Girls Gone Wild!!!

I was just reminded how important it is to spend time with friends. Friends that make you smile, friends that make you laugh and friends that make you think. I give everything I have to my husband and my two beautiful girls that I often lose sight of how much I enjoy spending time being me, not a mom and not a wife, but a friend.

I sit here typing this tired as heck yet still riding a high from an amazing 22 hour getaway with my dear sister Gabe and long time friend Tiffany. They decided to initiate a rendezvous of sorts without any kids and certainly, without any worries.

Every minute of those 22 hours were treasured. It started when I picked my sister up and we blasted music and sang louder than normal as we drove into the city, straight to the W Hotel on Lakeshore Drive.



Which P.S. is my new favorite hotel. It wreaks of swankiness.





Sadly, I had about three minutes to suck it all in because I needed to get to the Bliss Spa stat cuz I didn't want to be late for my...wait for it.....wait for it......PREGNANCY MASSAGE!!!!!

From the moment the elevators opened, I knew I was in for a treat.



After unloading all my crap



I proceeded to chillax in the lounge for a few minutes before.



I cherished the silence. And the gray and lavendar interior! Isn't it so cute? Doesn't just seeing the picture make you calm? It was even better in person. And ya see that lemonade there in the pitcher? Best lemonade ever! Like a tacky preggers, I sucked down two glasses as fast as I could. Classy, Gina.



What can I say, the massage was amazing! You know it's good when you find yourself drooling for a slight moment. Feeling like a big ol' bowl of jelly I managed to get myself off the table and down the hall back into the lounge, where I swear it took ten minutes just to focus my eyes back to normal. But not too long before I downed another glass of lemonade and a brownie. Yes, a brownie. Again, I spew with elegance. You'll soon see that the goal of our 22 hour getaway was to consume as many calories as humanly possible. And did we succeed!

But back to the spa....

After gracefully wiping off the brownie crumbs from the crisp white robe that I was wearing I decided to take a shower because c'mon, you know these showers are like 4 times better than those in the room, so of course, I'm going to take advantage of it!



What seems to come over us when we go to a spa? I don't know about you, but somehow I get this feeling of entitlement and I deem it necessary to use EVERY SINGLE AMMENITY that they offer. Like the spray deodorant? Yep. Like the mouthwash? Yep. Like every single lotion and cleansing product that they displayed on their shelf? YEP. YEP AND MORE YEP!



In fact, my masseuse Chanel, (is that really her name--or is that a fake name like strippers use?) was super nice and gave me a sample of a belly oil that's good for pregnancy stretch marks and what not. So as I neared the end of my shower, I decided to try out the pregnancy oil. There I was in the shower--buck naked-- applying belly oil to my 37 week inflated tummy--when sure enough, someone opens the door to the shower assuming no one was in there!!! AAAGGGGGHHHHHH!

I think I shit in the shower because I was taken so off guard. I mean I'm rubbing belly oil on myself people!! The worst part? I didn't have my back to her.........NO, LIKE AN IDIOT I WAS FACING THE DOOR. WE LOCKED EYES! Both of us let out a really awkward squeal or grunt or something like that and no matter what I could do, I couldn't take it back. She saw me. In all my glory, she saw me. Uggh.

The mere fact that someone in Chicago is walking around right now having seen me naked while rubbing myself at 37 weeks pregnant is horribly mortifying to me! Do you think she talked about me over dinner? Told all her friends?

She quickly found another shower and all I could think of was "get the hell outta here as soon as possible Gina, avoid making eye contact at. all. costs." So there I was rushing to get dressed while still a little wet, totally stressed out. Which really sucks, because I was quickly replacing all the stress that the massage just took out. And that's when I took a deep breath and started laughing at the absurdity of it all. I took the elevator up to the 32nd floor, excited to share this story with Gabe and Tiffany, have a good laugh and get our night started. The room was fab!




We laughed. We talked. We planned our outfits and did our hair. It was soooo fun! I felt like I was 20 again! And then a gift was delivered to our room from our friend Nicole--who's a general manager at a neighboring W in Chicago. Her graciousness was overwhelming. First, check out the fruit spread!



And then we noticed something wrapped up in a champagne glass. At first we thought it was a napkin, then we unrolled it!



So adorable Nicole, thank you!!!!



We dusted off our cute little purses, packed up our lip gloss and headed out for the night. Our first stop was Carmine's, an italian restaurant on Rush Street, the perfect locale.



For appetizer, we opted for the calamari. And it did not disappoint! We raised our glasses and toasted to friendship!



For our entrees we decided to share three dishes--rigatoni vodka, tortellini carbonara and chicken marsala.



De-lish!!!

After several belches (by me) we decided to walk off our dinner while we window shopped at Prada, Juicy Couture and Jimmy Choo. So fun!



We then took a really smelly cab to a restaurant called Rose Angeli's for dessert.



Where we met Sergio, our waiter (with an accent to boot!)



who recommended the strawberries with caramel sauce



the dark chocolate fondue



and their famous italian chocolate bread pudding



OH. MY GOD. These desserts were insanely good. The bread pudding alone goes up on a short list of my favorite desserts ever! The strawberries were a huge hit too! And after inhaling about 3500 calories we managed to fit ourselves back into a cab bound for the W.



Not ready to call it a night, we headed up to the Whiskey Sky Bar for a nightcap of sorts. Which, btw, non-alcoholic mint mojitos are so refreshing!



The laughter continued.....



It was a perfect night.



We stayed up later than we thought we would gossiping and flipping between the E channel and HGTV, enjoying each moment.

I realized how important it is to nourish and maintain friendships--I think I've somehow forgotten that along the way.

Thank you Gabe and Tiffany for such a memorable night. I will have many sleepless nights in the near future, and I'm grateful for having this perfect night to look back upon. Such memories!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go prop up my sodium induced swollen cankles and try to get some sleep!!!!