Weekend In Review

Friday, I ended the work week with a nice 5 miler down by the lake. I spent the rest of the night drinking wine and watching The Vampire Diaries. It was heavenly.

Saturday, I ventured down to Hyde Park and went to the University of Chicago Celiac disease center. They were having a free blood screening and the director wanted to meet me and talk to me about the charity fundraiser I'm doing. It's a nice campus, I was only there for about 20 minutes so it was kind of a waste of my morning, but I enjoy venturing out to different parts of the city. After I arrived back home, my friend, B, wanted to go out to lunch and day drink. It was the perfect day for it, but I have an A&P test to study for so I wanted to remain coherent for the rest of the afternoon. Which I did, and I must say that I'm very proud of myself for doing so. After lunch at Nookie's, we walked around Lincoln Park for a little bit and enjoyed a cupcake at Sweet Mandy B's. I have an obsession with cupcakes. I had a red velvet cupcake. It was very good, but I have to say that it was not the best I've had in the city. So far, SugarBliss takes the cake on red velvet ;-) Lincoln Park is my favorite part of Chicago. I love the whole neighborhood aspect of it. When I'm there, I don't feel like I'm in the city anymore, which can be a relief at times.

Sunday. Well I was supposed to volunteer at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, but my snooze button had other plans for me. Sadly, I slept through my alarm and did not get to volunteer. I will say that I needed the sleep, but bummed that I missed out on a really cool jacket. I did get up in time though to walk over to the finish line and watch the race. This was my first time doing so and it was an amazing experience. It was very emotional and inspirational. To see the smiles of these people's faces as the ran to finish 26.2 miles gave me goosebumps. There was even a man who ran with prosthetic legs who finished around 2:30. Amazing. I'd really like to add a marathon to my list of events. And I'm hoping to perhaps do it next year depending on how this half goes at the end of the month as well as making the time commitment next year.

Weekend Recap

I haven't stayed in Chicago for the past 6 weeekends. For the past 6 weekends I have had something to do. In Wisconsin. This has been fun (weddings) and exhausting (drill!) at the same time. It has kept me busy since LC's been gone (we're almost at the 2 month mark!) but I have not had a moment to myself or a day to just breathe. So this weekend, I finally got to stay in my favorite city and my favorite lady came down to visit me (my mom).

She arrived on Saturday morning, via train, and we spent the day searching for a fabulous MOB dress, lunching, and discovered my new love...Sprinkles Cupcakes. We started out on Michigan Ave and searched every department store, high and low, and could not find anything that she LOVED but, she got some ideas of what she was looking for. I told her not to buy anything unless she loved it because the wedding is still 9-ish months away and I wouldn't want her to have buyer's remorse. After our failed shopping trip, we stopped and ate at Food Life in Water Tower place. About 6 weeks ago, my mom was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Long story short, she can't have anything with gluten in it or she gets very sick, and gluten is in EVERYTHING! So I was so happy that Food Life offered a list of gluten free foods that she was able to eat. After lunch, we walked around the Gold Coast area, looking for more stores that had MOB dresses. We didn't find anything, but instead stumbled upon Sprinkles. I've heard a lot about this place but wasn't sure where it was located. I came across it on accident so it was a MUST that we try it. I tried the banana cupcake...AMAZINGNESS. And my mom had the Red Velvet cupcake, gluten free of course.

Later that night, we enjoyed some sangria & mexi food at Zapatista. Although they didn't have a gluten free menu, the waiter was very knowledgable in what my mom could and couldn't eat.

Sunday morning, I got up and went for a run. Sunday was my "long day" in my 1/2 marathon training. Despite the windy conditions running north, I completed 7 miles in an hour and 10 minutes. Running back (with the wind) was a piece of cake. After my run, we went to Whole Foods to get things that we needed to make Chili for dinner. My mom had never been to a WF before and she was in heaven. They had tons of stuff that she could eat. It's too bad that the closest one is about 45 minutes away. I told her that she should franchise one, it would be really popular where they live. I spent the rest of the night studying, while my mom cooked me dinner and took care of Ollie. It was nice to have someone there to take care of me for a change! Next weekend, I will be heading back to Milwaukee for drill...bleh!