CAbi Day.

Two things I forgot to mention that I enjoy about CAbi:

1.  You don't get the clothes immediately (the instant gratification portion of my personality doesn't necessarily agree with me on this one).  Instead, about ten days later, you get to have CAbi day, where a bag of clothes is awaiting you.  As most of the party attendees work at the same place, we get to go pick up our clothes at work.  And, this time, we got to say "Ponte (Wooooooooo!)" every time we referred to what we had purchased.  Good times.

2.  Vanity sizing.  My rational mind knows that I do not fit into a size four.  But, I surely did ten days ago to try a skirt on.  And, buying a size six (getting warmer to my actual size but still VERY flattering) in skirts and pants?  Awesome.  Apparently my ego is no match for my rational mind -- it is totally willing to be flattered even in the face of knowing it is just vanity sizing at work.

Broseph.

My broseph came to visit this weekend.  He lives in Colorado and makes infrequent appearances outside of the Denver metro area. He came to Virginia and Texas to see me graduate.  After seven and a half years in Chicago, my bro finally realized I would not be graduating from this location and booked a flight.  Actually, he went to visit our grandmother in Milwaukee for three days and then took the train down to Chicago for a day. 

I suspect my day or so with him has left him with the impression that my life is just non-stop fun and fancy.  To be clear, it is not . . . just the non-work part is.

We went to Theory for a snack.  I walked him over to  Millennium Park to see the Bean and the Fountains o' Faces.  We stopped to Garretts on our way back to the office for happy hour.  From there, we headed home to change and then walked down to dinner at LuxBar.  We ended the night with drinks at the new and improved Pump Room.  (Side note: so happy to have the new Pump Room in the neighborhood.  The space is lovely.  The drink prices are not unreasonable.  The servers are friendly.  All that and only three blocks from my house.  Love it.)

On Saturday, I may have broken him a bit.  We went to the gym where he survived 45 minutes of a strength and conditioning class before I treated him to a spa service, while I finished the class and went to spin.  We went to old faithful, Butch McGuire's, for lunch and then walked down Michigan Ave.  We didn't get all that far when he asked to head home.  His suburban feets just are not used to walking more than a couple blocks.  He sent me a text when he arrived home today saying that walking was painful.  Whoopsy.  So, we headed up to Milwaukee that afternoon, where we had dinner with our grandmother and aunt.

I don't think my brother and I have ever spent that much time together, just us, as adults.  And, we are very different people.  He said that he has all the nice genes and I have all the brains.  I don't agree with that statement but he is a very nice guy.  He believes the best of people to the point that he ignores the reality of the present in the hopes of how they will be in the future.  Despite how different we are, we generally get along very well.  That's probably true because we have long been set in our roles and those have not changed much in thirty years.

What has changed, most significantly from my perspective, is that my brother now cooks.  In my mind, my brother is the kid who made cinnamon pancakes so bad that our dog would not eat them.  Now, he identifies spices in foods and makes cheesecakes for fun while on vacation.  I still have not wrapped my mind around it even though I had no problem wrapping my fingers around my fork.

Welcome, S.

Last week, the littlest Trump Girl made her appearance.   After almost 23 hours of labor, at 10:54 p.m. on September 13, O gave birth to Simone Margaret. 

Unfortunately for me, I had a cold last week so I could not go visit O, J, and S in the hospital.  By the time I was no longer contagious, O was back in the hospital for high blood pressure issues.  Poor girl had a catheter and was drugged up on magnesium for two days, unable to walk around or be with her baby.  It sounded pretty miserable.  Thankfully, everyone is home and healthy now.  The most positive spin I can put on it is that now O has a story (with a happy ending) to scare other pregnant ladies with as she surely heard a zillion herself while pregnant.  

Yesterday, I got to go visit everyone.  S is the first really new baby I've held.  She still has that new person smell.  Her little hand can barely wrap around my finger.  She is an adorable little tamale all swaddled up.  As M said, all the mistakes you've made in life, the things you wish you could do over?  S has none of that.  A perfectly clean slate where her only job right now is to eat and sleep.  And, thankfully, she is not a baby who has trouble achieving her goals, at least during week one.   From what I can see, she is a rockstar at her appointed tasks, especially the sleeping.  The eating seems to be her less favored job -- who can blame her? It gets in the way of her beauty rest and she seems to get rewarded for her efforts with hiccups frequently.  Now, if only her parents can get some sleep too.

No doubt, S will make mistakes going forward.  And, no doubt that O and J will too.  But, it seems like they are all off to a great start, after an initial hiccup (and not just with the eating).

Clothing Amnesia.

A CAbi party is an unusual experience. What is a CAbi party, you might wonder. I know I did. I had never heard of it before about six months ago. A CAbi party is essentially a tupperware party for clothes. (CAbi stands for Carol Anderson by invitation.) The idea of buying clothes out of a person's home was just hard for me to wrap my mind around. I passed on my first invitation to a CAbi party, despite hearing that the clothes were cute. However, when M hosted one, I really had no way to avoid attending, considering she lives two floors above me.

Based on very limited experience, I believe that a good CAbi party involves probably two elements: (1) alcohol and (2) a fun CAbi representative. Part one is easy. Part two may or may not be. Both parties I've attended have involved the same representative and she puts on quite a show. She somehow talks her way through about 50 pieces of clothing, trying on maybe a quarter of them, in about 45 minutes.

After she's done, that's where the unusual experience begins. All of the sudden, it is a free-for-all of women trying on the clothes. At both parties, the attendees were a mix of friends and co-workers. That distinction seems to go out the window, as does one's dignity. Ladies who may intimidate you at the office are suddenly in their underwear, waiting to take the shirt or skirt you just tried on. There must be some sort of immediate clothing amnesia (and/or just locker room mentality) induced by the CAbi clothing so that when you see these same ladies the next week, there is no embarassment.

CAbi: the party where you end up with a buzz and cute clothes.

Trapeasy Take Two.

About six weeks ago, M, her mom and I went to trapeze class. It was not our idea; it was suggested as a networking event at work but we both had a conflict on the original date so we went on our own. However, the original date got rained out so we got to attend our second class for free as part of the re-scheduled work event.

The first class was exhilarating in a facing-fears type of way. I'm not particularly scared of heights but climbing a tall ladder and leaning out over the edge of a high platform was definitely a challenge the first time around. The second class had none of that fear. It helped that the person holding you at the top of the platform was a big, strong guy (who happened to have been the guy who caught us during the first class, giving me even more confidence in him) when the first class had a little girl assuring me, bigger than her, that she had me. She did but I couldn't help thinking that gravity plus my weight could easily bring her down with me.

So, the second class was just fun. We learned two new tricks which were super fun. The first trick everyone learns is called the knee-hang. It leaves a rather distinctive bruise on the back of your dominate side leg. (So much so that when we were walking to work this morning, M and I noticed the bruise on a girl ahead of us and then realized she was one of our co-workers and trapeze classmates.) After we demonstrated proficiency with the knee-hang, we learned the heels-off. Despite the name, that sucker leaves you a nice little bruise along your Achilles. Finally, we learned the whip. As far as I can tell, that one is bruise-free, although I only got to try it once. But, from a bruising perspective alone, I love it.

I have to admit that I was enjoying a little bit of schadenfreude. The girl who suggested this event is not my favorite for a variety of reasons and I suspected that she would not be particularly good at trapeze. Trapeze takes some degree of fitness and I'm pretty sure she never works out. So, I was not surprised that she had trouble on her first swing. I'm a bad person but it made me smile to see her struggle, as she is generally very smug about her accomplishments. However, I was surprised at how quickly she quit though. No "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again" with this girl.

Short story long, I really enjoy trapeze. I'm not sure it is much of a workout, although it definitely uses your shoulders and abs, but it is A LOT of fun. I am pretty sure that I will be back for more classes in the future and hopefully leave with fewer bruises.

Street Art.

On my friend K's recommendation, I recently watched "Exit Through the Gift Shop." As a result, while in Paris, I had my eyes peeled for the work of Space Invader. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. But, there was a lot of graffiti everywhere. Of course, there is a difference between graffiti and street art. And, I saw some cute pieces of street art in both Paris and Palma.

In Paris, on the same block as our hotel, there was a grate that had been turned into a skeleton's ribcage. We saw an incomplete version elsewhere. I failed to take a picture of them (which I regret) but I found these examples:



In Palma, I saw these two stencils:

Buenisima Binissalem.

S is our spin instructor. At 50, she is one of the fitter people I know. So, it was no surprise that our time with her involved A LOT of exercise.

Her house is straight out of House Hunters International. It is four floors, four bedrooms, five (gigantic) baths, a rooftop terrace, and a beautiful garden with a small pool. It has fantastic heavy wooden front doors (as do seemingly all of the houses in the village) and great archways.

The house is in a small village called Binissalem, a thirty or so minute drive northwest from Palma:


Once we dropped off our bags, we changed for a swim in the municipal pool. One small detail: it was a three-mile, fast-paced run (for M and S)/ride (me on a borrowed bike) uphill. The ride was not a problem, although it brought back a few hangover symptoms. I do not envy M and the run though. That seemed rough. It was nice to get in the pool though. Beautifully blue tiled, seemingly an infinity pool off the hill top. Easily the most beautiful pool I have swam in. Thankfully, what goes up, must go down so the return home was much easier.

Our reward for that exercise was some tasty pizza and wine. We somehow ended up chatting until 1:00 am. Which would not be late if we weren't scheduled to go to the gym at 8:30 the next morning.

Sad to say but the spin class was one of the highlights of the trip. So much energy and enthusiasm. It was a party in there. Great music. Great workout. Extremely attractive instructor. What's not to love? From there, it was back to the pool for another swim.

Our last hours on Mallorca included lunch at the Port, with the delicious Spanish omelet, croquettas and sangria.

From there, we were back to London for a night. It was a rainy day in London, so we took it easy in the morning. Enjoyed our complimentary continental breakfast. Saw the workout suite. We headed back to Heathrow and hung out in the lounge. We actually almost missed our flight back to Chicago because they don't assign gates until essentially boarding time and our gate was four people movers, an elevator, and a train from the lounge. After that excitement, it was a very smooth flight back home.

Palma - Part 2.

After we finally turned the corner on our hangovers, we were nearing checkout time so we had no option than to rally. We had thought that maybe lunch would make some magic happen. It did not. BUT, ice cream did.

It was Sunday in a very Catholic country. It seemed like everything was closed. EXCEPT ice cream stores. After our first ice cream stick, almost immediately, we felt 90% better. Better enough, that I was able to notice how pretty the local architecture was:


We soon crossed another ice cream store. On the theory that two would be doubly good, we got another cone. And, magic! We felt totally human again. Just in time to find an open souvenir shop to stock up for family and friends.

Soon, we found the Plaza Mayor. From there, we could see the Cathedral that we noted the prior day that looked like a giant sandcastle:

On our way there, we came across some beautiful gardens:

We finally made it around the front of the cathedral:


From there, we continued our stroll, toward the port. Took a seat in a park. Had a snack. And, then it was time to head back to our hotel, where our spin instructor was going to pick us up.

To kill the time, we played some scrabble. As a tangent, I have been friends with M for maybe five years now and played scrabble a handful of times. I never win. It took probably ten hours of playing on this trip for me to win one game. It was a delightful afternoon, quite warm but we were in the shade with a breeze, a cappucino in front of us.

Soon enough, S arrived to take us to her house in the country.

Palma de Mallorca.

After our unplanned layover in Barcelona, we arrived in Palma around 4:30 pm. We got ourselves to our hotel without problem. Because Palma is Spanish, we knew that a late dinner was on the agenda. So, we killed some time in the hotel spa, alternating between a super-hot sauna, a hot lounging chair, and a cool jacuzzi.

For dinner, we took a recommendation from the N.Y. Times. In a "36 Hours in . . ." article on Mallorca, the author recommended tapas at Bar Dia, but warned that "[t]he owner will be sitting in a corner smoking and playing cards with his mates, and couldn't be less pleased to see you." Truer words have not been written. The food was incredibly good but it seemed like the people working there had a word limit. However, as we were closing our tab, the owner poured us a shot of hierba, which is a local specialty, an anise-flavored liquor (I think). We were heading for the door, when some of the owner's mates stopped us to point out that it was raining and surely, we would rather stay and have a drink with them rather than brave the rain. Surely.

Except that a drink seemed to turn into ten.

Don't get me wrong. We had a blast. We met a lot of very gentlemanly locals who took us out. One of our fellow diners was an American bar owner who married a Mallorcan bar owner, whose father also owned a bar. Soon enough, we were at his bar. The night begins to blur for me after that. All I know that the next morning was not kind to us. We felt awful. And, upon some pained recollection, we realized that at no point during Saturday did we have a single drop of water. No bueno.

But, Palma itself es bien, with very friendly and welcoming locals.

Snafu.

After Paris, we were bound for Palma de Mallorca, the largest city on the largest of the Baleric islands off of Spain. Not a place that normally would have made our itinerary but we were chatting about our trip in the early summer in our spin class. Our spin instructor is British and was giving us London recommendations and then invited us to Mallorca to stay with her at her house there. Apparently, Mallorca is a popular holiday destination for Brits as it is only a two hour flight and the weather is SIGNIFICANTLY nicer in that you can see the sun frequently.

We arrived at Paris-Orly for our 9:30 am flight bright and early. But, when we went to check in, all we got was a look of confusion in response. We were then told that our flight did not exist, that it did not operate on Saturdays and they had no idea why Orbitz sold us a flight that didn't exist and/or didn't inform us when it was cancelled. They directed us to talk to Iberia.

Iberia told us we needed to talk to Orbitz, as they were the ones who sold the flight. So, we pulled out our phones. Actually, initially, I was just calling but I got hung up on twice in the process so we both called to try to get this resolved. I was told that Orbitz would have to call Iberia so I was put on hold. For 25 minutes. On international roaming. I shudder to think what my phone bill is going to be.

Of course, once I am taken off hold, I am told that Orbitz can't reach any Iberia agents in Paris and the people they could talk to in the U.K. said that they could not do anything until Monday. Clearly, not helpful. Finally, I just handed my phone to the Iberia agent standing not 15 feet from me. Orbitz told me that they were sorry for the "inconvenience" but there was nothing they could do. Also known as, sorry but its not my problem that you're stranded in Paris even though I sold you a flight that does not exist. Thankfully, the Iberia agent took pity on us dealing with the Orbitz idiots and re-booked us on her own (even though technically, I guess, Orbitz was supposed to do it) to Palma via Barcelona.

Long story short: Orbitz is getting a letter.

Paris - Part 2.

We loved the night bike tour so much that we decided to take the day tour too. And why not, it was a totally different route and half price since we already took one.

Prior to the tour, we strolled the streets and had a delicious lunch which was capped off with a nutella pizza. I had never had nutella before. But, a little kid was seated next to us and the look of pure bliss on her face while she ate the nutella pizza was enough for me. And, it did not disappoint.

The tour met at the Eiffel Tower again.


From there, we saw the Ecole Militaire, bullet holes from WWII still present because the French "don't plaster over history," the Dome Church, which contains Napoleon's tomb, and the Tuileries Gardens. In the Gardens, which once served as the house arrest location for Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (a lovely place to be imprisoned), we stopped at a cafe. In honor of Louis, we had a glass of champagne. From there, it was back to the Louvre, a much different experience in the day:

We also saw the Champs Elysees, the Place de la Concorde, the Alexandre III bridge (under which, we learned that there is a club that gets going after midnight) and the Rodin Museum.

That evening, we decided to go to Montparnesse, which has Paris's only skyscraper at about 50 stories. From there, we were able to take some lovely pictures of Paris at night:


On our way back, we had a delicious dinner at a neighborhood cafe. At our server's suggestion, we had dessert. It was beautiful but this is all we left:

Paris - Part 1.

We arrived in Paris around 12:30 pm. We had no problem getting on the metro (aside from purchasing the tickets) to get us to our hotel in the St. Germain district, 6th arrondisement. Our hotel came recommended from one of the partners we work with whose daughter spent a semester abroad and he went to visit a few times. It was charming, from the view from our window: to our key:
Can't misplace that sucker.

We had a late, light lunch and then strolled the lovely streets of Paris. We walked through the fantastic Luxemburg Gardens, saw the Orangerie and found Notre Dame: After about four hours, we came back to the hotel to change for our evening plan, a night bike tour of Paris: Fat Tire Bike Tours offered a four hour, nine mile bike ride around town. I was so glad we did this because all day in London, I kept thinking that I missed my bike. You can cover so much more ground on a bike. We met at the Eiffel Tower: Rode to Notre Dame and saw it at night, learning about the cleaning it recently underwent via laser. We made an ice cream pit stop (delicious). Rode toward the Latin Quarter and then hit the highlight of the tour, riding into the Louvre, with live music playing behind us: From there, it was a boat trip down the Seine with red wine and then a short, reckless ride back to the Eiffel Tower for the light show:

I loved the bike tour. I will say though that it was something that would NEVER HAPPEN in the U.S. We didn't sign any waivers. They didn't provide helmets. Our bikes were cruisers with no lights. A lot of the people on the tour pretty clearly do not ride bikes regularly, or at least do not ride them on big city streets. They did however provide us reflective vests:

City of lights, no doubt.

The Chunnel.

We took the Euostar to Paris. It was a good decision for a couple reasons. First, it was one less flight on a trip that had four (which turned into five) in six days as it was. Second, it was just kind of cool to go by fast train. I'm used to the El as far as train speed goes.

Save for some really misbehaving kids and inattentive parents, it was a great way to get to France. I will say that I was a tad disappointed by the Chunnel though. I was kind of hoping for a Jaws III type clear tube around us, minus the killer shark. Instead, it just seemed like another tunnel we went through. There was no fanfare or even announcement. You only realized it was the Chunnel when it was much longer than your average tunnel -- about fifteen minutes.

A side note on transport by train in Europe: it is great BUT a pain for Americans to buy tickets. The Eurostar is the exception since you can buy them online. But for every other mode of public transportation, American credit cards don't work because they don't have some sort of chip. So, you have to wait in line with people who want to have their hands held every step of the journey when you just want to buy two tickets and get on with it. That said, if you're used to one public transportation train system, you can easily figure out others. Although, would it kill people to put a little "You are here" dot on their maps?

London.

Once we arrived at Heathrow, we took showers and breakfasted at the British Airways lounge, on the assumption that we would just drop off our bags at the hotel and go. A forty minute ride on the Picadilly Line and a little dot following on our phones (God bless technology -- as a person with no natural sense of direction at all, the iphone dot is amazing) and we arrived at the Cavendish. Incredibly, our room was actually ready.

We took about fifteen minutes of quiet time, laying down, until the bells of St. James rang 10:00 am. We began our death march through London from Trafalgar Square:

Yes, that is a giant ship in a bottle:

From there, we walked through the National Portrait Gallery and headed south. We saw the WWII memorial to women and 10 Downing Street. We stopped at Churchill's War Rooms. They are really interesting. They were a bunker that served as the headquarters for the British war council. People lived in the dark underground for four years there. The rooms have been mocked up. There is a museum of Churchill's life as well. I've always had a fondness for the man -- he has some really fantastic quotes -- and I found it a very interesting stop.

We kept walking, walking past Westminster Abbey, toward Big Ben:

At that point, we were near Parliament and starving. Unfortunately, it was a real struggle for us to find a lunch spot. (We had this problem frequently -- we'd be near a tourist location but for our stomachs or bladders could not find restaurants.) We were successful ultimately though. With full bellies, we went back to the Abbey and walked though. I've been before but I still find it one of the more fascinating places in London.

The death march continued, heading up toward Green Park and Buckingham Palace. We had to take a break and catch a cab to Harrod's. In some ways, Harrods reminds me of Macy's on State Street, but about a hundred times fancier. Proof alone is that their food halls are like Whole Foods and their wine bar is a Veuve bar. We took the opportunity to have a super expensive, but delicious, glass of rose. From high brow, we slightly lower to TopShop across the street. A walk through that store confirmed my excitement for it to open on Michigan Avenue this week.

By this point, it was 4:30 in the afternoon and we were EXHAUSTED. But, so so close to making it through the day. We took the tube up to Notting Hill for dinner. One of our neighbors used to live in London and recommended a bar called the Churchill Arms. Just a neighborhood bar with a lot of Churchill memorabilia but attached to a cheap and delicious Thai place. It was really weird but perfect. We spent our last paper pounds on a cab, having to walk the last mile or so back to our hotel.

We were in bed by 6:30 and probably solidly asleep by 7:00. That's what you get for not really sleeping on the plane and trying to beat jet lag.

Business Class.

In a raffle, I won two business class tickets to London on British Airways. The raffle ticket was $100. The tickets were worth somewhere between $3,000 - 4,000 pounds, according to one of our flight attendants. Winner winner, chicken dinner. (Literally, actually -- chicken was a dinner option on the flight over.)

It took a little effort to schedule the trip but man, was it worth it. We planned to go from London, train to Paris, fly to Palma, Mallorca, fly back to London and then back to Chicago. Flying business class on the front and back was awesome.

First, check the seat:

Lie flat bed. A zillion new release movie options. Unending flow of champagne. The attendants really pushed the alcohol -- I'm sure they wanted people to drink and pass out, making their jobs easy for the majority of the flight.

Second, the lounges. I like airline lounges generally but the BA lounge is wonderful. When you arrive at Heathrow, you can shower, sign up for free massages and facials (we didn't simply because we didn't have the time to waste), have a full breakfast and open bar (again, passed, since we arrived at 6:30 am in London).

Business class is really such a HUGE step up compared to the coach cattle car that I almost can't imagine first class. We walked through it and it seemed that there were pajamas involved along with bigger televisions. I guess that's what an extra $5,000 buys you. Our free.99 business class was more than sufficient for this girl.