hellooooo monday

 

 

what greets me every morning when I get off the train to work:

not a bad way to start the day, eh?

it's a chi kind of summer

Despite the ridiculous number of evenings I've spent eating Triscuits for dinner at the office, there has been so much to love already about this summer!

Arlington Racetrack My friends and I are becoming regulars at the local horsetrack. What a weird thing to say. Anyway, I was on an amazing winning streak based off of some pretty basic betting tenets (cool name? check.) but this last time I finally entered the red so I may have to learn how to dissect the super-intense programs they give you to make some educated decisions. ORRRRRR start choosing horses by the jockey's name instead.

With Kim and the other Laura, 

who is the main reason my friends here call me LB :) 

Baseball games For someone who doesn't know shit about the Cubs, I'm  rather enjoying myself these days! We have season tickets through work and everyone gets to participate in a lottery to select 1 game, and fortunately I got the Memorial Day game. Brian and I took Mark & Kim, which was super fun as usual, and during the Star Spangled Banner they released a bald eagle during the crescendo of the song so it was pretty much the most American place to be on earth. I also got to see them play the Red Sox this past weekend with some work friends (poaching on someone else's tickets, yes please). And last but not least, DJ & Sally were in town a few weeks ago for her work, so while these other jokers were working, DJ and I flew solo to a White Sox game on the other side of town. Pretty nice to sit in a modern stadium with instant replay screens, but I definitely prefer the old-school, ivy-fenced Wrigley.

 

work friends at Wrigley!

south side for the White Sox

Concerts When Lundy was in town for work (I'm seeing a trend and I like it!), our friend Chrissy invited us to come see Miranda Lambert and Brad Paisley play at Wrigley Field...for free. I knew zero songs but it was pretty amazing to see a show at such an iconic venue. Plus the country fans were totally different from Texas-style rednecks...as Lundy put it..."these people are all normal."

In the spirit of keeping it real (i.e. I had no control over timing), Brian and I had tickets to see Radiohead the next night. Talk about shifting gears. The venue was an hour away and one of our friends conjured up a little ride for us.

This further proved the old adage: 

"A limo with a stripper pole is where it's at." 

Radiohead was great in terms of delivering a low-key, music appreciation hour, but I was disappointed in how much new stuff was played, seeing as how I stopped actively listening around 2001. They'll be a once-in-a-lifetime kind of show for me I think. Until I'm jonesing for my next stripper limo, I guess.

Up next on the immediate horizon - CAMPING! I can't wait. My sobriety was in question when I realized a massive REI sale was minutes away from ending on Memorial Day and went ahead and ordered a several-hundred-dollar tent...so I'm feeling pretty good about that purchase. Unfortunately the only campsite available was in the Quiet Loop, which is not my specialty, but I'm pumped to detach from this crazy city life and take a deep breath...only a few weeks to go!

2 years!

Brian got back just in time to celebrate our two-year anniversary! We treated ourselves to dinner at a fondue restaurant called Geja's, which is where we went for dinner after we got engaged. Except the first time around, I was in too much shock to do anything but drink. THIS time, I made up for it by eating everything they put in front of me - hooray! It was a great way to say "WHAT UP 2 YEARS!" because 1) the menu is based around melted cheese and sauces and chocolate and I love all those things dearly, and 2) it was our first time to sit across the table and have a real live face-to-face conversation in over a month. We tend to not eat out very much either, so it was awesome to have a long, lazy dinner with a nice bottle of wine in a cozy booth.

3 years ago, after our engagement...

...to now!

So far we're adhering to some version of anniversary traditions, so last year it was paper and this year was cotton. I scored a new pair of awesome sheets, which measures pretty high in my book since I'm obsessed with having the softest sheets alive, and Brian got two new shirts for two things that I'm usually not jonesing to do but decided to make happen this weekend: go fishing and play in a poker tournament. I had the day off on Friday so we hit the local harbor, which is less than two miles from our house...unexplored benefit to living in a lake city! There was a whole little fishing community down there too...I don't think we quite fit in seeing as how everyone sat on buckets and caught multiple fish, while we sat on rocks, drank beer, and got approximately 4 bites, but whatever. I have to say, I would go back! With my bucket, obviously.

cute shirt, right?

great view of the city!

Then for poker, we took off Sunday and headed for the Horseshoe Casino in Indiana for a tournament! Ah! We've been to three or four casinos together, and I always stick to craps while he plays poker. He pretty much loves poker (plays free games on his phone all the time, watches it on tv, etc.) but I've always been way too intimidated to sit down at a table of strangers and pretend like I know what I'm doing. We spent some time "prepping" by playing online beforehand to make sure I had a general grasp of what to do so I hopefully wouldn't throw up on myself at the table. (Set the bar low, people).

So come Sunday, we're on our way to the casino and I call to make sure we can secure a spot, and...drumroll...I had gotten the time wrong and we'd missed the tournament. WAH WAH. Naturally, I was pretty pissed at myself but after calling a bunch of other casinos and considering driving to Milwaukee to go to one (close to 2 hours away), we "folded". Ha...ha. We came home and played some more poker online instead because we're super cool. Eventually we rode our bikes to the beach and spent the afternoon there, which was pretty much my fantasy day. I know we'll make it to another tournament now that I've gone through intense DesGranges training, so I'll post back to report any major winnings.

Happy two years!