Direction? You're supposed to have one of those?

My friend, J.A., was recently rather annoyed with herself because her blog didn't have "direction."  Please. If you're supposed to focus on one thing, then thank you very much - I'll see you later.  I am very aware of the fact that I will never write a book about or through blogging, and they will never make a movie out of it either.  I don't feel the need to cook every last thing in a Julia Childs cookbook.  Plus, I've barely been able to rub two thoughts together since the kids were born.  And, I started this blog to write about Haiti, remember?  Well, this entry is about as far from that as you can get.  Maybe I'll just re-label this blog "Randomness At It's Best," then nobody would have their fluidity expectations set too high.

That being said, here is what happened this weekend.  This is more for my benefit than anyone else's.  It was a great weekend, but probably pretty boring to read about.  Whatever.  Here goes...

I took Friday off, and Hannah and I took the train to Chicago.  John got us a free night at The Palmer House, and what made it even better is that we were upgraded to the "executive floor."  You have to swipe your room key just to use the dedicated elevator!  We felt like real shooters.

After having champagne cocktails in our room, we went to Tattoria No. 10 for dinner.  Hannah had lobster ravioli.  Very decadent.  Then we saw Wicked.  That, my friends, is one hell of a show.  John and I saw it a few years ago when it was in Chicago the first time around, and I kept thinking about how much Hannah would love it.  I was so glad it came back, she did in fact love it.  I think I liked this Glinda even more than the first one.  

We slept in Saturday morning.  We took advantage of the continental breakfast served on our floor.  Then we went to the Art Institute.  I think if I lived in Chicago, I would get a membership to that place.  You just feel good being there - unless you are Hannah, wearing new shoes and no socks (in January, mind you) - then the rapidly forming blisters on your feet do not feel good.

(Hannah said this looked like the paper towel she throws away after painting something.)

Then we went shopping.  We took a cab up to Michigan Avenue, to Bloomingdale's and bought...  wait for it...   socks.

We shopped the rest of the afternoon and came away without dumping a ton of money, thanks to H&M. Thanks to Urban Outfitters, I now have new beaded jewelry to copy.  

We were a little late for the train, even though we were in the station for over an hour.  Nobody was happy about trading seats so that we could sit together.  My bad.  The only very slight glitch in the weekend.

John picked us up at the train station and we had Moe's for dinner.  Hannah modeled a couple outfits for John.

Church yesterday morning, followed by friends coming over and celebrating the Bears win over the Seahawks.  Upon said win, John declared "NOT IT," leaving me to be the one to schlep Hannah back to school next weekend.  He loves you Hannah, but Sunday afternoons belong to Lovie, Urlacher and Cutler, for at least for one more weekend.

Today is Martin Luther King day, so I have the day off.  Of course, John had to leave the house at 5:30 this morning to make a meeting out of town.  We cannot seem to sync the same days off.  Ever.  But I did manage to sleep in a little.  The dogs went with me to the recycling bins.  NOTHING says party time to those dogs like a car ride to the bins.  I finally made pasta dough, that is "resting" in the fridge at the moment.  My pasta triumph or disaster will assuredly be the random topic of the next blog.  Since my jewelry making stuff and beads are completely covering the dining room table, I think I'll finally make something.  It's one thing to make the pasta, it's another to have a place to sit down and eat it.