A little later than promised, but here they are!! Chicago is a really awesome city, and I definitely plan to go back.
Travel Posts
I want to post Chicago pictures…
…But I feel like crap 
One blog is enough for the day. I can say that Chicago was absolutely spectacular though. I ate too much, shopped a bit, drank a little, and saw not nearly enough. I got to wear all my warm clothes and had a great time in the freezing cold. It snowed too!
Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow and put up a picture or two. If not, Monday for sure!
Truly “Special” Sighting
I’m at the airport. It’s snowing outside. I chose one of the very few seats available next to a window so I could watch the flurries. The man seated next to me is wearing ski goggles. That’s right – we are INDOORS and the dude is wearing ski goggles.
This doesn’t require further commentary.
I’m A Rah-Tard
So I’m headed out to Chicago this weekend. I planned this trip about a month or so ago, and wasn’t really thinking about anything else. My friend is going to be out there during this one particular weekend, and I decided to go too. I booked my flights there and back so as to allow myself the most time for sightseeing with the least amount of time off work (1 day max), while still returning Sunday night in time to get some sleep and be up for work.
My flight home was scheduled to leave Chi-town at 6:30pm on Sunday February 7.
Maybe that doesn’t mean anything to you. Or maybe you’re aware that February 7 is Superbowl Sunday, and the Big Game starts at 5pm Illinois time. (more…)
Viva Italia!
Or maybe that’s Spanish. Whatever. I’m going to Italy!!!!
J and I found an amazing airfare deal a couple of weeks ago, so we pounced on it. We’ll be gone a total of 15 days, and plan to hit up Rome, Florence, and Naples. Naples is really only on the list cuz we want to hit up Pompeii. I am obsessed with ancient ruins afterall 
J has enough hotel points to stay at a SUPER nice hotel for 6 nights for free! We’ll be spending an extra day in Rome just to take advantage of the spa and whatnot. When in Rome… lol
A more detailed itinerary will come, whenever it is that we create it The trip isn’t til the end of summer, so we have time!
Chicago
I totally forgot to post about my upcoming travels. Trip #1: Chicago!
A friend of mine has to be out there for 2 weeks for work, so her company is paying for her hotel over the weekend in between. When she initially invited me for the weekend, I was hesitant since I’m trying to start up a savings account again. Luckily my boss gave me (another) free plane ticket anywhere in the US this year for the holidays! Free flight + free lodging = recipe for a wonderful girls trip in the Windy City!
One hitch: We’re going in February, which is notoriously frigid in Chicago. Keep in mind also that I am a cold-blooded creature, and require constant heating. I mean seriously, 55 degrees is COLD. 45 – well it might as well just snow. So looking at the weather forecast indicating temps in the high 20’s/low 30’s minus windchill, I’d bet a 30% chance I would freeze to death.
The 43 United States of America
J and I were having a discussion the other night about the states in the US. I’m not sure how this came about, but we realized that somehow despite being citizens raised in the US, we didn’t think we could identify all the countries on the map.
So we took a challenge: We printed out 2 copies of the US map. It had the states drawn in, and we gave ourselves 15 minutes to write in all the names. No list of states either – everything had to be done from memory.
I filled in as many as I could off the top of my head. Some were easy – like Hawaii, Alaska, Florida, Texas, and of course the west coast. Then I had to stop and think. Is New Mexico the one closer to Texas, or is that Arizona? Is Kansas on top of Nebraska or below it? I counted up the number I was 100% confident of and it came out to exactly 25. So 25 hopefully good guesses here I come!
About halfway through the 15 minutes I had filled in a good majority of them, but there were 10 I still couldn’t identify. I mean, let’s face it. I’ve been to NY once. Recently. I’ve never been anywhere else on the Northeastern seaboard. And I’ve never learned the shapes of those states (some states are easily identified by their shape – Kentucky looks like a chicken leg, Louisiana is an L, etc) because they’re so freaking tiny that there’s just a bunch of arrows pointing to them.
I did my best, but after 13 minutes I stopped. I had filled in 43 states and left the other 7 blank. Yes, I could only name 43 of the 50 states off the top of my head.
@ the Airport
Its not even 8am and already I have been called “sweetie” and “hun” by random strangers. I HATE this and I’m tired and cranky. But they did volunteer to let me cut them in line so I guess its ok? Lol
Time for an in-flight nap!
Labor Day
My parents have a campsite at a lake pretty near their house, and they go up there most weekends. They’ve been trying to get me to come out and spend a weekend up there for quite some time now, and I finally decided to trek out there on Sunday.
Why have I never made the time to do this previously?
First and foremost, when I say “campsite” I really mean high-end camping. I’ve definitely done camping a variety of ways, from the seriously rustic, no electricity/no civilization for 50 miles/pee in a bush kind to the camp in a tent that’s walking distance to a “real” bathroom, all the way up to the camp in a pop-up tent trailer that, depending on the location, may or may not have access to running water (but at least it’s more or less indoors). This is nothing like any of those. My parents bought a regular (non-popup) trailer a few years ago, and it’s so freaking wonderful. It’s bigger, has a separate bedroom area, a fully functioning kitchen, a bathroom with shower, and of course heat and A/C. The living room has a pop-out so that you have more space, and the kitchen table and the couch both fold down into additional beds. In my personal opinion, not having to leave your indoor bed in the middle of the night to pee does NOT equal true camping. It’s some serious luxury lol.
Updated: Dublin, Spain and “Fun Signs”
I’m almost done updating all my posts with pictures! I even added the fun signs I found to the appropriate page. Now all that’s left to do is Paris. But I’m tired and want to nap, and Paris wasn’t my favorite place, so I’ll do that later
Dublin: Winging It
Updated Spain Posts:
NEW Spain Posts:
Festival of St. John (the Baptist)
Of course there are other adventures in Spain, but I didn’t have pictures to go with them, so those posts are not updated
Again, Paris stuff later. I’m tired of adding picslol
Enjoy
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