Here, There and Everywhere

I never thought I'd say this, but Chicago is not bad.  Not that I thought it was bad, but it was never on my radar as somewhere that I would enjoy going.


We had work a couple-day-long work meetings in Chicago this past week and I've been happily enjoying sunny weather in the 80's.  And then I came home to beautiful Portland where there were piles of leftover snow on the roadways as I drove home last night from PDX and it was misting, as always.


The BEST part of Chicago, besides the weather and the awesome hotel and the food (ok, it was all pretty awesome) was the fact that we could "hipster watch".  It seems to me that everyone else in the country is catching the "I want to look like I live in the Northwest" fashion bug.  It was 80+ degrees and out and we were watching the kids slowly sweating their way down the block in skinny black pants and long sleeved flannel shirts and big bushy beards with knit caps rolled down their foreheads.  Meanwhile, those of us from the ACTUAL Northwest busted out the shorts and capris and rolled up our sleeves as we walked down the sidewalk for lunch in the off chance that our 10 minute walk would expose us to enough UV rays to tint our lily-white skin.


The WORST part of going to Chicago was not Chicago's fault at all, it was mine.  I stupidly left my crazy-expensive "I've got idiot adult skin"face wash kit IN THE HOTEL BATHROOM and forgot about it until I landed at PDX late last night.  I called the hotel this morning and unfortunately they didn't have it because, oddly enough, they don't typically keep face wash and soaps that people leave in their rooms  (weird, right?).  So  now I have to haul myself to the mall and get another stupidly expense face wash kit for my awesome (sensitive and all of the sudden acne-prone) skin so I won't turn into a giant pimple when I go to New York next week for Spring Break.  Oh, the awesomeness of me.


You know you're ready to be home when instead of having a great time during meeting breaks eating and exploring a city (which we still did) myself and my coworkers were busting out our smart phones to share pictures of family, kids, dogs, homes and home projects, etc.  We weren't taking pictures of Chicago at all.


Also, I had the bumpiest plane rides ever to and from Chicago- something about the Jet Stream and hot and cold fronts meeting each other.  I'm sure there have been bumpier flights, but if you know me well at all you know I'm not the best flyer so it was a little stressful.  Nothing makes me appreciate the earth more than leaving it's surface for a few hours!


So I'm back this weekend and hopefully BF and I will get to enjoy our home and puppies and maybe even head out to the coast and do some sightseeing (read:  eating and drinking delicious things).  Then next week I'm off to Buffalo, NY to see some family and generally appreciate where I currently live even more.