solo day in the city

yesterday was my only fully free day during spring break so i decided to spend it in the city by myself. i started off by going to sawada, a cafe that had been collecting dust in my "want to go" collection. for some thoughtless reason i decided to get a matcha from there and immediately regretted my decision upon first sip. i had high hopes since it was a special white choc-pistachio flavor but whatever the donut was nice and held me over. after that i decided to walk around the area a bit since my parking space still had about 25 ish minutes left before heading up to wicker park. i went inside this odd looking, conceptual street wear clothing store you'd imagine a la fashion guy would love. it had a very inaccessible somewhat flat brick stair(??) going into the white-creme store. everything was way overpriced as expected and the incense was nauseating. after getting a bit turned around i found my way back to my (perfectly parallel parked, low on gas) car. 

i went into the jackson junge art gallery looked at their women focused exhibition and their in-house artists work. it was all really nice, they even had some prints and ceramics for sale. i probably would've gotten a mug if i wasn't prioritizing clothing. in the beginning of my shopping, i got a little overwhelmed because the shops i had preplanned to go to were a bust and looking up stores while walking in the streets was a little overstimulating. but i held it together and got into my groove. the first few vintage stores i walked into were all kinda wack. someone needs to tell these shop owners that big lights won't kill them. trying too hard to create a "vibe" and i can barely see the damn clothes. i mainly just walked up and down N milwaulkee ave popping in and out of stores. i went inside a baggu store for the first time and i understand the hype lowkey. their bags were undeniably cute and i might've gotten their 3-set bags if it weren't for my low funds. i stopped by a stationary shop to find a nice, small journal but sadly i didn't see anything i was vibing with. "sadly" because the girl who was attending to me was cool and she complimented my fit. anyway it was getting late, i still hadn't found any clothes that i liked, and my moral was getting low. on the way to the last vintage store i popped my head into a vintage jewelry shop, i was gonna turn around but i'm so glad i didn't. the selection was huge and they had some non-jewelry stuff so i went out on a limb and asked the workers if they had any cigarette holders (i thought it would be a nice gift idea for ivie). sadly, the only ones they had were pure silver and $200+. i ended up getting two bangles to add to my stack. then in the last vintage shop, kokorokoko, they had a lovely selection of low rise jeansssss. i was lowkey surprised they did cause the shop was clearly 80's themed. i found the most perfect fitting pair of low-rise, light wash jeans and a destiny's child cd. 

after i finished all my shopping i went down to hyde park to check out call and response books. i'd been wanting to shop there for a while but i couldn't stay long since my phone was like at 14 percent. my original plan was to shop while my phone charged with the employee, but she didn't bring her charger to work... so i left early and got dinner at a nigerian restaurant close by. i barely made it home with 3 percent and listened to my destiny's child cd to conserve battery life.