Tit for tat-IKEA/Chicago 2008

Oh our trip to Chicago to go to IKEA was some good times, y'all! Before I share the stories, let me share a couple of pics from the weekend before when we went to Sub Zero-the vodka bar in the Central West End....
here's me with an empty drink....an empty drink? Isn't that alcohol abuse?
Mike and Reggie-one of our co-workers.

Now, on to Chicago/IKEA weekend. We met up at Maggie's house and loaded up our ride for the weekend...the sexy (yet stylish) Dodge Caravan....complete with Stow and Go seating, which ended up being a godsend.....

here's the girls leaving Maggie's. From left: Shannon, Maggie and Christina (who does NOT have that many chins in real life...HA!). The drive down was quite rainy, poor Maggie (driving a foreign vehicle), wasn't sure if her headlights were on or not (it was really hard to tell). We stopped to eat in Springfield, IL and were horrified when our server pointed out a stain on the table and said "don't worry, it's not dirty, it's just stained". Should that have been our exit cue? Or perhaps it should have been when the creepy 107 year old bus boy (are you still a bus "boy" when you're 107?), kept leering at me and giving me that "come hither" look...I'm pretty sure he had teeth missing, but anyway....We arrived at our hotel in Schaumberg around 10pm, not bad considering the weather. We had to venture out for a few items (forgotten toothbrushes, razors, etc) and when we asked the lady at the front desk if there was a Target nearby, she said (with all seriousness) "no, but are you familiar with Wal-Mart?". Uh yea no, never heard of it....anyway, we got a good laugh out of that one all weekend long. We ended up at a Meijer's, which is apparently a cross between the previously mentioned Wal-Mart and Target. We kept pronouncing it wrong, saying "ma-jyers" and even "mujeres". It was funny if you were there.
Friday night was fairly uneventful and we went to bed as we anticipated being at IKEA by 9am when it opened. Below is the view from our hotel room window. Yes, we stayed THAT close to IKEA.....beautiful, isn't it? Check out the parklike setting around it. My idea of heaven........Here are the girls as we arrived at IKEA. Christina was our IKEA virgin, so it was very exciting to get to share in her first IKEA experience....she took to it like a pro, I'm happy to report......
We spen SIX AND A HALF HOURS at IKEA. Is that even possible? I mean, who does that? Here is a picture of me babysitting the loot. A sista's gotta take a break every now and again!Here is Shannon riding up the escalator with her cart. We did cause a scene at one point as one of our carts jammed up the rest of them, causing an employee to have to rush over and fix it. Crisis was short-lived, I am happy to report. Here is Miss Maggie with all of her goodies for the day....yep, $500 down. The way she figured it, subtracting our stop for lunch, she spent about $100 a hour. Now THAT's impressive..... After our marathon shopping day, we decided to go back to the hotel and chill before going out for Christina's birthday (the big 3-0 y'all!). We had purchased some quality liquor the night before, Boone's for three of us (at 3 for $5 a total steal) and Lambrusco for Christina. Why the quality booze, you may ask? The better question is: why not? I was having flashbacks to my first drinking experience as Boone's is what I had....yikes. After a few rousing rounds of UNO (made much more entertaining by the alcohol), we took some pics and laughed, laughed, laughed. We managed to get out the door around 8pm or so, looking for a place to party and celebrate with our birthday girl......Maggie and Christina with their "booze"....
yes, I am posing with a bottle of Boone's....nothing says "classy ladies" like chugging bottles of Boone's...
I'm not entirely sure what is happening here, but picture me standing on the bed, taking this picture....Miss EyeMask is "resting her eyes", not sure what the other two are doing...... Is Shannon a secret member of the Taliban?
making silly faces.....yes, it COULD be the alcohol talking.....
Awwww.....aren't we cute?our beautiful birthday girl. We made her wear a 30th birthday crown and we all wore mardi gras-like necklaces that said "30" on them. Sure, we looked like a bunch of fools but we didn't care. We went out to John Barleycorn's, which is a happenin' hot spot in Chicago. I was excited because the Cubs game was on (they won). We had more drinks there, and some yummy food and had an overall good night.Here's Christina on Sunday morning, still wearing the crown, getting ready to leave. We left, but not before we went to IKEA #2 located in Bowling Brook (don't ask why). I could explain what is going on in this picture, but this is a family show, so I won't. I will tell you this, the girls are role playing, there are phones involved. And I'll leave it at that. Hey, ya gotta find ways to entertain yourself during a five hour car ride (especially in the rain). When the Mad-Libs were no longer cutting it, we were left to our own devices...
A pic of all our loot. We did a pretty good job, dontcha think?

We will definitely be repeating the IKEA trip at some point. We have visions of visiting IKEA's all across North America....next on the list? The girls have selected the Vancouver metro area as our next stop (I MAY have had something to do with that suggestion).

I'll leave you with this. A very important question that we asked, well, everyone, throughout the weekend. And that question is......would you rather be tit or tat? Decide and discuss amongst yourselves.....