Bells Reunion, Chicago-style

Viki dropped into town last weekend, and since we both tend to have short attention spans for anything not involving food, I quickly drew up a list of 9 potential restaurants to hit up. We didn't get to all of them of course, but there's always next year...After nabbing her at the Damen El stop, we swung by La Pasadita (one of the three on that block) for $1.85 steak tacos and drumline gossip. It was a good primer for Homecoming weekend in three weeks.

The next day, I wanted to show off all the best (non-touristy) parts of Chicago, which obviously meant going back to Wicker Park. For the unfamiliar, the Wicker Park neighborhood is filled with all kinds of uber trendy shops and bars, and might be infested with hipsters who are more pretentious than you. (See definition #4 of "hipster" in Urban Dictionary.) No matter, even though I try to aspire towards hippie-dom, this is still my favorite part of town. We wandered through Mojo Spa and checked out their birthday cake soap (which looks and smells like vanilla cake), strolled through an artsy furniture store with statues made of rolled-up magazines, and looked at baby clothing. More specifically, there was a Google knock-off shirt that caught my eye, complete with rainbow "Googoo" logo and a search button labeled "I'm feeling silly." Just think, with that outfit, the kid is practically guaranteed to be spouting off Star Wars quotes! For the first time ever, all my maternal instincts were rising to the surface. Finally, I am in love with the Bongo Room, which had a ridiculously good brunch menu. It was one of those rare places where I wanted to try everything on the menu: lump crab eggs benedict, strawberry & mango french toast, chipotle black bean breakfast burrito...yum!

We met up with Matt & Co. for the rest of the afternoon and did the usual tour of Millenium Park and walked down the Magnificient Mile. To be honest, the Mag Mile, filled with lots of designer stores, interests me about as much as watching paint dry. Hence, Viki and I decided to take a detour to Trader Joe's, which was also conveniently giving out bruschetta samples. Then we rejoined the rest of the crew for dinner at a tapas place. I'd been there just 2 weeks before for Alex's birthday dinner, but I figured I had a rare opportunity to take 10 people to dinner, so tapas would be appropriate. Tip: when you're done drinking the sangria, try eating the leftover fruit. Rob started doing this as a joke, but it's actually surprisingly good (so long as you don't eat the orange peel).

While at dinner, I was kind of struck by the number of serious couples surrounding me. I guess I'm not used to being completely outnumbered by couples, plus George and Kerry had recently gotten engaged so that was big news. And I'd just heard that Kelly had gotten engaged. Also, while walking around the parks downtown, we ran into at least 3 wedding parties. And just a few nights before, Jen and I were discussing the price of engagement rings at dinner (general rule of thumb: spend 1-2 mos salary).

Maybe I should join that facebook group. The one titled "All my friends are getting married, and I'm just getting drunk." :p