Girls Weekend in Chicago

A few months ago I was thinking about how sad it made me that I didn't have one day available during my time home at Christmas to see all of my college friends and my cousin who live in Chicago, so I looked at my calendar and noticed I had the 16th and MLK day off-a perfect long weekend to go see everyone!

I was super excited when I arrived to Ohare Thursday night without any delays or cancellations due to the freezing winter weather, so I called Panichi as I got off the plane to see if she had arrived yet to get me. She had arrived, BUT as she was pulling into parking deck got a horrible flat tire, haha. So the plan was for me to go find her and a maintenance man to come put on her spare. Seems easy, right? WRONG! The problem was, neither of us knew where we were in relation to eachother and if anyone has ever tried to navigate the various parking decks of Ohare by foot in negative 20 degree weather, they would realize that this was a VERY difficult task. After about 2 hours, 30 phone calls with Panichi, asking about 50 people where to go (and them telling me wrong most of the time), walking the whole airport parking deck, and freezing my a** off, we finally reunited. It was like a scene from a movie, we ran to eachother and were jumping up and down and hugging. Just as we found eachother, the man came, changed the tire, and we were to Andrea and Lawley's apartment in the city in time for some appetizers and wine before bed!

Friday morning Panichi and I worked out and bundled up to face the cold and take a walk to visit Bayer and Lawley at their work. It was again in the negative degree temperatures, so this was a pretty rough walk, but super fun to see where they work (since I G-Chat with them all the time while they're there :). Panichi and I then went to lunch and hung out until my cousin Emily got off work and came to pick me up.

Emily lives a few miles from Lawley and Andrea's apartment, so we went there so I could see her place (super cute!), talk, and get ready. Once we were ready to eat, we went to this really awesome restaurant called Carnivale. It is a huge Latin restaurant decorated in really bright colors with really good food. We had a nice dinner, delicious drinks, and tons of fun catching up.

After dinner, Em and I met Amy, Mary, Panichi, Lawley, and Andrea at this really really cool bar called Violet Hour. It is modeled like a speakeasy so there is no sign or anything and to get in you wait in this dingy hallway. The wait was long because they only let as many people in as seats there are, but the wait was well worth it. They had an extensive drink list of very very unique mixtures and let you know to not be surprised if you wait up to 15 minutes for your drink because they are so specialized. We had fun talking and trying everyone's interesting cocktails!

Saturday it warmed up to 20 degrees and seemed like summer so Andrea, Panichi, and I went for a walk down Michigan Ave. and ate lunch at Grand Lux. Then we went to an Illini bar to watch the Illini-Michigan State game. Randomly, three girls from my sorority (KOB, Mary Parkhill, and Maggie Weber) happened to be there too. I hadn't seen these 3 since we graduated so it was fun!

Saturday night we met Emily, Amy, and my freshman year college roomate D.D. at a martini bar for dinner and drinks. I hadn't seen "Deadra" since graduation either so it was fun! We went to a bar across the street after and had a great time, then headed home.

Sunday we took it easy-went for brunch, walked around, and hung out in comfy clothes. Bayer came over to their apartment and we ordered sushi, had drinks, and played games all night. Then Monday morning I had to get up SUPER early to head home (thanks for the airport ride Emily!).

I had one of the best weekends I can remember in a long time. I don't believe in the whole "absence makes the heart grow fonder" with significant others, however I think it is SOOO true with girlfriends. I left with lots of fun memories, excited for the next time I see anyone (Panichi in March, yay), and feeling super lucky to have such a great group of girls in my life!

Pictures: http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=725211232553383871/l=463085680/g=102462115/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB