Chicago Traffic

Want to know why Chicago traffic sucks?



Maybe because semis like this guy decide to pull  u-turns in the middle of rush hour. This lasted for 45 minutes. I kid you not.

It's Friday oh and It's March

Wait it's Friday?

Oh and it's March?

Where the H-E-Double hockey sticks have I been and what happened to February?

Blackhawks, Bulls, Blackhawks, Bulls, Kid Rock and then Monday happened...

Spotted, Gaga and her security outside the refreshment concessions - little boozers

Then Tuesday I was tired. Wednesday there were those Blackhawks again and yesterday I was tired.

But Happy 147th Birthday to Chicago.

Goose Island - 312

Time out, look who is using my photo!!!!

See that 312 image?  I took that as my husband shoveled. That's how he kept his beer cold during Blizzardmania a week ago today. Go me and my photography skills (go ahead and laugh - hahaha).

1 Week Anniversary

One week ago from today Chicago shut down. Honestly, the entire city shut down. Besides working from home I was able to spend some bonding time shoveling with the hubs and capturing some of these photos. Enjoy!

The ones at the end are the hubs 6ft high 7 ft wide fort. I'm serious. He was so proud.  

Happy 1 week anniversary Snomageddon or whatever it was we were calling you back then. For Minne snow video action check out this link.



Minne and the Blizzardmania

Tuesday night was just terrible. The winds were so bad it felt like I was living in the house from Wizard of Oz. Along with things like our pilot light going out, we had a dog who refused to go outside to the bathroom. Instead, she opted to sleep all of Tuesday evening into early afternoon Wednesday.

At that point we could tell she really had to go to the bathroom. She was pacing and making some whiny noises, so we decided we had to make her go out.

Attempt 1 didn't go so well.

Attempt 2 (about an hour later) went a little better, although you can see my hand pushing her out the door. We're still not sure that she went.

Finally we got her to go out for less than 5 seconds to do her business (no video, but come on do you really want to see that?).

Storms can be very traumatic on animals

She followed it up with another 5 hours of sleep while the hubs and I shoveled. More photos to come.

Blizzardmania

Snow!

 I live in the Midwest, scratch that I live in the Chicago land area. Let's be real here, this city was made for snow, half our budgets get poured into snow and ice removal. Snow days are far and in between. 11 inches of snow, work is still on, 2 feet of snow over a 2-3 day period, work is still on.

snow in Wheaton

However, in the instance that we do get this so called "'Life-threatening’ blizzard" (you know the one where we have rapid accumulation in a short stint of time with a punch of winds) I received this email from my boss.

Lets keep an eye on the weather, if the we get what its expected overnight Tuesday, I don’t want any of you in on Wednesday. There are a few folks closer to the building that can muster in if needed.  We will most likely have an EQ* tomorrow to get people out before the weather hits hard.

*EQ is our office terminology for Early Quit

the one and only snow day from when I lived in Minnesota

Due to my early am dentist appointment tomorrow combined with tomorrow's EQ, I've been privileges with the chance to work from home. So tonight, I'm going to put together my survival kit and then prep for the best 2 snow day ever. Here's what I am thinking

• a corncob pipe, a button and some coal for the best snowman ever (I wasn't prepared in Minnesota)
• a shovel and some buckets to turn our kids playset in the yard into a winter fort (Minne's gonna be stoaked)
• Catch up on thank you cards (I'm so behind) and help Minne work on her Valentine's
• Maybe some baking
• hot cocoa, wood in the fire place me cuddled on the sofa with a good book in hand
• perhaps a sled ride with the hubs - we'll see if he gets all his shoveling done first ;)

 the one and only snow day from when I lived in Minnesota

If you were to have a snow day, what would you do?

PS I bet Minne is going to be most excited.

Boot Obsession

Thank goodness I live in a place where boots are not only accepted but expected! I have a major boot obsession. I can't write down how many pairs of boots I've actually purchased in the last year because having it on record could be a bad thing. However, I saw piperlime was having a super mega sale of all things fantastic and had to take a peek. Sure enough there are boots on sale. Damn it.

So in my attempt to not buy everything on sale, I am hoping for some blogger help. I narrowed it down to a few boots, which do I get? One of them? all of them? none of them?

I saw these in November for $120, I have a pair of high boots similar to these and I love love love them over jeans or leggings. Now that these are only $59, are they worth it? I should note, my purse and other accessories through the fall/winter are primarily grey and I don't currently own grey boots other than my Uggs which the husband is persistent that Uggs are not meant to be worn in public.

And then there are these bad boys. Very similar to the ones above but a little more rugged. Perfect for that casual weekend when you want to look casual but still be put together but not over done, you know? The pricing? $39.

When I see a pair of shoes for under $20, I often feel like if I don't by them I'm letting a perfectly good pair of shoes go right out the window. So when I saw these at $19 I had to do a double take. My only concern is they look cheap to me but on a snowy wintery day are these perfect? Are they the kind of shoes that should make me say, who cares if the Chicago salt trucks destroy them? I'm just not sure.

Random Blackberry Photos Take 2

A few more Randoms to clean up before the new year. (Other's found here)

My daily view on my way to work. Love Chicago!

The 1tt tree we ever had that we didn't cut down. It's also our 1st ever Griswold tree, more here.

Our new house has really bare walls. Our tree was lacking presents since Landon and I decided our house was our Christmas. Most of these presents went to cousin Buddy.

Minne running away from the cold at our old apartment. You can tell my the door that it was ghetto.

My custom jersey that you'll see featured on our Holiday card that should arrive sometime in 2011.

Minne super pissed that I brought my work home with me.

The start of putting together our basement.

REMINDER: Need to update this hallway for work.

Minne making sure Buddy isn't doing anything bad.

"Can we sleep in a few more minutes mom?"

Classic Buddy, waiting for someone to feed him.

Things that make me smile

Just another thing that makes me smile...driving into work and seeing the Chicago skyline. Or better yet, pulling off the road to take this photo and having everyone that drives by beep at me. BEEP YOU!

Fall in the City

Just another fall day in the great city of the Midwest, love you Chicago (that is when I am not sitting in traffic for hours on end anyway).

New Car Part 2

Did my New Car Part 1 post leave you wondering what I upgraded myself too? Well did it?

Meet my Jetta! It's got a spacious trunk, family friendly 4 doors, blue tooth equipped through the car (which helps in Chicago traffic since it is a law that you can't use a hand held device) and the best part? THE AIR CONDITIONING! and the color is Candy White...if you know me, you know this is so fitting.

And well she looks great in my work parking lot!

Weekend Festivites

Whole busy but fun weekend ahead!

 Landon's HS friend, wife and Baby L will get in at 3pm on Thursday. They are thinking deep dish pizza for dinner. Genius, I mean we do live in Chicago :)


Friday will be spent in Chicago, sight seeing items like the bean in Millennium Park, Navy Pier and maybe the Hancock Center. In the evening we're going to check out the Yankees vs White Sox game as our friends are huge Yankees fans. Apparently our friend picking criteria is at an all time low, I mean the Yankees...come On - totally kidding but I am a Cubs fan and the hubs is a Phillie's fans so at least they aren't Mets fans :)
Post game, we'll pick up one of my college girl friend.

Saturday all of us will have breakfast. The HS friends will leave and we have 2 more of my sorority sister's joining us for a wedding of another DG sister, one of them you may already know.  We'll partake in a beautiful wedding ceremony and then dance the night away.
Sunday, breakfast with friends staying with us plus my girl friend who moved to North Carolina and her boyfriend.

This may be the best weekend of the summer. Finally, friend time :)

Best part? I get to drive everyone around in my new car.

New Car Part 1

I have been driving the best most reliable FREE car ever. It's gotten me around for almost 3 years. It's wonderful on gas mileage, has automatic windows and a great cd player BUT...it has no air conditioning. In fact, in the summer I usually have to drive with the heat on so that it doesn't over heat. This poor all heat Pontiac Sunfire has been passed down 3 times and last winter it started experiencing some transmission difficulties. We have put some money into it a few times but 2 Fridays ago on my way home from work it died. COMPLETELY.

It looks something like this, with chipped paint, some more rust and some fender benders (to be fair, the car was parked and I was in the house when it got hit)

You would think I would be terrified but this wasn't the first time I had a car die on me in a construction zone, during Chicago Rush hour...oh noo it was actually the 2nd time. Thank goodness, it was a lot easier to bare the comments that people were yelling, it was easy to look past people flipping me the bird and screaming (apparently when your car dies everyone around you thinks that you did it on purpose so their day would be ruined).

After that the hubs said enough is a enough. We spent 2 weeks researching cars. I was able to use the hubs car for a few days and the rest of the time I took the train. Well that was until Monday when I got harrassed outside of Union Station in Chicago. It was so bad the police got involved. The officer begged me to fill out the report because it was the only way they could arrest the man who was harrasing me. After the report was filed the cop told me I did the right thing because the man has been known to follow women into their work places! He also told me that he targets new faces along the train route. AWESOME.

That Monday night, we bought a new car.

Chicago Free Agency Text

Image from ChicagoBulls.com

In text messages over thoughts about the craziness that the NBA free agency is bring to Chicago, the Bulls and my work the United Center, I get this from one of my besties:

"I hope you're doin ur part to bring these boys here--show some boob or something!"

If you follow the NBA or even just the Chicago Bulls, you know which "boys" she is refering to. Pretty sure if I showed by boobs today would probably be the last day of my job so I'll pass but I did get a good laugh at the text. Hope you do too, Happy Free Agency Thursday.

Dear Home Sellers

Dear Home Sellers,

Please help us a find a house that meets these requirements:

Price: We are looking up to the _____ range however we have 2 different price criteria in mind. 1. If the house is on the higher end price, we want it finished; live in ready with no/very little repairs/updates that would be needed. 2. We would prefer something on the “low” end of the price spectrum so that we can afford to make updates on our own and we have more flexibility with the updates that we want/need to make. (please don't try to sell me a house with no walls, no floors and mold at the high end of our price)

Location: one of us has a job in the city with the other in Downers Grove. We need something that will be a “fair” drive for both of us. (as much as I want to move west to get a larger house with a nice yard, the Chicago construction has my commute already at 2+ hours each way. The cops that pull people over on the part where the expressway is down to 1 lane isn't helping)

Size: We were married just less than a year ago and hoping to find a home that we can live in as a starter home as we plan on looking to have kids in the next 5 years. So we’re looking for a 2+bedroom 1.5+ bathroom (a kids toilet in the closet doesn't count as a half bathroom and a jacuzzi in a bedroom doesn't make it a master bathroom.)

Yard: Having a back yard is very important to my husband, and when I say yard he wants something that he can mow (a yard that is full of a rotted molded out pool does not count)

Allergies: My husband is deathly allergic to cats. If the house has/had cats living in it, we would need to do a lot of work (new wallpaper, new flooring, ect) to make it livable for him. (so please don't show us a house that has cat poop and vomit all over the stairs, the breakfast bar ect.)

Basement: A basement isn’t a must but it is something that would be a great treat for us and definitely a buying bonus. (a crawl space doesn't count as a basement.)

Lastly, I don't like haunted houses.

Thanks!

Lets Get Nautical

This weekend was a fabulous weekend all about a beautiful upcoming bride, who I spoke of here. It was great to see college friends, especially some of my sorority sisters. One of which, the lovely Jessica from Penned & Pretty made for quite the Skipper aka host. She planned a wonderful evening based on everything nautical. Case in point, check out the awesome invite she did - I had to put it next to one of our college shirts because...well it was just nautical and very fitting.

We started at the hotel, for a "private shower" if you will. There were presents, nautical colored drinks and fish snacks of course, and by fish I mean cheesy delish goldfish. From the hotel we cabbed over to Bubba Gump Shrimp for some yummy sea food delight.

While we waited for a table to be ready, we made a long hike to the end of Navy Pier to see one of Chicago's largest anchors. Since I was in the photo I don't actually have anything to show here, but I promise I will insert something soon.

Once we made the cold hike back to the restaurant we started the night with some drinks. We were only missing some Gamma for this Delta.

Isn't the bride to be beautiful and totally nautical?

Ok ok so I might have a slight obsession with work...but really how cool is it that Navy Pier is completely decked out with Blackhawks banners?


Post dinner is where I start to lose focus and apparently stopped taking good photos, well photos at all. We went to a teeny tiny karaoke bar where we waited forever to do a group song of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" to celebrate the new bride to be. From there, we went dancing. (PS Laura may kill me for this photo)

After the bride had clearly had "too much fun" a few of us helped to take her back home. However, we made it like the college days and had to have the cab make one quick stop before we called it a night. Yum the Golden Arches, I think this may be my favorite photo. Come on, what is more classic than the captain with their skipper in line at McDonalds around 1am?

Softball Update

Yup, it's Thursday which means I should have a softball recap, right? Wrong. Yesterday was an intense day. The hubs sent an email voicing concerns that he's over heard everyone complain about over the past 3 years, and especially in the past 2 weeks and apparently the email didn't go over so well. Personal attacks got made and no one would even admit that they were as unhappy as they claim to be during most games. Unfortunately, the hubs got so upset by it, he withdrew us from the team. I love the group we play softball with so it is going to be a difficult transition.

On a brighter note, I am thinking this will give us more time to house hunt? By the way, house hunting in the Chicagoland area is exhausting. We want somewhat of a yard, 2 bedrooms and at least 1.5 bathroom, apparently that is very hard to come by in our price range. Anyone have any Chicagoland tips for us as far as house hunting goes? Right now, we feel like this:

Photo Found Here

MLS Fire Game? En Fuego!!!

Now that our Final Four recaps are done we can go over some other fun things the hubs and I have been up to.

Recently, he had a buddy in town with his girlfriend. It was great to catch up. We played some bags and enjoyed this nice spring weather. A few days before they arrived, I got offered some Chicago Fire tickets, for their home opener. Neither the hubs nor I are huge fans but free tickets to any sporting event has to be cool, right? We found out later that the hubs friend had "attending an MLS game" on his bucket list, so that is one checked off in 2010!

We arrived at Toyota Park and were a little astonished about everything! People looked like they had been tailgating for hours, and some people might have only been there for the tailgating because they didn't look like they were going into the game. The park had set up beer gardens and corn hole games and everyone there was in great moods and pumped about being part of this event.

We made our way to our seats and were astonished! There didn't seem to be a bad seat in the house and our tickets were amazing! We enjoyed some of the pre-game festivities and anxiously waited for our first Fire game to begin.




Once the game started, we were quickly introduced to the "Section 8" group. They are the Fire's amazing fans that chant and sing and cheer the ENTIRE game. They are insane. We didn't grab any photos but here's some I collected via the web:

Found Here

Found here

The atmosphere at the Fire game was very relaxed, fun but still passionate. You can see just from the few photos above and below that no one is in suits, the game is about the game. In fact, during half time, instead of paying for entertainment, they bring out little kiddo-s and let them play soccer games in front of everyone? Cool right.

Soccer doesn't have cheerleaders, or an ice crew but they do have the Fire Girls. The hubs and his buddy were very interested :)



The Fire ended up losing (seems to be a trend for teams I follow lately). However, the team played hard, did some cool tricks and some awesome head butting. I would for sure go back to a Fire game for the atmosphere, the special effects, Section 8 watching and just for the game itself. Awesome!

Sometimes Romance does Conquer All

You know what is really cool? Having friends that are all very different. Friends who take interests in different things and friends who do things out of the norm. Friends who inspire you and surprise you all at the same time. Friends that take last minute adventures and let life lead them rather than them lead life.

Ok so where did this come from? Well one of my college friends (also a Delta Gamma sister) has been browsing jobs in Chicago for months. After lots of hard work, determination, drives back and forth from Indy to Chicago for interviewing and networking, it paid off. She got offered a job right downtown Chicago doing something that she would be great at (YAY).



However, after she started interviewing for this job, she met a boy from Charlette. From how I understand it, the two clicked immediately. It was like a match made in heaven sent right from an angel. The two seemed to know more about each other before they could even talk about themselves. It quickly grew into a long distance love story. Precious right?

Well my friend went on her second interview and soon after got a call offering her a job (because she is that awesome). After sharing the good news with this boy in Charlotte they began talking about their future and their lives together. The conversation ended with my friend moving to Chicago and after a year or two moving down to Charlette to be with this boy and if the boy could get to Chicago first, he would.

A few days went by. The boy went out of town and while there it hit him, he couldn’t stand to be apart from my friend for another minute. He jumped on a plane and flew to Indy to confess his feelings. A day later I got an unexpected call that makes my heart flutter and sad all at the same time. My friend was un-accepting her job in Chicago and was moving down south. This makes me sad because well, I was looking forward to having another college friend so close. It makes my heart flutter because most people don’t do whimsical things like this and most people are scared to have deep feelings like this in such a short amount of time...

And well because I once took a chance, moved to a foreign city with no job, no friends no idea where my life would leave me all for a boy. That boy is now my husband. If I would have let people convince me I was a fool for moving for a boy I could have missed out on some of the best years of my life.

So today I say, sometimes love does conquer all. Best of luck to my friend on her new adventure, may love be all you need.

PS won’t their story make a great one to share with kids someday?