happy weekend

Saturday morning I took the train into the city to meet up with Missy, my mother's best friend from college, and her daughter Sarah. The plan was to go thrifting, but we detoured first because as we drove through the neighborhoods with our windows rolled down (it was sunny and warm) we passed by air filled with the smell of chocolate. I didn't know this before, but Blommer's chocolate factory sits by the train tracks in Chicago and pumps rich, chocolate-scented air out of its vents and into the streets. Of course, we had to park and go into the store. In the midst of chocolate sampling and buying, we learned that you cannot take a tour of the factory because there is chocolate everywhere, all over the floors, and it is 130 degrees inside to keep the chocolate melted. We bought chocolate covered cherries and pretzels, and chunks of chocolate scrap for a cake, and nonpareils. Walking out of the building, I had to keep stopping to lean against the warm brick and breath deeply. Chocolate air.

We eventually made it to one of the two thrift stores, a massive and hectic warehouse with rows and rows of clothing, stacks of belts, piles of shoes, and carts to push one another in (not the original intent, I'm sure). I found a great soft brown GAP cardigan and a practical and many-pocketed like-new Relic Leather bag. Then Missy discovered a 60s-era brown rough-cut leather jacket with fringe trailing down to my knees. It was $5. Obviously I had to buy it.

Then we went to Andersonville, the Swedish neighborhood, and Sarah and I climbed up on the giant Swedish horse, and we ate incredible Middle-Eastern food at Reza's. Full and happy, we wandered through an additional thrift warehouse before heading back to Missy and Bob's house (full of a darling poodle and giant harps and cool trinkets and homey-ness). Homemade Sushi for dinner, a screening of Hanna and then bed.

Church at St. Lukes, an incredibly massive and beautiful old building in Evanston, and then salmon burgers and chatting around the kitchen table all afternoon while it rained. I was sad to go, happy to have been, and am looking forward to going back next month. Meanwhile, I have fringe!