road trippin

so here goes on my SECOND post of the day. both kitties are sniffing the fresh air through the screen. i finally turned off the not-really-working air conditioner and opened up some windows. it is so fresh and cool out, the air circulating feels great in here even if it is a little crisp.

so a couple of weeks ago, jes and i hopped into seafoam at a ridiculously early hour and embarked on a road trip to atlanta to celebrate jes's mom's 60th birthday, to hang with friends, and so that i could drop off a draft of my dissertation to my committee. the drive down was uneventful. we were both able to sleep a little, there was very little traffic and the weather was great. i don't think we even turned on the air conditioning until we got to atlanta (and actually we *did* hit traffic there, of course). our first night there we got el myr (of course) with sarah and kim and it was so nice. i miss them so much and i miss ice cold pbr, cheese dip, and one of the best fish burritos i have ever had. on saturday night we had a nice dinner with jes's folks in the city and then we headed out to the premiere lesbo bar in atlanta: my sister's room (or as many call it "sisters"). we went with sarah and kim and we met up with angie and elin there. here is a picture of all the cuties:



it was a good time. when we got there some lady folksinger was singing and after she was done, they got the tunes a pumping. there was not much i felt i could dance to, but it was fun to watch other folks dance. we caught a glimpse of a sweet mullet while we were there and they thought it would be a great idea to document it. here is a picture of the party in the back:



and then of the business up in the front:



and here is kim and jes smirking b/c they know it made me nervous to take a picture of the mullet:



all the hot tunes really got kim and sarah riled up. here is one of *many* sexy looks they have:



work it girls, work it!

along with a few doctors appointments (eyes and teeth) and a little shopping, we got to have dinner with dawn on sunday night at U Joint (oh the ujoint fries) and then again with dawn and bailey at los lorros (not so good this time, i think jes is FINALLY over it, thank heavens). what was real cute is that bailey knows who we are. dawn would ask "where's auntie donna?" and "where's uncle jes" and he would point to us. adorable. over the weekend we also got to go on a walk with kim- she showed us her route. who knew there were so many hills in east atlanta? it was neat to see parts of that area i had never seen. when we stay with sarah and kim, we get our own room and i call it the bed and breakfast. look at this bed:



i mean who wouldn't want to sleep in that, right?

we spent all day tuesday at jes's folks hanging with her mom and dad for her mom's bday. it was a good time. then we got up at ass crack again and headed up to chicago. another gorgeous day with little to no traffic. so nice. on the way to chicago, we stopped at my alma mater, university of illinois urbana-champaign. it was warm and sunny and so pretty. i think jes was very impressed with the enormity of the campus. we drove around a little bit and i showed her all the places i used to live and then, dear readers, we went to my favorite place in urbana- the bread company- and got the most divine sandwich, the cream cheese olive nut sammie. oh my goodness. it is this light fluffy green olive and walnut cream cheese on this super crusty break with lettuce and tomato. accompanied by a delicious limonata pellegrino. i was in HEAVEN! here is a picture of me, in all my happiness:



i was so inspired by the sammie, i am going to try and replicate it in my own kitchen. i will let you know how it comes out. here is a pic of me and jes at the front of the quad where you can buy sports tickets:



we continued on to chicago and made it to alyson and nicole's before ro had to go to sleep. it was great to visit with alyson and nicole some before we went to bed in the new guest room in the basement (didn't get a picture, sorry) because we were exhausted. the next day jes, azad, ro and myself headed to the beach while aly stayed back home and rested. i first have to show a picture of the outfit that ro picked out for the beach. in case you can't see, its peach shorts, a short sleeved cotton flowered tunic and a multicolored crochet shrug. what you can't see are her hot pink croc clogs. oh yeah, she was rocking the crocs.



we built sand castles and played in the lovely warm water, but my favorite part was when we had running races up and down the beach at the request of rowan. it was entirely hilarious. here is a picture of az flexing his muscles and showing off his sand castle he called "the pit of despair":



and here is a pic of ro showing off *her* muscles:



after the beach we went to our favorite place to eat, pita inn. i got the best plate of chicken swarma i have ever had. for reals yall. i am slowly starting to eat chicken here and there and i tell you what, if i could have eaten it every day i would have. another goal of mine is to try and make some here at home. i will let you know how it comes out. on friday i think we went to the park and played some. on our way we got a small blue raspberry slurpee. ro went NUTS for it. it was like liquid crack. it was hilarious. we had to set limits like "you will get another sip when we get to the driveway" b/c otherwise she would have sucked the whole thing down. then she started setting limits like "when i get to the park i will get another sip." by the end of it, we all had blue teeth and blue tongues.

the next day we went to old orchard so jes could get another pair of jeans (just like the ones she got there last year). nicole, ro and i hung out in the play area. they have this big bumpy dragon that kids can run and jump on. i watched ro for a minute while nicole went to the disney store. when ro was finished playing the little girl she was playing with (claire) came over to me (i guess b/c i was the grown up with ro) and told me she couldn't find her mom. i spent the next fifteen minutes trying to find her mom who (she told me) had brown hair and a white shirt. we walked around the play area a number of times and then went to the "mickey mouse" store. all i kept thinking is "the police are going to arrest me thinking i kidnapped this kid." we looked and we looked and finally as i approached the security guard to tell her, claire's BLONDE mom in a TAN shirt comes up and says "oh hi claire, say goodbye to your little friend (ro)" and took her away saying thank you. no explanation of why she thought it was okay to leave her FOUR YEAR OLD DAUGHTER alone in a play area where she could easily get abducted. i was ASTOUNDED, and frankly, relieved i didn't end up in the clink. here is a lovely picture of nicole and ro at the mall. i LOVE how ro is looking so lovingly at nicole:



we had lots of great dinners that weekend too: chicken fingers, corn on the cob, smashed potatoes, pork chops, homemade salsa and guacamole. here is a picture of me and aly during one of those dinners:



we had dinner and spent the night at azad's on friday and saturday night. on friday we ate at lucky platter and on saturday we had stuffed pizza at edwardo's (so delish!). here is a picture of our room (known as "donna's room) at az's house:



and here is a pic (mostly for you ali) of az's new fish tank:



like our time in atlanta, our time in chicago was amazing, but we were missing our kitties and ready to get home. on sunday morning we woke up early and packed up the car to head home to new york. things went smoothly until pennsylvania where we lost first gear (so we started out in second) and we kept hitting traffic for no apparent reason. we finally made it home around 9pm exhausted and thrilled to see the kitties. it was a great trip and we were very lucky to have it before the school year began.