rosemary lane in the house

The amount of work looming over my head should prevent me from doing any writing right now, but I'm coming off such a lovely weekend with Jackie and Katie and thought there's no time like the present to post about it!

Their trip was relatively last minute, but thanks to a new slew of vacation days gifted to us to use over the summer, I didn't have any problem taking off Friday afternoon to enjoy the phenomenally beautiful day! The girls came in the night before, so they spent the morning getting some coffee and walking through the neighborhood, and then ventured onto public transit to come meet me at work - what city girls!

Deep dish pizza, Giordano's

the bean, Millenium Park

after watching about a hundred teens take

prom pics in front of Buckingham Fountain, we needed our own

great table for drinks at the Signature Lounge

(where Brian and I got engaged)

the view!

with our beach v-ball courts in the distance

After all that on Friday, we finished off the night with sushi and some ring game on the porch. PHEW!

Saturday was less touristy, with a delicious stop at the coffee shop, more local shopping, frozen yogurt, a rainstorm & TV, Thai food, a patio bar, and multiple bunny sightings on our walk home (what in the WORLD are they all doing here???).

sporting some local 312

Unfortunately Jackie left early on Sunday, but Katie and I enjoyed brunch and more walking and shopping before she had to leave. Oh and this gem:

Ginger Twin from our super local brewery, Half Acre

8% discount if you're a ginger.

10% if you have a red beard too.

25% if you have a twin.

50% if you are ginger twins.

Presumably 100% if you're that dude on the bottle.

Another highlight of the weekend was getting to randomly meet up with two friends in town!

Sally in town for work!

KT's high school friend Matt in town visiting his boyfriend.

This boy makes me giggle, always.

The weekend was so fun because it gave me a great reason to check out new places, walk a ton, enjoy the amazing weather, and truly be happy to say that this is where I live!

As our three lives continue to shift and naturally take different courses (most specifically, courses that don't involve us all living together, taking classes together, and constantly knowing every detail each other's lives), it's so great to have a couple of days to just be in each other's company with no particular "activities" driving the interactions. Weirdly, I really loved just sitting around and watching TV because it felt so normal, and sometimes it's hard to get to just do nothing with each other when we get so little time to spend together. Sometimes those little moments of nothing add up to everything, don't you think?

east coast hopping, part II

After beginning my month in the Big Apple, I was able to end it in a fortuitous twist at the opposite end of the coast in beautiful Miami!

April was a rainy month in Chicago - the rainiest April in more than 50 years, to be exact. And it was a cold month. Windy, unpleasant, and it snowed. Meanwhile Brian was in Miami for the whole month going to the beach every day while I withered away, so it's safe to say I was ready for a vacation that included him, sunshine, and relaxation. I wouldn't have gone to visit except (the magic word!) that my lovely friend Ashley had scheduled her bachelorette party for the last weekend in April...in Miami. Boom! That's what we in Texas call a two-fer.

I took a few days of beloved PTO to go down early and see Brian, go to his show, and obviously hit the beach. Happiness ensued.

Are you jealous of my awesome dolphin koozie?

There's not nearly enough boob in this picture

to accurately represent South Beach. But the water's nice!

View of Miami Beach from Brian's condo

After two days , I met up with the girls. One day I'm riding the city bus and drinking Tecate, the next I'm in a limo drinking champagne. The sign of a good weekend!

I have to say, for this bach we did it up right. Bottle service, aforementioned limo, more prosecco than my head cares to remember, pool time, spa time, dance time, and girl time.

Beautiful bride in the middle!

(bottom left)

This spa was increible.

Library books. Hot tubs. Chandeliers.

Crazy club LIV (top) and the outdoor patio/pool at Club 50 in our hotel (bottom)

After seeing two very different side of Miami, my general takeaway was similar to NY (minus the rats). The beach is awesome, of course. And the clubs were fun in that "I only go to these places in Mexico" kind of way. But oh my Lord everything is so expensive. And the cab drivers are rude. And house music proliferates in an unacceptable way. And remember how everything was so expensive? Right okay now double that. But I guess I dug the 1990s Birdcage feel, and if I was allowed to live on a strict diet of empanadas and cortaditos, then maybe we could talk.

east coast hopping, part I

In the spirit of catching up, I wanted to post about my East Coast adventures this past month! Both places I'd never been, both places I'm not really racing to get back to, but both places were great experiences.

It started with New York - can you believe I'd never been?! My longtime high school friend Jason was getting married in Jersey, so I extended the trip through the weekend for a little extra sightseeing and working out of our NY office (always good to get in some face-time with the people you talk to on the phone). First off, the wedding was insanely beautiful. David Tutera could've popped out behind the curtains and I wouldn't have been shocked at all (WE-watchers, you know what I'm talking about). I didn't capture the incredible smorgasbord of food, but I did get a few shots of other things:

Ice sculpture at the beer bar = winning

Ice sculptures at the (1 of 2) sushi bars = double winning

Enchanted forest on our table

This was truly the blowout of the century. Instead of having wedding cake, they had a whole room filled with different desserts (bad time to have given this up for Lent...bad time). Outside the bus was a candy truck filled with all sorts of other awesome things I wouldn't let myself look at. The chuppah at the ceremony was seriously like a secret garden filled with hydrangea, roses, and individually backlit orchid blossoms. Unreal! I'm so glad I got to experience such an incredible shindig!

Outside of that, I got to do a lot of sightseeing and city navigating. Some takeaways:

1) Ah, diversity. If only my gym were on the streets of NY, right?! The ethnic mix was fascinating. I got into a conversation with an 85-year-old Polish immigrant on the subway that involved a "when I was on the boat" portion of the story. Love it.

2) I teared up seeing the Statue of Liberty from approximately 72,000 feet away. It's just, seeing something iconic, it's hard not to think about what that must have represented to so many oppressed people. Cue the music...

3) I was all about the subway system until I saw the rats (dead and alive). I'm not the prissiest person in the world but SICK.
4) And finally, this place is Chicago on crack. Oh my lord, the drivers, the filth, the congestion. I'm not all too interested in going back, unless I get to spend some time in Central Park and see a Broadway show. I definitely see how people can live there and "own it" sort of, but as a visitor, it mostly just made me happy to call Chicago home.

Next up, East Coast Hopping, Part II: Miami!

new deck-or

I've been so bad about blogging lately - especially after I promised a blog storm while Brian was gone! In preparation for his month in Miami doing a play, I made a big ole list of things I was going to do to stay occupied. Paint our room, fix up our office, hang new pictures on the wall, blog more, read more, and start showing my face at the gym. Instead what happened is:

New York

Dallas (x2)

Miami

Many late nights at the office

Working on the weekend

Whoops! As the last weekend approached, I realized I hadn't done one single solitary thing I'd planned to, so I made a last ditch effort to do something with our deck.

A little "before" action

Last fall, we managed to put up some lights but that's about it. Winter was on its way, so there was no point in buying plants. (Actually I tried, but Captain Un-Fun was convinced I'd kill them before the winter could). Fast forward to me panicking about having wasted away the month of April: it's a beautiful day, sunny and 55 degrees. I buy planter boxes, 62 pounds of soil, and a trunkload of Petunias. (For future reference, that is enough soil to plant flowers from here to Zimbabwe). Anywyay, the next morning, I wake up to this:

Wah-wah.

After a minor case of hating my life, I got over it and the flowers managed to live. Which means they just might stand a chance with me. A few weeks later, I put all the planters together and got everything situated. Meanwhile, I overheard our neighbors talking about an extra grill that they have, so I dropped a few casual comments about missing our grill and whatdoyaknow, we've got a new grill on deck.

And, because I got super excited while shopping for garden stuff, I got a few little "kits" to grow herbs, peppers, and tomatoes. I planted those today, so I'll let you know if anything manages to survive my oppressive brown thumb! Although I did see the word transplant on the directions, and Mama don't know crap 'bout no transplantin'.

Maybe if we all will them to live...

my annual guinness

For our book club this month, we chose Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. I read a few of her books in college so I was excited to revisit her again without the distraction of other required class reading. However, I didn't realize this is a book about grief. (It begins with her husband's death and tracks her experiences in the following year.) And I didn't think about the fact that I'd be reading it during my personal, annual "re-grieving period." (March and April are infected by a constant playback of those months in 2008 when my dad became especially sick and then died). Let's just say, it's been a tough read.

As difficult as it was to get through, I thought it was really interesting to see how much of her experience with grief mirrored my own, in relation to losing my dad. Of course hers was by far more awful, but considering your relationship with a parent is completely different from the one you have with your spouse, you'd think the losses would feel worlds apart. But she gives a strikingly honest account of the regret, self-pity, confusion, doubt, and helplessness that marked her grief, my grief, and I suspect, many other people's...all for completely different reasons.

It's now been three years since he passed away. I hardly ever blog about it because no one needs to read my own Didion-esque account, but it's still very much a presence in my mind. Today would have been his 63rd birthday, and as sad as this makes me, it also concludes "that period" for another year. Brian and I have shared a Guinness on April 25th every year in his memory - it's a nice little tradition that I look forward to. (Although this go-around I'll have to stomach an entire one by myself, and when you're alone, I hear it's unacceptable to take this down in Irish Car Bomb form). I'm definitely happy to gain a little forward momentum now that I've finished the book and am closing out the month as well. Onward and upward, right friends?

the day I became a Jehovah's witness

So about that "blog storm"....as you can see, it's been more of a slight trickle, due to slight insanity at work. Since Brian left, I've yet to have one day where I didn't have to do something related to work (I know, woe is me). Point being: you can imagine how excited I was on Friday when I rolled in for a day of catching up which was to be followed by a weekend of literally no work at all!

And then at 10 a.m. my boss uttered the words no one wants to hear. You know the ones.

What are you doing this weekend?

As it turns out, I would be not eating or sleeping well between that moment and now because I was dreading the assignment that had cropped up Friday morning - find people on the street and videotape them talking about one of our clients' products.

Like most of you, I don't really like stopping random people on the street. There's a social norm that suggests this is stalkerish, and that nothing good comes from people who have to ask you for a moment of your time. Because as much as you love panda bears, you can't commit to a $20/month donation.

Not having business cards, company-embroidered shirts, or anything at all legit looking, we decided we'd have more success pretending to be graduate students. While a little deceptive, we still had people sign release forms and paid them an incentive ($20!), so I didn't feel bad about it. I had approximately three heart palpitations when someone started asking questions about our school, major, program, assignment, etc etc. JUST SHUT UP AND TAKE THE MONEY.

Part of the day was successful but the worst was standing outside of Bed Bath & Beyond...the perfect place for our target demographic. Also the perfect place to look like major creepers who, despite the blond hair, are very interested in mugging you and/or stealing your baby.

Brian - who sold haircuts on the streets on London one year - coached me the night before saying "every no brings you closer to a yes!" And although he told me not to take it personally, I couldn't help but wonder why every single person I asked said no. You'd be shocked at how many people are not willing to talk to you for 5 minutes in exchange for $20. My bad, I didn't realize your going rate was more than $240 an hour. All I can say is thank the good Lord I was paired up with my friend/colleague who happens to be much less of a chicken than I am and isn't afraid to make the "ask." Over the course of 5 hours, we managed to find 12 people who were willing to talk to us, which isn't terrible considering the amount of time we wasted trolling for wallets and crackpipes at BBB.

Sigh.

equal opportunity sweating

I joined Women’s Workout World (W3) several months ago for a few reasons. First, my friend Kim has a membership at a different branch, which meant that we would be able to work out together on occasion. Second, I can access it by train, foot, and bike. Third, the price was right. After some upfront fees, I only have to pay $23/month. The only other gyms that can compete with that aren’t easy to access from my neighborhood. I was unemployed, so the choice was pretty much made for me!


My love/hate relationship with W3 has expanded beyond my expectations. To start, it is of course a women’s workout world, so no men are allowed. In fact, they’re announced over the loudspeaker if they have to come inside for maintenance reasons. In the absence of penises, you can instead find an abundance of camel toe. Because at W3, we don’t give a F*#K!

(But seriously, it is nice to not constantly wonder if you’re nipping or egregiously sweating in weird places. Those things are perfectly acceptable here.)

Another standout of W3 (Where Wedgies are Welcome) is that every time I go, I feel like I’ve just walked on the set of "Muslims, Ellipticals, and Other Things That Look Weird Together." In a row of crappy outdated machines, you will find anyone from a triathlete to someone you want to high-five just for showing up. Some people are in track suits and others are in slacks. Some people are grandmas and most are minorities. It is a strange combination of race, socioeconomic status, religion, age, and fitness level.


To be honest, it’s pretty uplifting to see people that don’t look like they belong in a gym, persay, who are trying to improve their lifestyles and get out of their comfort zones. Isn’t that the kind of place you want to be a part of? Where people don’t have to feel like they can’t show up because they don’t have the right clothes or have no idea how to operate a treadmill? Because that’s totally the kind of place I want to support. I did a few hot yoga classes at a shi-shi-poo-poo studio downtown and honestly, the plethora of whiteness and Lululemon made me uncomfortable. It was like we’d all come to the same place because it felt “right” and we knew we’d make friends and have a really great workout that we totally couldn’t get anywhere else. I’m not saying I wouldn’t go there again (in fact, I’m thinking about getting a month-long pass), but in terms of diversifying my experiences, going there is a backwards step.

That being said.

There is a “room” for group classes at W3 (Who Wants Walls?). It’s a carpeted square riiiiight in the middle of all the machines. So 2-3 times a night, the rest of us get the absolute pleasure of watching, listening to, and generally being subjected to the music/instructions. I guess this wouldn’t be so bad if the volume wasn’t permanently set on DIE EARDRUMS.

Listening to your own playlist during a class is a complete joke. Speakers rattle and the bass reverbs as they pump it, they move it, they shake it, they push it! The best I can hope for is that I will channel my hatred into my own workout.

I’ve asked a few times why it’s so loud and if other people complain, and I never get a straight answer. I have no clue why the instructor can’t tell that she’s screaming, or why anyone in the classes…and thus closer to the speakers…don’t say anything. I feel like I’m the only person in the whole frigging gym who is even tuned into this planet, because WHY DOES NO ONE FIND THIS HORRIBLY DISRUPTIVE.

Yes, I’ve tried to schedule my workouts for when there are no classes. But since they close at 9 p.m. on weekdays and FOUR P.M. (count it) on weekends, I’m lucky to even make it there in the first place.

The elliptical-pedaling Muslims are not leaving me much choice. No matter how cheap it is, I can’t go to a gym for a stress relief and leave so mad I’d kick a puppy.
(JK I’d never kick a puppy)
(Unless it was leading a group class at W3)

I sort of love my gym. I don’t want to resign myself to a more mainstream place where everyone looks like they belong and men freely walk around without announcements over the loudspeaker (although I’ll obviously suggest this). I don’t really want to switch gyms at all, but what’s a girl to do? Last week I tried out the closest one to my house. It’s small, local, new, quiet, and it has TVs, men, whiteys, and acceptable hours. It’s twice as expensive as half as interesting, but I walked away without an aural assault, and these days, that’s a win.

Future membership: TBD!