Girls' trip

Just got back from a girls' trip to Chicago. My 2 sisters, Kelly and Erin, and my mom and I spent 4 days there. We've never taken a trip together like that and it was so great. Our husbands and friends all held the respective forts down at home and we just played.

OPRAH
The trip came about because Kelly scored 2 tickets to the Oprah show. Her husband, Zach, has a graphic design company and somehow they started doing work for Steadman Graham - Oprah's significant other. Steadman gave Kelly 2 tickets to the show and assured her that we could probably get 2 standby tickets from our hotel concierge. Worth a shot, right? So even though I wasn't guaranteed a ticket, I absolutely had to go try. I kept telling myself that even if I didn't get into the show, it would still be a fun girls' trip with my family. But who was I kidding? This is Oprah, people. I would have been seriously bummed.

Erin & Kelly went to the Thursday afternoon taping and saw Dr. Oz talking about extreme longevity (using stem cells and your own DNA to grow new organs should you need them). They were told to watch the website to see when the show would be aired. Mom and I got 2 standby tickets from our hotel concierge for the Friday morning taping and were told we had a 95% chance of getting in.

We arrived at Harpo Studios bright and early and took our place at the back of the standby line (there were only 9 of us). All of the other lucky ticket holders filed right past us and even looked pityingly at us standby people. Whatever! We were at the studio and our hopes were high. Eventually, someone came out and announced there were 8 places for standby ... and mom and I were #8 and #9. So I sent mom packing in a taxi back to the hotel and I went to the show!! OK, just kidding. I like Oprah but I'm not that cold. We were told that we'd be put 1st and 2nd in the standby line for the afternoon taping, but to hang around just in case. Everyone else was taken inside -- we could hear the cheering and laughing coming from inside the studio and mom and I just sat outside and listened. Finally, about 10 minutes before taping began, they came out and said, "You're in! Come quickly!" We were in. :)

Friday shows are live with several hosts ... we saw Gayle King, Mark Consuelos (Kelly Rippa's husband), Ali Wentworth (George Stephanopolous' wife), Tyler Perry and Oprah. They talked about Oprah's new puppy, about Tyler giving Oprah and Gayle new Bentley's for Christmas, about Tyler's new movie ... and during each commercial break they'd turn to the audience and say, "We couldn't say this on the air but ..." and fill in something else from the story. It was surreal and so great. We even got a free giveaway ... not a Bentley, sadly, but a Snuggie. You know, the blanket with sleeves. Hey, I got a free giveaway from Oprah so don't mock.

See? Absolute last in line. After the show, we went across the street to the Oprah store and spent way too much money on Oprah stuff. They had t-shirts and clothing but also had African art and things the girls from Oprah's Academy had made. One section of the store was Oprah's Closet, where you could buy designer clothes and shoes that she has worn on the show. Apparently, Oprah and I both wear a size 10 shoe so I was tempted to buy a pair of Manolo Blahnik heels for a mere $175 but I refrained.

XANADU
Definitely the second highlight of the trip for me was going to see Xanadu the Musical. The movie came out in 1980 and we girls saw it 5 or 6 times. It was a campy roller-skating show but we loved the music and thought Olivia Newton-John was so pretty. The Musical mocks the movie mercilessly so we were cry-laughing the entire time. (Plenty of other theater-goers, though, had perplexed looks on their faces and it was obvious were not familiar with the movie. Their loss.) It was a valley-girl, disco, neon, shorty shorts, rainbow shirt mecca. They were even selling ribbon barrettes in the lobby. We girls actually made ribbon barrettes as kids and had them in every color. Memories!

The rest of the trip was spent shopping, eating and sightseeing. We spent a fair amount of time shopping the Magnificent Mile, hunted high and low for gifts for our kids, had rich hot chocolate at Ghiradelli's, reverted to childhood at the American Girl store, walked the length of Navy Pier, went to the top of the Hancock Tower, rode the 'L' (I kept looking for doctors from the tv show E.R. who must have been working close by but no such luck), drove around Millenium Park in the rain, silently cursed having to spend so much $$ on taxis, went to an art museum, shopped, shopped and shopped some more. Check out this bathroom at the American Girl store. They even had doll holders in each stall. I was surprised there weren't mini toilets for the dolls.The doll hair salon. Seriously.Checking in with the hubbies and kids back home.Just because we were on vacation didn't mean we wanted to disconnect from the world entirely - hello!That is ice, not waves. Solid icy waves.We haven't all shared a bathroom since we were teenagers so it was a step back in time, in a way. We giggled at night in bed, shared food, shared jewelry, talked and talked and talked, watched a movie and just enjoyed being together. Such a great trip, you girls. Let's do it again soon.