My 29th Birthday (+7) Weekend in Chicago

On Thursday I flew up to Chicago to meet my cousin Cheryl at the super swanky Dana Hotel and Spa. A few beers after checking in, we rushed off to our three hour serenity spa package—aromatherapy body wrap, a Swedish massage and an anti-oxidant vitamin facial. It was absolutely glorious!—except for the reaction my cheeks had to the chemical peel. It literally burnt my face and so the rest of the weekend I looked like a friggin Raggedy Ann doll.

On Friday we woke to a rainy and foggy Chicago day, but we didn't let that ruin my 29th birthday (+7). We set out via cab for Millennium Park where we spent at least an hour looking at our reflections in The Bean and acting like complete idiots including but not limited to licking The Bean. After taking in the sights and possibly catching the swine flu, we had a wunderbar German lunch at the famous Berghoff and then a very early happy hour at the Hard Rock Cafe. Later back at the hotel, getting ready for our night on the town, buzzed, dancing and blaring Run DMC, we got a little visit from hotel security... It's Tricky to rock a rhyme, to rock a rhyme that's right on time It's Tricky... It's Tricky Tricky Tricky! Here we go...

And then there were three—After security busted our hotel room dance party, our cousin Michelle who now lives just outside of Chicago, met up with us at the hotel for a Girls' Night Out. We kicked off our cousin reunion with a few beers in our hotel room (sans Run DMC), followed by more drinks in the Vertigo Sky Lounge, by more drinks at the Hard Rock Cafe, followed by more drinks at The Second City comedy club where we saw Studs Terkel's Not Working. We had a wicked fun night full of beer and laughs and one of us may or may not have married a Romanian cab driver named Eugene Busco.

The following morning, we nursed our hangovers with a big breakfast and took our time checking out of the hotel. Another Newburyporter turned Illinoisan, Rosemary, came and picked us up and took us for a lovely ride along Lake Michigan to her home in Winnetka where I finally got to meet her husband Paul and adorable son Auggie. After a brief visit with a very pregnant Ro (she's a week overdue with baby #2 and still a total Rockstar), she brought us to Michelle's home in Schaumburg for our final night in Illinois. After a Chicago style pizza for lunch, Michelle and her husband Michael took us to their favorite watering hole The Easy Street Pub—a dive bar with a ton of character, cheap beer, a great jukebox, and a friendly bartender. It was a great weekend and the first time in over eight years that Michelle, Cheryl and I have been together and we would do our livers a great favor by waiting another eight years for our next reunion.

Ps. Does anyone know the cheapest and quickest way to annul an Illinois marriage?