on chicago.

the Firm (which is how i will refer to my employer from now on) flew me to the Windy City for a week of intense fundamental tax training/boot camp. obviously, my accent was excited to return to its origin, and my cubs-fandom was ready to explode. i haven’t back to chi-town in 10 years, and it was as beautiful as i remember.

my roommate and i (i have excellent roommate karma) grabbed the guys we knew from our own offices (she’s from LA) and some others we found along the way and hit up as many touristy things we could manage in 6 days. i also believe we hit up as many bars and tried as many different beers and wine as we could (or couldn’t) manage in 6 nights. business trips are pretty baller.

i also kind of have no words for some of what went down. let’s just say that some of my dignity is also left in chicago, but not nearly as much dignity as the boys i beat in pool and bowling. ahem. the following photographs do the best job of summing up our adventures.

they might have been filming transformers 3 when we were there... nbd.

when i thought this car was really stuck on the bridge, i was more impressed. damn you, hollywood magic.

the bean in millennium park was mesmerizing.

note how much more manly my beer is than the weak mess in the background.. also note that i was the only girl at this table

this is a little blurry, but so were we... seriously, look at the pours on those wine glasses.

weird bronze statues outside of the epic mcdonalds. we weren't the only obnoxious people taking pictures at 11pm, either.

the view from the 97th floor lounge of the john hancock tower. we may have bought a bottle of champagne to celebrate.

i've been a cubs fan for 15 years. it's about time i saw a game at wrigley.

and this is why i love chicago: vienna beef with mustard, onions, onion salt, and relish. they didn't have tomatoes, but it was pretty spot-on.

i (jpeg) beat jason by a whopping 10 points. he owes me a sign for our shared cube wall.

it's just so pretty at night.

and that was chicago. full of new people, a giant binder of tax education, and lots of shenanigans. the airport debacle at the end (read: 2 hour delay + 45 minutes sitting on the runway + cab driver who couldn’t drive me home) wasn’t even bad enough to put a damper on the trip.

for as much as i love the district and its metropolitan area, i could definitely see myself back in chicago long-term. it had something i can’t put my finger on, a whisper of enticement to come play and see what else is there. didn’t hurt that the office was in a gorgeous location, too. in any event, i’d love to go for another visit.

in the words of sufjan stevens in chicago on the album “come on, feel the illinoise:” i fell in love again, all things go.

on celebrating america.

the 4th of july brings back memories of backyard picnics, watermelon, the time i spilled root beer all over my favorite outfit, wearing my bike helmet during the fireworks, the goose-poop covered grass by the reservoir in naperville, sparkler wands, fights with snaps (you know, those little white ball things you used to throw on the ground or leave on the street for cars to run over and freak out…), and being too little to ride in the trunk on the way home.

it’s one of my favorite holidays… right up there after christmas and thanksgiving (i’m sorry, but there are no presents or pumpkin pie… otherwise it’d be first).

in true form, vp and adam threw down an epic winner. we celebrated on the third because the actual declaration of independence was signed on the 2nd, and we wanted to compromise (really, vp and adam went to adam’s mom’s on the 4th, but they’re pretending it was a cooler reason).

sadly, this year, we didn’t have a tornado warning or a torrential downpour. took some of the magic out of the afternoon, i would say.

seriously, have you ever seen a sweeter set-up?

and a more intense game of ping-pong? doubtful.

on the real holiday, i went down to kayla’s house  in manassas for swimming, burgers, and fireworks with her canadian family .

happy 4th of july!

i ♥ faces: pets!

this week’s i ♥ faces challenge is pets. i haven’t partaken in a while, but this was one i could get into.

until i have money, space, and time to take care of the wiener dog (schnitzel) of my dreams, i am the proud mommy of a fish. a $1.99 beta fish named princess peach who hides behind her bamboo and needs her food to be pointed to before she sees it.

she went from living in a flower vase with a pink ribbon to this swanky cube. she’s currently living with my mom and dad because the move seemed a bit too traumatic for us without worrying about spilling a tupperware container and forgetting her in the car.

head on over to i ♥ faces to see some other adorable furry family members!