FUNDAY SUNDAY!!!

Yesterday was such a good day - a great day!! Beautiful weather, lovely times!!

I woke up, yawned and stretched. Glorious. Mmm! The birds chirping on my deck, sun shining - couldn't ask for a better Sunday, I tell you!

I got dressed and hopped on the bus headed east. Laughing to my autographed David Sedaris book along the way. Met up with my friend, Lauren, and we walked to Ann Sather's on Southport because the past 2 times weren't the best for her at the Belmont location. I was slightly disappointed with this one, as I wanted a V-4 omelet but they didn't have it. So this omelet wrap with egg, cheese, tomato, onion, and avocado sounded pretty delicious - but it wasn't. It was egg, cheese and guacamole. They should've listed it like that, but they made it sound like there was a little avocado in it... whatever, the cinnamon roll made up for everything. Then we walked back to the lake, talking and laughing along the way, stopping to see what apartments we could afford on a fancy residential street - not many. At the lake we stopped by a playground at Belmont Harbor. It was really fun (I'll post pictures later), there were boats on a rolling recycled tire floor that was made to look like water, and swings. We were laughing and pretending we were drowning and some little girl came over and started taking pictures like us - copycat! Then we moved on down the shore, it was fun to watch all the people running, bladin' and biking. And LOTS of beautiful sweaty men that I pretended to chase.

Man! I wish I would've brought my swimsuit! The beach was packed and the cool water felt so good. Then we walked over to the zoo so L could get something icy cold to drink and I looked at the camels. I don't think I like zoos anymore, they make me depressed. Poor little animals. Zoos and winters are two of the things I used to love as a child and as the years wear on I find myself growing more towards hating them.

I love walking around the LP Botanical Gardens, my favorite part outside of the fern/orchid room is the Sensitive Fern to the right. Mmm! I love it! It's so sensitive. You touch it and it shrinks away. I think it would be excellent to be a tracker in a Sensitive Fern Forest because you would know exactly where to go by the shrunk plant. How great!

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After that we took self-timed pictures and did cartwheels in the tropical plants next to the fountain on the Great Lawn. Then we walked up Clark, window shopping and stopping in stupidly overpriced Urban Outfitters before we went to Sports Authority where I picked up some performance gels for my 16 mile run today (GAAAH! I have to do that after work... I'm doing 2 and 1/2 hours for sure... maybe 2:40 depending on how I feel about my pace which I'm assuming is going to be sluggish because it's a Monday and I worked hard all day - obvi, right since I'm bloggin'?) and some new sweat wristbands and chafe guard - woot! Runner's fun!

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Then I helped Lauren with her laundry, we laughed some more and ate fajitas down the street for dinner.

OOOH! I almost forgot the highlight of the day! So, I didn't really want to take a cab home because I took 2 on Saturday... the Halstead bus came relatively quick, but of course, the Chicago bus was nowhere in sight for 10+ minutes and I was sleepy. I hailed a cab as it was stopped at the red light across the street. I thought it saw me, but it proceeded past, so I hailed the one behind it and immediately the first cab came to a halt - disrupting traffic, causing horns to blow - and veered to the sidewalk to pick me up - pissing off more drivers. Yikes! Do I really want to get in this cab. Sure! Let's take a chance, live a little. The driver was an old man, let's call him Fred Jones, and right away he got into the crazy motorists of Chicago. Sure buddy, it's everyone else's fault that you're a crazy erratic driver! He said the worst intersection in Chicago is Canal and Wells, and the other one... I forget (sometimes I need to write things down right away). Then he talked about the terrible motorists for a few more blocks before he got into good movies that I could go to sleep to. Alfred Hitchcock movies. First he started talking about Rebecca, and he was so into it that he stopped for a while at a sign - I tried to say something but he kept talking, and I really hoped another car would come up so he would realize his mistake. Eventually he moved on, and I guess it didn't really matter because the light up ahead was red anyway... well, now it was. He told me the whole story, ending and all. Thanks a lot, mister. I guess I don't need to rent it anymore. Then he said another really good one is The Paradine Case, but I read that it was one of Hitchcock's worst - Fred said it was great, again telling the plot from beginning to end. He mentioned one more before we pulled up to my block... another Hitchcock and something to do with swift wind, or something (again, I should really write things down). I couldn't help but tip him well, I always hate when my cabbies talk to me because I feel like they're going above and beyond their job description, even if I don't want them to. Even though I'm convinced he was drunk and stole the cab from the driver who was most likely in the trunk, he was one of the better ones from this weekend.

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Alright, okay. Let's see if I have anymore work in the good ole queue. I love that word, queue. Way better than "standing in line" I was "standing in the queue chatting on my cellular" is that what they call phones over there? Those crazy Brits. Mmm! They're my favs!