devastation

I can't think of any way to introduce this, so I'll just come out and say it: I ruined my Forever 21 blouse and Urban Outfitters skirt (the ones in the picture in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art) by washing them with my new black pants. Even though my mother taught me how to separate my laundry, and even though I've been washing all of my own clothes for years, I still managed to think that black dye + pink/blue would not equal nasty black smudges all over the place.

We took them to the dry cleaners, but a woman with 30 years of experience was stumped by them.

Then I went to the mall (which was horrendous in itself) and actually found the blouse again, but they didn't have my size. I bought it anyway, but when I put it on at home I looked like Betty Draper's perpetually pregnant neighbor.

I'm sure all of you know how to do laundry correctly, but just in case you've been tossing everything into the machine together and have been, as I once was, very, very lucky, let me just say: you've been warned.

drove to chicago

Every summer, we make elaborate plans to See The American West, in all its vastness and glory. Then we just drive to Chicago instead.

This summer was great because it didn't involve any college visits, and we could actually spend time in the city instead of trying to figure out how to get to Evanston or Rogers Park. Here's what we did with this new-found freedom:

the staircase at the Museum of Contemporary Art...at the bottom is a pool with carp

from underneath

Cora was very intent on taking a picture of me outside the museum. (Urban Outfitters skirt, Forever 21 blouse, Gap shades)

in four solid years of Chicago trips, I've never gotten sick of the Bean.

(Target dress, Nine West flats, belt stolen from Cora)

drinking a peach freeze at a restaurant in Chinatown

this woman was not so sure about us

dancing in the park

the Art Institute had an unbelievable Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibit...below are some of the photographs we saw.

(Truman Capote)

this was my favorite...a man arriving in New York from Europe after being separated from his mother during World War II.