too cold

its past midnight and i'm up working on several little side projects and laughing pretty hard with carrieroommate about some old youtube vids of our incredible friends. i'd link, but i'll spare them the embarrassment - and really i'm just protecting myself. the amount of photographic/video blackmail we all have on each other is at a level not to be reckoned with.

point being, i found something i want to share. i just did a search on getty for "chicago" expecting pretty skyline pics to appear at a click of a button. well wanna know what was on one of the first page of search results? yep, that very cake below. now being that its almost april and i'm still wearing my heavy winter coat and snow boots, i couldn't agree more.

hopefully mother nature is getting all this shit out her system. we have a summer to indulge in. but thank goodness i'll be seeing sunshine before that. countdown to vegas: 16 days! woot woot.

i'm gonna do my best to go to bed before 3am, but i'm not making any promises. maybe i should start my to-do list *before* 11pm. someday i'll figure it out. till then night owl it is.

no flash

sometimes i take pictures that don't involve crazy weekends and love for the sky. sometimes.




have good mondays.

GPOYW & Randomness

yeah that's a feather in my hair. i've been drooling over all the fun hair accessories that are out this season, but most of them at hella expensive and look like i could make them in 2 mins. but my crafting days seem to be behind me. so when i found this lil green headband guy while out shopping with ashes on my bday for pennies in comparision, i had to nab it.

in other news...i'm officially finished with the dentist for 6 months! i thought this day would never come. no more teeth falling out, no more drilling and more importantly no more missing happy hours with my girls. while i've come a long way and the staff at my dentist's office is incredible...i think i'll be quite alright not seeing their gorgeous smiles for a while.

speaking of drills... the other day i was introduced to the WORST iPHONE APP EVER. its called NervSounds and its well, TERRIBLE. seriously...you want an app that sounds like a dentist's drill or nails on the chalkboard? iphones are supposed to be fun. that app, not fun. then again, maybe its fun to torture people like myself with. ugh. its bad.

chicagoans: look how fun this is. mario spitting fire and bouncing around our city. and yay for the chicagoist shoutout! thanks tankboy :)

and did you hear...no more south side SPD parade. glad i did it once, but i probably never need to go again. coincidentally, i don't have a choice. "the parade's increasingly large attendance size in addition to resources needed to control the crowd and fund the event have become overwhelming to the community." buses of drunk northsiders being dumped on one street for hours on end dressed head to toe in green ridiculousness overwhelming? you're kidding.

but let's not end things on a sour note. looking for a mouth-watering dessert? (no one hates dessert, right?) well you can thank TKTC for this find. its hard to say what i wouldn't do for a spoonful of this sticky toffee pudding. whoa. carrieroommate - you're bored, right?

have great wednesdays friends.
i owe you a jerry story...

20 plus 7

its late sunday night. generally i'd be rather groggy and feeling a bit dreadful of monday morning. however, tomorrow (okay today) is special. yep, yours truly is "officially old" at the prime age of 27 today. well not technically till about 3:30pm - but today nonetheless. so why do i not care about monday? well, this lucky girl gets the day off from work. yay.

don't hate me too much as you read this from your desk. it is my birthday after all.

the celebration began thursday evening with a fresh cut and color immediately followed by one of the best times at country night to date. $5 pitchers, $1 sliders and boot stompin music from a dj who you don't even need to ask to play your faves cause he already knows them. really, there's no better way to spend a thursday night - granted if you're up for getting a lil crazy on a school night. erin even made an appearance despite her hatred for the night's theme.

friday morning didn't start off as fun the night before. why? oh as some of you might have seen from my tweets...my temporary crown decided to pop off in a mouth full of waffles. thankfully i didn't swallow the damn thing. but i was significantly freaked out by the whole incident. i immediately called the dentist. no way to get me in and as long as i wasn't in pain (just shock really) they told me i could go to walgreens and just pick up a kit to glue it back on myself. ummmmm oookaaay. so that's what i did. once i got to work i camped out in the bathroom and tried not to be completely disgusted by the entire situation -- exposed nerves, fake tooth in hand, ridiculous sticky tac like "glue"...it was something. a year ago, i'm not sure i would have even been able to stomach this very idea. growing up? perhaps.

friday night was another birthday celebration, just not mine. it was a pretty low key evening at one of my fave chill spots in the neighborhood. great spot in the window, lots of laugh, a few beers and good friends. oh and there's nothing like guacamole and french fries for "dinner." i was in bed early with no intention of setting an alarm. thursday's antics were still lingering on my state of mind...

saturday began with another tooth-falling-out incident then a hot date with the gym. felt good to run and stretch. then jess and i made lunch and hung out my back porch in the amazing weather jamming to kelly's new album i can't stop talking about. perfect little afternoon, really.

the, well...it was birthday-celebrating time.

dinner with bubbles, cheese, pizza, skillet cookie topped with ice cream and yet another tooth incident (<--- yes, i'm becoming a pro, but god forbid i leave the house without that kit). afterwards, it was off to the all-you-can-drink dance party. so fun to see everyone and bounce around from one little group to another. not sure where the hours went, but that may have had something to do with the free vodka that the waitress kept pouring in my special plastic cup.

highlights include:

•  prime seating location
•  not getting treved
• learning its probably not okay to get behind a dj's booth when he walks away. even if your roommate tells you to...
• taking too many shots in the last hour
• losing my tooth...in a slider
• montell jordan dance party with my lisa
• taking a million pics
• "losing" my phone only to realize mel accidently took it thinking it was hers
•  overall dance party with one of my fave partners in crime in that back room
• everyone keeping their shirts on
• lots of wonderful friends :)

and now, pics!

thanks for the fun everyone. for now, i'm excited to get a good night's rest. i have a morning workout, lunch/catching up with ashes and jerry springer to look forward to! yeah, you read that right. i'm hoping for baby daddys and the throwing of chairs. don't worry. there's no way i wont tell you how that goes.

have nice mondays. i'm gonna try to stay away from the internet. well, on my computer...

high five if you made it through all this ;)

fun finds

this random selection of lovelies is a long time in the making. not sure where my time goes each day. regardless, enjoy these beauties.

super fun necklace from charm & chain! just happens to be a bit out of my price range, but wonderful none the less.

what a fun way of displaying all those hundreds of sky photos you can't help but capture. yes, now this is something i can get behind - and its cost effective! framing is sooooo expensive. love this little decorating accent. hmmmm perhaps time to copy?

This little $3.50 kitchen gadget makes me oh so happy. high five to whoever came up with the idea of the 'avocado saver!' this has just moved to the top of my want list. its so sad when those little guys go brown prematurely. it may be even sadder how excited this little thing makes me? debatable.

yes, that's a brown's jersey bag. it'd totally be mine for $30, but $300...no thanks, well, unless you're paying?

ahhhhh what a great pic of our gorgeous lakefront at sunset. its *almost* springtime and that alone just makes me smile. 

have you found anything worth sharing lately?  

happy SPD!

although today is tropical and i wish i would have spent my day drinking green beer and cheering on irish dancers, i was not as lucky as some people.

but have no fear, i celebrated on saturday with the masses. oh how i love traditions and celebrating SPD in this fine city just happens to be one of my faves. this year our crowd was a bit smaller, but that didn't stop the madness. i was in bed by 8pm. end of story 0:)

yes those were light up shamrock earrings.

hope you are all enjoying your green soaked day. cheers!

back to the gym

i will stare & judge you when you:

• wear a pink polo with your collar POPPED on the elliptical.

• run next to me but DO NOT MOVE YOUR ARMS. yep, just leave them at your side...

•  run the opposite direction on the treadmill and then after getting enough stares, shuffle from side to side.

•  grunt. we get it, you're tough.

•  chomp on your gum like a teenager and run with your shoulders at an almost 45 degree angle.

•  sweat excessively and your face turns bright magenta. oh shit, just judged myself.

its funny cause its true.

GPOYW

gratuitous picture of yourself wednesday.
never heard of it? yeah well i was in the dark about this acronym (or phenomenon really) till only a couple weeks ago when i saw it popping up all over people's tumblrs. hmmm but i haven't really seen it on blogs. does that mean i'm breaking tumblr/blog rules? uh oh. i have been toying with the idea of starting one of those babies up anyways, so maybe its time i just bit the bullet? maybe. i mean do i really need ANOTHER place to "waste" my time on the internet? ehhhh doubtful. however i'm sure its only a matter of time...

i'll keep you posted on that front.

100 words

over the past year i have been less than impressed with glamour magazine. as a long time subscriber, i've felt the quality has gone downhill. or perhaps i'm outgrowing the common knowledge tibits made into articles that i have probably read about somewhere else - or maybe my preference in periodicals as shifted? despite the change, the past two month's zines have impressed me. i've found myself bookmarking and archiving many more pages and even reading entire articles instead of just skimming them. in their latest issue they did a "100 word bio" thing with several celebs which i found so compelling that i thought i would give it a whirl myself.

born in small town ohio. welcomed by a rambbnixous puppy and parents younger than my current self. two sisters followed. tennis began when i was old enough to hold a racquet and never really stopped. couldn't wait to go away to college. those four years went too fast. made incredible friends and worked my butt off. moved to chicago - jobless, alone and full of confidence. a few jobs, apartments and years later...i couldn't be more happy that my naive self made that chicago plunge. still figuring things out, but isnt that what its all about? hope so.

not quite as interesting as jenny lewis's, but i wasn't in troop beverly hills either. so she wins already.

how would your bio go? do share.

not a bad view

i've always been an aisle girl. maybe its time to reconsider that, huh? i suppose small planes have their advantages. i got to be in a single seat. aisle AND window seat FTW!

yeah, that sky of ours is pretty incredible.

i'm feeling awful lucky this evening as i'm looking through my pics, recounting the weekend with old friends and feeling *nearly* recovered from last week's flu from hell.

ya know what monday? i think i'm ready for ya this week - man voice and all.

hot mess of the week

oh hai internet. have you missed me? yeah i bet so has work, the fresh air, cleanliness and maybe my friends. but see, i've been a bit of a hot mess these past several days, which you may or may not have picked up on via my sporadic tweets. fever, snots, cold sweats, cough, chest pain, shards-of-glass sore throat, no voice, lose of appetite!, aches, plus overall exhaustedness - read: miserable.

but this afternoon, i'm feeling considerably better. granted, i have been close to worthless for a solid 3 days sooooo not sure where this actually puts me on the healthy meter, but i'll take it. i have only been more sick than this once in my life and it was senior year of high school (yes nine years ago) when i had mono. ahhh these are the days i wish mom wasn't five hours away...

regardless, against my better judgement and rather stern warnings from friends, i'm jet-setting off to cincinnati this evening. this trip has been long in the making and i really do think if i take it easy tonight with the old roomies, as planned, i will be in much much better shape to see all my dears tomorrow. they are just going to have to deal with my rather aggressive cough and manly voice. i don't see those going anywhere for quite some time.

happy weekending friends. for me, things can only get better from here...

cause i love tasty things...

AND who is going to spoil you if you don't do it yourself?!

with that, here's a few things i just couldn't pass up at the grocery store this weekend...

• CHEETOS Natural White Cheddar Puffs: "natural" clearly means "healthy." ughhhhhh right? wevs, they are all kinds of deliciousness.

• Slow Churned Girl Scouts Samoas® Cookie Ice Cream: as i told jessie in the store...this ice cream was talking to dirty to me. i couldn't just let it sit there and tease me like that. one of my fave cookies in ice cream!? get. in. my. cart. now.

• Sweet Tea Vodka: mix with a tad of lemonade and you have instant summertime, back-porch living in a glass. its fantastic, crisp and potent. the sales girl at the store had me at hello.

and then there was this...

• Batter Blaster: yeah that's right. pancake batter in a whip cream style can. kinda badass. but not for almost $6 and i prefer to make my own batter anyways. still the name and shock value when you find it on the shelf are pretty great.


have you bought any fun perishables lately?