My Bo0bs Experience

It has taken me a few days to even begin to come out of the fantastic fog that was Chicago last weekend. I'm still not sure I will have the right words to describe what this trip meant to me.

First off, to my BBF Beth, you are amazingly incredible (even if you do think I'm slobby sometimes) and I love you so much! I am so very thankful that you got me into this whole hot mess of bUUbs!

Secondly, to my other pre-known B0OBs Dawnya and Ronnie, I am so glad we are in this together! Talking and texting and IM'ing with y'all is a true joy in my life.

And last-but-not-leastly, to all my new friends and sisters. I have never felt so welcomed into a group in my entire life. I have pretty much always felt a little bit left out where groups are concerned. I always had one or two friends to hang out with but never a group of people. I didn't get accepted into a sorority in college and in high school I was a band geek - and not even in with the "cool" band geeks!

Now while I love love loved meeting everyone and certainly didn't have enough time to spend with anyone, I have to mention a few people:

My roomies Justine and Krystal - y'all were great! I was nervous to room with people I'd never met but once I met both of you it was easy as pie. Thanks for being awesome!

The girlies I seemed to end up everywhere with! Brandi - my twin in more ways than one, Becky - my bundle of sunshine, Amanda - you are the cutest thing ever!, Ms. M - send me a pic when you get your new nose ring!, Stacey - you are full of quiet hilarity, thanks for sharing the shuttle. It wasn't the same going back without you (the driver was a crazy man)!

There were quite a few peeps I wish I'd been able to chat with more (that's what next year is for right?!). So watch out Maria, Shannon, Grace, Read, Angela, Fluffy, Jenny, Draz, LBG, Joey, Catherine, Carmen, and Liz :)

As for my activities …
I arrived Thursday evening at 7pm, met up with Stacey in baggage claim and we walked a billion miles to find our shuttle to the hotel. After we found it, all was right with the world and we made it to the hotel in no time. We promptly jumped out of the van when we saw Beth, Stephanie Joy and Brandi and yelled Booo0oooBS!!!!! Hahahaha! Ok, well maybe it was just me jumping out and yelling, I think Stacey just looked at me like I was nuts (which I kinda am). I got checked in and went to drop my stuff off in the room. The next bit of time was a blur but then I got dressed (in an actual dress thankyouverymuch) and we all headed off to the drag show. It was my first one and I loved it! I think we all had a great time and some angel took care of the bar tab at the end. Whoever that was, thank you so much! That was super duper nice of you! Afterwards, a few of us went on back to the hotel and just chilled out. I think I got to sleep before 2 that night.

Friday morning Beth and I got up and met at 9am to go and see about getting massages but when we got there we found out it was pretty much by appointment only. So we called and made appointments for the next afternoon. Then we went and did some shopping! We found a really cool store called Arts & Artisans on Michigan Ave on the other side of the river that had all kinds of stuff that was not mass produced. Clothing, jewelry, scarves, wall art, clocks, you name it. I ended up getting a cool sweater/jacket thing and a scarf and Beth got 2 scarves, earrings and a super cute coat. We asked the sales associate for a suggestion for lunch and he told us about Sweetwater which was just a block down so we went and ate up some yummies. We split some divine Mac & Cheese and also some Chips & Guacamole. They were both delish. Then we went to get ready for the Good Times on Michigan Ave walking tour. That was pretty fun, but went on a smidge too long. 75-90 minutes would have done me just fine. But either way we got to see some fun things, take lots of pictures and I got to chat it up with a lot of super fun people! It was hungry time, so Beth and I called Krystal and we went to eat at an Italian place I found on UrbanSpoon called Coco Pazzo Cafe. We felt like old people since it was 4:30 but it was pretty tasty! Then it was time for a little rest and the Friday night meet & greet. I chose to go slobby :) It was fun to see everyone all together and I even won a door prize, woo hoo! I decided I should step it up a little bit and went to the room to shower and get ready before heading over to Second City for a comedy show. That was really fun, and I laughed a lot! Now I will be keeping an eye out for any of those performers in case they show up on SNL. It was another late night getting to bed at 2am.

Saturday I woke up bright and early and put on my workout clothes! I met Beth, Dawnya, Becky and Catherine in the lobby at 8:45 and we went to Jazzercise! It was my first experience with Jazzercise and it was a lot of fun. I think I did pretty good on keeping up with the steps. I only had a couple of times where I got my feet all mixed up and plenty of times I did things backwards from the way the teacher was doing it, but hey … I was at least doing it! Afterwards, we decided to walk back to the hotel and I think that was one of the funnest things of the whole weekend. We just laughed and chatted and walked and had the best time together :) When we got back I did a quick shower and then Beth, Krystal and I headed over to meet FitBy40 at Carmine's for lunch. The waitress was VERY zen and in no hurry to get anything done in a jiffy. We finally had to say something so we wouldn't be late to get our massages. The food was pretty good, although I enjoyed my lasagna at the place from yesterday more. Anyway, we finally got out of there and headed to the spa. We made it right in time and the massages were pretty good. I think they did a fantastic job on my back, neck and feet but everything else was just "ok". All in all it was worth it. We walked around and did a little more shopping after that, including a trip to Trader Joe's (which was cool, but I don't see what all the fuss is about). Then it was back to the hotel for a proper shower and to get ready for the fancy dinner with everyone. All the ladies looked so fantastic and there were camera's snapping at every turn of the head. I got to sit at a table with Beth, Stacey, Ronnie, Krystal and Brandi. We had a great time, especially with those yummy drinks they were pushing. Once all our bellies were full, we headed back to the hotel for the pajama party! That was super fun :) Carmen and I were sporting the same sock monkey pj bottoms, that girl has great taste! I even picked up a pair of jeans at the clothing swap. I think I actually made it to bed by 1am that night, hee hee!

Sunday was a sad day because we were all leaving (boooooooooo!). Beth, Brandi and I went and had quite the breakfast eggstravaganza at Eggsperience the restaurant. It was really eggstraordinary to be with these two hotties and we had an eggstra good time. We wandered back to the hotel where people were starting to pack up and go. I am not very good with goodbyes so I kindof just held up in my room for the rest of the morning. I had arranged a late checkout for myself and didn't have to be gone from my room until 2pm. Justine left super early and Krystal left with Beth and Brandi at around 10:30ish. I chilled out and caught up on things happening around the Internet and on TV. Then I showered and packed and left my bags at the bell stand downstairs at 2pm. The shuttle was coming for me at 3:25pm so I had some time and spent it walking around Michigan Ave and stuff. I did make it over to lululemon and picked up a pair of yoga pants for me and a yoga shirt for my husband, all while having a great conversation with the sales associate about how someone should invent an exercise class called "ElliptiDance", I think it sounds super fun! I wandered back to the hotel and got on the shuttle, made it to the airport with no problems. Checked in and got through security and moseyed to my gate. Then I had like 2 hours to wait until I could board the plane. So I got myself a Starbucks Grande Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate (my 7th or 8th of the weekend), found a place to sit and watched some TV on my laptop until it was time to go. My flight home was uneventful, I actually was able to sleep a little bit. Got back to DFW and picked up my bag - so glad my luggage wasn't lost either coming or going, I'm terrified of that happening. My husband picked me up and we went home.

Next year I'm going to take Monday off of work to sleep and recover because I was completely useless all day! Live and learn, right.

I want to say a huge thank you to all the planners of this fantastic weekend. I know you worked so hard on every detail and it was very much appreciated. I can't imagine the weekend going any better, unless of course someone were to have given us a bag full of money with our swag ;)

I can't wait to do it all again next year!!!