Saturday

And then there was Saturday. The day where God rested. And when Tracy did not...

Scott and I headed downtown on the el for an 11:00 a.m. showing of the Disney movie "Enchanted" at River East. It was cute, and just reinforced my idea that Amy Adams is one of the most talented people working in Hollywood today. I love the fact that no one knows about her, because she's not overexposed. Though now that she's a Disney princess, her life as an anonymous human being may well be over. Anyway, she's fantastic. Almost as fantastic as she was in "Junebug". Still one of the best performances that I have ever seen on film.

Anyway, if you're looking for a charming, entertaining movie to distract you from the stress that is the holidays, go see "Enchanted." The premise, where the character drops from an animated world into the real one (specifically Times Square, NYC...a terrifying place for anyone!), is different enough to catch your attention. I confess that I am underwhelmed by Patrick Dempsey in general, so he did nothing for me in this movie, but the girl who plays his daughter is chubby cute and very much fun, and his girlfriend, played by the inimitable Idina Menzel (the very first Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway) was a hoot. I was happy to see that Idina scored this role, I believe that Wicked should translate into only good things for those involved. Only because I love it so much.

After the movie, we went to Pizzeria Uno for lunch, as Scott is a member of their Uno Club, or some such thing, and got a free individual pizza coupon for his birthday. I should say, we went and put our names in at Uno, since the wait was an hour and 20 minutes. So we went shopping on Michigan Avenue while we waited. I am one of those people that loves cities, especially Chicago. And I loved being on Michigan Avenue on the weekend after Thanksgiving, and finding myself in a mass of humanity, Christmas lights, and street performers. It was fabulous. We went into the Levi's store where Scott tried on a bajillion pairs of jeans while I lamented the absence of a SINGLE pair of long jeans in the whole women's section. Levi's, apparently, does not promote tallness in women. What a shame, because I am definitely a spender.

On our way back to Uno, we stopped into the Harley-Davidson store at Scott's request. Scott has a dream that someday he will travel cross-country on a motorcycle. It sounds butt-numbing to me, but we indulged our curiosity about what exactly one can find in a H-D store and found a plethora of leather jackets and every imaginable item available with an H-D logo on it. Craziness.

Then, finally, pizza at Uno's, where we sat next to a couple from New York who were commenting that the flat New York pizza is so much better (errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! That's my WRONG buzzer going off), and I resisted the urge to comment on their funny accents and the fact that their city is covered in garbage (see previous blogs re: NYC). But, generally, they seemed nice, and (also in reference to previous blogs), Scott commented to me after they left, "See, honey, they were from New York and they were friendly." I replied, "Well, yeah. Because they're in Chicago. They picked it up as soon as they landed here." Either way, they were on their way to American Girl store after finishing their pizza, and I found myself pitying them silently.

We headed home after pizza, and bummed around separately until we met up with Jake and Katherine for Chinese food at Joy Yee's in Evanston (this was an eating out weekend, can't you tell?). We had a yummy meal there, my favorite crab rangoons in the Chicagoland area, and Scott and I split the Walnut Shrimp. We still had time before our next planned event, so we headed next door to Ethel's Chocolate Lounge for dessert, where I showed unusual restraint and didn't order anything, but stole one of Scott's truffles for good measure.

After leaving Jake and Katherine, we headed down to the Old Town School of Folk Music in Lincoln Square for the Over the Rhine concert at 10:00. I'd never seen the band live, and I have been missing out. It was a fabulous concert, Karin's voice is trippy-amazing, and as a special surprise, the opening act was Griffin House, an artist my sister has added onto several mix CD's she's made for me over the years. So it was fun to know songs from both bands. The atmosphere was relaxed and mellow, and it was perhaps the most beautiful concert that I have been to, certainly one of my favorites. It was almost 1:00 in the morning by the time we left, but it was a memorable day and evening.