work wife alex moved to chicago last summer and sarah moved into a new apartment in the city last fall, so i decided it was time to make a visit and see how they both are doing. we joked that they shared custody of me, with me staying with alex for the first weekend and then staying with sarah and her roommate claire for the following week. it allowed me to spend solo time with each of them, plus we had some group hang time as well and i got to meet a lot of each of their friends. best of all worlds, really.

i think for this recap i’m going to go back to day-by-day commentary to make sure i capture everything, so since i’m covering 12 days this might get a little long. don’t say i didn’t warn you.

thursday.

i landed at o’hare in mid-afternoon, made my way over to terminal 3, and caught the blue line train into the city. sarah lives right off the damen stop, so she and willow [roommate claire’s dog] met me there. we dropped willow back at the apartment, sarah grabbed her stuff, and we made our way over to alex’s.

alex and sarah are in the same half marathon training group with peace runners 773, so after alex picked up solomon from doggy day care the three of us went to their thursday night strength training class. sarah dropped us back home after and alex and i walked to the moonlighter for dinner.

friday.

alex was off on friday and it was 70 degrees so we spent most of our day outside. we took solomon for a leisurely 3-mile walk in the morning, had a delicious lunch on fancy plants’ patio, and then walked to and along the lake. we sat on the rocks for a bit and enjoyed the weather and the people watching before heading to vaca’s for ice cream. alex’s friend brandon met us there and the three of us walked with our ice cream before stopping at via carducci la sorella for a patio drink. from there alex and i went home to relax for a bit and then had the loveliest dinner at bloom.

saturday.

alex threw a “childhood nostalgia” all-vegan dinner party on saturday night, so we spent most of the day prepping for that. we dropped solomon at doggy day care, picked up a few last-minute things from target, had a quick brunch at handlebar, and went back home to get everything ready.

alex made cinnamon toast crunch donuts with an apple cider glaze, hamburger helper, and ice cream sandwiches, and my contribution was homemade pizza rolls. others brought puppy chow, capri suns and fanta, cosmic brownies, pb&j sandwiches, zebra cakes, salad, apples dipped in caramel sauce, and i’m sure a few other things i’m not remembering now. everything was delicious and alex had some great questions for us that got us talking about our various childhoods — it was such a fun evening and i had a great time getting to know some of alex’s friends.

sunday.

alex went for her long run with peace runners on sunday morning and got home right after it started snowing [yes it was 70 degrees two days before lol chicago]. we chilled for a bit and then went to penelope’s for lunch and on to the lincoln park conservatory — the quesabirria tacos were so good, and the conservatory was the perfect place to spend a cold afternoon. when we finished up there we went back to alex’s, and i gathered my things and made my way over to sarah’s.

some of sarah’s law school friends were over watching love is blind, and since i hadn’t watched most of the season but had of course looked up spoilers i joined them for the wedding and reunion episodes and added in all of my commentary. after they left we ordered dinner from urbanbelly before turning in.

monday.

we had a lazy morning on monday while we figured out our plan of action for the upcoming week. monday was our devon avenue adventure day to explore the hub of all things indian and pakistani in chicago. we shared snacks at annapurna, walked the length of the avenue to see all the things, made a stop at patel brothers to get sarah a masala dabba and all the things to go in it, picked up sweets and had chai at sukhadia’s, and then had an early dinner at bundoo khan. shoutout to my mother for telling us to go there because we had a great day and made a lot of new friends [if you go to sukhadia’s tell aniruddh we said hi]. and since we got home early we watched the episode of the white lotus that we hadn’t watched the night before.

tuesday.

tuesday was another lovely weather day so we came up with a plan that allowed for a lot of outdoor time. we took the train a few stops to logan square and went to chiya chai where we split some dumplings and worked for a few hours. from there we made a quick stop at logan vegan to drop off candle receptacles to be recycled and got some impromptu ice cream and then went to city lit books to have a wander. from there we walked to the open books location on milwaukee and had a nice time browsing through their selections. it was another walk from there to transit tees to peruse their chicago postcards and t-shirts and other ephemera before heading home.

sarah had track practice that night [what we call the run group speed workouts], so while she did that i chilled at home with willow and read and watched tv.

wednesday.

we had an early lunch at small cheval before heading to the loop and spending a few hours at the chicago cultural center. we went for the great migration exhibit – really good – and stayed for the tiffany dome, the puppet exhibit, and the gift shop.

it was a rainy afternoon so we spent it at home but ventured out for an early dinner at elia with my friend cam and her daughter mara. cam and i were classmates at baylor and her family was my local host family and while we have kept in touch over the years we think this was the first time we’ve seen each other in person in 25 years so it was great to catch up in person and to meet mara who is the coolest almost-10-year-old i know. after dinner sarah went to a yoga class while i stayed home and did laundry.

thursday.

we got up suuuuuper early on thursday to take sarah’s friend robyn to the airport which was a fun adventure because it was snowing again [that too on the first day of spring ahahaha]. after a nap sarah went to yoga while i had my accountability group zoom call and then it was time to head to niles, the suburb where sarah grew up. we stopped by her house first to say hi to her father and pick up a few things before getting her mother from work and taking her to gorilla sushi for lunch. after we dropped mama sheila back at work sarah took me to see the world-famous leaning tower of niles so now i have finally seen it and can tell everyone.

i napped hard that afternoon while sarah worked, and then when she went to strength training that evening i watched basketball [first day of march madness!] and read and then met her after for dinner at chengdu bistro. between the early wakeup call and the full bellies we both slept early that night.

friday.

friday we had a slow morning and then in the afternoon i met katie russo at colectivo ravenswood and had a nice time catching up with her 1:1 and hearing about how much she is enjoying being in chicago. from there it was back home to change quickly and head out for the evening — our first stop was redhot ranch for hot dogs and fries and then we went to a pottery class at penguin foot pottery with rachel. we had a blast learning how to use the wheel and playing around with the techniques for a few hours, and at the end of the evening we each picked a piece to fire.

we were feeling a little peckish after class so we picked up slices of pizza from paulie gee’s. from there sarah went to rachel’s to watch the severence season finale and i went home to watch basketball.

saturday.

we slept in on saturday morning which mostly means we woke up at the same time we always did just without an alarm this time and ordered our food from kasama. it was going to take a while so in the meantime we had a snack at home and puttered around before walking over to pick up the food.

that afternoon we went to sarah and rachel’s friend’s daughter’s first birthday party which was a lot of fun and included a lot of delicious food so of course i needed a nap after. we had thoughts of going to a nearby bar to watch the basketball but in the end stayed on the couch and watched at home and had an early night.

sunday.

we had another early morning on sunday because we went downtown to cheer on the shamrock shuffle participants [including alex!] at the peace runners cheer station. we stayed until alex finished and came over and then went home, picked up donuts from stan’s donuts, and warmed up. we ran various errands on sunday afternoon, dropping in to both volumes bookcafe and semicolon bookstore and watching basketball in between. later that afternoon we picked up alex and went to the peace runners after party at the vu rooftop and then had dinner with sarah’s friend erin radcliffe at north buena deli. after dinner we went home, got into our comfy clothes, and watched the white lotus with claire.

monday.

monday morning was for packing and showering and making sure i gathered all my stuff from various corners of the apartment and said my farewells to willow. we had a snack at home and then sarah dropped me off at o’hare and that was the end of my visit.

like i said, we did a lot, but because i was there for 12 days it never felt hectic. mostly i was glad to have time with my friends and to get to meet their friends and to explore a little more of a city i really enjoy. alex is campaigning hard for me to move there which i don’t envision happening, but it was fun to be a resident for a little while and hopefully i’ll be back again soon.

xx