Lauren and I got up bright and early to get the day started. We ate breakfast, cleaned up and headed toward the bus stop. We knew that we would have to take the bus, a green train and a blue train to get to the shopping district that we had read about. Wicker Park and Bucktown are neighborhoods in the western side of the city and they have an amazing assortment of vintage and thrift stores/boutiques. We must have walked through 10 different stores. I found a grey cardigan with buttons of varying sizes, it sounds crazy but it is my new favorite piece of clothing. I found a couple of dresses and a hat, all for much cheaper than mainstream stores. Lauren also went a little crazy and bought more than a few dresses and pairs of earrings. The icing on the cake is that all of the stuff is unique and bargain priced, there is no better thrill.
We had lunch at a Mexican dive restaurant. My carne asada burrito was not bad, not as good as Filiberto's in Phoenix, but it was okay. We continued to shop in an Aldo shoe outlet, an army surplus store and a giant wig/hat store. It was so cool to hand out with a like minded person. If either of us saw a store that piqued an interest, the other one agreed to go inside and check it out. More than once, I went into a store that I had no initial interest in and came out with a purchase. The turning point of our trip was our stop in the Verizon store. Lauren has been eyeing the iPhone 4S, and she seized the moment to upgrade her phone. I was happy for her because we can share iPhone tales, and because her old phone was a brick, it was time for her to join the smart phone revolution. From that moment on, I had to exercise patience while she checked and double checked directions and customer reviews for anything that we thought about doing.
We rested for a few moments and had a cocktail in a Wicker Park bar before heading back to Hyde Park. Our plan was to get back, order some pizza, relax and get ready for a late night out in the city. The trains were fine, but we wound up waiting for a bus for about 45 minutes, less than 2 miles from my place, it was pretty frustrating. We ordered the pizza and then took real naps. By the time that the food arrived, we felt better and went through the beautifying rituals. It was fun playing with make-up and swapping techniques on getting the best out of our equally curly hair styles. Lauren (roommate) suggested a few places for us to check out, but we decided to go another direction. We drove around on the north side for a few minutes but nothing looked good, so we went downtown.
I parked and we walked over to Excalibur. The people inside were very eclectic, we got in for free, and through the mist and laser lights, we sipped our little cocktails and looked around. After 45 minutes, we walked down the street and check out a few other more low key bars. We started to text each other instead of talking because it was so noisy. Nothing of consequence happened, it was just nice to be out and about with one of my best friends. Last call at the last bar that we went to was 4:00 AM, and we left right around 3:30. In any other circumstance, I might have been in a coma like level of sleepiness but I could barely sleep in anticipation for what tomorrow would bring.
