Cowboys, Chaps and Chicago

Friday Night:
Rodeo/Fuedin Hillbilly's
Time I should have been at friends' house: 5:30pm

Left the House: 5:45ish-pm

In my bed: 1:30am
1-10 Scale: 9

Friday was a fabulous night out with the girls. Dinner at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants (in a different city though) then we were off to the Rodeo. Rodeo events are the Mecca of farmboy/cowboy/wrangler/cowboy hats/boots types. I was in heaven. I love how you don't have to get all cutesy'd up for an event like this. The thing that amazes me the most at the Rodeo is how frickin' huge the Bucking Bronc's are. They are HUGE, you think my little pony with a kicking problem but these things are ginormous. You'd have to see them in person to do it justice. More than anything the Rodeo is a fun time to drool at the eye candy.

After the Rodeo ended about 10:30pm we ventured to our favorite Country Bar to check out a favorite local band. I was a little worn out so I didn't get my drink on or shake it country style because I had to be up "early" the next day to head to Chi-town.

Saturday:
Chicago-Financial Seminar w/Bill & Giuliana Rancic/America's Got Talent
Left the House: 8:20am
In my bed: 11:30ish-pm
1-10 Scale: 10+

There are not enough words I can put together to explain how much fun was had on Saturday. Luckily for a friend we were heading up the Chicago the same day as the America's Got Talent Chicago open auditions were held, so he was able to hitch a ride up there with us. The way there and back was the quickest (felt like it anyway) trip to Chicago I have even been on (which hasn't been too many times actually) but me, 'Willie' and 'It's Sew My Style' in one vehicle = too much fun and a major ab workout from laughing so hard.

After we dropped 'Willie' off at his huge mile long line outside of McCormick place we realized that we neglected to print off our confirmation email that would allow us to enter our seminar. No big deal.

We found a parking garage (PS I may have broken every traffic law on the books. It's hard for a country girl to know where to go and avoid potholes AND taxi's AND other cars who can't drive. No ticket no foul, we survived and Simon didn't get a scratch on him). We then located the nearest hotel which turned out to be the Marriott off Michigan Ave. Very nice hotel and I'd recommend staying there if you have the means to do so, very nice decor. We found the business center and got our email printed off.. good to go. Now we were starving too, neither of us had eaten anything yet that day. So we hike it to Watertower place to the food court, we only had about an hour to play with and the line was huge. (everyone and their brother must have been in the city that day) so we decide we should probably head to the other side of town where our whole point of the day was.

With my crazy mad traffic skills and awesome navigator pointing the direction we were hoping the parking that was available for the event wasn't full already or we'd have to find the other place that would require a shuttle to take us and we were only 15 minutes early. Since the parking was in a Catholic Church lot, I said a Hail Mary and hoped for the best. SCORE! Open spots left. So we waited in line and ended up being fine on time since it started an hour late so everyone had time to get in line. Meanwhile, we checked in on our good friend 'Willie' who informed us 3 hours later he was still outside waiting (it wasn't a warm day in Chicago either)

Bill and Giuliana Ranic were the main draw for the MB Financial Bank/Mastercard sponsored Financial seminar. They took the stage and talked about some financial stuff. Giuliana is a twig, very skinny and OMG her ring was blinding us when it caught the light. They are so cute and funny together, a great couple. Giuliana told the story about how she took all the snack bars they had in their green room stating that in this economy you have to take advantage of every opportunity. They were very funny and cute and Bill (who was the winner of the first Apprentice) had some great points to make. The whole time we were listening to all the speakers talk we had a camera guy up in our face with a bright light on top of his camera. What they were filming for we don't actually know, it could be for Bill & Giuliana's reality show, we didn't sign any releases so I don't know how much of our face they could use. Hope I looked good and didn't pick my nose.

There was a Q&A section at the end and this douchey guy (who supposedly went to school with Bill and was probably wearing an Armani suit) really had no question but wanted to brag at how wealthy he was and that he is starting a consulting company and has a 3.2 million dollar contract lined up and doesn't know why he has to put his $700,000 home up for collateral blah blah blah. The crowd turned on him, love it. Then at the end there was a raffle of two tickets to an upcoming Bears game and guess who one. Yep Sir Douche, I'm sure there is a lesson in there somewhere. If we wanted to wait probably another hour or so in line there was a meet and greet with B&G, but we were worn out and too hungry to stay. We ventured back towards downtown.

We decided to have dinner at the Cheesecake factory and parked conveniently on the 10th floor of the John Hancock Building. That was a crazy ride up a spiral parking garage entrance and had to have the underside of the car and the trunk checked before we could enter. We didn't even have to step outside, just a few steps and an elevator trip down we arrived.. finally food... well sort of. We had to wait an hour for a table. It's been awhile since that hungry. Since we had time we checked back in with 'Willie' we had earlier received a text picture of the sign confirming that he had official reached the front of the line. He was now about ready to go in and perform in front of some of the producers for the show. We wished him luck and our table was ready. (Timing was amazing in Chicago too!)

We were so starved that once the waitress came back to get our drink orders we were ready to order (food would make it to us quicker) and we wanted our bread stat! After we had stuffed our face, we ordered our cheesecake to go and 'Willie' had called and said his audition went well he thinks and the friends he made in line were going to give him a ride to downtown where we were, perfect! Just as we exited the restaurant he was there too and we began our venture home.

The ride home went just as fast with tons of laughs and conversations that I can't repeat. We had so much fun on this trip. It's part of our plan to be a little more spontaneous and try different things. We decided we like to be a little more planned out ahead but we did good. I'm trying not to stress out so much about the unknown (aka not knowing my way around Chicago for this example) and anyone who knows me knows that I get a little stressed and uneasy about places I've never been or don't know exactly where I'm going. But this trip just goes to show that if you don't stress, laugh a little, and don't worry so much, things have a way of working themselves out.

“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” -Greg Anderson