husband of the year

Alrighty, time to blog again. Wait a sec... it is 9:39 PM? Why the hell isn't my husband home? Oh well. Hopefully he is out making business deals that will land him a new brewery. Probably, however, he is just out drinking with his friends.

But you know what? That is okay. Because you know what? I have the best husband EVER!

Seriously, you know when you are younger and you think you want to be married and it will be great? And then you get older and you realize how messed up people are and you lower your expectations?

Well, being married (to Mike at least) is super friggin' awesome! It's the best thing ever. Of course, he is going for "husband of the year" award or something. He came out to OP and did game night with my family on Saturday night and the only thing he grumbled about at all was the bed. The bed hurts his back. I DID give him a massage the next morning to make up for it - in case you think he is an angel and I am just a jerk. 

Anyways, game night was a blast. My sister is an adorable host and came up with lots of cute ideas...

This is Mike playing Guesstures...

My sister had all sorts of snacks, including a "twister board" made of macaroons.

My cousin Des and her boyfriend Andy played a game (sort of like Password) that my sister made up.

And of course we played Telestrations which is our new favorite game EVER!

My sister had all sorts of cute signage up, which I will of course steal if I ever have a game night at my house.

But back to the whole marriage thing... you can tell me that it is because we have only been married six months, but it is great.  Really, really great. When I was little and still had these naive dreams about getting married, I never even thought it would be this great.

Hey, guess what, not to totally change the subject or anything, but I can totally see the Hancock building out my window. I never realized that during the day time but at night it is all lit up and I can see it. Learn something new every darn day.

I've had two glasses of wine tonight, and since I have not been drinking very much at all lately, my tolerance must have gone down because I feel very "happy" off of two glasses of wine.

Did you know that some people edit their blog posts? As you can tell, I don't do that. I get drunk and I ramble, and if you don't like it, well, you should send my five dollars. Huh? That's right, you should send me five dollars, and I will put that towards writing classes and eventually I will write better blog entries. But until then, shut the heck up. Cuz at least I'm writing.

So, going back to the photos above. Do you know what is fun? Hipstomatic. Which is an app I use on my iphone to take artsy looking photos. Same sort of thing as Instagram. Anywho... I was walking along the other day and I had my phone out and Hipstomatic up and thus was sort of looking at the world (via my phone) through Hipstomatic and it makes the world look really nice. I guess you could say they are my "rose colored glasses" but there was an article about hotels the other day where they showed pictures from the website versus pictures from real people that went there and basically what I got out of the article is that there are some amazing photographers out there who can make even a dump look inviting. And so basically two people can look at the same thing and see two totally different things.

Looking at things with a "photographer's eye" is fun. The other day it was super cold and I was waiting for the bus. Which is sort of a miserable experience. But then I saw this sign, and took a picture using Hipstomatic. Now my wait for the bus looks "artsy" instead of "miserable." See how this app is changing my life?

Or take a look at the bloody marys we made at brunch a few weeks ago. One picture is from my regular iphone camera and the other is from Hipstomatic. Both are awesome, mind you, but the one on top says "party" way more than the other one.

Did I mention that my husband is awesome? And a chef? Marry a chef! A retired chef. That is the best advice I can give young girls out there. He made me "grilled cheese" last night because that is what I asked for. And really he made me an open faced crostini with gouda and blue cheese (cuz that is what we had in the house) and he told me there was a surprise and it turned out there was also a slice of potato under the cheese but on top of the bread.

Okay, enough rambling for one evening. I posted my weekly blog update. Time for bed. Good night all!

is Chicago making me mean?

I was thinking today about how different I would be if I lived in a small town. There are lots of things I love about living in the city. Mainly the theater, restaurants, museums and transportation.

But what am I giving up to live in the city?

I don't know my neighbors. At all. Okay, I'm at a "chit chat small talk" level with the guy next door and with our landlord. But the other people on the block? Complete strangers.

I'm completely surrounded by strangers all the time. On the bus. At the gym. Walking down the street.

And my city, as much as I love it, is NOT safe. And so I am constantly on guard. I have my defenses up. I avoid eye contact and try to keep a low profile. Cuz you never know who is going to be a crazy.

I'm already an introvert so it takes me a while to open up to people but living in the city I am just starting to feel super cold. I connect to my friends and family through emails and facebook and the phone, but I'm not connected to the people who are all around me on a day to day basis.

It would be interesting to see how I would change living in a small town.

Do you think where you live changes who you are and how you act?

crazy things in my neighborhood

What is the craziest thing you have seen this week?

On Thursday morning Mike and I were waiting for the bus together- something we rarely get to do since our schedules are so different. We were just hanging out on the corner when all of a sudden we heard brakes slamming and then tires peeling out and we could literally SMELL burnt rubber. It's NOT just an expression. We looked up to see a car dodging out from behind a car (that had stopped for the red light) and zoom into the oncoming traffic lane as it rounded the corner on two wheels.

Was he drunk? At 9 AM??? Was he crazy? No! He was being chased by the police. In the next two minutes we saw not one, not two, but thirteen police cars come chasing after them with lights blazing and sirens blaring. Traffic came to a stand still.

My adrenaline was pumping so hard. I can only imagine how those actually in the chase must have felt!

What was it like? It was like the beginning chase scene in Goonies.

watch goonies chase scene here!

But then, just like in Goonies, the cops lost them! With all the different angle streets in the neighborhood the car somehow got away. Suddenly the cops were slowly prowling the streets with their lights off checking to see where the car could have gone.

It was one of those things that you had to see to believe. It was surreal, like being in a movie.

I saw a police man sitting in his car yesterday and I asked him if they caught the guy yesterday. He said, "What guy?" and I said, "The one in the thirteen car high speed chase!" and he said, "Oh yeah, they got him over in 19 (a different police district)."

Glad to know they got him!

new year's resolutions

Alrighty, time for those New Year's resolutions. I enjoy New Year's resolutions. Because really it is just a time to focus on what you want in your life. What's so bad about that? I do it year round, but it is nice to have set dates as well to mark your progress. 

First of all, let's review last year's resolutions... the ones in red are the ones I accomplished, the blue are my comments about them

Goal list for 2012

- do another cleanse

- eat vegetarian 80% of the time (with Mike cooking for me it is hard to do it all the time but with the new vegan restaurant that I am in love with by my work it will help) ha! this didn't happen at ALL!

- go out with my friends more about the same amount

- write five pages a week nope

- introduce Pookie to Michael yay! they finally met at the wedding weekend

- take fencing classes they were so much harder than I expected! 

- take swing dance lessons 

- keep our bonsai tree alive I was kidding when I wrote this one, but that bad boy totally DIED again! 

- get a new high score in Yahtzee (beat 640) 

- learn how to use adobe photoshop though I did learn how to use it a tiny bit, I am nowhere as efficient as I hoped to be

- get engaged/married

- take at least two yoga classes a week I still just took the one

- get down to a size 8 ha! 

- visit a new city and hopefully state and extra hopefully country hello belgium! no new states though

- get a dog

- move into a new apartment

- go to Paris and it was wonderful!

- work harder/ care more about my appearance I did wear more dresses but still could use some more effort

- read two non-fiction books for every fiction book I read 

- celebrate New Year's Eve 2012 celebrating it by bowling with my family is STILL celebrating it!

- clear out my parent's attic I cleaned it, but did not clear it out

- drink less alcohol

- visit Sara's apartment (it's so weird to me that I have a super good friend whose apartment I have never seen)

- have more people over to my apartment I think I had people over once! 

- do High Tea more not a single time. :(

- win our volleyball league again out of the two seasons we won once and got destroyed once

- work on my vertical jump and gain at least six inches I worked on this for like a month and then lost it

- stop procrastinating

- finish my to-do lists

- vacuum more

- do ten push-ups a day minimum

- work on keeping a positive outlook

- be a positive influence- make the people around me happy and see the best in them

- show my good side to everyone- I typically reserve it for the people who I feel are worthy or that I feel safe around but if I was my "best friend" self to everyone, I think it would dramatically change my relationships

- have more self-confidence in my writing

- enter at least four writing contests

- rock on!

Well, I didn't accomplish that many, but the ones that I did accomplish were pretty huge- like getting married! It seems I have problems doing the every day ones. 

New Year's Resolutions for 2013

- move into a new apartment

- get pregnant/have a baby

- get a dog

- get a new bed

- vacuum once a week

- take two yoga classes a week

- pay my taxes on time

- don't use my credit cards at all

- write more thoughtful letters/ emails

- drink less alcohol

- drink less caffeine

- learn sign language

- take a yoga class with mike

- take a hot yoga class

- take a laughing yoga class

- take more shiatsu classes

- have people over to my apartment at least five times

- redo my bedroom in my parents' house

- finish my "vision map" collage

- see pookie

- finish writing a novel

- submit three short stories

- have a Star Wars themed party

- have a super hero themed party

- have a game night with my cousin Desara

- hire Desara to teach me how to do cool things with my hair

- go to Mike's restaurant/ brewery's grand opening (fingers crossed!)

- go to Grace restaurant

- go to Next restaurant

- be nicer to my coworkers- especially when they mess up

- talk to people in my yoga class more

- take pilates

- see my friends more

- say yes more- to invitations, etc

- be nicer to my sister Sam

- keep in touch with my siblings more, maybe even (gack!) CALL them occasionally

- write more

- stop making vague resolutions like "write more" which could mean anything

- 10 push ups a day minimum

- keep my email inbox to under 100 emails

- read my French word of the day emails

- get rid of all my clothes that no longer fit or that I haven't worn in more than four years

- volunteer once a month

- continue playing vball

- blog once a week

- post something on Facebook once a week

- hang out with Katy/Kelly/Emily twice this year

- send more birthday cards/ greetings/ emails- especially when I notice them on Facebook, but especially to family members

- take a Qi Gong class

- learn ventriloquism

- make a 2012 photo "yearbook"

- buy a car

- read 25 books

- go to Trivia night at least twice

- write my penpals at least once a month

- stop using the words "so", "very", "like" and "really" as often as I do

- forgive myself for the mistakes I have made

- doing hypnosis again

- go to a gong cleansing

- send out Christmas cards

That's all I got for right now. Happy new year! 

Happy New Year!

HAppy New Year!

Yay! Another successful holiday season come and gone. And I got to spend it with my family. I love Mike's family but it was going to be very hard for me to not be with my family for the holidays and luckily I did not have to be.

And Mike was a trooper. It can be exhausting hanging out with someone else's family for a few days straight and he did not complain at all. Though if it is tiring for Mike, I can only imagine how exhausting it must be for Bella. Who is Bella, you ask? Why, she is the Chinese foreign exchange student who is now living with my sister and her family. Chestra found out on THURSDAY that Bella was arriving on FRIDAY!!! So poor Bella's first week was spent with 23 members of my family!

That girl is awesome though. She is 17, a junior in high school I think, and speaks English pretty well. And she just rolls with it. So far she has already experienced bowling, a 7th grade basketball game, fondue, a belated Christmas celebration and a New Year's celebration. Not bad for one week! She also apparently went shopping with my sister and was very impressed by the DSW shoe warehouse.

It has to be crazy for her, especially being from China where you can only have one or two kids, to suddenly be around my huge family. On the plus side, it is going to seem very calm at my sister's house now that we are all gone!

I'm going to post on this blog more often and I find that including pictures (and taking more pictures so that I have pictures to include) makes it easier to blog.

I am going to start a new feature called "The week in review."

Here we go...

The week in review...

  

I went to one of my favorite friend's (Kelly G.) wedding on the 29th. It was at an Irish bar and the whole thing was Irish themed and it was AWESOME! She has a big, crazy family just like me, only hers happens to be Irish so they are even crazier. Our name cards for our tables all had either "O'" or "Mc" before our last names. So I was Nikki O'Becker and Mike was Michael McCarroll. It was very cute. 

When we were in Detroit we kept the family tradition of going bowling on New Year's Eve alive. 

It was Bella's first time bowling and she did fairly well. Didn't break 100 but got a few strikes. 

I, however, had the best game of my life with a 199. Including a turkey at the end. My brothers, who normally bowl between 120 and 150 had horrible games that game so that I actually got to say that I doubled their scores! 

Another holiday tradition is doing puzzles, this was actually two puzzles in the same box with all the pieces mixed together and it came with a murder mystery story that you had to solve. 

We went to my nephew Tom's basketball game where I learned to "ride the rollercoaster." Apparently this is a thing. I'd never heard of it. But someone goes in front of the group and leads you. You strap on your harness and then climb to the top of the hill then turn left and right and up and down in unison. Very silly and very fun. These young kids, what will they think of next?

Then, back at home, we have a rubber ducky nativity scene. I switched the baby Jesus with the little lamb so that Mary and Joseph were watching over the lamb instead. Mike obviously found it and added this note to it- "Mary had a little lamb, It's fleece was white as Joe."

And there you have it. My week in review. 

Halloween

Happy belated Halloween!

I hope everyone had a good one. I went out to Oak Park and kept my mom company while she handed out candy.

First of all, it is just great that my mom is still alive and I get to spend time with her doing normal stuff like that. I know how lucky I am.

Second, my mom had a little clicker/counter thingy so she could keep tabs on how many people she gave out candy to.

Now, technically some of the kids were repeats (though some of them changed costumes before coming back) so our tally should be slightly lower but whatever... it is still impressive.

We had 361 trick-or-treaters last night! And there would have been more but my mom just gave the last couple of kids big handfuls of candy because she was getting cold and wanted to go inside!

Some of the kids were local neighborhood kids but MOST were from bad areas in Chicago. Can't really blame them for coming here- better candy and less chance of getting shot.

We were talking about making a few changes for next year. I suggested a gauntlet that the trick-or-treaters had to get through to get to the front door, but that they would get a full sized candy bar if they made it. Jim said we should plant corn in the front yard and make a corn maze to get to the door.

thank you dinner

So the other night Mike and I decided to make dinner for my parents and brother and sister to thank them for letting us use their house for our wedding. Now, I of course mean that Mike MADE the dinner, but I helped with the decor and serving and doing the dishes. 

Each place setting had a copy of the night's 5 course menu. And each napkin ring had a picture of the person whose seat it was. The photos were all from the wedding. This was Jim's picture, taken in the photo booth with my other brother Mike and his wife Kelly. Jim sat down and said, "Really?" and I said, "What?" and he said, "I don't remember ever BEING in the photo booth with them!!!"

We stayed with the red theme (same as our wedding) but decided to change things up with a bit of a different/ funky centerpiece arrangement. 

None of the pictures of the food do them justice of course, but here is the potato wrapped potato with chorizo and peas and carrots. 

The chef hard at work making some tacos. 

I was going to take pictures of all the courses to document them but then I got drunk/ busy and missed a few. This is the beef with mushrooms and soy butter. Soy butter (which is just soy sauce melted with butter I think) is AMAZING! I asked Mike why he hadn't made that for me earlier and he said, "Because we were trying to eat healthy!" Oh yeah. 

I'd say the dinner was a success. So much so that I think the fam would even be willing to let us host a party there again sometime!