Holiday Spirit, I Missed You So...

This weekend was THE definition of the holiday season, if ever there was one. It couldn't have come at a better time, considering I haven't been getting into the Christiemas spirit as much as would be typical for any given year. I'm not sure why... I mean, I'm following the standard protocol... you know, listening to Christiemas music, watching Christiemas movies, talking up Christiemas for all the world to hear...

Anyway! All better now! This weekend was just what I needed to kick my butt into holiday gear. First up? A holiday party. But not just any holiday party, folks... this holiday party was hosted by the one, the only...

PURVI MODY!!! (Weeeeee!!!! First blog post shout-out, by name!!!!! Congratulations!!! This is exactly what the holiday season is ABOUT!!!)

Purvi is one of those people that is simply MADE to host parties. She has a gorgeous apartment (complete with gorgeous views) and, quite frankly, her love for the holidays is actually quite comparable to mine. When she'd described her apartment's holiday decorations (complete with a tree and a Christiemas VILLAGE?!?!?), I KNEW I was not going to be disappointed by her holiday party. I'd been counting down the days since I got the invite (yes, it's been a full two weeks. But whatever.).

As soon as I arrived, I was in heaven. Any party that holds a Christiemas tree filled with cupcakes galore is MY KINDA PARTAY!


Clearly, the cupcake tree was quite the hot commodity of this holiday party. Of course, there were plenty of other delicious treats to be had throughout the night...


But of course, believe it or not, there was more to the party than the delectable treats (so I tend to lose focus pretty easily- sue me). I think the BEST thing about this holiday party was the widely varying groups of people that Purvi brought together... despite everyone's completely different personalities and backgrounds, the party was a huge hit! New friends were being made right and LEFT!



Sure, the open bar might've had something to do with it, but you know what? Whatever gets people in that holiday SPIRIT. In short, the evening totally emblemized what the holiday season was all about, in my opinion.

So, you would think Saturday night would have been plenty to satiate my holiday palate. But no, no, no. That was just the start. Sunday turned into a full day of holiday festivities as WELL!

First up, brunch. My favorite meal of the day... sigh. A few of us decided to try this new place in the South Loop called "Waffles". As soon as I entered this place, I was sold.


Please note the ginormous Christiemas tree hovering in the left corner of the shot... strategic, if you will. :) Waffles is a fairly new restaurant in the South Loop... while I always get super excited about new brunch spots, I have to say Waffles was just... okay. I mean, I'd go there again if needed, but it's definitely not a place that I would be seeking out on a regular basis.

Oh well. Brunch is brunch and you can't go wrong when you have good friends all around, right? Right.

After brunch, Urmi, Joyce and I ended up walking all the way up Michigan Avenue, with a slight pit stop filled with holiday merriment...


Gah!!! Sooooo cozyyyyy!!! I love, love, LOVE people watching at an ice rink! So many different kinds of people, so many different skating styles... good times.

After the brief pit stop, we kept on heading north up Michigan, and finally just ended up holing up at Grand Lux Cafe to warm up with some cozy beverages because, quite frankly, we were COLD.


Heaven. Pure heaven.

After loitering in Grand Lux for a solid couple of hours (it's amazing how some good old-fashioned gossiping can make the time magically FLY BY!), Urmi ended up meeting another friend to go shopping while Joyce and I headed to another friend's place for, of all things, a tree trimming party!!!!!

It was the first one I'd ever been to, so I didn't really know what to expect. Honestly, I figured it was just going to be a couple of hours, where people just hung around a tree, stuck a couple of ornaments on, and moved along their merry way.

Umm... I was so very wrong. This party was LE-GIT. First off, the tree that Vidhya had gotten was HUGE...


No wonder she needed a whole party to decorate this thing! But first things first...


Check out that SPREAD! If you think that holiday spread was going to go very long without being dug into, you are sadly mistaken. That dish that's totally front and center? No photographic mistake, my friends. Who knew beet dip could be so tasty and delicious? I swear, this stuff is like CRACK... and now totally one of my new favorite foods. Ever.

Anyway! After a fair amount of time just standing around chit-chatting and eating, we got right to work...



The final product?


Voila!! Holiday magic!!!!! lakdsjflkasjdflkajsdflkj! Come on, you have to admit- just LOOKING at that tree is enough to put any ol' Scrooge in the holiday spirit, RIGHT?! Right.

Sigh. As I was cabbing back to my place, mentally preparing for the work week ahead of me, I couldn't help but think about how HAPPY this weekend just made me. This is what the holiday season is all ABOUT!!! It is, after all, the most wonderful time of year...

Alright! Now that my spirit is back, I'm totally off to start writing this year's rendition of 'Twere the Weeks Before Christiemas...

Welcome back, holiday spirit, welcome BACK!

half the fun is getting there... right?

who doesnt love vacations, right? after coming back from a vacation earlier this week, i have become a firm believer in taking a (SUN-FILLED!!) vacation around this time of year, every year. you know what i mean, right? it's about that time of year where the snow is no longer winter wonderland-esque and the cold is no longer "oh i so love and appreciate the four seasons!-esque". rather, the snow is just ridiculous at this point and the cold is... well, just plain cold. no ifs, ands or buts about it.

while my vacation to mexico and elsewhere (minor details, really) was simply delightful and adventurous and sunshiney happiness, half the fun (or misery) of any trip is getting there, right? therefore, this blog post is solely devoted to SPIRIT AIRLINES.

and how you should SO NEVER FLY THEM.

yes, i know. pessimism and animosity is so foreign to the maliyacular. but i consider it my duty as a citizen to formally alert my audiences (at home and ABROADLKJSdfklajds! i love my international blog audience!!!) of this airline.

alright. so, let's begin with my flight to cancun. please note that my route to and from mexico was as follows:

chicago --> ft. lauderdale --> cancun... and vice versa (obvi) on the way back.

chicago --> ft. lauderdale - i have never been on a JUNKIER plane. there were some seats that had the covers slightly worn and/or RIPPED. i mean, wtf. im not even particular about all that kind of stuff but are you serious? common courtesy, people. oh, and no leg room. NONE. im not even a tall person and i was all squinched up in my seat. while i typically like to curl up into a ball on flights (didn't bode so well for my darn sprained knee but whatever), i still appreciated the fact that there was absolutely zero leg room. see? you tall people are always in my thoughts. you're welcome. whatever, it was early- i could have just been grumpy (even though im a morning person... but whatever. just trying to show that i CAN give spirit the benefit of the doubt, as necessary).

ft. lauderdale --> cancun - while all the stuff applies (ie: no food or beverages unless you pay... even for water... but whatever, that's kind of typical for all airlines except my beloved southwest, thank you very much), i think the kicker of this flight was as follows... so we're flying into mexico, right? so obvi, we have to fill out the immigration and customs forms. so there they are, handing out the forms, when one of the stewardesses gets on her little microphone and is like "here at spirit, while you must fill out your immigration and customs forms prior to deplaning, we do not offer pens or pencils"...

UM I KNOW RIGHT. to be honest, this little stewardess actually sounded PROUD of this little fact of airline cheapness. W. T. F. i was appalled. and i didnt even have a pen! i had to actually borrow one from my neighbor. it was all very sad and ridiculous.

alright, whatever. i wasn't ready to totally blast spirit airlines after the above. i mean, whatever, it IS a cheap flight so i guess they have to cut costs somewhere (even if it IS in PENS... omg. i still cant get OVER that).

however... get ready for my trip back...

cancun --> ft. lauderdale - okay, so i get to the airport my requisite two hours early for my international flight (ever-vigilant citizen that i am). i get up to the ticket counter and the little stewardess lady is like "are you checking any bags?" and i was like "hell no! do you know how much you have to pay to check your stuff on this thing?!" (okay. i didnt exactly say that. but that's what i was thinking.) anyway, she takes a look at my little triage tote bag (i pack light... what?! bathing suits, tanks and flips dont take ALL that much space!) and is like... "okay.. that'll be $33". i just blankly looked at her. i mean, what part of "im not checking my luggage" didn't she understand? apparently, she thought my triage tote was too big to fit under the seat so, if i was going to place it in an overhead compartment, i'd STILL have to pay. at this point, i got frustrated (well, for me. in a foreign country. i didn't want to get TOO hoity toity... i wasnt going to be 100% at ease until i was safely back on american soil) and politely (with a slight edge in my voice... but a huge smile to soften the blow... and likely confuse the lady, but whatever) indicated that i hadnt had to pay a fee when i flew on over here from the US. anyway, long story short, she made me go shove my bag into one of the "test baskets" to verify the size of it. she was rather surprised to see that it fit in the smaller bin, indicating i wouldnt have to pay, so at least i didnt get ripped off for THAT.

that was just the start. now, i realize that the security in the mexico airport is AIR. TIGHT. which i fully appreciate, trust me, i do. however, we'd gone through the standard security and whatnot when i finally make it to my gate- an hour prior to my departure. it was at the gate that i learned that they do a full onslaught pat-down and luggage check right before you head onto your plane as WELL! considering the flight before mine was still going through this process when i entered the area, i was privy to just how... LONG of a process this thing was. i mean, i appreciate thoroughness and all that, but these people were moving at. a. snail's. pace. whatever, security and all that. howEVER, this is clearly an ongoing process- not something that was just recently sparked... so spirit airlines HAS to know how LONG this whole mess takes. so here's a hint, spirit. how about you START this two hour long security check process sometime... well, BEFORE a half hour before our plane is scheduled to depart?

dude, it. was. a. mess. we were an hour and a half late leaving cancun...

anyway, whatever, thankfully id met some very lovely people in the cancun airport, while we were waiting that 1.5 hours to get patted down and whatnot (a bonding experience, really). it was actually quite adorable and so maliyacular sunshiney goodness. id been sitting next to this couple from michigan in the airport and Karrie (the wife of the couple) and i totally bonded over our relaxed state in the midst of all the stress in that airport (i mean, really? what CAN you do at that point?!). anyway, i also met this adorable little colombian family (a mom, dad, and daughter) who totally reminded me of the movie spanglish (ie: the way the mom and the daughter interacted... adorable)... only augmenting the situation was the fact that the colombian family mom was totally hungover (and openly admitted it to us)... NOT a good situation for this kind of mess of a flight, but humorous nonetheless. you'll understand why i brought them up a little later on down... ah, always a purpose, my friends, always a purpose to the storytelling o' the maliyacular.

oh well, back to our delayed flight... considering there were 28 people from my flight who had a connection in ft. lauderdale to ANOTHER spirit airlines flight within 45 minutes of landing (if we were landing on time), i figured- okay, it was the same flight and (i think) the same aircraft, so it was likely that they would just hold the aircraft for us. i mean, you cant take off with like half your plane missing if it's your own airline's darn fault that these passengers are late to begin with.

one would think.

no.

so we land in ft. lauderdale, and everyone's all stressed and rushed and whatnot. i dont get all that stressed out when travelling because, honestly, in this type of situation, what can you really do? it's not really in your control. ah, the voice of reason, that is so what i am. hahahaha. i just laughed aloud at that. anyway, so we have to not only deplane, but we also have to go through customs... and immigration... and security... and recheck baggage (if you checked baggage) before being able to get on our next flight.

yeah. laughable, really. i mean they're an hour and a half late and they expect people to make their connections with all THIS stuff to get through as well? of course, they don't make accommodations for people who have to make their connections to get off the plane first or anything. i mean, WHO are we kidding here? and to top it all off, the line at customs was simply NOT MOVING. i mean, this is the U.S.! don't we pride ourselves on efficiency?? well, we certainly shouldn't pride ourselves on thoroughness, that's for sure. i get to my customs agent (a young gentleman i would peg to be in his early 30s), all ready to be business at the customs desk (i always get so nervous with customs agents, for some reason... they're intimidating!). anyway, so he asks me where im coming from and i dutifully respond with "cancun, mexico" (totally made eye contact to validate my response and everything) to which he nods firmly and looks at my passport again. and then he's like "so, you cause any trouble while you were in cancun?" and i laughed kind of awkwardly because well, if he knew me he would right off the bat SO KNOW that cancun is SO not my scene and causing trouble there (the "cancun kind of trouble", at least) is just laughable to me. so i just am like "no..." when im really thinking "hurry up and gimme my passport! i have another flight to catch!"... and he just kind of laughs and stamps my passport and is like "sure you didnt", *smile*, *wink*, *hands me the passport*.

um. this dude is CUSTOMS. is that all it really takes? just be friendly to a customs agent and you are SO IN the u.s.? well, whatever. there was no time to question the workings of the us customs system. haha. i quickly scurried along...

since there were no spirit airlines agents helping us navigate where to go to catch our connections, we all kind of had to self-direct ourselves. i accidentally made a right turn and ended up in baggage recheck even though i had no bags to check. well, THANKFULLY i made that wrong turn. there was no line, so i just went up to the desk to verify where i had to go to catch my connection. the lady asked for my boarding pass and i gave her my ticket stub (because the airlines had indicated that would suffice to get on the next flight since it was the SAME FLIGHT)... and the lady was like... um, what the f is this? anyway, she thankfully quickly pulled up another copy of my boarding pass on her little computer and printed it out for me... so i JETTED on over to security after THAT fiasco. again... wtf. but whatever.

it's as im standing in security, waiting to put my stuff on the belt, that i hear them calling my flight as the "doors were closing". i nearly flipped OUT... i was so CLOSE and if i were going to miss this flight, i'd have to wait another three hours in the darn ft. lauderdale airport. it was at this point that i politely, yet slightly firmly (for me), asked the three people in front of me if i could just sneak in front of them to get through. you really have to applaud the integrity of people- they were so accommodating and did not remotely hesitate to let me go in front of them (either that, or they were quite frightened by my frenzied state... but you know what? oh WELL.). i truly believe it's thanks to these people that i made it home... ON TIME.

that's right, people! after jetting through security and trying to run (which was a joke, since my bag was kind of heavy and i cant really run with my sprained knee still) to my gate, i made it on just in time... and so did my new friends from michigan (we'd stayed pretty close together through the whole security check mess). not only that, i board the plane (which had a lot of disgruntled passengers who'd been waiting for the past hour and a half to LEAVE) and... sigh. my little colombian family spots me and applauds when they saw me and the michigan couple. SIGH WARM AND FUZZY HAPPINESS ALL AROUND, RIGHT?!?!? talk about TOTAL BONDING TIME in times of distress!

anyway, it turns out that not all were as lucky as we were. it was just lucky that we'd had seats near the front on our flight from cancun to ft lauderdale (we had been in row 8), so we were always near the front of the lines for the security checkpoints, per our deplaning method. i can safely say that there were certainly some people from our cancun flight who did NOT make their connection and i am over-the-top grateful that i did. but seriously, what kind of ridiculous nonsense is this airline? they dont hold flights for their own airlines even though a significant chunk of their passengers are from another SPIRIT AIRLINES FLIGHT which was delayed BECAUSE of spirit??

omg, dont even get me STARTED (again). i get so fired up, it's not even funny. i mean, it's just common COURTESY for a service-related company to be... well, accommodating! and i understand cost-cutting and cheapness, believe you me, i do. but PENS? really? PENS.

ft. lauderdale --> chicago - nothing significant to note. this post has been long enough already.

all about the christiemas spirit... or lack thereof

(just an FYI- this post is de-flipping-pressing. dont say i didnt warn you...)

so i really dont understand. WHY cant i just flipping get into the christiemas spirit already? im getting impatient, here! (stamp of foot)

i mean, ive taken all the necessary preparatory steps: the passage of that minor hump that some people like to call thanksgiving... complete and total immersion with the starbucks christiemas cups- filled with holiday flavors (holy mother... that caramel brulee latte? divinity in a christiemas cup, if you will)... holiday music a'playing on the itunes (when i have earphones, that is)... the conversion of some new friends here to the somewhat sacrilegious but still oh so delightful term "christiemas"... the ksjafls!-ly imminent prospect of SNOW (first time in a couple of YEARS!!! yessss!)... the (earlier than expected) hibernation of the flipflops (i mean. chicago's weather and i are going to exchange a few words soon)... the perfection of the lights on michigan avenue (literal. perfection.)... the introduction to the polo store gone so christiemas it's not even funny (trust me, a new holiday tradition has since been enacted)... my apartment's mini-christiemas tree (complete with ornaments, mind you!) and holiday wine (yum! yes!) c/o the one and only laurenh... the prospect of christiemas movies aplenty (LOVE FLIPPING ACTUALLY!!! it's a wonderful life. home alone. among others.)... the introduction to the starbucks christiemas cd (norah jones/willie nelson: baby please come home.. i instantaneously. just. melt. every. single. time.)... sigh.

i. just. dont. KNOW. to be perfectly honest, ive actually kind of slightly stressed myself out over this (sad, but true). but HELLO. usually, festivities are in full SWING pre-halloween. i mean, by this point, i should already be starting to feel the christiemas burnout! i can only hope that anthonyc's christiemas spirit is double what it normally is in order to make up for my pathetic showing this year. i apologize for the additional pressure, man.

maybe it's being in a new place. a new apartment, a new city, new friends, new workplace... but still. it really doesnt make sense. i mean, i love it here! (apparently, i glow when i talk about living here...? haha nice, i guess? but please. michelle obama glows. i merely have a too-large-for-my-darn-face smile.) i love the apartment, the city, the new friends, the workplace... hmm maybe that's what it is. god, at triage, i could just have christiemas throw up right and left and merriment would simply reign! i cant do that here- (establishment of the professional persona and all that). no christiemas tree lighting ceremony in a random office conference room... no liberties taken with miss mariah just blasting away for all surrounding tables to hear (okay. so maybe that was just early morning christiemas fridays but whatever)... no creepy christie's-face-on-mariah's-santa-claus'ed-body christiemas snowglobes... no itunes sharing for the mariah holiday playlist to reach maximum capacity (hahah laurenw, remember? maybe not, but i certainly do!)... no 'twere the weeks before christiemas mass emailed poetry (and what fine poetry it was... probably one of the things i will certainly miss most, actually)...

oh god, im really working myself into a sad, sad state just thinking of all the "no"s this holiday season.. well, now this is just plain pathetic.

sigh. my blog was supposed to be filled with happiness and sunshine. i guess even sunshine personified gets the blues from time to time. and oh, what a blue christiemas season it's been so far.

(i know, right? i bet you were expecting this to end with an upside. oops. maybe next time.)

oprah gone ghetto fabulous... just reliving the moment, people!

sigh. i just saw a friend this weekend who conveniently mentioned that she was left off the email chain for my oprah extravaganzaranzadanzapalooza... oops. i went ahead and forwarded her that email today and, not going to lie, just reread the email in its entirety a few moments ago... and got SO EXCITED yet AGAIN whilst reliving the DREAM that can only be The OPRAH (what! WHAT!!!) that i figured i might as well just copy/paste yet another email for you guys to "get a feelin'" (hahah! get it?! blackeyed peas at the oprah block party??!aslfdkjals! please tell me you get the pun because im actually quite proud of it!!) of what it was like to be amidst the chaos that can only be an oprah block party... lakjsdflksj!

for your reference (you're welcome in advance :)...): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvt3chGuU8I

The morning started off… well. Early. I awoke at 5:15 AM (actually, my alarm was set for 5:15 but I woke up at 4:45 AM and just tossed and turned because, quite frankly, I was too excited). So I got to the corner of Michigan and Ohio by 6:20 AM (after triple checking to verify that the copy of my poem was in my purse in case I could read/sing it to The Oprah herself) which was awesome. I was within the first 250 people lined up!! Super excited because I knew knew KNEW I was going to get IN!! Eeee!

So we stood on that corner until 8 AM which was fine because that’s what we were expecting. Then, at precisely 8 AM, they let the first 500 people in to this area that would be our second holding area (we knew this going into this whole debacle)… okay, so this is where my life reached another new low. Literally, as soon as they lifted the ropes to let the first 500 people in, all these middle-aged women were CAREENING down Michigan… so of course I jetsetted down Michigan as well. I was mortified (my Strand bag was falling off my shoulder because it was laden with crap to get me through this whole day, my ponytail was quickly falling down) and I really REALLY hope I wasn’t caught on TV for that… it was like an Oprah crowd at its finest. But I didn’t care at the time. So we get to the second holding area and this is where things started to get interesting aka ghetto with a capital G.

So I understand that this was open to the public, and I knew that thousands of people were expected to show. But honestly, I couldn’t believe some of these women. I guess this is what happens when you get like 85,000 women all in one setting… catFIGHTS. Hahah. We’re like CRAMMED into this second holding area which we’ll be in until noon… and yet, we don’t have to be crammed in at all. There’s this WHOLE AREA cordoned off for the 500 people and the official people + security kept on being like, you need to back UP. Just BACK it UP. But NO ONE would listen because anytime the front people would back up, the back people would push past them. It was ridiculous. I was in like the third row so there was a lot of pushing/shoving going on. I guess it makes sense since these would be like the DIE HARD oprah-goers but STILL. Women were cursing, swatting each other with bags, poking each other (they say accidentally, I say deliberately) with umbrellas… oh, it was a sight. And a treat let’s be honest. Not to mention some of these women were full-on YELLING at the security people (ie: a very standard conversation went as follows: Official Oprah security man (quite possibly one of the most perfectly created men I’ve ever seen and I don’t think I notice that a lot so that’s saying a LOT): “Ma’am, you need to back UP. You’ll be in a different spot when you get in anyway so just back UP. There is plenty of space back there” and the woman would be like “I’ll move when the people behind me move.” Or “uh-uh I’m not moving I got up at 5 AM for this bull*expletive censored for work email*.” But the BEST was that some people decided to take it upon themselves to start faking HANDICAPS to get in early. One woman flipping went to Walgreens across the street and bought a CANE. And we definitely saw her “hobble” her way in, even though she had just run a good two blocks with the rest of us… and she wasn’t the only one. There was a man with a fake brace on his leg… needless to say, the crowd was MAD and everyone started chanting “Take him/her OUT. Take him/her OUT.” But it was stupid because the police weren’t even requiring a doctor’s note or anything… they were just letting them IN.

I mean, come ON people. ANYWAY. So 12 noon (when we were supposed to move to the final area as Oprah guests) comes and goes… 1 PM comes and goes… 2 PM rolls around, everyone is pi**ed OFF because 1. they were late letting us get through, 2. The sun was now BEAMING and we were hot (and still crammed like sardines) and the whole standing was starting to get old and 3. These Oprah people kept on trying to teach us all this damn choreographed dance “as a surprise for Oprah” and NO ONE was listening to them because everyone was PO’ed. It was ridiculous. So FINALLLY, they announce they’re going to let us get through (finally, right?) and we are THRILLED because we’re all like front and CENTER baby!!! But they know the crowd is a train wreck so they try to do this in as orderly a fashion as possible. Well, f that. That lasted about 2 mins (they were literally trying to funnel all these people into a single line). People started PUSHING (I literally couldn’t MOVE) and SHOVING… women were holding hands with their daughters or mothers or whatever and the security guards literally BROKE these hands APART (separating individuals from the people they came with) … I felt like I was on the Titanic and everyone’s just like holding on for dear life. I couldn’t believe it. And THEN, this guy literally took this woman OUT. And THEN, the woman’s daughter was like “oh no you didn’t just do that to my MOTHER!!” and started hitting the man… holy mother. It was out. Of. CONTROL.

FINALLY, we make our way inside, but we are still SO FLIPPING FAR from the stage because these VIPs with wristbands got the area closest to the stage. EVERYone was ANGRY. And it was SO funny because they were giving away free cell phones (typical Oprah flair right?) but they couldn’t get to the ENTIRE audience, of course. So these poor Oprah folks who were carrying around the Tmobile bags would get ACCOSTED by these people all clambering all over each other for an f’ing cell phone. It was out of CONTROL. For instance, they were handing out water and stuff and people would come by and be like “water? Water anyone?” and these people would be like “We don’t want no water! We want those PHONES” And then, these poor choreographers STILL kept on trying to get us to learn this dance that I will never forget and they literally called out to our section… they were like “Section 3! Come on! Let’s RIPPLE! Let’s SLIDE!” and everyone in my section was like “You get us some phones and we’ll start that ripple…” (in a VERY attitude-like tone) and the like. It was SO FUNNY because everyone in the front was so HAPPY just because they didn’t have to wake early, were standing like right in front of the stage etc… so of course they were dancing along merrily (they’re the ones youll be seeing on TV).

So anyway. Another couple of fights later… the show begins and Oprah’s a mere dot to me. And I was like in the FRONT of all the general admission people. I cant even imagine what it was like three blocks down. Ridiculous. But, I must admit, the choreographed dance thing went pretty amazingly (youll know what im talking about if you watch the show) and the black eyed peas were AMAZING (and im not even the biggest fan of them)… they got the crowd super energized so that was awesome. And seeing Oprah get so excited (she really did seem surprised about the dance!) really pumped me up even more, which is pathetic but true. And now I’m even more motivated to get tix to her show!!! I still love Oprah!!! Hahaha.

So. 13 hours later, I made my way back home. My feet were actually SORE from standing that whole FLIPPING TIME. And I wasn’t bitter at all. Haha. Well maybe a little bit. But still. It was definitely worth it for some ghetto fabulous entertainment (from the crowd). And it was cool to see Chicago lined up down Michigan Ave… once in a lifetime and all that. But still. I mean seriously. This is a slightly different email from the one I was expecting to write to you guys after going to the show (that one was drafted to involve “Holy MOTHER! I MET OPRAH!! We got pictures (attached here) and we’re going to hang out tomorrow!!”) but oh well. Hahah. I’m actually more entertained than dejected by this debacle, to be quite honest. I mean, the ghettoness of the situation. You can’t make this stuff up people!!! Hahahahah

Okay! Miss you! Love you! Hugs and kisses!

sigh. life reaching new lows? and check.