Chicago Part 3 of 4 Tourists

Saturday Nov. 20th
Saturday dawned early again with Lindsey and I waking up early to attend sessions at 8:30. While I was getting ready, Bridget woke up and asked us if we were taking a cab to the conference, IT'S TWO FREAKING BLOCKS! NO TURNS AT ALL.
So we walk to the conference and I get to my session 10 minutes early and it's spilling out into the hallway. So I went to find Lindsey to see if her session was full, it wasn't so I joined her. My session was going to be on games in the Spanish classroom, and Lindsey's was just on games period, so it was basically the same. Lots of cool games, I can't wait to be a teacher.
After the session ended we walked back to the hotel to rest for a bit we were still worn out from the day before. But before we went back to the hotel, we had to stop at Caribou Coffee, I think this was Lindsey's second trip there, she went 3 times in total, not a lot, but DAMN that's a lot of caffeine!
So we went up to the room to veg. I read my book (Bridget Jones' Diary) waiting for Matt to call. So waiting, waiting, waiting, finally my cell phone rings and I freak out, the only person who has my cell phone number is Matt so it has to be him. Yay! I answer and he says he'll meet me in the lobby in a few minutes. I quickly re-apply make-up so I look my best, So the story behind Matt, We worked together at El Lago del Bosque, this last summer and the last thing I said to him before he left camp early for his job interview in Chicago was that I liked him, so needless to say I was excited that he even e-mailed me back when I told him I was going to Chicago.
So I went to the lobby and there he was sitting there casual as can be reading his conference booklet. He looked really good. I came up behind him and said hi, he stood up and I realized again how FREAKING TALL he is! OK only 6'2" but I'm 5'7" so he has a few inches on me. He gave me a hug and we went up to the room. Where Jennie was finishing getting ready.
We went down to the lobby to try to find a restaurant for lunch, after looking for about 10 minutes we finally decided to walk about 3 blocks to a restaurant we passed the night before.
The whole way to Chicago I talked about nothing else but seeing Matt, and how excited I was to see him. So on the way to the restaurant Lindsey, Jennie and Raquel hung back a little bit to give us some space so we could talk and catch-up, Bridget on the other hand... was standing between us, talking so much that I could barely get a word in edgewise. It kind of pissed me off, and made the other girls laugh. GET A CLUE! He's my hot friend!
So we had lunch, Bridget kept going on and on and on about how much better she felt after having her cantaloupe and chicken salad. So we left the restaurant and walked back to the conference, Bridget had to go back to the room because she left her stuff there, so I was trying to explain to her how to get back to the hotel, we were literally right behind it. Go to the corner turn right, THAT'S OUR HOTEL! Then go to the conference the same way you did this morning. She never went to the next session I think she was afraid of getting lost.
I went to my session which was in a room about the size of a pack of gum, so I didn't attend, so I tried to find the other girls, but didn't instead I found Matt, and we found another session to go to together. That was nice, I got to just be with him for about an hour. I liked that. We said our goodbyes and I went back to the room.
We just vegged in the room until it was time for our next session, We walked over to the conference, my session was full, and I couldn't find the other girls, so I went to the exhibit hall, but then it closed, so I went to the front lobby hall area and read some of my new materials.
Finally the girls ended their session and we went back to the room to change before our night on the town. We talked to the concierge, and he told us not to go to Sear's Tower because it was a bad view that the Hancock Tower was better. We took a cab to the Hankcock tower, none of us had ever ridden in a cab before it was fun, but because there was a parade it was a little spendy, and a little longer than it had to be. The best part of the cab ride though, was when Bridget was telling the cab driver what to do, THE MAN DRIVES AROUND CHICAGO FOR A LIVING! HE knows what the fuck he's doing! We had 2 for 1 coupons for the Hancock tower, so we went up, 94 stories in 40 seconds, it was interesting. Great view and we could see them having the parade on Michigan Ave, it was fun.
We came down from our perch on top of Chicago, and decided to take in the sights. We walked what is called the Magnificent Mile. It's a mile of stores, like Saks, Tiffany, Bloomingdale's, all the really expensive stores. We all felt really poor. Now it's the third day of the trip and we're all getting sick of Bridget's CONSTANT TALKING, and she keep commenting really loud like wow, look at that store, like we can't see the freaking 12 story building right in front of our faces, and basically making us look like tourists, basically putting a huge stamp on our foreheads "MUG ME!" so I said "Bridget, if you could make us look like LESS of tourists, that would be great" and she finally shut-up, it was great!
We stopped at this little restaurant for dinner. It was such a retro place, it was so 70's. The waitresses yelled their orders back to the cooks, it was great. We all loved it. Then we finished walking back to the hotel, on the way we had to pass what is called Millenium Park. There, there is a skating park, the girls all had to use the bathroom, so Bridget and I stood watching the people skating in a circle and I commented that I wouldn't want to do that, skate with all those people watching me, Bridget commented, what about with a guy you really like, I said I wouldn't want him seeing me skate either, she said, but isn't it romantic skating holding hands, just then this couple skated past and the guy just biffed, really bad, and I said, that's not romantic. Then the he girls came back and we went to see the bean, it's this big metallic bean that's basically a mirror, it's pretty cool. Then from there we could see these two tall square towers, that changed color and had a face on it. So we went down to it, the two towers each have a face on the side that faces each other and the other three change color. It's pretty neat, and during the summer the towers squirt water from where the person's mouth is, and then water pours from the top, and all the little kids go and play there in their swim suits, I'm sure it's fun. It is apparently called the Crown Fountain. Then we finally got back to the hotel. Our original intention was to go out dancing but we had just walked over a mile and our feet hurt. So we went back up to the room, and figured out the money issue, which really stressed us all out. So when that was finally figured out, Jennie and I went to the Liquor store we were hoping to get Bridget so drunk that she just passed out. So we walked the 2 blocks to the Liquor Store, and the sign on the door said that the store closed at 10:30, we were there at like 10:45, so the door was un-locked so we walked in and asked the guy at the counter if they were closed, he pulled a quarter out of his pocket and flipped it, and said, "Yup we're still open. We bought, 2 6-packs of Bud Light, a 6-pack of Triple Black, 1 bottle of Bahama Mama, and 6 bottles of Arbor Mist, so we get up to the till and Jennie realizes that she forgot her ID, we tell the guy, he asks me if I have my ID, I said yeah, so he asked why we were worried, and we said that in MN everyone in the party has to be able to show ID, he said good thing we're not in MN. HE also asked if what he brought up to the till was everything, in a sarcastic voice, because we had so much, we said we've been living with the roommate from hell, he asked "just one?" then he gave us each a sucker, and we went back to the hotel. We all changed into our pajamas, and we put the booze on the fire escape because it was cold out there. We were on like our first or second drinks when the teacher's finally came, we hadn't seen them all weekend. I was on my second drink. I slammed my first. Miriam wanted to see what our view was like so she opened the curtains and started counting the bottles of booze. "Where did that come from?" It came with the room, we said, crappy room, but it came with booze. We talked and drank, the teachers laughed at us. I went to take a shower and Lindsey and Bridget decided to go to sleep, Jennie and Raquel went out to the fire escape to drink a little more. I came out of the shower and joined them. We were talking and some guys walked by and started talking to us. They asked if they could come up, we told them that there was no way up, and they commented that they were looking for sluts, WHAT A PICK-UP LINE! Eventually we all went to sleep. The teachers said we were leaving at 10:00 so we could be home at a decent time, remember this, and who's idea it was, it will come into play tomorrow. Jennie, Lindsey and I decided to go to the exhibits in the morning, so we all had to get up Bridget and Raquel didn't have to worry about that. We would wake them up just before we left in the morning.