guest post: laura marie

so this week while my family is moving and while i'm moving and busy with work, and cleaning, and packing, and such...i asked a few lovely ladies to guest post for me. a few months ago (not knowing for sure that i'd be leaving "home" behind for good) i wrote about why i love kansas so much, especially kansas summers. i'm going to miss it here, oz has been so good to me. enjoy what these pretties have to say about why they love where they're from!

we're going to start the week off with miss laura marie from a diary of little things & curiosities. i've gushed about here a few times, and i'm so excited she agreed to help me out! she's an incredibly talented writer and just recently got engaged to her man (awww). if you like her as much as i do, go say helloooo!

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I've always said that I love cities like best friends--and Chicago, well, she's more like a sister.

Born and raised in a nearby suburb, I grew up dreaming of city life, imagining how it might be to live among the skyscrapers. I was always fascinated by the energy of the streets: on weekdays, there was the natural rhythm of the nine-to-five crowd hurrying along Madison Avenue; the delivery men parked outside restaurants, unloading box after box from their trucks as they laughed and teased each other; the jazz musicians camped out on the sidewalk, bobbing their heads in time to the music. At night the city held a different sort of magic, a charm all its own: the glowing lights of the theatre marquees; karaoke songs floating through open bar doors, the smell of smoke and cologne and greasy food hanging heavily in the air; honking cabs, couples stumbling arm-in-arm along State Street.

Now, living just outside the downtown Loop, I have a clear view of the skyline--the backdrop to so many of my memories--stretching out across the horizon. That cluster of skyscrapers, it's always given me goosebumps--put a lump in my throat when it sits beneath a particularly beautiful sunset. But now, weeks before moving to California, I find myself looking east as often as I can, as if I'm afraid it won't be there when I turn my head.

There's a lot to love about Chicago. There's the green expanse of Millenium Park nestled alongside Michigan Avenue, the Navy Pier ferris wheel lighting up the water of the lake, the stretch of beach where bikers and runners and rollerbladers move along the boardwalk. There's the Broadway shows at the Goodman Theatre, famous pizza at Gino's East, the most addicting cheese fries on the planet at Portillo's. In the summertime, there's fireworks that light up the sky twice a week, outdoor concerts every Monday, movies in the park each weekend.

And the winters, yes, they can be brutal--but that's only after the enchantment wears off. Because for months the city sweeps you up, enchants you as it turns into a winter wonderland. Around Christmastime, there's nothing quite like ice skating and festive German markets and carriage rides through the snow-covered streets. And on the coldest nights, it's best to visit the old wooden restaurants with fireplaces and live music--to cozy up with beer or coffee or tea and friends who have known you all your life.

It's true that every city has its charms, its hidden treasures. But with a history so rich and a skyline so lovely as Chicago's, it's quite difficult not to love her. And, I'm learning, it's quite difficult to leave her, too.