a night in the city

saturday night, jesse and i left the kiddos with my parents and spent a night in the city. we drove to chicago, enjoying the lights of the skyscrapers and the moon shining on the fairly still water while cruising down lake shore drive. not having children in the backseat makes everything more chill. we kept commenting, "no parking on this street, oh well, let's go to the next one." or "that is one impatient driver behind us, i guess he'll have to deal." it was like nothing could damper our mood.

we began the night with dinner at mystic celt, a fave spot of our good friends mike and grant clifford. it has been ages since the four of us hung out. although mike, grant and i went to high school together, we grew close in champaign while attending u of i. jesse and the cliffords were in the worship band together and as newlyweds, the four of us lived in the same townhouse complex. to this day, they are some of our most kindred spirits. they moved to the city several years back to attend design school and they will be finished in just three weeks! we had fun catching up, eating good food, and laughing a ton. i am so excited for their future, but will miss them when they leave for london.

afterwards, jesse, grant, and i (mike went home to work on his thesis project) picked up roxi (hs friend and college roomie) and went to the elbo room. yet another high school bud, kathy invited us to see her hubbie jim's band, last, perform (and, yes, jim too went to our high school). josh brown, one of my best friends from high school, was also able to meet up with us. (when you count the three other we-go alum present it was like a second reunion in three months). although i enjoyed the music (last is a heavy rock band), i did feel "old." basically, the music was too loud, the smoke made me cough, my feet hurt from standing, and we left before 11. (actually, i caught several of us yawning and we ended up going upstairs to avoid yelling in each others ears to talk.)



i miss my friends living in the city, but know that is not the life for me. jesse and i discussed the idea of the urban lifestyle on the way home (before i fell asleep in the car - did i tell you i was old? - the drive back to the burbs is only about 45 minutes) and although we agreed it would be full of new experiences, people, and places, we prefer our semi-rural central illinois life.