making my dreams come true — sometimes, always, never

There are two rilly great things about living far away from the people you love: (1) when they visit you and (2) when you visit them. This weekend I embraced the latter with a trip to Chicago to see my beautiful fraynds.

The weekend started true to form, when I arrived at Midway and Sara and Katie were waiting at O'Hare. Fortunately, Kelley, Jamie and Maggie came to my rescue right away. I just had to jump on the orange line for a few stops, which really only added magnificence and culture to my trip.

We made it to our 10 pm dinner reservations by 10.40 and shut the sushi restaurant down. We followed it with an amazing night downtown and it felt truly wonderful (and a little chilly) to be back in the Midwest.

Saturday, Sara, Kates and I magically enjoyed a day of free everything. Coffee in hand, we set off to Whole Foods for an afternoon of food and wine samples, but along the way came across a cupcake shop anniversary party, with complimentary food and beer, and free wine flights and snacks at World Market. Do these things happen in Atlanta and I miss them, or do people just drink for free all day in Chicago because they don't have to drive anywhere?

Once we arrived at Whole Foods, we also somehow scored free sunglasses. People were really just throwing things at us.

We also spent the day telling everyone, for no apparent reason, that I was vegan, which was awkward when we went to get coffee Saturday evening (for the second time) and the barista quickly offered me soy milk, which I kindly declined and bee-lined for regular milk. I like to think it made us more mysterious. Or something.

Saturday night, we met Maggie, Jamie, Kelley and Smully out for a night in Lincoln Park, and followed it up with a wonderful brunch at John's Place, which is where Sara works on the weekends. She didn't get to be our waitress, but we smiled at her a lot.

I truly, 100 percent, could not have asked for a more wonderful weekend. By Sunday night I was super tired, but laid in bed, wide awake, recapping the weekend over and over. It left me asking myself, why, exactly, I live hundreds of miles away from these fine people, but I keep telling myself that it's all worth it for these magical weekends together. This sort of vegan, nonstop, free stuff lifestyle can't be sustainable all the time, right?

PS: I'm drinking chocolate milk right now. Already reverted back to my animal disrespecting ways.