I am genuinely, truly happy. I like this guy. I don’t get bored spending time with him. He lets me wrestle with him. I was scared that this weekend was going to suck and that I was going to be bored at museums and be bitching constantly about blisters on my feet and him and I would be at each others throats about absolutely nothing at all. But no. ‘Twas not like that at all.

Friday:
Chris spent the night and we woke up at like three to make our plane. Tired and cranky was I. Buster drove us to the airport and we were there and checked into our room by like 7 in the morning. The hotel was pretty cool looking and overall grand if it weren’t for the fact that it was pretty far south on Michigan Avenue and for the first two days they neglected to give us conditioner. Went out to breakfast at this neat little outdoor café a block down from ours and I broke my latte fast and ordered my first two of many caramel lattes for the weekend.

From there we traveled a few more blocks down to the art museum and got tickets to the Toulouse-Lautrec & Montmartre exhibit. The cat posters by Steinlen were the favorites of us from the exhibit. I was also fond of a painting of a monkey stealing grapes. There were a bunch though...way too many to name. Oh! But the dog and the monkey baby statues were also very noteworthy.

From there we got lost on the CTA trains for about a half hour while trying to head to the Sears Tower. Got there and panic attacked again over the prospect of being 103 stories high. Forgot that I did just fine going up to the top of the Eiffel tower in a glass enclosed elevator, and I was ultimately fine with the elevator ride. The views were great and Chris pointed out to me an atrium done by my favorite architect Frank O Gehry. Click here to see the building, it’s pretty cool from that high up. We paid an exorbitant amount of money for them to photograph us there, but I look fantastic in it. Chris is pouting a little for he is angered by the whole commercialism of the big building photographers.

Following our high rise expedition we trekked back to the hotel for some quality nap-time snugglins’. After that I got my anniversary gifts. My pretty new Tiffany bracelet, and gorgeous green gown that I need double-sided stick tape to wear, I am Curious Blue and Yellow DVDs, Meet Joe Black, and Amorres Perros. Then we went shopping on Michigan Ave and he bought me an awesome outfit from the Guess store. He spoils me and I love him for that.

After present time we went to the best restaurant I’ve ever been to. The Signature Room was most delicious. I had two pina coladas, some sort of cheese appetizer and spicy duck spring rolls. For the main course I had a New York Strip Steak cause I’ve never ordered strip steak at a restaurant before because I was too self-conscious and Chris has a surf and terf with filet mignon and lobster tail. Lobster is tastilicious! A mousse cake topped off our dinner and we headed back to the hotel for some more sleep.

Saturday:
Woke up early to cash Chris’ paycheck that he had gotten two days before. Spent a furious two hours in the city trying to find someone to cash it for us. It was annoying, it was hectic, and it was the only time during the trip that I was slightly perturbed (it wasn’t at Chris either, just the situation.) Following the paycheck fiasco we taxi-ed it to the Shedd Aquarium and stood in line for like a half an hour before we realized that it was going to take way too much time to do that and that we’d rather cause some serious damage shopping.

So much stuff we got. I opened up a Fields card just so that I could buy him and I lots more presents. I got a DKNY button up shirt, a Calvin Klein tank top and matching brown pants. My flaming boyfriend got a Juicy Couture top, some shoes and cologne. From there we headed around to a few other stores and ended up blowing the rest of our wad at the Guess store where Chris bought me the most awesome capris ever and a logo shirt. He acquired some pants that are the sex. Tried to get into Uno’s Pizzeria for dinner, but the wait was an hour and a half and we wanted to get back to Grant Park for the Venetian night fireworks. So we went back to the place we ate breakfast the first day and scarfed down some gyros and Philly cheese steaks. Delish.

After getting back to the hotel and prancing around in our new clothes, modeling to each other we walked across the street to the park. It was simply fantastic. I can’t describe it. Pictures are at the bottom of the page with all the prettiness.

Sunday:
Woke up quite early to pack up and check our bags for the day. Quick bite of caramel lattes at the Caribou Coffee right around the corner from our hotel. From there it was back to the Magnificent Mile for some more shopping and pizza. Went to Kenneth Cole and some sort of trendy furniture store to burn time before Uno’s opened up. We got a 4 cheese and pesto pizza that simply wreaked havoc on my stomach. Pukalicious and tasty it was. Deep dish Chicago style pizza is ok, but I’ll stick to my thin crust thank you. :)

Wicked was up next. Pretty cool looking theatre. I was most excited about Ana Gasteyer being the lead in the play. For being one of the most annoying characters ever on SNL she has a fantastic singing voice. The woman who played Glinda was noteworthy too. Reminded me a lot of Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde. Overall, very entertaining. Though some of the plot confused me, but what else is new really?

Back to the hotel after the play and dragged all of our bags through the sweltering streets of Chicago to the subway (my knight in shining armor carried mine for some of the way.) I got subway sick on the way to O’Hare. And had a horribly turbulent flight home.

Such a great time. I want to go again.

The guy in the pink shirt, with the popped collar that says “playa” on the back. Jackass.










Rolling around on the grass.




















Terrified on the way home.