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Erin, my best friend from graduate school, is in town from New York, so I took the day off of work and showed her around the mall. Yes, the mall.

My beautiful city is not lacking for lovely museums, music, hipster bars or awesome indie-local flavor. But Erin and I figured that we spend enough time in the artsy world, so today would be a good day for a trip to the biggest mall in America.

We had an awesome time. Here’s what we did:

1. Got our ears pierced for the third and eighth times, respectively. After walking past at least three Claire’s, we couldn’t resist the sleek (and sterile) purple signage. As we giggled and nervously chugged our Starbucks drinks, all four 12-year-old store patrons watched us with what appeared to be a mixture of confusion and admiration. (Neither of us cried.)

Erin getting her ears pierced, all zen-like.

2. Found a restaurant overlooking the full-blown indoor amusement park (yes, this mall has its own amusement park) and drank sangria.

Erin having a bonding moment with the ferris wheel.

3. Seriously contemplated making a bunch of super-cute Build-a-Bears and shipping them to New York. We managed to pass Build-a-Bear Workshop six or seven times, so it was really hard to resist, especially post-sangria.

5. Bought some pants. She got a necessary pair of hot pink jeggings and I grabbed some super useful skinny jeans in pink snakeskin (don’t ask me about the difference between jeggings and skinny jeans; I still don’t get it).

6. Declined multiple offers for store credit cards. Check that; Erin declined. As a true representative of the Midwest, I tried to say no passively and came home with a bag full of sign up forms.

Now we’re back in my apartment, drinking tea and plotting an evening of dive bar bowling in our fancy new pants.