das bier und die madchen

I'm just now getting around to posting about my weekend. Yesterday was nuts at the office, and I didn't get a chance to post my pics, and I really couldn't do my weekend justice without showing you all this:


Nick, his friend Alex, and I, hopped on the train and headed north to Lincoln Square, the city's German neighborhood and home to a rousing early Oktoberfest. It was PACKED with yuppies slugging back enormous beers from plastic souvenir steins and eating bratwurst, sauerkraut, und strudel. There was a polka band playing a very odd assorment of songs; at one point I think I heard them do "Achy Breaky Heart." Although that could have been my imagination because by the end of the night I looked like this:

Notice the girl in the backgroud looking at me like "what a crazy bitch." By this point, I had consumed about one and a half steins and was feeling pretty good. So naturally we decided we needed ice cream and went to the Cold Stone nearby. All in all, it was a good time - bier trinken in a festive environment, late night ice cream, and I got to have a little Deutsch conversation with an old man cooking bratwurst who pronounced "du sprichst gut Deustch" - Ausgeseichnet!

Saturday was gloomy, but we had committed to going to a housewarming/end of summer party for one of Nick's former assistants. Unfortunately, the party was in Joliet. Gross. It was also a Hawaiian themed party, so Nick had stopped by Goodwill and gotten us some shirts. Regrettably, I have no pictures, but I looked cute - my shirt was a bit big so I tied it up around my waist mid-riff style, wore some cute new beige pants, heels, and my authentic Hawaiian beaded lei from a Hawaiian girl who once played my daughter in an opera. Upon setting foot into the party, I realized I had made a grave mistake. The other party guests were mostly people with babies, and they were mostly wearing hooded sweatshirts, jeans, and those plastic leis from the party store. Oh well. I got my baby fix, since the host of the party had just given birth two months ago to an adorable baby boy, and I also got this cute little guy:

Nick and I stopped at Kohl's on the way to the party pick up a gift, and we saw these little adorable stuffed giraffes for $5. We got one for the baby, but...I needed one too. I just love giraffes!