fly by. We're already in mid-August and that's bananas. But the last two weeks have been one thing after another and I feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants. Thankfully I've had opportunities to get out of my house in the way of concerts. Last week I went to the Jay-Z and Beyonce concert and that was great. This week I went to Sam Smith with my friend Amy. 

I had purchased these tickets way back in October 2017 as a birthday gift for her. Mostly because I was in charge of getting Adele tickets and I totally failed at that (both times!!) and he is like the guy version of Adele right now and I thought it would be a good show. I kind of forgot about it until my Ticketmaster alert reminded me and I got super excited because I hadn't seen Amy since.. February, I think? But we were due to hang out so if nothing else, I got to see my friend. 

So I drive down St. Paul and I got kind of mixed up when my go-to parking ramp was closed, and my GPS seemingly gave up on me, and then I realized I had driven way far out of the way and couldn't figure out how to find my way back. After having a mini panic attack I got myself together, used my phone GPS and found parking! Only to pay $30 for my spot but whatever- I found parking and I feel like that's a triumph in the situation. 

We head to dinner, which takes FOREVER to get our food, but we had a good time catching up. Headed over to the venue, I managed to use electronic tickets for the first time without messing it up, so another triumph, folks. Found our seats and I'll just spoil it, the crowd didn't bother me. My medication is working and for that I'm ridiculously grateful. I still feel like I want to die every day but at least I'm not having panic attacks in a crowd, gotta take the wins where you can get them. 

The opening act was Beth Ditto, which I got no pictures of because I am a poor photographer while using my phone. But Beth Ditto is AMAZING, and my friend Kate has gushed about her before online and it's always a "I should check her out" but then I forget and it's one of those things. Except her performance was so good that I bought her new album right there for my drive back because it was great. 

You could already tell there was a good vibe about the crowd, that people were friendly and happy, and that always sets the tone for a good show, I think. It certainly adds to it. So Sam Smith comes out and he was SO GREAT. 

I need to just admit that I didn't have any expectations for the show because, as he mentioned, his music is depressing as fuck, and there was a good chance we'd all leave there bummed out. But he made the show really dynamic and fun and even the sad songs left you feeling joyful that you got to experience it live. 

 And I'll just apologize right now for my terrible photos. We were in nosebleeds and the stage was triangle shape with these lights along the edge. The lights were SO bright and they were shining right at us so everything is blurry or bright. 

 His voice is just as amazing live as it is on his albums. He is a genuine singer and there is no doubt about it. 

 You can also tell he adores his band and his band adores him. Such genuine affection that really made it feel super cohesive. 

 I have to say though, this was easily, the best concert I have ever been to for sing-a-longs. Hands down. If you want to see a show where the crowd sings along loud enough to almost drown out the singer and the band? You go to a Sam Smith concert .

 He ended up singing quite a few songs from all three of his albums, but his encore was maybe my favorite? He played "Palace", which is OK, but he also did "Stay With Me" and my personal favorite, "Pray". 

This concert was so good. So, so good. I had such a good time. While we were there Amy bought us tickets to see Bruno Mars in September, so now I have him and Taylor Swift (Olivia's birthday present- it's a surprise!) in September, and then Florence + the Machine in October. Pretty excited to get back into going to concerts. I just need a bigger budget to support the habit. Ha! 

Jingle Ball. And why Psy is a diva.

So last Tuesday I drove down to St. Paul to hang with my friend Amy and then go to the Jingle Ball concert. One lesson we learned is that we were hands down some of the oldest people there without children we were in charge of.

Second is that children can't dance. I mean, I'm not saying I was a dancing dynamo when I was 15 but I can tell you I could dance better than someone who appeared to be epileptic.

So the Jingle Ball had a ton of acts, each playing four songs each with the exception of Ed Sheeran, but more on him in a bit. First up was Conor Maynard.

Conor Maynard needs auto tune like Lindsay Lohan needs crack. Girls were losing their crap and I don't get it. I really don't. But fast forward to know and I hear his one song on the radio and I find myself loving it and itching to buy it on iTunes and I need to stand strong.

Oh, and can I just say, parents of America? It is never OK to let your daughters under 18 leave the house in silver stripper booty shorts and elf socks under the surmise that it's cute and holiday like. It is, but your daughter looks like a hooker on a lunch break.

Next up was Ellie Goulding who I love. She was excellent even when the sound people for whatever reason screwed her music up during her last song. You know a good artist when they can sing their song a capella and it's still great. So we had an a capella version of Lights and it was really good. Plus she's British and she just has the cutest accent and you could just eat her up.

X factor contestant Cher Lloyd was next. Admittedly, I really liked her on the show and would watch her recap performances online but I'm not feeling the white girl rapper route she's got going on. I do like her song Swagger Jagger but everything else is just meh for me.

Oh good god I had to sit through Owl City. I don't understand why girls were losing their shit over Owl City- Owl City sucks. They suck hard.

But YAY! One Republic played and I saw them open for Maroon 5 awhile ago and I thought they stole the show then and did a thousand times better than Maroon 5 did and I feel like they are great live. They put on an energetic show. I am super excited for their new album and I really hope they tour alone because I will be there screaming my face off like I was a 12 year old at a Bieber concert.

Ed Sheeran. I don't get it, bitches. Sure, he's a ginger and that automatically makes you feel sorry for him because you know the ladies aren't chasing him down until they realize he writes sappy love songs. Then you're all over him and wondering if he could dye his hair. But no. He only sang three songs because he rapped for a really LONG time to the point where I had Amy check to see if my ears were bleeding. Gingers shouldn't rap. <-- lesson.="lesson." life="life" nbsp="nbsp" p="p">

Then Train came on and here's something random- who knew Train was popular with the tween and teen crowd? Because I think Train and I think people my age and older. I'm not even a Train fan but dammit- you can't not sing along with Meet Virginia and Drops of Jupiter no matter how hard you try. Cool thing about Train though is that they throw out a LOT of autographed stuff during their set. They also pull people on stage and Pat (the singer) sounds exactly the same live as he does on an album. Which, I really have to give props to that because that's respectable. Most artists can't do that which is why they don't sing live.

Life lesson teens- do not leave your cell phone and purse in your seat in a large arena. Amy and I both wanted to take your stuff and teach you a valuable lesson about theft. Especially when you had boys texting you for boobie pictures- you're lucky we didn't text back asking for pictures of himself first.

Psy. Oh god damn, where to start with Psy? First off, I bop along to Gangham Style just as much as the next person. I can't speak Korean but who cares, it's fun to drive to. He was slated to close out the show and we figured he'd sing it once and we could get on the road.

Dead wrong. Oh, were we wrong.

He sang it once and everyone danced and had a good time. Then he wants to sing it again. But with the lights on so he can see us dancing. So he starts yelling at the lights people to turn on the lights like a total asshole. So finally, they do it. Backup dancers come back on stage and here we go.

Only for him to stop MID SONG because the crowd wasn't dancing enough. Which, no kidding dumbass, it's well after 11 and people are trying to leave. So he does the song for a third time and it's just like, we're over it. Go back to Korea.

I don't remember what time we left but I do know I didn't leave that parking ramp until 11:45 and I felt like that was kind of unbelievable.

On the way home though, I was speeding. Very obviously doing 87 in a 70 and I thought I was the only car on the road. Until a State Trooper very clearly does a U-turn through the trees and pulls me over at 1:30 in the morning outside of Moose Lake which is like 45 minutes or so from my house. If you're speeding. Maybe closer to an hour if you were doing the speed limit.

So I got myself a happy little $125 speeding ticket, my first ever. He kept flashing his light in my face because my eyes were clearly bloodshot from exhaustion and I wondered it he was going to give me a field sobriety test. Which I always fear because A) I can barely walk in a straight line as it is and B) I can't recite the alphabet backwards. I also worried that my engine would spontaneously combust while being pulled over for speeding. At least it'd be caught on camera, right?

So YAY! My Christmas gift was a donation to the State of Minnesota courtesy of a speeding ticket. 

Beans, Spit, and the Road.

Ah.. the third day of Chicago. Equally as gorgeous in weather which was too bad because it was of course, freezing as fucking hell at home. The good thing about it being so obscenely wonderful in Chicago was that it really felt like a vacation because it was such a change from home. But you want to see pictures!

On Sunday we walked from our hotel down to Millennium Park where daffodils and tulips were in bloom, and that was amazing. This is the outdoor amphitheatre and it's a piece of art itself. The arches are like sound barriers so surrounding buildings aren't bombarded with noise.

 And of course, we saw Cloud Gate otherwise known as The Bean.

 I had to take the obligatory dork in the bean picture.

 The bean from the other side is just pretty because you get the gorgeous skyline reflected into it.

 The group of us being equally dorky and waving at ourselves in the Bean.

 The park also has these two huge glass tiled columns. According to our trolley tour guide, over 100 Chicago residents agreed to have their faces used on the columns. Their faces fade in/out and they are expressive- the smile, blink, and pucker their lips into a kiss. When they pucker their lips, the fountain turns on and water shoots out of their mouth as if they are spitting on you. It's kind of disgusting but fun at the same time.

After we got our caffeine fix we were able to check out of the hotel and get on the road. What a long fucking drive. It was long on the way there but the anticipation of a fun weekend makes it go by faster. We left Chicago right around 11am and I found myself having to stop several times along the way to wake myself up. I did get to stop at a Cracker Barrel and buy 8 more sugar suckers and you know I've eaten every one of them already. We stopped in Wisconsin Dells to do a little outlet shopping and I got my kids some outfits for summer at cheap prices so that was kind of great. By the time we got to Amy's apartment it was about 10:30 pm and we still had about two hours to drive to get us home.

I sat on my own bed in my own house at 12:34 am and I fell asleep with my clothes, shoes, jacket and keys in hand only to be promptly woken up at 5am by two overly eager kids. I was exhausted. I had work that day and I won't complain too much because Emily had to be there at 8 and I had to be in by 10. But still, I bet she wasn't up at 5am!

Green with envy.

OK, so I fell off the planet for a few more days. Spank me. In reality, I have a lot going on in my own little world and so I am having to carve out time for other things just to keep it all moving. With that, blogging may be sporadic but no less sassy. With that said, let's talk about Chicago, day two.

Right away when we came out of our hotel we saw a religious crazy. You know I love me some religious crazies because they are a good time and it makes me feel more secure in my own mental issues. The last St. Patrick's Day I was at in Chicago we had Scientologists with scary masks on, and so I was glad that Chicago didn't let me down this time.

 And the river was GREEN. Like bright ass green. Fun fact- the chemical they use to dye the river green is actually orange and it was only by accident that the river turned green. It was originally used so they could see if the water was leaking into surrounding infrastructure but since it's green- why not party? Also cool is that the tradition of dying the river is passed down through a Chicago family through multiple generations. I thought that was kind of awesome.

 So one of the first things we did was purchase our tickets for the 5:30 pm water taxi because Emily wanted to do it and I had never done it. The bonus is that it was fairly cheap at $29 a person because it was great. More on that in a bit. Then after buying those tickets we walked down to the Water Tower Place and bought our tickets for the trolley. Keep in mind at this point it's almost lunch time and nobody has eaten. This tour is typically two hours long if you don't hop on/off anywhere and it's a pretty substantial loop that you go on. The plan was to get to Navy Pier, get off and have lunch, look around and then get back onto the trolley.

 This didn't happen because guess what? There are a lot of fucking people in Chicago walking around half drunk on St. Patrick's Day.

 Three hours later, we get to Navy Pier. But not before I had to hold in vomit from having ridiculously low blood sugar, a migraine coming on and basically breaking out in cold sweat because I felt like I was either going to puke all over the trolley or pass out.

 (side note: tell me this isn't post card worthy??? I took that myself!)

Anyways. We get to Navy Pier and almost immediately, the smell of warm garbage (it was in the mid 80's and gorgeous outside) and fast food made my mouth feel tingly. We all had to pee by this point so we get into the bathroom and I puke. Obviously. Afterwards, I felt confident I could eat something. So I get into line with the girls to get food and just as I'm getting to the register, my mouth feels tingly again. You know that feeling- your mouth gets warm and tingly and saliva pools in there, yeah. So I ask Amy to get me a Pepsi and I run like a ninja to the bathroom. The line was ENORMOUS and no way was I going to make it. So I do what anyone would do.

I go to the men's room and puke in a urinal.

Thankfully, there were no guys in there and even if there were I don't know that I'd care because we had an emergency situation and I didn't want to puke in the family pavilion with the little girls who were doing Irish dances or whatever performing right there.

Afterwards, I was not eating lunch. I got my Garrett's popcorn (which was as delicious as the trolley person said it would be) and drank my Pepsi. After about an hour I started to feel OK, so we got on the trolley and headed back to the water taxi place.

 We snapped a picture before we got on the taxi.

 And I took some more of the river as the sun was almost ready to go down.

 And then we got on our little water taxi. Which was amazing and maybe the most relaxing thing we did. It was so nice to be on a boat, with cool people, learning about this awesome city, waving to the locals and having them wave back, and watch the sun set over Lake Michigan. Like, can you really end a great day any better?

Emily and I were boat buddies and if it were not for her suggestion, we would not have been on that awesome water taxi!

After the water taxi we went to the Cheesecake Factory to get some food. Um, WORST SERVICE EVER. I've eaten at that location before and it was delicious, but this time it was bad. The food was bad, we had three different employees wait on us (kind of), we were there for what seemed like forever but was just under two hours because that's apparently how incompetent they were, and then Amy and Tammy got yelled at for having to pee because they were trying to close the bathroom down 45 minutes before the place closes. Um, rude. And THEN, the waitress (the last one we had) got kind attitude when we asked for her to split the bill up. Bitch, we're each paying with cards, don't give me an attitude. I was also pissy about my drink having no ice. Like, who gets fountain soda with no ice? The ice makes the drink. Everybody knows that. Assholes.

Anyways. It was a long walk back to the hotel, I was exhausted and knew I would have to be up early on Sunday so we can make the horrifically long drive back. I ended up getting no sleep at all either night, but overall it was worth it. Tomorrow I'll show you my Sunday pictures and wrap up my Chicago posts. :)

Mice, Moose, Yogi and Pizza. All related, I swear.

Yes! The moment you've been waiting for--- posts about my trip to Chicago. I have to break this up into a couple of posts because I have a lot of pictures to share and stories to tell. So let's start with Friday- day one.

We left Superior at like 6am (me, Tammy and Emily) and drove to Bloomington to pick up Amy. Then we headed towards Chicago and the weather was perfect. I'm talking mid 70's in MARCH. The drive was fairly uneventful until our lunch stop in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. There, you will find probably the most hick version of a Perkins restaurant ever. Outside you see the cheese store and creepy sign:

 A random orange moose. Not to mention the other moose who is missing half of his horn thingies.

 A large deer statue humping a faux log.

We had what I thought was the worst restaurant service (which was later trumped by the Cheesecake Factory, but more on that tomorrow) because our waitress was, I'm pretty sure at least, mentally handicapped. Which, good for Perkins. Really, good for them. But this girl was clearly not meant to be a waitress. Not only did our food take forever to get there, but lots of stuff was screwed up. Not to mention she never did help the table of four old people next to us the entire time we were there. The hostess and then the manager kind of half assed it for them. But the best part of this Perkins was their used book shelf you could buy books from. Now, if it wouldn't have been so blatantly rude of me to take pictures of these books I would have. The books all ranged from either super crazy religious, instructional manuals on how to be a good homemaker and other random shit, to the obscenely racist title called, Who'll Vote For Lincoln? with an African American boy on the cover. Um, yeah. Welcome to back country America, folks. Considering we're well above the Mason Dixon line, I was a bit surprised to see this.

Then a little further down the road we stopped at a Road Ranger gas station. Mostly because anything called Road Ranger instantly sounds like a fun time compared to BP. Not so fun? The $4.19/gallon of gas. Seriously, rape me with the pump shall we? Anyways. While pumping gas, we all laughed when Yogi rolled in.

 Because you just don't see that every day. FYI though? Even though Road Ranger has 64 ounce fountain soda for $.49- DON'T DO IT. It tastes like shit. Total shit. With bubbles. Kind of. Just pass it up.

Once we got to Chicago and settled into our hotel, we decided that we would take a quick walk around the area since it was still 79 degrees out at 6:30 at night, and we were on the search for Chicago pizza. We went to Giordano's because it was close and I had never eaten there before so I figured I'd try something new. (I know, I shock even myself sometimes.)

 The pizza was really good but the appetizers were kind of a joke. I should have taken pictures. So, skip the appetizers and hold out for the pizza. We got the classic stuffed crust pizza which was so damn good.

 Tammy and me kind of matchy matchy.

 Amy and Emily!

After pizza we decided to call it an early night because the next day was the big St. Patrick's Day celebration and the river was going to be green and we wanted to be super well rested and energized! I was exhausted from being up so early to get us to Chicago and so I really had hoped that I'd get all of this sleep. That did not happen.

Part two tomorrow.