2015 in review

Well, helllllloooooo!

Long time no write.

You know how on Facebook everyone's lives look perfect? Well, here on the blog, we know better. We know that Nikki is a hot mess right now. I just finished finals, which I somehow rocked (go me!) and that was stressful. And now I'm on break so it's just smooth sailing, right? Hahahahahhahahahaha! That's what I say to that. That's also what I say when people say "oh, are you almost done with school?" Ha! No! NO! I wish, but no! I have three more years left. Stop reminding me. It always amazes me how I can hate and love school so much at the same time.

But who cares about that, let's talk about the good stuff...

I own a restaurant.

A mother f'ing restaurant.

And it's a good one too. I mean, I don't eat half the things on the menu because it is sweet breads and walleye crudo and other daring things. But everything there is delicious (or so people say) . And the space is beautiful. And I rarely ever see my husband because he is there nonstop. And I am super stressed out because running/ owning a restaurant is a super fickle/ volatile business.

It's crazy because we've been working on this for YEARS!!! Many, many years and now it finally exists. So that's pretty cool.

And I'm pregnant. After years of trying one finally took. So I'm due in April. So that's pretty cool too. Of course, maybe that's why Mike is at the restaurant so much, running away from his psycho hormonal wife!!! Just kidding. And I haven't cried about an insane irrational thing in like weeks! Go me!

And we are moving. In ten days. And I have to have my apartment packed up by then and Mike isn't around to help and everywhere I look is a messy disaster and it is driving me out of my mind.

So yeah, I'm a train wreck.

Oh, and I'm pisssed at my new landlord. So I asked him if we could move in to the apartment on the 29th of December because it is just sitting there empty and I am going out of town so I won't be here on the 1st of January and he said sure... but he is going to charge me rent for those three days in December! Yeah, Merry Christmas to you too, buddy!

But let's do a gratitude list because there really are a lot of things to be grateful for right now:
1. I'm pregnant!
2. We are going to have a bigger apartment and TWO (count 'em! Two!) bathrooms
3. the restaurant is going pretty well
4. my team won the volleyball championship this year
5. school is still going well
6. we have enough money so that we can pay movers so we don't have to do it all ourselves
7. it's almost Christmas and I get to spend it with my family
8. I saw the new Star Wars and it was awesome and I can't wait to go again!
9. my new landlord is letting me choose the paint colors for the new apartment and I have to pay for the paint but he is having a professional come in and paint the walls
10. I can walk to mike's restaurant from my new apartment
11. I can also walk to Katie and Sara's apartments from my new place!!!!!!! yippee!!!
12. I got my Christmas card out! a bit later than usual this year but still before Christmas!
13. when I do actually get to see Mike things are really great
14. I got to follow Rachel as my intern this semester in the clinic and she was wonderful
15. I'd say that I'm at least halfway done with packing
16. my new kitchen is at least twice the size of my current one!
17. my new neighbors seem nice
18. I have an easy semester next term
19. I'm off from school for the next two weeks
20. My friend Emily is getting married in a few weeks!!!!
21. mike does a good job of keeping our plants alive
22. I really like a lot of the people who work at the restaurant
23. I didn't have to deal with anybody yelling at me today
24. I have all my christmas shopping done except for one person
25. come next month I will be settled in a new apartment and can finally start nesting!

So 2015, quite the year! Lots of changes. Which is scary. Even when they are good changes they are still scary. But it's better than being stuck in the rut / waiting game that we were in for the last few years.

Here's hoping that 2016 calms down a bit! (you know, cuz things always calm down with a newborn! ha!)

a magical vacation

Life can be hard sometimes.

And a little Disney magic can help a lot.

Which is why Mike and I just went on another whirlwind trip to Disney World and Universal Studios down in Florida. There have been some changes since the last time we went- like the new addition to Harry Potter World. And this time we stayed in a pirate themed room. So it wasn't an exact repeat of our last trip.

But did I mention the pirate themed room??!?! I love themes. A lot. Too much probably. But whatever. I also love sweet husbands who will do anything to make their wives happy. Which is how I got Mike to wear matching shirts with me and dress up like a pirate for a photo shoot with me. He pretends to do it just to make me happy but I know he enjoys it. At first he wasn't totally into the matching shirts but then we got about eight thousand compliments on them and he could see how it made people smile and made their day and so he grew to like them and even agreed to wear more matching shirts in the future- but only when we are at Disney. No matching outfits in Chicago.


Here is our amazing pirate themed room. The floor was carpeted but made to look like wood.

We even ran into some old friends. Here is Mike fist bumping Goofy.

You might notice that we are a little wet. We had two lovely days and two days where it just dumped buckets on us. It wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for our feet being soaking wet.

The magic more than made up for the rain. We ate at the Sci-fi Drive-in where you ate at tables that looked like cars and there was a screen showing shorts clips from old sci-fi movies and some cartoons. Plus the food was great.

This is Mike standing with the Tower of Terror in the background. I told him to make a "terror face." We sadly did not go on the Tower of Terror because we saved it for last and one side of the ride broke down so the line wait time went from half an hour to well over an hour and we decided it wasn't worth it. Next time! 

This is our new friend Eric. He is the host at Be Our Guest restaurant (the Beauty and the Beast themed restaurant at Magic Kingdom) where sadly we did not have reservations (I did try, they were booked) but they do occasionally take walk-ins. He said that we should just check back every couple of minutes to see if something opens up. Well, I was bound and determined to go there for lunch. So we stood right next to him and literally asked every other minute if something opened. And we watched him turn away so many people who also didn't have reservations (they just started taking reservations a few weeks ago for lunch so it's a new thing.) But we just stood there and kept asking, but were slightly out of the way so that people who did have reservations could make their way in. And we were talking and joking with him. And then this group came up who did NOT have reservations but right at that moment something opened up (he had a iPad in his hands that tells him) and so he told that group that they could go in and I just shouted "Eric! How could you?!" and Mike said that he could see the fireballs coming out of my eyes. So whether it was because enough space opened that he could get us in too, or because he did not want to sit there and deal with me fuming, Eric finally let us in!!!! Yay!

The longest wait in line we had the entire trip was actually for Dumbo. Which I had never been on. It was actually more fun than you would think. And it was a classic.

The pool at our hotel was pretty awesome, and the perfect back drop for some pirate-y pictures. And I love my husband. He makes an amazing pirate.

But we're not the only freaks! There was a girl just randomly taking some mermaid photos on the beach near our room.

Wands at the ready! The new addition to Harry Potter world was worth the trip all by itself!

And butterbeer was just as good as I remembered. I tried all three kinds- hot, regular and frozen. Hot was probably my favorite. 

Luckily Mike was there because he was more adventurous and tried some of the other drinks like the Fishy Green Ale. Here is what they say about it... "Fishy Green Ale This murky pale green drink is certainly a head turner. Don’t be surprised when you get lots of inquisitive looks from fellow guests or when you’re asked “what is that?” as you sip on your specially sized, wide black straw. On its own, the intriguing combination of mint and cinnamon would be enough to make this an interesting drink, but then the component of pearl-sized bubbles bursting with blueberry flavor that rest at the bottom of the cup makes this one of the most unique beverages offered in either Wizarding World. (Note: this is a non-alcoholic beverage.) " 

It was tasty but really sweet so we couldn't finish it, but the little "fish eggs" that you suck up the straw explode in your mouth are really fun. I kept giggling every time I got one. I don't remember the last time I giggled. The trip was worth it for that alone. 

This is me taping the brick to let us get into Diagon Alley. Unfortunately a lot of muggles snuck in too. 

And now we're back in Chicago. I'm doing laundry. Mike is at work. It's gloomy and rainy. There's always a little bit of that post-vacation letdown. But at least I still have a whole week before I have to go back to school!

eye needling and eye lashes

I survived another semester! Um... school is really hard and it makes me a raving psycho. Mike tells me that I'm not really that bad, but I think he is just lying to me because he is scared of me because I am a raving psycho. He also won't listen to me complain about how hard school is because I keep getting A's. 

I never used to care about grades. What the hell has happened to me? In college all I cared about was getting good enough grades so that I could continue playing soccer. Now I feel this compulsive need to get A's. (And technically I don't think that writing A's is grammatically correct but if I write As it just looks weird. So there you go.) Anywho, I think maybe one of the main differences is that if I messed up speaking French (my college major) nobody got hurt. However, if I mess up sticking someone with needles, that could get hurt so I better study my ass off and make sure I know what I am doing. 

The next few paragraphs are not for the squeamish...

Speaking of getting hurt, we had to needle points around the eye ball the other day. (Don't worry, nobody actually got hurt.) It was the last week of classes, we built up to it and saved it til the end when we were more experienced. But basically the two we did were Stomach 2 and Urinary Bladder 1. Stomach 2 is directly under the eye just below the bone of the eye socket (Stomach 1 is actually even closer to the eye ball but thankfully she didn't make us do that one!) And you pinch up the skin and slide the needle in so that the needle lays flat against the person's (closed) eyelids. That one wasn't actually too bad, but it is really easy to give someone a black eye while doing it, and of course the red head with the fairest skin asked me to be her partner that day. I was sure I was going to give her a shiner, but actually did it just fine! 

The second point was a lot more freaky. So you know the pink part of the inside of your eye? That is called your inner canthus and there is a spot directly above it. And you stick the needle in going directly into the head. You actually have the person close their eyes and you take a finger and hold their eyeball out of the way so that you don't accidentally needle it. Yup. 

So my partner sticks the needle in just a smidge because we are both super nervous. Then the teacher, an old fearless Chinese lady, comes over and says, "Good job, but you can stick it in much further." And the teacher inserted it another half inch or so. And it didn't hurt but I was super freaking out because I could feel a metal needle touching the side of my eyeball!!!!!!!

It was fine but I swore to never have that point needled again! 

So the next week during our final we got assigned partners instead of being able to pick them ourselves. So I got stuck with a woman who is very sweet, but definitely not the best needler in the class. And she did all the points on the body just fine but she got to the face points and I asked her which points she was going to needle so I could prepare myself. She said, "Gall Bladder 2 and Urinary Bladder 2." Which was fine, because those aren't scary points....

And then she starts pinching up the skin under my eye to needle Stomach 2 and I said, "Nope, wrong point." Now, normally I wouldn't cheat and I would let them needle the point and just get it wrong and have points taken off... but I'm not about to let someone needle near my eye if I don't have to, especially when they aren't particularly good at it! 

So then she goes, "Oh right!" and starts putting her finger on my eyeball to move it out of the way, which meant that she was going to needle a different wrong point! I believe I said, "Hell no! You're not needling there." She eventually figured out what the point was that she was supposed to needle. 

And yes, having incompetent people needle you IS the scariest part of going to acupuncture school! 

I've been fairly burnt out, so to motivate myself to get good grades, I bribed myself with eyelash extensions. There was a groupon for them that I could only buy if I got straight A's. I've wanted to try them for years and finally did. 

So I am waiting in the reception area and this girl comes out with stunning lashes and is super happy with them and can't stop staring at them in the mirror there. And then the worker takes me into the back room and she starts working on me. You lay down on a massage table and they put this patch under your eyes that glues your eyes shut. Which was weird at first but you quickly get used to it and wasn't that bad because I knew that if I really tried I would have been able to open them which helped me get over the claustrophobic feeling. 

So the woman says to me, "Your lashes are really thin and fine." And I replied, "I know, that's why I'm here." Duh. But she continued, "I just want you to realize that you aren't going to end up with lashes that look like the girl's who just left. Her lashes were really thick to begin with." Which was super disappointing but actually made me feel a little better. I always just thought I was terrible at applying mascara because I could never get the look my friends did, turns out though that my lashes just suck. 

I'm still super happy with the results though. Unfortunately it is really expensive so I won't be able to do it often, but for big special occasions I will probably splurge again. 

This is me with no make-up. 

This is me with mascara and my lashes curled. 

And this is me with the eye lash extensions! Awesome because it also involves no work at all on my part. Just wake up and go and doesn't smudge or smear! 

fucking hipsters

Ugh. Last night I went to a wedding celebration (the actual wedding was a week before in Texas, this was just a party) for one of Mike's coworkers. And it was nice, I guess... except that you had to stand in an overheated, small, crowded area and scream to be heard with a ton of hipsters that I don't know (but who all know each other) and I had to get up for work in the morning so I wasn't even really drinking.

But Mike's boss LOVES Mike and was really excited to finally get to party with him (because Mike is an old man and rarely goes on all-night benders like these young hipsters do.)

In my defense, talking to people I don't know is my idea of torture, and yet, I did surprisingly well and had several funny conversations with people. I want that noted for the record.

And then after a couple of hours, my throat hurt and my back was spasming and I said, "fuck it." Mike helped me find a cab home and then he went back inside. Mike's boss's band was playing and Mike went onstage to sing a couple of songs with them. Funny how (apart from our wedding) I've never seen Mike perform in front of people.

You know how it is... a guy is onstage singing and suddenly he is really hot? Well at the end of the night two girls got in a mini catfight over Mike. Both (of these skanky whores) wanted to make out with him. I have two things to say about that... first is- WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE WOMEN??? They KNOW he is married and in fact, met me (his wife) earlier that very evening. And this is probably why these women are single... they have no self-respect or respect for others.

The other thing I have to say, is that it is really nice being with someone that I trust so completely. Mike and I jokingly talked about the fact just the other day that he could never cheat on me because he could A) not handle the sad puppy-dog look I would give him when I found out and B) he would never get away with it because I have an amazing sense of smell and would be able to sniff it out and know if he tried something. Whose perfume is this? Did you hug someone who showered with Dial soap? I would know.

My other thought is that while it is nice that Mike and I can tell each other anything... that doesn't mean you necessarily SHOULD. Because now I'm going to have to kick his slutty skank-face coworkers in the head the next time I see them. Hipsters, man, fucking hipsters.

walking in a winter wonderland

One of the perks of last weekend is that we had a blizzard. Normally that wouldn't make me happy... but it meant that Mike's work was closed so I got to spend the day with him. And since we had no food in the house we decided to order pizza. But I am a pain in the butt and I wanted red wine with the pizza, so we decided to brave the elements (Mike LOVES the snow so this was no problem for him) and go for a quick walk over to the local shop where I got a bottle of Mike Ditka Cabernet Sauvignon.

Things I am thankful for...
1. Having good outer gear. As Mike likes to say, "There's no such thing as bad weather- just bad clothing!" (As I like to say, "Shut up, Mike! This snow sucks!") But I've been perfectly toasty while out and about this winter.
2. See-thru umbrellas.
3. Discovering a new, really quite delicious wine.
4. Being out in a big storm when everyone else is inside.
5. Video cameras and memories.
6. Playing volleyball again and our team (of old geezers) beating the pants off the new team of 24 year olds!
7. The future being full of possibilities. My life isn't quite where I want it to be at the moment but there is always time to do something about it.
8. My friends. I've been feeling very, very lonely lately which makes me appreciate the friends I do have even more.
9. Date nights with Mike- we've been exploring our neighborhood more and we've had some epic air hockey battles and discovered a cute little shop that sells delicious hot chocolates (we split a sampler of three different kinds) as well as homemade, flavored marshmallows and truffles.

 I love this couch! 

 Salted caramel, semi-sweet and Mexican hot chocolates.

Dr. Sha

My new favorite teacher is Dr. Sha. She is a cute little Chinese lady who is probably around 60 years old and is from Shanghai and has a VERY thick accent. But she also has a great sense of humor, on top of being a bad-ass, super-talented acupuncturist.

The other day in class we were learning some advanced needling techniques. In China they do something call "fire needles" where they actually insert the needles into a fire and heat them and then stick them in your body. We don't do that here in the states, instead we do something called "warming technique" where you take moxa (which is a loose Chinese fluffy herb that you can roll into a ball) and stick it on the end of the needle (that is stuck in someone) and then you light the moxa on fire. The heat transfers from the moxa to the needle and then to the person.

And it feels GREAT! It is very useful for places like the knees or the knuckles and feels good for arthritis. I did it to my right knee only and it felt so different (and better) than my left knee after I was done.

The moxa turns into ash, but retains its shape. So it sits there as a little ball of ash on the end of the needle. You can put some cardboard around the needle just in case the ash falls so that you don't burn the patient. But when you are done you take this spoon that has a slot in it and put it around the needle and scoop the ash off.

So Dr. Sha was explaining to us (in her very heavy accent) that when she started teaching she called it a "crack spoon" and all her students had laughed and she didn't understand because it was a spoon with a crack in it, so what was so funny? And she turned to us and goes, "And that's how I learned about drugs." And then she goes, "So don't you go home now and tell them that Dr. Sha taught you how to use a crack spoon today!"

She is adorable. We are learning some really fun things this semester. Last week we learned to do needles with moxa and this week we learned to do needles with cups over them (to intensify the treatment.) As much as I complain about school, I have to admit that it is pretty awesome too!

family privilege

So I just got a massage... in my apartment. That is friggin' awesome. I've had massages before but never IN my apartment where I get to just roll over and go to bed afterwards. I decided I needed a massage because it's been months since my last one and I have to give a massage to a new client tomorrow so it's always good to have a refresher. Plus they just feel nice. So nice.

But my therapist was a woman I used to work with at the spa and we were catching up and she told me that our other former coworker's mother had passed away. I didn't always get along that great with the other coworker, I mean, no big fights or anything but we didn't really click so I usually just kept my distance from her. But I just found out that her mom and dad had divorced when she was really little and she doesn't really talk to her mom/ get along with her. But she was talking to her dad on the phone and he just casually mentioned that her mom was dead. It had happened three weeks prior and nobody had bothered to tell her.

Just let that soak in.

Can you even imagine?

I can't. I really can't. My family is weird and nerdy and we certainly have our issues, but I am so lucky to have them. And I just feel bad. It just goes to show that you have no idea what other people are going through. My coworker could not have had a very easy life and I should have cut her more slack.

You hear about "white privilege" a lot and it is certainly true. But I also definitely have "supportive and loving family privilege." There are so many things that I take for granted because of the way I was raised. I used to be mad because I didn't get tons of hugs and kisses and "I love yous" when I was growing up. But I had a dad that came home from work early to coach my soccer team. I had a mom that made sure I did my homework. I had siblings that were always there to play cards or a board game with me. And I know I can count on all of them thru thick and thin.

I dunno, just another reminder to be thankful for what I have and to be kind to others no matter what.

Puerto Rico- family vacation for parents' 50th anniversary

So I almost don't even want to tell you guys about my trip, because I will just sound like a bragging asshole, but it was absolutely amazing. A true bit of tropical paradise. 

We went down to Puerto Rico with my entire immediate family (all my siblings with their spouses and children, my parents as well as an aunt, a cousin and my nephew's girlfriend.) So that was 26 of us separated into two gorgeous vacation homes that were next door to each other on a resort in Puerto Rico about an hour from San Juan. 

This is the fort at San Juan. This is the picture that is on their license plates. 

This is the view off of our deck at one of the houses. 

This is (almost, my mom is missing) all of us in one of the pools. 

The entire trip was pretty amazing but one of the highlights was going "hiking" in the rainforest and then zip lining down. Um... so I was so not prepared for what we had to do. My sister had described it as a one-mile hike. No biggie, right? 

WRONG! It was basically climbing up a waterfall for a mile. We climbed up a river. A lot of it was almost totally vertical climbing, with water rushing down at us. It is an absolute miracle that I didn't sprain an ankle on all of the slippery rocks. 

It really was an adventure of a life time. 

We spent a lot of time just lounging around the houses, because they were amazing. But we did make another day trip out on a boat to go snorkeling around these two private islands. It wasn't the best snorkeling because the water was a bit stirred up. But let me tell you, crappy snorkeling in Puerto Rico in January is still a hell of a lot better than anything in Chicago in January.

The only bad part about the resort we stayed at is that the beaches were full of seaweed and therefore didn't smell that great and you didn't want to go swimming there. We had pools so it didn't matter and we got to go on the beaches during our day out snorkeling. But the beaches at the resort were perfect for horseback riding! 

The other thing we did was have "house olympics" since we were divided into two houses. We played all sorts of games including my personal favorite which was called "what's in my hair." It was a game that my sister Sam actually made up. One person wears a shower cap and "safety glasses" which were just funny glasses. Another person has one minute to put an entire can of shaving cream onto the person with the shower cap's head and then a third person has to try and throw cheese balls so that they stick in the shaving cream. The team with the most cheese balls stuck after two minutes wins. 

Technically, my team lost, but I'm pretty sure everyone is a winner in that game! 

And again, this is the view from our house. And no, it really never gets old. I could (and did) stare at this for days!

 And now I'm back in Chicago after having my first flight cancelled and almost having my second one cancelled due to the crew working too many hours. Then we had to sit on the tarmac for 45 minutes at 1:30 AM because there were no gates available. I finally got home and now I have the killer cold that my dad had. Luckily (?) school and volleyball are cancelled tomorrow because of the extreme cold. Welcome back to Chicago, I guess! I'm already looking forward to our next family trip in five years!