ahhh, the weekend!

This has been a whirlwind weekend for me.... I will need some time to recover. Think the boss will buy that (no, I didn't either).

Friday night: Sex and the City with the girls, Heidi, Kim and Amy. Some smart soul (Heidi) bought the tickets the day before. Good thing, too, since all the evening shows were SOLD OUT. We got there at 7:00 after having a bit of dinner and there was already a huge line of (mostly) women, waiting to get in. I have to admit something here - I did not see much of the series when it was on tv (no HBO, see?) but I had seen some episodes, I knew who was who, and what was going on, generally. Despite that, I was really excited about the movie. Maybe I didn't have as much invested in it as some longer term fans of the show, but I don't think that really matters much. And it did not disappoint me. I loved every minute of it, and so did the audience in the theater - from the moment the title credits started rolling, we were all hooked. At the end of the movie, there was a round of applause and even some tears. Was it predictable? Yes. Fabulous clothes and unbelieveable shoes? Mais oui! Girl power? By the bucketload. I totally recommend it - grab some girlfriends and go. It is not so much a date movie though, but it is a total chick flick.

Saturday: Beth's birthday surprise (well sort of). We'd planned to take her to see Avenue Q for her birthday. And it was supposed to be a surprise, but she knew about it anyway. C'est la vie, and it's not like it was any less enjoyable. Off to brunch first, where I continued my quest to find a waffle equalling the ones at Nice Matin. (guess where I will be having breakfast when I am in NYC in a few weeks??). The waffles at Walker Brothers came close, but not quite there. We braved the Edens construction (oy) and got to the theater in good time. Stumbled into a very weird parking garage that was valet even though it was not marked as such. And it closed at 6:00. What kind of parking garage, in the theater district no less, closes its doors at 6:00 on a Saturday?? I ask you,

Avenue Q was the first show I ever saw on Broadway, and it rang especially true for me back when I saw it (it was in 2003 or 2004 I think) - being out of college, trying to make it as an "adult", all that stuff. It was just as good this time around - fun songs, laughs and of course, raunchy puppet sex. The show came to a halt after the "George Bush!" line in the song "For Now" - as I had suspected it would. This is Democrat country, son. Where, as Heidi pointed out, the polls close at 7:00 and the Democrats are awarded victory at 7:05.

Post show we had to haul it out of the parking garage, and we journeyed to Lincoln Park for cupcakes. We went to Swirlz on Belden, for I had heard tell of a banana nutella cupcake and I needed to sample it. Overall, the cupcakes were good, but not totally fantastic. After that, it was off for some good old Chicago style pizza at Lou Malnati's and some girl talk. We have all known each other for so long (in fact, we kind of dazzled these shopkeepers in a store we visited. "You all know each other?" they asked. "Since Kindergarten?!?!" Yes. It is true.) that we just can talk about anything and everything. We are all so old now that we frequently talk about our various ailments (sad, no?) jobs, guys, etc etc. But it was lots of fun. Thanks for listening to me whinge on about MY current ailment and my Web MD obsession (I need an intervention here! It is a terrible habit!) and happy birthday, Beth!

Today - in a matter of hours, I will be off to Naperville with my family. The city is dedicating a park to the memory of my cousin, David Caruso, a Marine killed in combat in Iraq a number of years ago.

And then tomorrow, it will be back to work again.