bosom buddies and memphis

a long overdue account of a road trip to somewhere within driving distance of chicago….

my buds and i were originally set on heading to toronto, but questionable weather conditions predicted for t-town led us to settle for a much more happenin city (another one of those things we get used to doing at this age – settling – settling for a job, settling for a partner in life, settling down, and so on).

after we agreed that we wanted to be in a bearable climate, we looked at a map of the u.s. of a. and thought to ourselves, ‘hmmm, which cities are driving distance from chicago?’ cities like st. louis, gary, and others were quickly vetoed --> that is _literally_ how we ended up choosing to head down south to memphis, tennessee (i generally say this in a twangy southern accent J )

for moi, the journey began in new york city (take your shirt off - c'mon you know the song, right? right?!?)

wednesday

i arrived at o’hare at a fairly decent hour of the evening to be greeted by my cousin and one of my bosom buddies. my parents were in the car awaiting our arrival. they made a stopover at devon avenue on the way to the airport (this idea was definitely one of my mom’s ambitious, let’s-get-everything-done-that-we-can-on-the-north-side-of-the-city plans), and that meant that there were tons of groceries in the back of our sleek seven-passenger van and some snacks in the front. after the three of us piled in, we made our way into the burbs.

thursday

we got off to a fairly early start given that we were catching up into the wee hours of thursday morning. after running a few errands we made our way over to another burb to pick another bosom buddy - and we were off to memphis, tennessee.

(unfortunately, since i forgot to remind my bosom buddies to bring road trip music for our listening pleasure, we ended up listening to the music that i stuffed into my overnight bag before i left nyc: trance, some hip hop, alanis, and a lot of other random music)

the drive down was fairly uneventful. lots of stopping to pee at rest stops, perusing the aisles of rest area shops, and munching on apples, pears, and other very health snacks. (read: a couple of us had started working out and trying to eat healthier much to the dismay of the third bosom buddy.) when we had finally arrived, it was dark, a bit chilly, and we were famished!!! we were so hungry that we sat in the car in front of the hotel for close to 30 minutes trying to figure out where to eat. part of that was trying to figure out a place that was vegetarian friendly in the south – a bit of a task. we settled on an italian spot that was fairly easy to find given that every single street in memphis was on the triple A map that my pops had ordered for us (even a street that was ½ a block long in memphis ‘downtown’ called ‘november 6^th street.’) i must add here that we did pull into a gas station for directions and the buffest and sexiest of the three of us was hit on by the direction giver.

the food itself was good stuff - filling after spending the entire day eating fresh vegetables and hummus (which i did enjoy but it's nice to eat cooked food for at least one meal of the day :) an event worth mentioning was me trying to order a drink during sans identification (i left mine in the car.) the waiter, attempting to give me the benefit of the doubt, asks me how old i am ('27') and when i was born (03-DD-1980.) seeing as the road trip went down before my birthday, the waiter did not quite understand why i claimed i was 27 when i was technically 26. (doesn't any one else round up????)

post-eats, the three of us were downright chipper. especially one bosom buddy who took to jumping on the hotel bed for at least fifteen minutes before chillaxing a bit. she managed to convince us to join in madness as well. now, i will always feel less inhibited to jump on hotel beds, and i have a bosom buddy to thank for that.

(more to come on the rest of the trip - i am accepting revisions to this blog provided that they are well-supported by physical evidence : )