around the world in 8 hours

My parents arrived last night, as I may have mentioned below, and today we had a full day in the city. We headed down to Chinatown, which included a very ordinary lunch and an extraordinary tea shop - not in the sense that Dream About Tea is extraordinary, but I found there chocolate milk tea with boba (which there apparently comes in slush form when you order it cold), and my parents found a small teapot with an infusing basket in it (which I thought they were buying for themselves and in fact they were buying for me). Then we headed back up the red line to Michigan Avenue - specifically, to American Girl Place. My father was extremely tolerant, and even enjoyed the museum-like parts and the chance to marvel over how much the company has grown in a mere 15 years. My mother and I were more like exultant at the chance to wander around and see in person all the stuff we mostly skim now in the catalogues, and to touch some of the really cool outfits I don't own, and rejoice over how well they do what they do. It was superfun, and a woman in the store gave me free stickers.

After AG, we wandered up and down Michigan Ave for a while. I managed to find a pair of cropped jeans at Gap (where jeans often fit me) that stunned me. Not so much because they were gorgeous, but because they were both too long and too small. Granted, I'm not actually a size 0 and haven't been for years, but these were a strange size 0. Also, I really think it's ridiculous that the smallest adult size is too long for me, and especially if it doesn't even begin to go around my skeleton. Who are these people whose hip bones are three inches narrower than mine (entirely aside from whether there's anything on them) and whose legs are six inches longer than mine.

We topped off the day with a brief rest and then a delicious dinner at Tapas Barcelona. China, all around America, and Spain all in one day, then a whirlwind tour of Christian theology from all over the Mediterranean and Europe to close it out. No wonder I'm exhausted!