Sorry I haven't been around for a little bit. I was on vacation the week of Easter, and it took this past week to recover! One thing is for sure—boy, I miss my friends and family! The past 7 months in NYC (official as of May 2) have flown by. I was really beginning to feel like NYC was becoming my city, but returning to the Midwest made me rethink that a little bit. The open spaces, green spaces and blue skies were absolutely refreshing. Driving in a car was amazing (sorry, Mother Nature). It has been 9 months since I have owned a car, and let me tell you, being able to drive somewhere when it's raining is the best! I felt an urge to go grocery shopping just to see the lower prices and to experience the ease of loading up a car and then driving my groceries home—rather than lugging 30 lbs. of groceries the 1/2 mile I live from Whole Foods in the city.
Erik and I took advantage of being in middle America by going to several of our favorite chain restaurants (I'm looking at you, BWW! and Chili's) and by going to an outlet mall. We even toured some Illinois wineries and stayed in a B&B but more on that later (after Hubster sends me his photos—cough cough). As for now, I thought I would share something brief that I found particularly amusing:
Anyone who's been to NYC has probably heard of "Avenue of the Americas" otherwise known at 6th Ave. Well, E and I just happened to stop at this exit off of I-57 for Steak & Shake and lo and behold - Avenue of Mid-America! How perfect! Notice the quintessential suburban places advertised! Funny sidenote on this exit, I wore leggings and a t-shirt because we were going to be in the car for 6+ hours and, well, it's basically a NY-er weekend uniform at this point. Well, apparently people here had never seen someone in leggings before. I definitely felt un-com-fort-able. We seriously walked into S&S and it was like one of those movies where the music playing on the jukebox abruptly stops. Pretty hilarious.
Anyway, here's a really interesting article about the Midwest that after living in NYC made me appreciate my time in Illinois that much more.
i wear + see leggings all the time here! last time i wore them I went on a day when all the muslim families were shopping at tgt (oh yes, you'd better believe I felt watched!)
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