Imagine where you were 11 days ago and then you might understand why this post might be brief. August 5th Anneliese pulled out her best game and swooned me into a cello drunked food coma state. However I most definitely won't complain.

That Friday after work I ran down to the CVS to grab a bottle of wine for our picnic at Ravinia to watch Yo Yo Ma. Initially when she brought up the idea of this trip I was picturing Bow Wow's cousin. Alas he's a world famous cellist. The CVS is two blocks away from OTC and upon walking, hilarious site. About ten people all in business dress either holding a case of beer or multiple bottles of liquor waiting at the cashier. Now don't tell ever try to convince me that us business people dont understand the importance of TGIF celebrations. After grabbing a bottle of severely discounted Barefoot Pinot Grigio (believe me when I say CVS has the best liquor sales), I jumped on the Northline to Glencoe.

Anneliese picked me up at the train stop and we went back to her house where she had a ridiculous spread of food ready to be packed. She bought hummus, pita bread, grapes, turkey and avocado sandwiches, two other bottles of wine, and two wine glasses. Maybe this is where I insert that we were biking to Ravinia with this all on our backs. I have no problem with bikes when I am not riding them. It's been about two years since I last rode and I am a strong believer in the saying 'if you don't use it, you lose it'. After packing our bags, scrounging around in the garage for fake look-a-like locks we both attempted to saddle up. Anneliese fell off before exiting the driveway and I found I didn't know how to break. Two rest breaks, an accidental run in with a car, and 1.5 miles later we were at Ravinia. We parked and "locked" our bikes up and headed into the show.

RAVINIA is something else. Think you've been to a lawn concert. You haven't. This place is gorgeous. The speakers are set up to observe the speed of sound. People have picnics set up with full tables, candles, and real chairs. It is a site to see. We parked ourselves down and began to feast and wine ourselves.

Yo Yo Ma wasn't to start until 9:00 and it was about 7:30. After eating all the grapes, almost all the pita and hummus, downing two bottles of wine, and half a sandwich each we both fell into a drunken stupor. Which let me tell you is the perfect mood to be in to listen to the world's best cellist. We laid on the blanket, giggled ourselves silly about stupid girl things, and almost fell asleep to the scoreplay of Romeo and Juliet. Yo Yo Ma was the perfect thing to wind down from a crazy trip to the south. And at Ravinia, you can actually see the starry sky.

AHmazing night.

Only to be further topped when we found a wig collection in her brother's room. Nothing tops a midnight Hansel vs. Derek runway contest unless you've got wigs and a camera phone...