Librarian By Day: Chicago Here I Come!

Tomorrow is Shelly's and my fourth annual Chicago Shopping Trip! I am so excited to take a day to walk around Chicago and shop with one of my favorite people. We've been going on an early November shopping trip every year since we both graduated and never see each other except for a couple times a year so I really treasure the day.

A really old picture of me and Shelly with Jayme because I just realized I

have no recent ones with just the two of us. This must be rectified.

Every year I get a little braver about the trip as well. The first year I rode the Amtrak up from Bloomington and met Shel at Union Station in Chicago where she had arrived earlier on the metra. The next year I drove up to her apartment in New Lennox and we had breakfast and headed in on the metra. The next year I met her at her place in Lisle and we again rode the metra. (PS The Metra freaking rocks. It's so easy and inexpensive. My sister and I have also driven up and taken the metra from New Lennox or Lisle for a Cubs game and a concert so we didn't have to worry about parking or the fact that neither of us have ever driven in Chicago before.)

But this year is different. This year Shelly lives IN Chicago and I am going to be driving all the way up to her place in the city which she says is really easy to get to and not too busy trafficwise. We'll see. Either way I am excited and a little scared for a new driving adventure. I tend to get nervous around bigger cities but have driven on interstates through Atlanta (that really broke me in), Memphis, Scranton, Erie, and Nashville. I have also driven IN Indianapolis (downtown) with the directional help of Jayme and the GPS. I'm excited to see how I do with Chicago.