Sweet Home Chicago + Why I Should Avoid Parking Ramps

::cues Sweet Home Chicago::

So on Monday, Keri and her new Chanel, Jessica and her new Burberry, and Me and Louis all stepped out to Chicago for a girls night and blissfully blissful spa retreat. OMG so the cameras were in hiding during out girls getaway for some reason. Why we didn't take a pic of ourselves and our new BFF's (Chanel, Burberry, Louis Vuitton) on Michigan Avenue, I'll never know.

We stayed at "The W" on Lake Shore (loving it), dined at The Melting Pot (double loving it) and spa whored it up at Bliss Spa in The W (triple loving it). I proposed to the girl who gave me the hot salt scrub and vichy shower but she declined due to her husband and three kids. Good thing b/c Kurt would probably be mad!! :) I did buy a bunch of Bliss body products though so I'll let everyone know if they, as expected, make it into my Ann's Favorite Things #3.

We then had lunch at Su Casa (yummo) and did some shopping on Michigan Ave. I ended up with a pair of Nine West heels, a bag of loot from Sephora (Stila lip stain, Stila Kitten lip gloss and a new Shu Umera eyelash curler), and a lil' shopping bag full of surprise American Girl gifts for Belle. I have to admit that I'm pretty stoked about the lip stain... And Belle was screaming about the American Girl stuff! Kurt gets nothing b/c he is sooooo picky about his clothing and normally hates anything anyone else buys for him. Poor him! :( He almost scored a dark reddish brown fleece from North Face but then I wasn't sure of the color (I mean, I loved it!!) and what he'd think of it (questionable).

We stopped at Cheesecake Factory for some cheesecake and carrot cake to go (yum!). Seriously, I will probably die before I ever eat carrot cake again. UGH!!!

This may sound like it was all relaxing & stuff but don't be totally fooled. Remember, Jessica and I are involved here. Jessica's $16 bomb pop martini's and my 312's led to me dropping all the fondue forks during dinner and her breaking the wine corker off into a $69.00 1/2 bottle of wine. Re: $69 bottle of wine: after dinner, we all went back to me & Jessica's room. I opted for the ten year old Corona (yuck!) and Keri opted for Ann's nemesis (9th grade at Mandy's house - ugh!!!) O.J. and vodka.. The $69.00 bottle of wine didn't work out due to the corker breakage (thank god) but Jessica was able to drink a mini-bottle of champagne that was pretty gross but better than my Corona! Ha!

Another highlight was at the end of the trip when we were going to get the car. As we had walked out of the parking garage earlier, Jessica had mentioned losing the parking ticket. When we went to get the car I was too busy staring at the parking-ticket-money-taker and thinking, "OMG what if she really lost the ticket?" to notice the arm was actually up and coming down as I walked under it. It bonked me on the head and scared the hell out of me! Ha - Jessica was behind me and saw it and said she was "frozen" so she couldn't say anything. LOL!! The B (j/k). I did find out those arms weigh virtually nothing and this particular ramp even had padding underneath the arm presumably so it wouldn't scratch someone's car. However, when it hits something, it sort of snaps in half so an attendant came out of nowhere to fix it. LOL! It was hilarious and worth the laugh. Just what we needed to finish the trip. She found the ticket, by the way!

However, I have decided, since the afore-mentioned incident, I should just avoid parking ramps in general since I can barely see over the hood ANYWAY, let alone on a 90% incline going through the ramp. Also, one time, Nicole and I got locked in a parking garage in Nashville and had to break out (hilarious story maybe for a different day).


Bliss website is http://www.blissworld.com/ - Highly recommend!!

Mucho love and hugs to y'all and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A.