That Toddling Town

Nordic Boy and I hightailed it to Chicago!



It was just for a quick weekend to see one of my top five all-time favorite people on the planet: my childhood bff. Plus her hubby who isn't too shabby either. Let me state it as clearly as I possibly can. We love them to smithereens. They are awesome. More than awesome: they are the shits. (That doesn't sound right when you say it plural, does it?)

We had the kind of weekend that does my soul good, where we just bummed around, talked each others' ears off, and ate a lot of food. The highlights!

1. I sat through my very first hockey game ever. It was on tv, not in person. The childhood bff and her hubby are crazyfaced hockey consumers. The hockey love, it is all encompassing. If you would have told me that I would be interested in hockey, I would have told you to eat another magic shroom and ride off on your Liger. But when you're around people who love something that much, and you love them, the excitement is totally transferable. It was fun to watch. The fact that they fast forwarded through all of the commentating also helped. I actually like watching sports, but my hatred for commentating is so deep and wide that it turns me off of the whole dang thing. Also, there was not one fight in the whole hockey game. Isn't that what hockey is all about? I wanted to see a fight. We must've been watching the hippie playoffs or something.

2. My friend and I have conversations that sound like we are completely stoned, only we aren't. I don't know what that is all about or why we have this effect on each other, but we always have. When we were seniors in high school we watched Field of Dreams together and convinced ourselves FOR REAL that the movie was talking to us. Freaked ourselves right out, sitting on the floor of my parents' living room, holding onto each others' arms in fright because a baseball movie was speaking to us as if in tongues, so only we could understand. She and I, no weed necessary.

3. We explored some junk stores. Excuse me, not junk stores. ARCHITECTURAL SALVAGE stores. The kind of places where you can't really move around without sucking in your gut and walking sideways through the tiny spaces lest you get impaled by a rusty sconce. What is better than a place that sells interesting garbage? Not much.


4. We drove up to Madison, where we met up with The Pop Quiz Kid for a quick minute. We asked her where Wisconsinites get off describing their state as The Mitten State. Us Michiganders don't have a lot ok? We have to be the only Mitten State! No one else can Mitten! The Pop Quiz Kid taunted us with Wisconsin Mitten-ness, as we clearly so richly deserved. Our goat was got, for sure. Nicely played, PQK.

5. I was reminded of how friggin' huge Chicago is, and how long it takes to drive a couple of miles. That traffic is not a joke, y'all. I will never complain about Seattle traffic again. Well, maybe not until like, next month, at least.

6. I ate my annual serving of Superman ice cream. I think my guts were glowing with radioactivity for the rest of that day. Because really. This shouldn't be a food.


7. The weather was delightful. I got to smell that midwest cut grass smell and walk around without a coat on. Oh baby.

I'm back from my trip now and trying not to be cranky that my friend lives so far away. We grew up from birth to age 18 pretty much able to walk to each others' house at the drop of a hat (ok, so maybe we weren't walking that at birth, but by kindergarten for sure), and I still don't think I have accepted that I can't do that anymore. Sometimes visiting people helps you to not miss them so bad, but when I visit her it just makes me miss her more. That's why I'm already hatching a new scheme for us to see each other soon, this time in the Mitten State. The real Mitten State.