If You Find Yourself

New Years Dream

2012-01-21T10:54:00.000-08:00

New Years Eve was a dream. I loved it. It mixed my family and my Chicago worlds. You see, after our Kansas trip we decided we needed another trip. I volunteered the ol' Cohen homestead. Sometime in the fall New Years Eve was chosen. Everyone arrived precisely according to schedule. I did send out the itinerary, and it needed to be adhered to.

After a quick tour of the house and the BBQs, we made lunch and headed out to the coast. We took the 46 and stopped at the look out for our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. And, for a photo shoot.

We jumped over to Cambria for lunch.

And ate Taco Works chips! Delish!

After lunch we attempted to find the elephant seals, buuuutt... well, I just couldn't find those beasts. So we went a little early to our next stop: Hearst Castle! My fav! You know I can't go home without a HC visit. We are chillin' in the visitors center in this pic. What I like about it is that you can tell Sandy and Jimmy are about to tell some jokes.

Right before you get on the bus to the Castle, they have you take a picture. Everyone said they looked dumb, and that it was going to be a bad picture. I said I looked super hott, and I was probably going to buy the photo in the end. Well, I was right. I looked hott. And so did everyone else. I love this photo.

Usually, on the bus ride, you listen to old timey music and listen to a recording of someone talking about the Castle. Well, this time it was Alex Trebek! I love the 'hood as much as Alex does, so I wonder why they didn't get me to record? I would be good at it. Well, there's still time.

We went on the Upstairs and Suites Tour. Or something like that. Laziness is prohibiting me from finding out the specific name, but did not prohibit me from typing out this explanatory sentence.

Anyway, our tour guide was named Bev. First she accused us all of being on the wrong tour. I knew immediately I was going to have fun with her. And I did. She said phrases like, "When he was feeling a lot of emotionalism," "December 23, 2003," and "Mad doggin'." Or was it "Mad eyein'."? Either way, I loved her.

The Library

Story of my life

Haha, just kidding!

If I ever get invited up to the castle for a little sleepover, I would choose this room:

It has amazing views, windows on both sides of the room (for a nice cross breeze) and it's pink!

But that's enough of the inside. Since the last time I visited, they changed protocol, and now you can hang out and explore the grounds after your tour. It's kind of awesome. The only thing I don't like about this concept is that you don't get the history of many of the art pieces found on the grounds.

Oh well.

Opposite sides of the Castle. The room I want would look out onto both these views.

At the end of the tour, I said thanks to Bev, and then she went around and hugged each one of us.

I planned it almost perfectly, and we got to catch the sunset.

Everyone loved this fountain. There was a cute little peeing lamb on the other side.

We hung out by the Neptune Pool. The Neptune Pool wowed my guests even more than I could

have imagined. When you share something you love, you hope others love it too.

Our prom photo. Sandy was kind enough to let us all be Jimmy's dates.

In light of recent engagements in my branch, I have been thinking about how I would want to be proposed to, and as of right now, I'm thinking I would love to be proposed to at Hearst Castle. It's gorgeous, has great views, it's public, but private enough, I will look pretty (I can't understand people who get engaged while sweaty, or while in their pajamas), it's the perfect place for picture taking, it's magical, I have fond memories there, and we can stare into each others eyes until the sun goes down.

Okay, that's enough grossness for now. I'm just saying, if you have the opportunity to make your proposal awesome, then why don't you do it?

We finished up at Hearst Castle and jetted home, just in time for a tri tip dinner. It was so good. I loved it. And those people who have never had tri tip loved it too. Dad used his fancy new knife (Christmas present), the kind of knife they use at Brazilian steak houses, you know, the kind without a tip. He looked so cool with it. He was able to just walk around, cutting meat.

We played a few games, laughed a lot, and ate a lot of tri tip. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.

However, I'm interested in multiple perfect days.

The next morning we woke up to find Mother had prepared pancake batter and had bacon in the oven. She would have been there manning the pancakes, but she had to go to CrossFit instead. I'm fine with that. I'm an advocate for an increase in awesomeness.

While we were getting ready I told everyone that we were going to the beach, and wondered if I needed to bring towels, just in case anyone needed to get in the Pacific Ocean. Everyone said they would not be getting wet.

Morro Bay rose to the occasion and was absolutely gorgeous.

Me and The Rock

We headed out to the sand. Nelly didn't come down to the sand because of some sand issue. We respected her beliefs, and she chilled in the parking lot and read about The Rock.

Well, we were on the beach, took some pics, and then Jimmy convinced me to get in the water. It wasn't hard. I knew I would want to get in, but I thought I was mature enough to keep my shoes on.

I'm not. We LOVE the ocean!

I guess Sandy had had enough of all of Wendy's Mean Doggin'.

But they made up in time to take this pretty jumping pic. Jumping pics are hard. You are either going for cool, or pretty, but most of them end up looking dumb. Just check Facebook for a bunch of dumb wedding jumping pics. But this one is pretty.

Jimmy chose Wendy to be his prom date for life:

Or maybe he was just trying to convince her to do this:

Mom and Dad met us at the beach:

They took a walk south while we went north to the Embarcadero. We went in a few shops, got a few souvenirs, and just soaked up the sun and surf.

We found a great spot for taking pics, and I'm going to post every single one.

After we went to my favorite taffy place (I forgot how much I love taffy; I should have bought more.)

We ran into these guys!

Pops, Torah, and Brandon.

We took some family pictures (I wish Paul and Marissa and chillin' could have been there!)

And then some pics of my Chicago family. It was truly a great experience to have my worlds collide.

After the photo shoot we went right over to Montana de Oro.

Bryn and Elle. I love this shot, even though you can't really see their faces. I think, because of their relationship, that maybe I might have liked having a sister. Maybe. Or maybe Bryn and Elle are really lucky to have parents that foster friendships between siblings. That might be it too.

Diana posted this pic as her Facebook profile pic, and someone mentioned how awesome it is that she's in India. That's what I like about California, it's such a chameleon.

I couldn't decide amongst these Jimmy ocean shots, so you get all three.

I love a good jog in the sand.

And I love Wade.

But he was ready to go to Firestones, so we had to leave this joint.

Wade ate half a chicken and turned into Super Wade.

Firestone was great. The food was fabulous, their outdoor eating area is charming, and I love the twinkle lights, the outdoor fireplaces, and my family and friends.

Afterword we went to Bubblegum Alley which was like, five blocks away. I forgot how little SLO's blocks are, and I forgot that I live in Chicago. We were there in under 7 minutes. I have tons of pics of Bubblegum Alley, but they were all gross, so you'll just have to use your memory/imagination.

We went home, and lazed about the house. Tara came over to meet my peeps and ring in the New Year. Brandon and family were there, Mom, Pops, and Mary, and G-ma even made an appearance.

BFF pic!

We played games, took naps, laughed a lot, ate amazing nachos (good work, Jimmy) with amazing guacamole (good work, Brandon), popped poppers, laughed some more, rang in New York New Year (for the kids), rang in Chicago New Year (cause that's where we live), and rang in California New Year (cause we live in the present), and watched a movie and discussed unbelievably important topics. I loved every minute of everything. I am so glad my friends were able to visit. Being surrounded by friends and family is the perfect way to ring in the New Year.

Smart Friends

2012-01-07T07:42:00.001-08:00

Last night I was reading in a Hipster newspaper when I came across an ad I didn't understand. It was math. So I texted Claire, and she got it right away. An then I texted Elizabeth and she got it right away!

It nice to have smart friends who speak different languages.

Christmas Time Is Here

2011-12-15T19:45:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, one of the stakes in Chicagoland had a movie night. We all met at a theater downtown, and watched A Christmas Carol. You know, the newish one that was shown in 3D. Well, afterward we walked up Michigan Ave, and ended at Ghirardelli's. Well, I spotted a chocolate croissant, the kind Hope and I had been looking for since we met each other. Searching for chocolate croissants was actually the first thing we did together. So we bought a croissant, and it was truly delicious and I think the First Christmas Miracle of the season.

We also stopped for a pic with the big tree in front of the John Hancock building. I liked how blue it looked from far away. It doesn't look so blue in this picture however.

I've always thought that the biggest trial in my life might be to have children who are allergic to normal food. I've given this a lot of thought, and I think that is the thing that would cause me the most trouble. Well, that night we met a guy who was severely allergic to peanuts and some metals. And then it hit me: Could my biggest trial in life be to marry a man with food allergies? That sounds terrible! And what if our children were also allergic to everything? It would be a huge trial, that's for sure.

Employee of the Month

2011-12-15T19:06:00.000-08:00

November was kind of a big deal because I was named Employee of the Month! In true eDrop-off style, I received a necklace and also this rad poster:

And then everyone signed it!

I love being loved.

(Also, please note the use of "X" and "O" on there. I've never considered using them before, but maybe I should? I usually do a dash or a heart and then sign my name. But maybe it's time for a switch.)

Rush

2011-12-15T11:34:00.000-08:00

Have you noticed? I'm in a huge rush to post past events. I've been so busy, I just haven't been posting. But I want to remember these events, so I will post them all in December, and then move them to their correct months in a little while. Also, it's almost Christmas! That means great things will be happening that I will be sure to document. I'm going home for Christmas, and then some of my favorite people from Chicago will be visiting Atascadero for New Years! I'm so excited! This is why I've got to hurry and post everything before even more amazing things occur!

Tin Foil Dinners

2011-12-15T11:31:00.000-08:00

Hope and I get together for a meal at least once a week. The other week it was tin foil dinners. I just love tin foil diners. I think maybe Hope grey up calling them hobo dinners? But I had a problem with that, because where was the hobo going to get fresh produce?

Anyway, in her honor, and because we had a lot, we made a dinner for Diana!

And this candle doesn't mean anything except that we found it at the grocery store for 35 cents, and I just can't pass up a deal when I also get to burn something.

Chicago

2011-12-15T10:20:00.001-08:00

Since Diana moved and the Hope and Diana household was split, Hope has had someone visit her every other weekend. One weekend without prior planning, her mother and her cousin came for a visit!

I got to hang out with them. The best part is getting to know Hope's family and also getting to know Chicago! We went to Navy Pier. I have never been to Navy Pier. I was glad I finally had the chance to ride the ferris wheel.

There is also a fancy and crazy water feature on Navy Pier, which I tried to capture in the following shot.

We had deep dish, and we went to go see Mary Poppins on Broadway. It was amazing! I LOVED it. Since living in Chicago I've seen Wicked, Mary Poppins, and West Side Story. Mary Poppins was by far my favorite. When you come to Chicago we'll go and see it. I love it.

Tucson

2011-12-14T21:27:00.000-08:00

For Labor Day weekend, Elizabeth came up with this great idea that included meeting in Tucson and surprising the Balls. And, really, it was a very satisfying surprise. Amanda dropped everything she was holding, shrieked, and didn't even wake up her children. Amanda was pleased to see me, but I don't think Ethan was. He seems a bit on the fence about me in general.

PS, that photo was taken in the Ball's backyard. Their swanky backyard. With the swanky grass, and the swanky view of the swanky lake in their exclusively swanky housing development slash gated community.

The next photo is basically what everyone looked like all weekend. I realized, while going through photos, that we were rarely in a condition fit to be posted about on a blog. So we might not get too many photos of us hanging around the house. Cause seriously, it was pajama time and crazy hair for most of the weekend.

While Amanda practiced her skills and maintained her talents (playing righteous hymns on the piano),

I too practiced my skills (fishtail braiding)

and maintained my talents (InStyle reading).

Even though we were setting great examples and being super awesome with our talents, the girls were not impressed.

Oh well. So the weekend was awesome because Elizabeth brought her dog Jack. And I love dogs. The weekend was also awesome because we had a project. We were going to paint the living room. So, we dismantled the living room, and essentially made a mess. Stuff was everywhere. But we got it done. We were amazing.

Then we had to wait for the paint to dry, and everybody waited in their own way.

At some point during the weekend Tyler bought a barbecue. It was Labor Day Weekend, so of course we needed a barbecue. He put that thing together with lightening speed.

I also luxuriated in 100% silk sheets (it's high class or nothing at the Ball residence)

We took multiple walks around the lake,

Did awesome physical activity like sit ups,

balancing,

taking pictures of Odette,

and climbing over fences to get into the big dog park.

Big dog park = cooler than little dog park. Obviously we had to get in there.

Apparently the Balls are the only ones who participate in Church. They had multiple people call them and ask them to cover for them. Tyler and Elizabeth taught a Sunday School lesson to 14 year olds, Jacqueline and I taught the 5 year olds (or something) and Amanda was in charge of Sing Time in Primary. Good thing the Balls had all those surprise visitors, or who knows what would have happened!

Lillian and I did some reading. I love reading.

Nora and Jacqueline also did some reading, but they were a bit more proper and ladylike.

We ate a lot of fabulous things, including ribs and tri tip. Yeah, that's right. tri tip. I'm telling you, nothing but the best for the Balls.

On Monday we hit up the Zoo. This was an awesome photo op that that the girls kept hogging.

So Jacqueline and I had to move them a long.

And in the end the girls were still in the picture. They are so sneaky.

At the zoo you have the opportunity to feed the giraffes! You have to wait in a special line, but it's all worth it cause I got to see this awesome mohawk:

I got a fab souvenir that matched my outfit.

After the zoo (which had no pics of Elizabeth because we couldn't figure out how to pass off Jack as a medically necessary working dog, so he and Elizabeth had their own adventures outside of the zoo.)

we went for my very first Sonoran hot dog. Thankfully, Amanda had done her research (or seriously, we probably wouldn't be friends) and we went to the best hot dog place around.

If you can't find it, just remember that it is across the street from this building with this creepy van:

It looks disgusting. When the ingredients are listed it sounds disgusting. But when you eat one, all you can think about is how you want to eat another. Seriously. They were very good. They knock the socks off of a Chicago Dog, that's for sure.

After hot dogs we went back home to lay around and look at the paint job. Amanda noticed some places that needed to be touched up.

I noticed that I had never played Angry Birds before and what had I been doing with my life?

It was a fabulous weekend, made possible by Elizabeth. It was wonderful to spend time with people I love and just chillax. And by chillax I mean live life and stay busy and do a lot of work like paint a living room, balance on things, read magazines, braid hair, watch movies, cook, and make jokes. I loved every minute of it. I especially loved night swimming in the salt water pool. I need to do that more often.

End of Summer

2011-11-27T12:25:00.000-08:00

The day the calendar said summer was over was the day I reached into my bag and pulled out my broken sunglasses. And I was sad that summer was over.

Food Truck Social

2011-11-27T12:23:00.000-08:00

There was a magical time at the end of July in a mystical city called Chicago, where all of the food trucks in all the land gathered together in one area and they called it the Food Truck Social.

Naturally, I went after work with my coworkers.

Seriously, you wore wayfarers this summer, right?

I mean, we did. And we looked good in them too.

Well, I only had time to wait in line for a tamale at the Tamale Space Ship (A food truck that looks like a space ship and is driven by peoples wearing Mexican style wrestling masks) and then I had to jet off to do some babysitting.

The tamales were amazing.

Seriously, you were into ombre this summer, right?

I mean, I was.

Starved Rock

2011-11-27T12:07:00.000-08:00

As I'm sure you've figured out, I had an amazing summer. It was filled with one awesome thing after another. Sometime in July I went hiking with Diana, Hope, and Sandy at Starved Rock. Starved Rock is over an hour away from Chicago. Thankfully, Hope has a vehicle, so we were able to escape the city for the afternoon.

Here we are on the actual rock. Well, we are on a wooden pathway right above the rock. I guess everyone wants to climb on and touch the rock, and so in order to preserve it, they had to build these pathways. BTW, Starved Rock had something to do with the indigenous peoples, one group got stuck on this rock while another group surrounded the rock, and the people on the rock all starved, and it didn't turn out well for them which is really confusing because of the Bible story with the wise man building his house on a rock and everything worked out really well for him.

After seeing The Rock, we wandered around the hiking trails a bit.

For some reason, finding this didn't worry me at all.

It was a lovely afternoon. And there were water crossings. I don't know why, but I'm such a wuss when it comes to water when I'm not properly outfitted. Anyway, we had fun (although I do remember being an instigator for contention, so maybe we should ask my friends if they had fun) but I ended up fairly dehydrated, so maybe I got what I deserved from being so contentious.

The Night Before Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T20:00:00.001-08:00

According to the VDG's, the night before Thanksgiving is the TRUE start of the holiday season, because it ushers in the holiday festivities. (I hope you celebrated accordingly.) The VDG's are a couple from my branch presidency. They are 1) Some of my biggest fans, 2) Hilarious, 3) Talented, 4) Huge Old Movie Buffs. Tonight was a viewing of If I Had A Million at the old theater down the street from me. They were of course going to attend, and they invited me as they always do.

As we were walking down the street after the movie, we were discussing the plans for Thanksgiving Dinner that they were hosting tomorrow. They have invited all the lonely singles. Turns out their last head count was somewhere around 26. Twenty-Six?! That's crazy. It was also mentioned that Sister VDG's nephew would be there. And he's single! And 28. No, 29. No, 28. (It was undetermined.) Anyway, he is apparently very good looking, and oh, has been on Jeopardy a few times. He should be arriving at the VDG's in a few hours, and will be helping set up chairs before dinner.

So, what do you think? Should I arrive early and flirt? I mean, help set up?

Break Your Heart, Nice and Pretty

2011-11-19T10:48:00.001-08:00

If we get married, can this be our wedding song?

Fall Weather

2011-11-18T10:52:00.000-08:00

This has been an amazing fall! I can't hardly believe it! It reminds me of fall in California. We have had cloudy days, we have had sunshine-y days, we have had warm days and cool days, we have had gorgeous fall color, and leaves flying on the wind. It hasn't even snowed yet! This shocks me to no end. To be absolutely correct, it did snow for about 20 minutes last week. Like, real flakes floating to the ground. It was gorgeous to watch it come down. I loved it. But then it was gone.

Everyone has loved this weather. I know people who (annoyingly) are already complaining about winter. Obviously, it's not here, so stop complaining. But I'm ready for it! People may roll their eyes, but I want SNOW in December! It's just so festive. Plus, I have new snow boots I want to try out. That really is the driving force behind my desire for snow: Fashion.

Fashion's Night Out

2011-11-17T11:41:00.000-08:00

In case you haven't been keeping track, September was a few months ago. Fashion Night Out (because you know all about it) was in September. Naturally I went (thanks work! and thanks for the VIP swag bags!) and it was tons of fun. My coworker and I jumped in a cab after work and first headed down to Saks on Michigan where we went to celebrate Brian Atwood's more affordable (read: still not affordable) shoe collection.

I LOVED the DJ. I don't know who that guy was but he was amazing. So I requested that Christy take a photo of me with the DJ in the background. Do any of you recognize him? Any idea what his name is? I don't have a lot of DJing needs, but I wouldn't mind knowing his name.

Christy

Our favorite shoes from the new collection

They also had models wearing the most stunning pieces. I don't know how models do it, man. They must have been exhausted. When we didn't actually spy Brian, we went up to the 900 Shops to meet up with the rest of our coworkers and some of my friends. Look! Friends:

Scary

2011-11-03T19:59:00.000-07:00

I am so glad Halloween is over. Not simply because I don't like it, but mostly because it is too scary!

Specifically, the houses on my walk home from work all had scary decorations that scare the bejeebers out of me. I couldn't handle it. I tried alternate paths home, but they were all equally scary. Soon I realized I should just stick to one path and memorize the specific scariness of each residence. It makes for a stressful walk home, but it was the only way to do it.

I'm so glad it's over. Now it's on to happier decorations. Thank goodness.

The Dentist

2011-10-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

This might sound like crazy talk, but I went to the dentist and loved it.

A while ago I was having sharp pains in my mouth. It felt like a filling had come loose, so I made up my mind to go to the dentist.

I don't have a dentist in Chicago. I googled it. The first place that came up seemed legit, so I booked an appointment. I went in to the appointment experiencing the same feelings I always feel: fear, defeat, denial. That's when I met Dr. Stec and his assistant, George. We took x-rays of the area of complaint, and it turns out I needed a root canal. And BONUS! They had time to do the root canal that very day! It was also discovered that I needed a root canal on the tooth right behind the one that hurt so much, and as I left the office I promised I would soon schedule an appointment for my second root canal.

I didn't do that. Instead, I scheduled for a cleaning and general exam. See, I had a feeling that there was more trouble afoot, and we better get all the information before we go and do root canals all willy-nilly like.

So yesterday when I walked into the office, I realized that I would probably be there fairly frequently, so I might as well start enjoying myself. And, seriously, it was so fun! We were making jokes all over the place, and general merriment was the topic of the hour. Of course, I got my cleaning and exam. It was discovered that I had some pretty big cavities (other than the aforementioned root canal cavity) that needed crowns. They had the time, so Dr. Stec and George got started on my crown prep. Really and truly, it was a lot of fun. I go back in two weeks to meet with my new friends. And also get my official crown.

Fly By The Seat

2011-09-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type of girl. Most of the time it leads to wonderful and delightful things, but recently it has also ended up quite expensive.

I was walking to the L with a co-worker, and as we passed a French restaurant she said, "Oh, french onion soup sounds really good right now."

I looked at her and said, "Indeed it does! Want to get some?"

So we did. And it was delicious. It was delightful! It was wonderful! The setting, the company, the food! All the food! Yup, that's right. I decided on a whim that I would eat french onion soup for dinner and ended up partaking in a three course meal. Oh well. It was amazing. It just cost more than the nothing I was going to spend at home eating my roommate's leftovers.

Ombre Day

2011-08-29T22:17:00.000-07:00

I've been into ombre for the past two weeks. I painted my nails blue ombre, and I painted my eyelids blue-purple ombre this morning. My coworkers noticed, and they snapped this shot:

Yup; that's what I look like when I'm at work. Sleepy. Actually, I closed my eyes for the benefit of the shot. You're welcome.

But then. But then! Suddenly I remembered the rad ombre shoes I've been wearing, so naturally those had to get in the shot as well.

It's all just another day at work.

P.S. If you enlarge the photos you'll really get an idea of how ombre I really am. It's pretty serious, this ombre stuff.

P.P.S. Today I had the pleasure of receiving a root canal. Does one side of my face look puffier than the other?

Work Fun

2011-08-18T16:12:00.000-07:00

Last week my work hosted a party at a local bar as a finale party for a charity auction we had on our eBay store. (Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants had donated clothes they wore on the show to benefit the American Red Cross). Anyhoo, at the pre-party Diana and I got our hair and make-up done, and we met our friend Lindsy at Rockit. It was so much fun, and the mini burgers and fries they had at Rockit were simply divine. My work can be pretty fun sometimes. I mean, I don't mind it.

Photo Credit: Gillian Fry

Another Great Day

2011-08-18T15:54:00.000-07:00

Today I had a leisurely wake up time, hung out on the interwebs, practiced some new hair braiding techniques, got ready for work, then went with a coworker to the best Thai buffet in Chicago. "Best" means delicious and $6.99. After discussing many things, including the plot line to The Lord of The Rings (seriously, I don't understand that book), and our activities for the evening (I'm going to a RS party, she is going to an outdoor viewing of The Lord of the Rings with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing the soundtrack), we stumbled out of Diva Thai and waited for our bus to work.

Work was chillax. Relatively. Do you remember how I said that maybe we would be getting a reality TV show? Well, we did, and we've been filming for the past week now. So, we have another staff running around the office, capturing our every move. (Interesting side note: When they first showed up, they were wearing all black. However, the next time I saw them, it appeared they have been instructed to show up in roughly the same dress code we do. Their application of our dress code is pretty funny. At least they try.)

We have an event in the 'burbs tonight. A new Ann Taylor is opening, and we were invited. All of the peeps going to that had their hair done, and the publicity company sent pizza over. Soon the chartered bus rolled up. (Last week we charted a trolly to a charity event with Molly and Trista from the Bachelor and Bachelorette.) Everyone asked me if I was going to the event, but I told them I had a Relief Society event to go to. Because of the Ann Taylor event, we stopped working at 4.

As I was walking to my vacation home around 4:30 (I have been living with Diana for the past week), I ran through my day in my mind. It's been pretty good. I like this life. I have nothing that must occupy my brain tonight. My only stress right now is trying to finish The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie before Diana realizes I stole it from her.

It's a good life.

Mark in Chicago and Bean Fries

2011-07-27T10:17:00.000-07:00

As previously stated, Mark Egan was at my house. And I wasn't. C'mon, Cohen! I raced home (stood at bus stops) and I finally got to see my old friend. I gave him a quick tour of my place, we snacked up, then it was time to hit the town! We swung by the Cultural Center because I love it there. It is amazing. It was there I remembered that our next stop, the Art Institute, was closed for the rest of the day.

We quickly changed plans by following the masses of people heading to Millennium Park. Hello, free concert! I love Chicago in the summer.

After we heard some beats we wondered over to Cloud's Gate.

I told Mark that the main activity at the Bean is to take pictures of yourself in the Bean. I don't think he was paying attention:

He was busy capturing this. Looks like a sound wave, huh? Or maybe a worm hole to another universe? Or maybe just a mirror?

If you've ever been under the bean, you'll know it looks a bit like this:

If you've ever met Mark before, you would know that he would need to conduct some experiments to find out how tall the underside of the Bean is, and he would use whatever he had on hand to conduct said experiments. In the above picture, can you see him throwing a wadded-up pamphlet?

We checked out the rest of Millennium Park and its environs,

We walked up Michigan Ave to the river, where we posed for a pic with the Trump Tower,

and also the other weird buildings I can never remember the name of,

and settled down for a delicious riverside dinner, which happens to be the place that I went to with my parents just a few short days ago.

It was a gorgeous night. Mark lucked out on that one.

We walked around a bit more, then jumped on the L to go up to Lincoln Park (the 'hood, not the park), where we met Hope and Diana for a little West Side Story movie in the park.

The next morning he was gone, off to continue on his great journey.

Diana's Birthday Day

2011-07-26T22:07:00.000-07:00

A half hour after my parents left I packed my bags and I went home with Hope and Diana. It is our usual Sunday routine to have a sleep over, and it was also Diana's birthday in the morning!

We woke up about five hours after the sun was up (the sun was waking up really early) and we went for.. wait for it.. BRUNCH! On our way we found a special birthday wish for Diana:

We went to Southport Grocery and had the most amazing breakfasts.

I had a bruchetta scramble number,

And Diana had bread pudding pancakes which basically knocked her socks off. They were rich and amazing.

After breakfast, although we could hardly move, we made our way downtown. It was a gorgeous day. I love when Chicago tries to woo me. We ended up at the last remaining Boarders in Chicago and went crazy looking for great deals and hard to find books. It was great!

Then suddenly, I get a text from Mark Egan. He's at my house.

Mom and Pops

2011-07-25T21:49:00.000-07:00

I needed a manicure. My parents were coming to visit me, and I had just hung up the phone with my mother, who said she had "no idea" where they were, so I figured I had plenty of time to walk over to my local nail salon and get a mani. The parents had just finished up a Church History Tour and were driving up to see me. Five minutes later I was contemplating nail polish color when I got a text that said, "We're here." What? "We're here," like, in Chicago? On my street? I walked home and there they were! My parents came to visit me! It was so nice to see them, and remember how awesome they are! First order of business: eat a hotdog. This is Mother, biting into a sport pepper for the first time. Turns out they were too spicy.

And Pops, ready to dive into his.

It was wicked hot, and my AC suddenly stopped working. While trying to contact my landlord, it was best to find ourselves some free AC or wind or something. We headed to the loop. Mom and Pop, down town Chicago. See the tall shiny building in the background? That's Trump Tower. The older building next to it? Wrigley Building.

We went to the Chicago Cultural Center because I absolutely love it, and then on to the Art Institute because it is my favorite museum in Chi-town.

The lost diadem:

We kept an eye on the time, because we were meeting my roommate Amanda for dinner! She was leaving town that weekend, but I wanted her to meet Mom and Pops, so we caught a bite to eat right before she had to leave!

We ate at this cool little riverside cafe with live music. It was wonderful! Dad gave us relationship advice, which Amanda tried, and it worked, and I tried, and it failed. Sigh.

At the river walk.

Mom was hot. Well, we were all hot, but she was the most hot. The plan was for them to stay at my apartment, but certain death would arise there because our AC (and our landlord) wasn't working. So on this bench it was decided that we would get a hotel for the night.

I love Chicago.

We made it back to the apartment, brought down my parents luggage, I packed an overnight bag (story of my life) and we hopped in the car. We decided to pick up Hope and Diana and do a little driving tour. We went down Lake Shore Drive, past Soldier Stadium, past Cellular Field (this was a driving tour for Father) and then up to River North and Michigan Avenue, where we stopped at the Rock 'n Roll McDonalds and got Rollo McFlurries. Those things are legit.

We make it to the hotel (out by the airport) around Midnight Thirty, or something, just when a storm was rolling in. We slept like logs. We woke up to housekeeping, and I realized I hadn't slept that well in months. We hurried down to breakfast, and then back up to the room to chat and get ready like family does. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Also, the storm was crazy, and that area kind of got the worst of it, so it was awesome to watch. When things calmed down, it was decided that we would go to the Baha'i Temple. We were able to go into the visitors center and learn more about it. It's pretty cool, and there are lots of similarities to the LDS faith, except, you know, we believe in modern day prophets, the Atonement, the priesthood, and a myriad of other things.

We went to a random cavern type restaurant, which Mom kept calling Greek (everything was Greek because she's seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding... and we didn't even go to Greek Town). We raced home in time for the AC guy to show up and fix our AC.

Then we hung out on the porch (cause I have a porch) and bought tickets for an architectural boat tour! While standing on the L platform I realized I was orange-y. Proof:

We drank a lot of Gatorade that weekend.

On the tour we even passed by the little cafe we ate at the night before! Cute!

After our boat ride it was time for a little deep dish! Oh, it was so good. I love it. All chewy and delicious and everything. By the time we finished dinner it was past 10, and Mom and Pop were tired. Exhausted. Worn out. And we still had to wait for the bus:

The next day found us bright eyed and bushy tailed, to use a phrase my father uses ALL the time and which I've never actually found to be able to apply to me. Chicago loves brunch. It seems to think there is nothing better than brunch. Naturally I had to take my parents to at least one brunch spot, so we chose Ann Sathers. It was so good, and I think my parents began to understand the phenomenon that is Chicago Brunch.

What's that Giants shirt my dad is wearing? Oh yeah, did I mention we were going to a Cubs game? Naturally we dressed appropriately:

Father loves baseball. I think the baseball tickets were the first thing he thought of when he was planning this trip.

We had some pretty wicked cool seats that Father found somewhere on the interwebs. He bought them from some old lady in the suburbs.

After the game (the Cubs won! WHAT?!), we transited back to my place where naps were taken, and then we went to the store, because we were having taco salad the next night with all my friends!

Somehow the afternoon turned into evening and it was discussed that I still needed a manicure. It turns out my parents needed mani pedis too, so we walked over to my neighborhood nail joint. I had walked my parents all over Chicago, and they were really happy to sit in the pedi chairs and get foot massages.

Father, watching Korean television:

After our pampering we ran home, I popped some popcorn on the stove (my favorite kind) threw it in a bowl, and we were off to Lake Shore Drive in hopes of catching the fireworks display off of Navy Pier. FYI, every week in the summer Navy Pier has a fireworks show every Wednesday and Saturday. We were driving along LSD when we see a bunch of cars kind of pulled over. We got behind them and just sat there on LSD and watched the fireworks and ate popcorn. It was awesome. It's the best (easiest and most comfortable) way to do fireworks.

The next day we went to Church (in the elementary school in Lincoln Park) and then I wanted to take a little driving tour of Lincoln Park. I grabbed my friend Sandy, and we took them to my work:

We stopped by the Wiener's Circle:

then we passed the zoo and the huge park. Well, it's no Central Park, but it's big and it's pretty, and it is certainly a part of Chicago that couldn't be missed.

We went home and prepared dinner. I love anything that has to do with tacos. And did you know, Mother's nail polish matched the tomatoes perfectly?

Later that night Mom and Pop went to a hotel out by the airport because they were to catch an early flight the next morning. It was lovely to have them visit. And I cried when they left.

An Atlanta Fourth of July

2011-07-06T07:46:00.000-07:00

Happy Fourth of July! This year for the fourth, I ran down to Atlanta with my friends Hope and Diana, to visit Diana's homestead. We were greeted by this:

Well, actually, we were greeted by this:

Which was then put in the pigs, and the pigs were put in this:

Wait a minute. Hold the phone. Let's back it up a bit. We left Chicago early Friday morning, journeyed through Gary, Indiana, and then went through the rest of Indiana, and down to Kentucky! I've never been there, so it was kinda of a big deal.

The whole way down I chilled in the back seat and ate Pirate's Booty.

Well, obviously I wasn't eating Pirate's Booty the whole time. Because the rest of the time I was reading aloud this book:

We had a goal to finish it before we made it back to Chicago, and I'm pleased to report that we successfully met our goal. And before nightfall, too.

I don't know if you know, but I'm from California, and have never been to the south. Which means I've never been to Chick-fil-a before. So we stopped by to use the restroom and take this pic:

Oh, and check this out! They had a complimentary outlet for all my charging needs! Man, outlets were a hot commodity in New York. We were always looking for one, and did a lot of ghetto rigging. But here, at this classy Chick-fil-a, they offer a sweet outlet free of charge!

Once we finally got to Georgia, we realized we were very hungry and we stopped for my very first Chick-fil-a meal. It was delicious. And the manager was hot.

Around midnight (or something) we rolled up to Diana's house. It was a land full of activity, because they had to get the pigs ready to cook, because they were going to be eaten at the luau the next afternoon. As you can imagine, I felt a bit overwhelmed, so Hope and I started making friendship bracelets. They are all the rage this summer, you know.

Somewhere around 3 in the morning (okay, prolly not, but it felt like it) I finally went to bed. The next morning we went to the Atlanta Aquarium! I read about it in a book once, and had been dying to visit. You know I like myself a good aquarium.

It was legit. I really liked it. They had baby belugas! I know, awesome, right? Also, they had sea otters! I simply adore sea otters. Cute little things. Playing and playing and in the wild working on getting dinner. Well, we get to the sea otter exhibit, and guess where they were from? Monterey, California, of course! Which brings me to my next point: I will always love the Monterey Bay Aquarium no matter where I may journey in this world. It's just a fact.

After the aquarium we went to the Varsity which is the most happinin' hot spot in all of Atlanta. It was intense. This is how intense it was:

Hope and I basically had the same face as we were ordering, but thankfully Diana was in her element and was able to successfully order for all of us.

It was quite good. Greasy, but a good kind of grease. We made a pit stop for some bagels, and Hope and I spied a Ross! We LOVE Ross! Diana had no idea what we were talking about, and we had to convince her that she wanted to go shopping there. I am pleased to report that we all got new dresses! AND, I found the sheath dress that got stolen from me after DC! That's right, I bought a dress in DC, went back to Chicago, it got stolen, a few weeks later I go to Atlanta, and I end up finding that same dress again! It was a miracle! I look so good in that dress. Sigh. I couldn't even believe it. But there it was. We loaded up the car with our purchases (I love to shop!) and headed back to the Carlson homestead. When we got back to Diana's, we arrived just in time for the removal of the pigs!

Just FYI, Atlanta was wicked hot. And humid. And gross. It was sick, is all I'm saying.

The High Priests came over to help shred the pigs. Ew. I don't like behind the scenes food stuff.

This is what Diana thought of it:

A bit later that afternoon, all of the Mormons in the Atlanta area came to the Carlson's for a huge Fourth of July Luau!

It just so happened that Sandy has a friend living in Atlanta, so she flew down for an Atlanta visit!

Chicago in Atlanta.

Later that night we hung out with some of Diana's friends, and also ate leftover corn in the kitchen.

That's me and Hope, and of course Katie, Diana's sister in law, who I happened to meet as we were both working EFY in Santa Barbara in 2004 or 2005 or something. So, Katie and I go way back.

The next morning was church, and it was kinda a huge deal because they split the Atlanta Ward, and Diana's dad got released from being the Bishop. It was a long day. But in the end, we finally got what we came down to Atlanta for: I tour of the yard given by her Pop.

Their yard is HUGE and Brother Carlson loves gardening, so our tour was detailed and awesome.

The tour:

Front yard:

Somewhere amidst all the activities, a time honored Carlson tradition was not forgotten: Blueberry pie.

It. Was. The. Most. Amazing. Blueberry. Pie. I've. Ever. Had.

FYI, these people have like, 2900 blueberry bushes in their garden. I learned about that on the tour.

The next morning arrived in gorgeous splendor.

It was the Fourth of July, and everyone was preparing to run the Peach Tree Road Race, the largest road race in the world, apparently. By "everyone" I mean everyone in Atlanta besides me and Hope. We stayed at home and made cinnamon rolls instead.

After the race we hit the pool, and then a rainstorm hit us. It POURED. And stormed. It was crazy. It was noisy. I wish the noise came from fireworks instead of thunder. Oh well. It was our last night in Atlanta, and despite the rainstorm, we still went out for ice cream, and all in all we had a really fun trip.

The morning we were to roll out, we decided to pick some blueberries first. We needed some in Chicago!

We quickly swung by the temple:

It was newly rededicated after going through some renovations.

The trip back to Chicago was easy. I finished my bracelet:

We finished the book, and we went to Waffle House, which I like to call Waffle Ranch, and experienced a slice of Tennessee charm unknown to me before. It provided great joy and amusement, and also cheap food.

Happy Fourth!

New YOOORK!

2011-06-28T20:53:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I go to New York. Well, just the once, actually. It appeared that I had a free weekend in June, so Tamry, Sandy and I planned a trip to New York! At first Sandy was just going to meet us there, but it turned out she could get on the same flight as us!

Proof:

We landed in New York, and took my very first New York Subway ride. It looks like every picture or movie I've ever seen with a New York Subway.

We were on our way to our hostel, and when we emerged from the subway, we found my inheritance:

We ended up staying at the Y, which is fabulous, because my elderly neighbor back home firmly believes in the Y. When she found out I was moving to Chicago, she told me not to worry about a thing, because I could just go and check into the women's housing at the Y while I looked for an apartment. They could also help me find a job. That's how she did it when she moved to Chicago anyway. I'm glad I got to stay at the Y even if it's in New York and not in Chicago.

We dropped our things off in a back room at the hostel, and decided it was time for lunch. It turns out one of our friends from Chicago was also in New York, and only about 10 blocks away. We met up with her for lunch at a Thai place in Manhattan.

We found a convenience store near our hostel, and we ran in there for drinks. What did I find? My new favorite obsession: Flav water. I found it once at a 7-Eleven in Chicago, and have been searching for it ever since. I was so happy to find it in New York; I bought four.

Then it was time to hit the city! We flew in on Saturday morning, and were leaving mid day Monday.

Possibly Fifth Avenue:

Obviously Times Square:

My buddy Daniel Radcliffe was all over Times Square. He just loves it there. And he loves being huge.

And, did you know in New York the cops love to hang out in groups? Do you think they are all working on a crossword puzzle?

Due to lack of time we decided we would let a tour guide take us to all the touristy spots, and then we wouldn't have to do the legwork. So, we jumped on a bus. A tour bus, not the normal kind of bus.

Oh, more cops in groups. They must have finished that crossword puzzle.

So, do you want to hear about a super awesome and hilarious inside joke from the trip? Of course you do! Well, that convenience store I mentioned earlier is called Duane Reade. Naturally, I've never heard of this before, and I had a hard time remembering those two names. So, I would call it any variation of a D and an R name that I felt like, and most times the R was forgotten. Anyway, the one I think I settled on most frequently was Don Juan. Well, we passed so many Don Juan's that I felt like I needed to take a picture to prove it's existence, so here you go:

For dinner we went to Carnegie Deli, which was a joke. By a joke, I mean it had ridiculously huge portion sizes, the wait staff was only interested in turning over their tables and apparently not in earning a tip, and the pickles were gross. But, maybe I came at it with the wrong attitude.

This is a super awesome clock that I learned about that I knew I didn't need to notate in my phone because I'm really smart and could remember exactly what it was.

So, it's the hours, minutes and seconds till midnight, and the other half is the hours, minutes, and seconds till the new year? That's my guess, anyway.

Also sighted, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints "I'm a Mormon" campaign. Times Square, huh, guys? Fancy!

After gallivanting about, we made it back to our hostel around 1:30 AM. We got ourselves a private room, and it sure was fancy!

When we woke up on Sunday morning we got to see the view from our hostel, which was pretty cool.

Then, we made our way to church. There was some ridiculousness getting there, because apparently the random bus stop we chose required that we pay outside first, and couldn't use our metro cards. What? What's wrong with you, New York? Have you ever heard of Chicago? They have this really great system where tourists can buy a 1, 3, or 7 day pass, and they have unlimited rides on every single bus or L in the city. Maybe you should adopt that system. None of this, "Oh, actually, to ride this bus you have to go back outside, around the corner, to the tree with the hobbit hole, and barter with the hobbits to give you a secret code to cash in at the Don Juan to give you a slip of paper to ride the bus because we don't take the metro card even though we previously told you that if you bought one of those you would be good to travel around NYC. Thanks though."

Do you spy the church sign right above our heads? Well, we went inside, and found the chapel. We got there very early and just waited and waited and waited for church to start. It finally did, you know, after everyone got there. After church we smiled at a few people, which was a mistake. I guess if you live in New York you have to be a jerkface, and if you are a Member in New York you are still a jerkface. We were all saying how we would probably go inactive if we lived there, especially if we were interns. These people will break your spirit, and fast! Anyway, the sacrament was the same, and it doesn't matter if everyone around us is mean, we could still renew our covenants and then get on with our day.

In every Don Juan, and in every eatery they were selling Poland Spring Direct. What? What is this place?

We swung by Bloomingdale's, and then went to experience a miracle on 34th street.

The Macy's seriously is huge, and it was so huge that I got lost for a while and took a rest in the McDonald's on the top floor. Then it was time to vend from the street vendors!

We lucked out and saw another group of cops. I think they were looking for another crossword puzzle to do.

We had a few goals when we went to New York:

1) Eat ice cream from an ice cream truck.

2) Buy matching sunglasses

3) Walk the Brooklyn Bridge!

This is my best Brooklyn face:

Well, once in Brooklyn, we had to get pizza at Grimaldi's. We ended up making friends with a mother daughter duo from England, and when the daughter saw the line for the pizza she exclaimed, "Mothah! We half to queue? We half to queue for peetzah?!"

When my friends heard that, they weren't exactly sure what she was saying. I guess they don't read British literature. Or have a Netflix account.

The queue:

The pizza:

It was okay. It was certainly tasty, and it melted in your mouth. However, I prefer to chew my pizza, so this is not my particular style of pizza.

4) Ride the Staten Island Ferry

5) Take multiple blurry pictures of the skyline

6) See the bull in the financial district

After the bull, we decided to roll back up to Times Square because we needed some souvenirs.

Seeing how it was like, midnight thirty or something, Tamry was pretty tired. She found this button and almost shut down all of Times Square:

The next morning we packed our bags and went out into the gross Manhattan streets to complete our list. Thankfully, it was a gorgeous day.

7) Walk where Tina Fey has walked.

30 Rock, baby!

We grabbed lunch inside 30 Rock and found these awesome murals:

Then we took a quick rest before heading off to the airport.

Sandy, doing what she does best: making the airport machines give us our boarding passes.

The last Don Juanito we stopped at had Just the Reds!

And Tamry, chillin' before our flight.

Bye! See you in Chicago! Oh, also, the cops say bye, and thanks for visiting!

Kansas Separates the Wheat From the Tares

2011-06-23T23:00:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, I raced home from work (waited patiently while the bus took its sweet time) and burst through the doors just as my roommate Amanda was getting home. We were both very excited. Why? Because of Kansas of course! Hello, wheat harvest! We had a million things to say to each other, and we had a million things to do, and somehow we got it all done and even managed to eat a quick snack before it was time to go.

Jimmy was coming over, and Tom was going to pick us all up. Seeing how we each had a bag, a purse (I'm talking about me and Amanda, not the guys) a pillow, and a shopping cart full of road snacks, we decided to just lug our stuff down stairs and wait for the men.

Soon Jimmy rolled up, toiletries in hand!

Oh man, we were so excited. We were talking and talking and talking and soon realized Tom wasn't anywhere to be found. After some texting, it was discovered that Tom had about 12-39 lights in his car that needed replacing before we left. Being extraordinarily patient (false) and grateful (true) that Tom is taking safety seriously, we decided to kill time by complaining about how hungry we were. Jimmy solved our problem and ran to get some pizza around the corner. Because you can do that in Chicago. Pizza around the corner. That's just how it is.

A slice of pizza and a few jokes later, Tom arrived, saw the pizza, and started eating. I guess he was hungry.

Finally, we were on the road! Everyone was given a job. I was photographer and social media expert, Amanda was activities coordinator, Jimmy was DJ, Tom was designated driver, Wendy was safety officer, and Sandy was late evening cheerleader.

We were just leaving the city when we took this picture. Can you see Chicago behind Amanda?

Jimmy took his job as DJ seriously. I love this photo. I love that he is holding his iPhone while looking at his computer while plugging something into the car. It all just feels right.

So it turns out that Kansas is about 10 hours away from Chicago, and we were driving through the night.

About every half hour someone would jolt awake and ask the driver, "Hey, are you okay?" The driver would answer yes, and we would go back to sleep. Or, Tom would say no and immediately pull over to the side of the road. Either way, we stayed safe. Around 3 or 4 in the morning (I have no idea) we pulled into the Kansas City airport, because that's where we were picking up Sandy and Wendy of course!

According to the story I understood, they each landed in Kansas right around the time we left Chicago. They were patient as they waited for us to get there. Well, they didn't complain about it anyway.

Then came the tricky part:

and also,

Don't show Mom that last pic, she would be scandalized.

We rolled up to Amanda's place just as the morning was starting to make a presence.

Amanda's house:

She let me stay in the left wing.

Amanda's yard:

We were all kind of wired from being up all night, and although I couldn't sleep, I needed a break, so I looked around, spied a dog,

and he led me to a hammock. It was a great morning. After some rest, some dog time, some sunshine, and enough wind to make me realize that Dorothy's house really could get lifted up and moved to another location entirely, Amanda came out and announced breakfast was ready. It was delicious! Pancakes and eggs and orange juice.

As you know, time in Chicago is really fast. Even as I'm writing this blog I'm contemplating how much longer I can keep at it before I need to move on to other things. As you probably guessed, time in Kansas slows down. It was great. I had no idea what time it was the entire weekend. I would look at my watch, but it didn't compute. Kansas is a magical place.

It was so magical, that we hoped this special rice would help Wendy's phone recover from getting drenched in a rain storm.

After breakfast came the highlight of the trip: A tour of the John Deere dealership! Amanda's Dad owns the dealership, so we got a very personal tour. We saw all the different parts of the place, all sorts of different tractors, and we met people with names like Guffy. Or something.

Highlight of the tour: popcorn.

My glamour shot; just off to get some groceries...

Tom's glamour shot:

Jimmy's glamour shot:

High Councilman Pavlovsky, "Load 'em and dump 'em."

Now everybody!

Outside the dealership is an inspirational statue.

After the tour and photo shoot, Joe (High Councilman Pavlovsky) treated us to Sonic! Sigh. Oh Sonic, it's been so long...

We chatted it up with Amanda's parents, and we each went around and told of our heritage. We also found out who had half brothers and sisters. There was some surprises in there (Wendy) and we heard all about how Tom's parents met and how they came over from the old country (Poland) and decided to raise their children (Tom, plus others) in Chicago.

After lunch we went to Walmart because Jimmy needed swim trunks. He chose a royal blue pair. They are nice.

Immediately putting the trunks to good use, Amanda found us a great place for an afternoon swim. Our hosts had this awesome raft thing, which Amanda swears could fit like, 15 people. (Never mind the manufacturer recommendations.)

While there, our host asked Tom about his heritage. I think she was tipped off. So, we heard about how Tom's parents met and how they came over from the old country (Poland) and decided to raise their children (Tom, plus others) in Chicago.Seriously, Tom, just produce a romantic comedy about your parents (plus how you happen to speak three or so languages and what you do for a living) and pass it out to people so we can get on with our day.

After swimming we went back to the John Deere Dealership because I needed a hat.

Back at the Pav's and still in our swimwear, we got to drive a tractor!

Wait, not that tractor. That is Great Grandpa's tractor (or something). Instead, we drove this tractor! Sandy makes a great model:

I'm pretty sure this is my favorite tractor photo:

Tom couldn't be bothered with a posed pic.

I could though.

This is my artsy shot of Amanda, because, you know, I get artsy sometimes.

I'm pretty sure Jimmy is contemplating a good Kansas name for himself.

While we were taking turns with the tractor, we had a photo shoot. We all looked pretty great coming straight from the pool, so naturally we took lots of pictures. I helped out in the shed. (In Kansas, Shed=Giant Barn)

Amanda told us that the correct place for picture taking was in the wheat field. I had no idea that was even allowed!

I don't really know how it ended up that I was so far away from Wendy, but I was. It looks like we don't like each other, but we do.

Hey Tom, remember the time when you tried to push me over so that I would fall on Wendy and Jimmy? Hmm.. Remember that? Maybe this picture will jog your memory:

And finally, the whole point of coming to Kansas: The great wheat and tare separation.

And then eating the kernels?

Sorry, Wendy. I may or may not have told Jimmy that you could chew the kernels and it would turn into gum. I just remember my friend Liji (like Fiji) got me and Tara to chew a whole mouthful of wheat kernels in the hopes that it would turn into gum. It didn't.

This next picture is really great because the women are all riled up about something and the men don't seem to care at all. Does anyone remember the topic?

The pup's name is Oreo, and I love him.

After our photo shoot we went inside and had dinner. Amanda's mom made homemade pizza. In true mother style, she couldn't give me the recipe because she made it up as she went along. It was delicious! Soon after dinner, someone spied the field across the road was getting harvested! I hope we didn't break anything as we ran out of the house in chaos.

Wow, look at those huge combines!

We stood out there a while enjoying the general splendor of it all.

Naturally, I took some videos, and naturally I didn't edit them:

Soon we noticed a storm was blowing in. While the womenfolk stayed on the porch, all the men (including Oreo) gathered to discuss whatever they might discuss at this special time. Weather? Wheat harvest logistics? BBQ? I don't know.

Soon we were instructed to hang out on the porch while we continued to watch the storm and the wheat harvest.

Joe was listening to his special tornado walkie-talkie and soon instructed us to head down to the basement. Please note that in case of an emergency, Joe was very good at instructing, and we were very good at following directions.

Tornadoes are very exciting, and if you follow my tweets, you will know I made sure to take my duties as social media expert very seriously, in spite of the dangerous conditions. Well, after we calmed down, we spent a good half hour deciding on a movie to watch. Nacho Libre was chosen, and it took us all of ten minutes for everyone to fall asleep. I think we had all forgotten that we had been up all night. Amanda's parents said, "Everyone go to bed!" So we did.

The next morning was gorgeous and we just kinda hung out. We had a fabulous breakfast of biscuits and gravy, and all sat around the table chatting and talking about life and love.

Amanda's mom performed on the accordion. Before she began, she told us that she doesn't like to swear. Her song:

Jimmy was trying to tell me that we were on a date:

This was a date, too:

And this:

The end of our date:

Apparently in Kansas, you burn your trash and you throw your compost into the corn field.

I don't think anyone showed Sandy how to toss cantaloupe rinds.

Well, almost to the corn field.

After cleaning up we had a dance party, per usual:

Intrigued by that last photo? Do you wish to know more? Well tilt your head to the side and let the fun ensue!

We also took a walk. This is Amanda's road:

I love a walk in the summer sunshine with Oreo.

Soon it was time to check out the town. This is General McPherson. He did something so awesome that some people decided to make a statue of him and also name a town after him:

Our band photo:

For lunch we went to Braum's Ice Cream Shop! Yum! I got a double scoop and some fries and I think I paid less than 4 bucks. I had the same thing for dinner tonight and I'm pretty sure it was around 8 bucks. Sigh. Oh, it's nice to live the Kansas life every once in a while.

After lunch we went to Wichita to drop off Sandy at the airport. When we got back I sat on the couch and ate chips.

It didn't last long, because I heard High Councilman Pavlovsky working in the kitchen. Every once in a while the things my parents taught me kick in, and I ended up volunteering to help.

We were celebrating Wendy's birthday, and a special John Deere cake had been requested.

I was first tasked with the mixing of the icing.

Apparently I passed, because I was then given clearance to decorate the tires.

Then Amanda walked in and started freaking out. Apparently no one but Joe usually decorates the cake, and there I was, a stranger, helping to ice the cake! She immediately called her siblings and now they all hate me. Sigh.

Amanda's friend Gabe was there for all of this. We were going to have a BBQ, and to document his existence, I took a photo. Please note the truck, the dog, the wheat fields, and the combines. Thank you.

We had fajitas, and Joe used his special cooking contraption for the meat.

The BBQ was phenomenal, party because of the handmade tortillas Wendy and I kind of made.

After diner was cake time (Happy Birthday Wendy!)

and of course a talent show!

It was a great talent show. Everyone participated. We had music and singing and reading and writing and dancing (good work, Tom) and clapping after hymns and all sorts of fun stuff. That night I even saw lightening bugs for the first time! It was magical. We had so much fun and we were very tired. Jimmy was so exhausted that he asked Tom to carry him downstairs to his bed. So Tom threw Jimmy over his shoulder, of course.

The next morning we left around 9:30 dressed in Church clothes. We talked about our fathers (happy father's day!) and two things we admire about our dads. It was a really great conversation, and so cool to see how others have shaped our lives. (PS, Dad, you are a hard worker and very generous. I can back those up with examples if needed.)

Three hours down the road we found a Church that was half in English and half in Spanish. It was great. They had three counselors in the bishopric, two RSPs, and 4 sets of missionaries! You could just tell that they are doing the work of the Lord in that small town, and that these Saints are trying to become better, and draw nearer unto Him. It was cool.

After Church, back on the road, we had a really great Gospel centered discussion. I feel blessed to have spent time with these amazing people, and I feel like I have learned from their desire to draw closer to the Lord.

We also did a lot of laughing. Amanda made a mixed Starburst:

Seriously Starburst people, why don't you make these? Also, why don't you sell packages of just the pinks?

For lunch we went to Steak 'n Shake. It was my first time there, and I thought it was great.

A few hours later, and still really really far from Chicago, we stopped for a break and realized we were right next to a Sonic. Naturally we went there for dinner. I like how everyone lined up to place their orders.

Whoa. It just hit me that we had hamburgers and fries twice that day. Oh well.

So, if you ask me how Kansas was, I would tell you that it was phenomenal. We lived the Kansas life, we competed in a Fun Tan Competition (Amanda won), we hung out with Amanda's amazing parents, we laughed a lot, we saw the wheat harvest, but most importantly, I feel like I know everyone a full 70% better than I did before. It was a great road trip. Cheers!

More Vacations!

2011-06-15T21:36:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we go to Kansas!

People ask me why I'm going to Kansas. My two favorite answers:

1) To live the Kansas life
2) Wheat harvest!

My roommate Amanda is from Kansas and a few of us are going to her place for the weekend. It should be fabulous. I look forward to maxin' and relaxin' all cool, and playing some b-ball inside of a pool. All day long.

Ahhhhh, summer!

Impromptu DC Trip. 'Cause, Why Not?

2011-06-15T21:26:00.000-07:00

I have a friend named Sandy. She is from Virginia. While we were doing what we do in Chicago she asked what I was up to that weekend. I mentioned I worked Saturday morning, and I had Monday off. She said, "Wanna come home with me?!" I said YES!

We flew in around 8 PM on Saturday night, I met Sandy's parents who may or may not speak English, and we went to see a movie. I didn't like it.

After, we got Taco Bell. We ate a lot of Taco Bell that evening. You see, I only know of two Taco Bells in all of Chicago, and whenever I have a car I go through the drive through. Well, Sandy had a car, and she knew of at least three Taco Bells in her town, so we ate there a lot. I also drank a lot of Kool-Aid.

The next morning we were going to catch a Sacrament Meeting, but her Stake was having Stake Conf, so we decided to pass. We went out to brunch instead, and I got to ride on the Metro!

It turns out the Metro pass left something to be desired. It was so thin! It practically melted in the humidity. Just so you would know how cool Chicago is, I juxtaposed the two passes. Can you tell which one is from which city?

Drinking something.

Brunch! Eggs Florentine, of course!

Wait a minute, hold the phone. We didn't just go out to brunch. We went to see Mark Egan!

It was basically awesome. It's good to have friends that you can have a good time with, any time. I don't particularly like the grammatical structure of that last sentence, but you get what I mean. To break it down, you could basically say, "Myriah hearts Mark." Yea, that's basically it.

Aftah brizzunch it was time to see the sights! The first thing I saw was dead grass and gravel. What? Am I on my way to a Renaissance fair?

Can you spy me in this picture?

As an awesome perk to our adventure, the Jazz festival was happenin'! You could hear the jazziness all over the mall! Thank you, awesome soundtrack! The proof refuses to format correctly:

This was right before a downpour. Can you see the rain spots on me? There were a bunch of people trying to get pics with the WH, but I crammed my way in there, Sandy stepped back, focused the camera, and we got this great pic:

Immediately after we sprinted for shelter.

We went to the WWII Memorial that I accidentally disrespected because Sandy told me to,

And we saw that the reflecting pool was ripped out. It wasn't very inspirational. Supposedly they are making repairs, but I can't be sure. We walked a good long way, and were basically exhausted, so we decided to go to Arlington Cemetery and watch the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

We walked and walked and walked and walked and walked. And we didn't find the Tomb. How is that possible? We did find John Hancock, though. If you are looking for him, he's in the opposite direction of the Tomb.

Once we found the Tomb, we dragged ourselves over to Hearst Castle (or the amphitheater) and enjoyed a snack and mostly sat there while our legs and feet throbbed. They were tired. We made jokes about calling a cab to come get us, but they weren't really very good jokes. They were mostly sad realization of truth that we would have to walk back to the Metro with our own feet. Interestingly, I wore crocs because they are closed toed (for airplane dress code) and because they are comfortable. End of day blister count? Seven.

After some Taco Bell, we went to the temple. Turns out it's gorgeous.

The next day we went shopping and I got some awesome items. Items I've never found before. Items I have wanted, but have never found, and finally did, so I bought them. Later that night in Chicago my suitcase was stolen. I mourn the loss of those clothes. And makeup brushes. I don't know if you are like me, but I go to bed and dream up knew outfits I can put together. Last night I was thinking of all the ways I could wear my new clothes when it hit me that I never get to wear them. The crocs I can do without.

Drinking something.

It was a really awesome weekend. I really enjoyed myself. It was great to see Sandy's stomping grounds, hang out in an El Salvadorian hammock, see the monuments of this great country, and laugh with my good friend Mark.

Memorial Day Weekend 2011

2011-05-31T13:20:00.000-07:00

This Memorial Day Weekend was Zion's Camp in Kirtland, Ohio. That basically means it was a Young Single Adult Conference. As a blessing of all blessings, I was able to ride down with my friends and we had zero drama. We left Friday and were so incredibly excited that we took a pre-trip photo and ended up looking like a band. I tried to lift the photo off of facebook, but as you know facebook sucks, so naturally I was only able to get this little thumbnail.

That's my street. It's pretty, huh? Also, I have a pic of our trunk, which was packed expertly.

On the ride down we had a phenomenal time, listening to my Memorial Day 2011 soundtrack, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and eating cherries and nutella. This is Taylor. She's my roommate for another 2 weeks while she completes an internship. Please note the Wade Cohen sunglasses. They aren't mine, but I certainly need to get a pair!

While I was at the conference, I ran into Heidi's sister! Wicka what?! Crazy!

I also slept in a tent. It was given as an option and I jumped at it. I always do. So, I stayed here

instead of here.

Our friend's parents live in Kirtland and they offered to have all 32 of us stay at their place. It was awesome and a lot of fun. I had a great attitude most of the weekend because whenever I needed to get away I could just go to my tent. The great thing about the weekend was that we attended the conference as desired, we went to historical sites as desired, we hot tubbed as desired, and played games, dance partied, bon-fired, s'mored, napped, pooled, shuffled boarded, Never Say Nevered, Modern Familied, Parks and Recreationed, ate, joked around, got lost, stayed up, slept in, woke up early, and generally hung out as desired.

Somehow, and I don't know how, I ended up going to the Kirtland Temple three times.

After Church (in the Kirtland Temple) the Moss Family threw down an awesome barbeque! It was wonderful and so summery and homey and I loved it.

After lunch a few of us went to the John Johnson Farm. It was amazing and cool and I'm glad I live in 2011.

Next we went to the Newel K.Whitney store, and like I've said about other places I've visited, I felt like I was visiting a movie set. Except, of course, for the upper room. The upper room is the real deal.

While we were there, we had an awesome thunder storm. I'd like to think the next pic is fuzzy because of the rain, but really it's fuzzy because I was running in the rain.

Later in the evening we had a poetry reading. This is Jimmy up on the landing and everyone listening with joy and rapture. We were going to read poetry in the living room, but when you have access to a landing like that, you should really put it to good use.

On the way home we bought cherries again. That's when Sandy let us know she thinks cherries are the worst thing in the world. She then bought cherry flavored Twizzler bites.

On the way out to Kirtland I kept seeing Hardee's signs. Naturally I began to crave it. They don't have it in Chicago, which is a crying shame, so I made everyone stop and get a burger on the way home. I'm very bossy.

Soon we were in Chicago!!!! (That's Buckingham Fountain, yo.)

We came up Lake Shore Drive and the beaches were PACKED. I tried my best to get a picture of the packedness, and this is the best we could get:

Later that night we went to a barbeque with an awesome view

and basically all the same people I just spent the last three days with.

It was a warm, breezy night, and it feels great to know summer has finally come to Chicago.

Ridiculously Good Summer

2011-05-20T21:48:00.000-07:00

So it's not 100% sure, but there is a good probability (can you call something "good probability" if it isn't 100%?) that my work will get it's own reality TV show. The concept is to follow my boss around and chronicle her life, and there is a chance I might get my face on camera, who knows. Just thought I should tell you.

Supposedly, they are coming back to film more of the pilot at the end of this month (they started filming before I got hired) and as long as everything goes smoothly, they will film this summer and air it this fall.

I find it all rather ridiculous, and I love things that are ridiculous, so I think it will be a good summer.

Robot Bird

2011-05-16T22:12:00.000-07:00

I have a robot bird living outside my window. I know it's a robot because it doesn't behave like other birds. It appears to behave like other birds, but then suddenly it will do something so completely unnatural that you know it's a microchip error, and you know in your heart of hearts that this bird is the robot kind of bird.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

2011-05-05T22:12:00.000-07:00

It took me a while, but I finally realized that I love Cinco de Mayo. It is certainly my favorite not really a holiday holiday.

To celebrate, I had a few friends over for tacos! My favorite!!!

And, Diana brought the pinata. In the form of a T-Rex. On an iPad. Pretty festive, if you ask me.

Happy the Cinco! May all your dreams come true!

Spring Will Kill Me. It was nice knowing you.

2011-04-27T21:57:00.000-07:00

I made it through winter. Everyone said Chicago winters are terrible and the worst thing ever. But it was easy.

No one told me that spring is what kills you.

It's been raining and raining and raining and raining. I just need some sunshine!

See the thing is, where I grew up in California, winter meant rain. I made it through Chicago winter, now that it is springtime, I have to make it through California winter as well. It's all a mean trick. Do I look like I want two winters? No!

I've been contemplating going to get a spray tan, in the hopes that it might cheer me up, however I have absolutely no time for happiness right now.

It was nice knowing you. If I don't make it back from Chicago, it's because spring killed me.

Caroling Out in the Snow

2011-04-07T20:18:00.000-07:00

I do not want this blog to fall by the wayside. But with the four jobs, the living in Chicago (Chicago somehow makes you busier. It just does.), the finding a roommate for the summer and then also for the fall at the same time, the going to Church and Institute, the onslaught of emails and FaceLame and Twittering, the planning of all my summer adventures, the parties for hosting, the marshmallows for toasting, the caroling out in the snow... well I guess my point is that I am busy, and would like to blog more, but haven't found the time. So, I'm taking 10 minutes out of the 20 minutes I was going to spend on a different writing thing to write this post. Sorry Other Writing Thing. You only get 10 minutes tonight.

Close Call

2011-03-24T07:16:00.000-07:00

Before I leave my house, I check online to see when the next bus is due to arrive. The times are always estimations, but they are nearly fairly accurate. I find that certain stops, in certain directions, are more timely than others. I have been house sitting this past week, and went out to catch the bus. Knowing the estimated time of arrival could be a little off in this neck of the woods, I planned so I would have about a 5 minute wait at the bus stop.

As I was closing the gate behind me, I looked down the street to see if anyone else was waiting at the bus stop. I squinted my eyes as recognition hit me like a ton of bricks: the bus was there! Quickly I had to decide if I should make a run for it. As my pulse quickened, a guy five houses down from me started running for it but the bus roared off without us.

Sigh.

Okay, next plan. 1) Check phone for alternate routes to destination. 2) Go to bus stop and text Bus Tracker for the next estimated arrival time. Maybe I can wait it out. 3) Try out bakery on corner?

I make it to the bus stop, text Bus Tracker, and then start searching for alternate routes. I don't have much time to play with here. As I'm contemplating an 8 minute walk to another bus that may or may not be early, I receive a text from my good friend Bus Tracker. It said the bus was "DUE and 20 minutes". Yeah yeah, "DUE" happened 4 minutes ago. So lame. Can I really wait 20 minutes? Is it time to taxi?

I look up to see what the taxi flow looks like, and here comes a bus! A magic bus! A bus I needed at that very moment! Gasp! This is amazing!

The bus driver sees me. He slows down. As he pulls up to the curb I notice something shiny. A dime! Ohhh... a dime! I bend down to retrieve it. The bus doors open. I can't pick up the dime. It's difficult. The cement is bumpy; I don't want to ruin my manicure. I sweep the dime off the curb and into my hand. Yes! Bus doors are closing. NOOOO!!!! I stand up, and pound on the doors. They open. I climb aboard and the bus driver says, "I thought your disappeared."

Yeah, well, um, see, there was this dime...

Lurie Garden

2011-03-18T19:54:00.000-07:00

I need to go here: (Link to article I wrote.)

Not only do I need to go there, but I want someone to go with. Anyone want to fly in for the weekend? Let me know soon, I'm contemplating going after church on Sunday.

St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T21:08:00.000-07:00

There is one thing I've been dying to experience in Chicago: the dyeing of the river. (Pun unintended. If you thought it was intended, please take that intent of intention right out of your mind. Thank you.)

So apparently they sprinkle some orange powder in the river which turns yellow and then green. I suspect Tang.

This is the stirring boat. It came along and zig zagged and swooshed and swirled to get the Tang all mixed up and looking like green jello.

Green jello. Delicious.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We happened along these fellows, so how could we not stop and take a pic? They were basically asking for it, however they seemed genuinely surprised that we wished to take our picture with them. Duuuh. When you go to Disneyland, you take your picture with all the characters, right? Right. Same concept.

Pulaski Day

2011-03-07T20:01:00.000-08:00

Happy Pulaski Day!

Yeah, that's right, Pulaski Day is a real thing.

The City of Chicago commemorates it by allowing school children a free day, and also by making pastries. I tried the Chocolate and Bavarian Creme Paczki. Let me just tell you, it was delish. Paczki is pronounced "Poonch-key". The sticker on the package said, "Not just another jelly donut!" and they are so completely correct. It may look like a jelly donut, but it is soooo much better than that. Oh man, it was fabulous.

Maybe they should start making these for Sweetest Day.

My Bed the Storage Unit

2011-03-06T11:54:00.000-08:00

I decided it was time to wash my sheets. They are currently in the washing machine, swishing around and around, but before they got in there I had to dig them out.

I had a large collection of things that had taken up residence on top of my sheets. Are you ready for what I found? I sure hope so, because I'm about to list them.

A pair of pajamas
Two sweaters that were both worn for under 2 hours
A pair of jeans
Four books
A cookbook
Two journals
Two envelopes with credit card offers
A newspaper
One Bible
One Book of Mormon (from a different set)
Four magazines
A receipt

So here I sit, waiting for my laundry and staring at my pile of stuff. I should probably find a place for it all, but they each seemed so happy nestled in my bed, that maybe I'll just put them back from whence they came.

Current Top 16 Songs

2011-02-24T13:45:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this is what I have been listening to, in this particular order. Or.. frequency? Anyway, now that I am really good at riding the bus, I am able to listen to a lot more. These are the songs that I keep turning to for happiness.

Please note, this is only music. This in no way represents the use I get out of my iPod. Maybe I'll have a podcast post later.

Animal Neon Trees
Alright With Me Kris Allen (Quite honestly, I'm not exactly sure what he's saying, but I like it anyway.)
Stupid Cupid Connie Francis (Connie is brilliant. I also like Vacation and Hollywood, but I haven't been listening to them lately. I think it's mostly her ballads that she is known for, but I listened to some of them, and meh.)
Something That I Want Grace Potter (from Tangled)
It Snowed Meaghan Smith (I thought I would be over this song by now. But it keeps snowing, and there is no other song I feel like singing when it snows.)
Baby Justin Bieber & Ludacris (So.. as far as I know, this is the only Bieber song that I like. I think it's just that Ludacris takes it up 12 notches for me. I love that Luda.)
Everything Michael Buble
Do You Believe in Love Huey Lewis & The News
Change of Seasons Sweet Thing
For Your Love Marching Band
Haven't Met You Yet Michael Buble
If You Find Yourself Caught In Love Belle & Sebastian
You Don't Send Me Belle & Sebastian
Love It When You Call The Feeling
Never Be Lonely The Feeling
New Shoes Paolo Nutini

So it turns out that most of these songs are about love and relationships.

Please don't think any less of me.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T08:34:00.000-08:00

I found that little heart at this place:

Walgreens on Western and Lawrence

2011-02-11T08:57:00.000-08:00

My 30 day transit pass happened to expire right around the time I was at the intersection of Lawrence and Western. Thankfully, there is a Walgreens on that corner. I've never been inside, but I've walked by a lot, and there are always pigeons milling about. This does not give this Walgreens an air of sophistication, so I was a bit weary as I walked in.

Immediately, I knew something was up. I didn't see any staff at the registers, so I decide I would just move deeper into the store without looking around. If you look around and find the trouble, you could risk becoming a witness, and that was the last thing I wanted to do that day. I decided I could do with a beverage, and moved toward the cold cases. That's when I noticed someone staring at the Walgreen's entrance, saying with mild panic, "There's a pigeon in here!"

In a mid-western accent, a reply comes from about ten feet in front of me, "Well, tell them to move away from the door, or all the pigeons will come in! We already have one over there!" And she points toward the check out stands.

I follow her finger with my gaze and sure enough, I see a pigeon. All Hell breaks loose. Mid-western accents are flying! "But he'll get in my hair!" "Oh no he'll poop on me!" "What are we going to do?!"

The woman behind the photo counter takes charge. She tells Sam to capture that pigeon and take it outside.

Sam gets a ladder.

Sam gets a towel. (Really, a pink fleece type thing.)

Sam gets some courage.

Sam places the towel over the pigeon.

Someone shrieks. "Did you get him!?!? Oh no, did he go behind the sign?"

Sam reaches up to grab the towel he placed over the pigeon. Apparently these pigeons haven't been trained in combat. He slowly pulls the bundle toward him and descends the latter. "Oh, I got him."

Sam walks to the door. A woman who I determine to be the cashier follows him. I follow her. I need my CTA pass. We are near the door and the registers. She is just staring out the door. I decide to say, "So, do you carry CTA pass.."

But I'm interrupted when Sam comes back, and the cashier says, "Wow, Sam, that was amazing! Where did you learn to do that?!"

Sam just shrugs and mumbles, "Uhh, it happens a lot.."

The cashier continues, "Oh my gash, that pigeon was going to get in my hair, and you gat him, Sam!"

Sam walks away.

The cashier has hands on her hips, shaking her head in the sheer disbelief of a close call.

I speak again.

She turns to me, sees the line of people that has now formed, and goes around to her side of the register. I say hello. She says, "Did you see that pigeon?!"

I said, "So, do you carry 30 day CTA passes?"

She looks at me with wide eyes and says, "Oh, I'm gonna have to call back for that."

I put on my serious face and say, "Okay. Let's do it."

So she does. Then she looks at me. "Did you see that pigeon? I thought it was going to get in my hair! And Sam just captured it like it was nothing!"

"Oh, yeah, that was something alright."

The manager comes up with my pass, I pay, and as I'm leaving I heard the cashier say to the woman behind me, "Did you see that pigeon?"

Garfield Park Conservatory

2011-02-10T21:40:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I went to the Garfield Park Conservatory with my friend Tamry. That Saturday was filled with glad tidings.

The first is the discovery of the Sacred Fig Tree. I've been looking for a Sacred Fig Tree for awhile.

Second was warmth. I don't know if you know, but Chicago is cold. Wicked cold. But the Conservatory was so warm. So, so warm. Sigh. I'm going back in a few days to experience the warmth. And the Sacred Fig Tree.

Third, flowers! Blossoms! Blooms! I couldn't believe my eyes! Coming from California, I have a high nature requirement, and I feel my eyes and soul have been starved for beauty these past few weeks. It felt good to see and feel the green again.

Fourth, this picture was taken from a bench. Which means it's basically the perfect spot for my future husband to get down on one knee. It meets all the requirements: warm, semi private, beautiful, with thick foliage all around so Tara can hide in the bushes, recording the whole exchange and also be close enough to sing back-up when my future husband croons his "will you marry me" song.

Fifth, The International Domino League. I spied this store front on the way from the Conservatory. The International Domino League? Who knew there was such a thing? You probably did. You are probably a member of your local chapter.

Birthday Phase 2

2011-02-10T21:38:00.000-08:00

For Phase 2 we hopped on a train, hopped on another train, got off at the wrong stop, then hopped in a taxi to take us to Anong Thai to meet up with friends for dinner. It was straight up delicious. I love that place.

On the left is Amanda, my roommate, and on the right is Hope.

We ordered papaya salad and shrimp rolls (with bacon). That's my plate at the bottom of the picture. See that tomato?

I'm going to eat it.

Turns out there was some mega spicy pepper nestled in there. And this is how I felt about it:

Things turned around once I realized Shermeka and I were wearing matching coats.

Hope and Diana made me this cake. It was delicious, and I highly recommend it. You should know it's not actually cake, but mostly ice cream and pretzels. Really, if I were to describe it, I think I would use one word: happiness.

At dinner Amanda mentioned that she never saw Tangled. I told her it was playing at the theater around the corner, and that we could probably catch a viewing in about 45 minutes. We busted out our phones, confirmed the time, and we went to see Tangled for $4. It was a great birthday.

Birthday Phase 1

2011-02-10T21:35:00.000-08:00

I think all birthdays should come in phases, and mine started at the John Hancock Building, on the 94th floor.

I went ice skating with my friend Diana. They call it "Skating in the Sky" and I think that's fairly accurate.

We got up there just as the sun was going down. This is Lake Shore Drive.

And, Lake Shore Drive once the lights came on. This is the road that got hammered by the blizzard, with all the cars getting stuck on the road overnight.

Have I ever told you that I love Chicago? Well, I do. I love it. There. It's official. Check out the traffic in this one:

And all the ice in this one:

The roads are on fire.

ThunderSnow, Blizzaster, or in other words, Blizzard of 2011

2011-02-10T21:32:00.000-08:00

During the Blizzard, we never lost power. Thank goodness, because I had very important things to do like paint my nails, clean the kitchen, read a magazine, and email back and forth with Hope and Diana about what exactly I wanted as my birthday cake.

I was fairly busy, but I did manage to go outside for a quick Blizzard 2011 pic:

And, because you want to see more pictures of the snow, I will be happy to oblige.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Wednesday was officially declared a Snow Day, which apparently hasn't happened for over 10 years. Or something.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Everyone back to work, no matter what.

This is my street. It didn't get plowed until Sunday or Monday or something.

But, the main roads were cleared in no time at all.

This is my building:

And again, my street.

The End. I hope you enjoyed the Blizzard of 2011 as much as I did. Next up, my birthday!!

Safe in Bubble Wrap

2011-02-10T20:56:00.000-08:00

In my birthday package from home, I found this:

I love almond butter, but I never buy it. It was awesome for Mother to buy it for me. When I spoke with Mom after I got the package, she asked if the almond butter got there okay. It certainly did. That bad boy is safe in bubble wrap!

Why I Don't Go Outside

2011-02-10T15:42:00.000-08:00

Blizzard 2011

2011-02-01T19:22:00.000-08:00

So I was searching for videos and pictures of the Blizzard of 2011 on the local news page, and I came across this picture. The caption read, "Woman thrown to ground from wind gust." (It actually read "women" but I decided it was a typo, as I didn't spy any other women on the ground in the picture.) The caption subtext was, "Just as I stepped outside, a wind gust literally took this woman's feet out from under her. I helped her get to the parking garage and she was shaken up, but OK."

I'm just glad they took the picture. I laugh so hard every time I see this picture.

Night of Coincidences

2011-01-31T23:47:00.000-08:00

I was going to a friend's house, absolutely freezing while waiting at the L stop. Two trains came going the other way before the train I needed came. I got on, sat down, and we didn't move. The conductor announced that there was something happening on the tracks ahead, so we wouldn't be moving for a minute. I waited, happy to be on the warm train. Then the conductor announced that because of the delay, the train would be running express, and consequently be passing the stop that I need. So, I got off the train and back onto the freezing platform.

As I adjusted my hood, contemplating how cold it really was, another train going the other way came. Many people got off and one guy stood near me under the heat lamps. I was looking down the tracks for the train, and this guy was in my line of sight, so I got a good look at him. After what felt like forever we were back on a train heading to our destinations.

Three hours later, I was going home, and I stepped into a rail car. I sat down, and there was the guy from the platform! It was so bizarre! I've never ever seen someone again like that. I just stepped into the right car I guess. This time he had his arm around some girl, and they were flirting it up. I wonder if they just rode the train for three hours...

So while I was contemplating how crazy it was that I happened to see that guy again, I got on a bus, and there was the bus driver I had earlier in the day! Wicka what! This is crazy! What's going on here?! This is obviously a precursor for something greater. It's my birthday week, but coincidences don't usually happen simply because of my birthday. Will I get sucked into some alternate universe soon? Is all this simply a warning of the Great Blizzard of 2011?? What's going to happen!?

Yo-Yo and Escalators

2011-01-29T22:48:00.000-08:00

I live in Chicago, so naturally I get to do cool things. For example, today I went to the Chicago Cultural Center and listened to Yo-Yo Ma play. For free. It was phenomenal. I just had to show up. Do you see him? He's the one in the middle.

On my way there, I saw this sign:

That sign really didn't help me. I should have had a personal sign that said, "Beware of escalators."

Seriously, every escalator I encountered today (about 8) tripped me up somehow. Some would literally trip me, on others I would lose my balance, on one I didn't see the end coming... you get the idea. It was a major fail. But Yo-Yo was amazing, and just so charming, so it was a good day, despite the escalator issue.

Tucson in Chicago

2011-01-27T19:05:00.000-08:00

I was on the Purple Line, freezing, trying not to make eye contact with any of the other passengers, so I looked up at the ads. I saw an ad for Tucson, Arizona. There was a huge scene of dry, warm desert at dusk, with a woman in work out gear sitting atop some rocks, looking out over the desert. The tag line went something like, "Tucson: The Real Southwest." I should be better at remembering tag lines, but it went right out of my mind when I saw the exact same ad right next to the first one. And one after that. Tucson covered the whole side of the train with its warm orange glow. Quickly I turned around and realized that Tucson had bought out that entire car.

I just sat there, thinking about being warm. Thinking about not needing to wear long underwear, thick socks, boots, sweaters, hats, scarves, gloves and jackets. The only accessory I would need would be my water bottle.

Then I remembered Amanda and Tyler, and I figured I ought to warn them. So guys, if you see an influx of tourism this winter, it's just a bunch of people from Chicago who would usually be riding the Purple Line.

Three Odd Things

2011-01-21T08:57:00.000-08:00

You know how on the side of a school bus, there will be something to indicate possible bus ownership? Like, "Santa Lucia School District"?

Yesterday while waiting for the bus I saw a yellow school bus go by with the words, "Latino Express" on the side. I tried to take a picture, but it was dark.

Later that evening, while waiting for the bus, I saw this truck come down the street. It had been improved with something shiny on its roof, and one of the guys in it looked like an alien wearing a sombrero. The side of the truck read, "The Tamale Spaceship".

And, the third odd thing today happened while I was exiting the Museum of Science and Industry. As I was leaving, a big group of Amish were entering. I wanted to throw myself across the entrance and say, "NO! This isn't what you want! Turn around! TURN AROUND!"

Illinois Coast

2011-01-17T21:01:00.000-08:00

Can you call the meeting of lake and land "coast"? I don't know. But here it is:

That's ice, baby.

After the beach excursion we were famished. It looked like a good time to have my first Chicago style pizza.

It was delicious. Right across the street from our restaurant was this awesome building:

Obviously we'll be going there next time. I can't wait.

California Coast

2011-01-04T20:14:00.000-08:00

During my visit home, we went to the beach. It was gorgeous. I will prove it with the following photographs.

First we took a walk along the trail next to the bay. Elle was getting antsy, so I told her I would run with her. After a bit, we stopped and stretched. Well, I stretched, and Elle said she didn't know any stretches, but did know about push-ups. So, we would run for awhile, then do push-ups. It was a bit exhausting.

I was noticing that I didn't have very many pictures of Bryn. First I thought it was because I was a bad aunt. Then I realized that Bryn simply isn't interested in being in photos, and she moves really fast. I can't hardly capture her half the time. But then again, maybe I'm a bad aunt.

I took a lot of pictures of Torah during my visit, but mostly she was making a face. This is bizarre, because I think she is possibly the cutest baby Brandon and Jodie have produced. She's just so freakin' cute all the time! Except for in this picture where she is saying, "I'll give you to the count of three to get that camera out of my face."

Jodie is wearing one of her 10 for 10 shades. Yeah, apparently she was able to get 10 pairs of sunglasses for 10 dollars. Or something like that. I was so baffled by the idea that I didn't ask any follow up questions. I should have. I really should have.

I love a good Wade action shot.

Also, clams were found. I took this picture of the girls. Then I asked them to smile. They did, and contorted their faces into what they perceive smiling to be. It turns out this picture was the better of the two. I can't wait for the time when I am able to capture a true smile, or they are able to smile naturally. Either way, I still love them. Because, for realz, I'm not a bad aunt! Look, it's a picture of Bryn!