Cheers

In honor of our 30th summers of being, A. Crozier and I took to the streets of downtown Chicago to remind ourselves that a decade that included bibles, boys, and babies has only proved to make us twice the women that we were 10 years ago. To demonstrate just how serious I was about being a woman with no regrets, I did the crossword in PEN on Saturday's bus ride to the Windy City!

I will pause to shamelessly plug the midwest's best travel bargain, the Megabus. I can't say enough about how affordable, easy, relaxing, and so very "un-Greyhound" the Megabus was. Take it somewhere -- to my house maybe!?

From the Megabus to The Conrad Hilton -- my dad's birthday present to us thanks to all of his travel points. Four Star Accomodations -- which means soft robes, fluffy pillows, and $14 toast/coffee for breakfast.

We covered most of the downtown map, a lot of it by foot, much of it in totally inappropriate footwear that left us combing the clearance rack at a neighborhood Walgreens for hot pink flip flops to get us through the night.

Being in a city is such a contact high for me. It's energy gives me energy. I felt young and fancy free, at least until I saw a chubby baby in a stroller or a little girl with her favorite doll tucked under her arm. My heart would kind of do a tiny flip, I couldn't keep myself from smiling at them, and I'd remember that while its good to be an adult...a woman...being a mom is so very much a valued part of my identity now.

Cheers to that girl in the Audio Adrenaline t-shirt at freshman orientation 12 years ago next month. I remember thinking, "Oh, I hope she wants to be my friend!" Cheers to 10 years of catching up and keeping up. Cheers to being the type of women our mothers warned us about. Cheers to being 30 and loving it.