reflections on 08

well, i can certainly state for a fact that 2008 has been a terrible year on many fronts. it pretty much ranks #1 as the most consistently overall bad year. there have been other years where events have caused it to be bad for a short time, but this unusual year has brought my heartache and strife than i ever thought possible. and while this all sounds rather dim and sad, i promise it is not all terrible! there were definitely some big highlights too. and so i look back at the good, the bad, and the ugly....

the good:
*our family banded to gather to fight for a common cause and we've never been closer
*sarah and dave got married and i had the privilege and pleasure of being in it!
*holly and scott got married!
*i got to go to spain with the folks
*i had many chicago visitors: sarah l, lara, megan c, higgins, annie, alex, penny, craig, my parents, my favorite cousin caitlin, scotty
*i reconnected with my old childhood friend, cherry. she grew up across the street from me until they moved to a different neighborhood. but we've kept in and out of touch, but this time we really got caught up and had so much fun
*we beat that hobag and settled with the best possible outcome for us.
*we got many sentimental things from my nana and her family as well as my grandad. we have war artifacts (ww1 and ww11), my nana's bible from when she was a child, her diary from when she was 10, some of their wedding presents, some of her collection of limoges boxes and herrend pieces, loads and loads of photos, and dolls from various countries my great g-ma visited and brought back for my nana - they were all tagged and identified with their country - my nana then continued a tradition that i didn't even know existed until a few weeks ago by bringing me a doll from every country they visited... and they went everywhere.
*made some new friends here in chicago: megan, trish, sonny, nicole, other megan, kyle
*joined junior league
*ran my first marathon with one of my best friends from high school, alice!
*ran my first half marathon - again with alice!
**in addition: as dev dev pointed out my overloaded or underused brain (i prefer overloaded) forgot one of the most fun events of the year: the nunes/larkin wedding!! duh. i had so much fun playing host to sarah and lara and dancing the night away.
**thought of something else and of course promptly forgot. hmmm... see? overloaded or underused...

the bad:
*my aunt has been in and out of rehab now for almost 3 years, but appears to be doing so much better and has been sober since mid oct-ish.
*lost my job twice this year for a record total of about 4 months of being unemployed
*worst year income wise by a landslide which is a total kick in the ass once you've been doing so great and then to lose so much b/c of such a bad economy it stinks
*new year's eve! sarah and kim and jared all know why!!

the ugly:
*lawsuit with the sinister minister b!tch from hell. which really truly made my year the most stressful and the most difficult i've ever had to go through
*my most favorite place on earth now belongs to said person above
*that woman being so vindictive she sent 100+ boxes to my parents' house - some sentimental and good, a lot of it complete and total trash. as in chair cushions that had been in the attic for 50 years and were rotted and smelly and had no chairs with them... ummmm, it's called garbage, but b/c we paid for shipping she wanted to stick it to us. so she did.
*this economy!!

so overall, i guess a lot of good things did happen. but, it seems so unduly overweighted in the ugly category. the lawsuit, deposition, fact finding, memory recalling mess really took over the entire year from jan until oct when we finally settled. for 10 months my emotions were up down and every which way over overshadowed a lot. added to that feeling like my career has been in the dumps and so has the money and it makes me feel so terrible and like all of my achievements and advancements i'd made in my career just went down the tubes this year. and now, i get to figure out a new direction. which is ok... i know i'll find one....and i know it's been a rough year monetarily for scores of people so i tell myself it isn't just me.

but, i'm looking forward to starting a new year, a new decade, and all that that brings. so here is to leaving all of the bs from 08 behind and ringing in a much better 2009!!!

happy dead granddad day!

is it terrible that i feel no love or loss towards my granddad? i feel bad about it, yet when being truthful to myself... it's the way i feel. after the year of strife he caused all the members of my family and after the way i've come to learn how he truly treated his children and my nana and his grandchildren i just don't like the man. he didn't deserve everything he was given. his children are amazing people and yet he never said he was proud of them. my nana was the most amazing person in the world and i know i'm biased but everyone thought that about her and yet behind closed doors he was a real jerk. and now, the ultimate humiliation of disinheriting his own children after having committed with my nana to leave them the estate and pass down the house in maine. and it's not just the disinheriting that makes me hate him. it's the fact that my dad and his siblings did nothing to deserve it. absolutely nothing. are they saints? no. but is anyone? they called, they visited, they tried to love him in the ways they knew how, they dropped what they were doing in their lives to go help that hobag when she asked. they didn't deserve this. it's not the money... it's the gesture and the lies he told my nana. my nana signed everything in her name to him with the premise that he'd in turn leave everything to her amazing children. he promised and then renegged. he didn't fulfill my nana's wishes. he didn't fulfill commitments that he made to her and his children when they sent each of their children a letter in the 80s (which my dad kept, thank god for packrats!) explaining their will and what they ultimately saw happening upon their deaths. leaving everything to a nondeserving hobag was not written in that letter. and i guess that is why i am so angry. mom wants me to drop the anger as she says it hurts me more than anyone else. i know this. but i'm not ready. i'm not ready for forgiveness and i'm not ready to give up the anger yet. i'm still healing... as for the happy dead granddad day, last year on this day, his birthday, we had his memorial service where i comforted and held that hobags hand and told her it'd be ok. i comforted that woman and it makes me sick. i had no idea of what she'd done or he'd done until christmas eve. and for that, i say happy dead granddad day.

it's freeeeeeeeezing!

baby it's cold outside! the temp isn't even above 0 and the wind chill is -20 to -30! brrrrrrrrrrrrrr. i was outside as little as possible, but it was beyond cold when i was out there.

snow in the alley sucks

i got stuck not once, but twice trying to get in and out of my garage within 3 hours. to the point of: a. i was about to cry with frustration b. never move my car again this winter. and by stuck i meant my wheels were spinning and my car wouldn't go forward or backwards. so i was leaving this morning to go for my sat run and got ridiculously stuck. my super nice neighbor, colin, helped me out. i'd never met him before today, but i was so grateful. 25 minutes later, i'm finally on my way to the run. which i got to late. and i had to run to catch up to everyone. it sucked. but i did catch up. and it was freezing! go down the first part was fine. turning around in to the wind sucked. i seriously thought i'd lose about all of my fingers to frostbite. then, i drove home and got stuck again in the alley. arghhhhhhhh. thankfully the guy who lives right behind my place had his garage open and was quick to offer me some help. about 45 freezing minutes later, mario and mario jr had helped me get my car into the stupid garage. where it will now still for an indeterminate amount of time. as in until the snow melts or i forget about this miserable experience. i'm guessing the snow melts first.

btw, devs... you're raffle ticket was almost a winner.... you were what, 74? they called 73. i was po'd. i won nothing. booo!

more sculptures.

here is the new home for two more sculptures which just happen to be my favorites. well, actually my top three. there is another one that my parents will let me have here as it isn't my dad's favorite. he thinks the girl looks depressed. i think she looks pensive and frankly it reminds me a lot of well, me. i don't have a good picture of that one right now, but don't worry it'll be a future post!

for now... here are two more. they are flanking my parents fireplace in the living room which is where i suggested they be displayed. i think they look fabulous.

blogging every day is tough!

it's tough especially when you don't do much besides the gym on a daily basis. but there are some exciting (not so much) updates of things i've done... yesterday i headed to mich ave to shop sales i have no money for with my friend nicole. i bought nothing and neither did she. but we are both jobless so at least we got out of the house and did something! i've been a regular at the gym pretty much every day though i skipped wednesday b/c i wasn't feeling it. last night i had a junior league committee meeting and then i went to alice and trish's house for megan's surprise bday party. everyone was already there, but i made it in time for cake. yum! megan's actual bday is today and we are celebrating on sat night. today i attended my last pilates session at equinox... booo... i had to relinquish my membership due to the high price of it and my non job status... go figure. but it sucks. i've done pilates 3 times this week! but, i plan to join another gym once i get back from houston. what else... hmm. well, actually that's about it for today!

here's a picture of nicole since none of you have met her yet.i don't particularly love this picture of me, but whatever... and yes, nicole is about 6 foot bare foot so i love it - i actually feel normal size around here even though it is only 2 inches. she's super fun and it's nice to have someone else to hang out with during the day sometimes.

otis

since i haven't done a post on otis for a while, i thought you all should know that he is doing splendidly and loves chicago. he has a bunch of sinks to choose from, loads of windows to look out at, and plenty of room to run around in (but he usually chooses to sleep in my bed or on his favorite barcalounger.

this was when i first moved in and got this new rug. i still didn't have a couch at this point. but he's saying hi in this picture.


this is otis in ny in his favorite window. he has new favorite spots now.


he loves to sleep on the barcalounger while i am on the computer. it's his favorite spot... besides the bed and the couch.


he's my very large and adorable otis bear.

blackmail!

i love my little brother. we are complete opposites and don't talk all that much, but i appreciate him and love him. and i love to have this fantastic picture of him that i found... you guessed it in all of those picture boxes!

sculptures!

these are some more of my nana's beautiful pieces of sculpture. it's hard to see them all and it's hard to see the detail, but you can tell she was talented and that she put a lot of love and time in to them. so they are absolutely treasured by us.

happy halloween?!

since i don't have much time, but have promised daily updates... i'll take the short easy road... another old photo! and folks... i have an endless supply of those as i kid you not there were a bazillion pictures that we sorted through.

so, i know it's a little past halloween, but i loved this picture. this is my friend cherry who grew up across the street from me and is getting married this june, my little brother (who wore this costume a lot... even on non halloween days he was a little superman, and me. clearly a princess. duh. aren't we adorable?!

my nana

although she's been gone for 15 years which is just so not fair as she was only 67... i've blogged about my nana and how special she was to me. i found this picture while digging through all of the various photos. i'd never seen this one and fell in love with it immediately. every night before bed, my nana would come and tuck me in, read me a bedtime story, and kiss me goodnight. i can still hear her voice in my head and i miss it so much.

although this isn't bedtime reading, it is me, my brother, my older cousin adam, and his stepbrother matt.


i just love how i appear to be the only one really paying attention to nana reading! and if you look on the coffee table amid the toys, there is a sculpture of a woman - my nana did that and now it belongs to my dad. also on the table right behind the couch you can see to more sculptures: my head and my cousin adam's head. my nana did a bust for all of her grandchildren. i have 3 heads at my parents' house. 2 in clay and 1 in bronze. good thing i was a cute 2 or 3 year old!

thankfully the draft is over

on tuesday morning, my aunt and uncle came over and we prepared to have our 'draft'. my dad had to work in the morning as he was giving a webex. so while he was doing that, all of us worked on getting rid of more of the trash and putting things in the give away pile that nobody wanted. i really truly thought my mom might kill my uncle at one point so i ran up to my dad's office (he was off the call by then, but still working) to tell him mom was about to lose it and he better get downstairs before she gets really pissed. the problem was that chuck was trying to get rid of things and go thru things, but he wasn't listening to her. there were so many boxes that they were in the dining room, living room, and family room. well, my mom has to store other stuff for her charity as well as stuff she needs to take to the lakehouse. my mom showed him several times which piles were which, but he didn't listen. at one point, he came in to where we were in the dining room and said "did she really send us a bag of candy!?". to which my mom about lost it... she said no! that stuff is stuff that goes to the lakehouse and she got mad b/c she went in there to check on stuff and realized he was moving everything around including the stuff for her charity and the house and it drove her crazy. it was a little more involved than that, but all that stuff is super overwhelming and it was an overwhelming situation. (i should have taken pics of all the stuff, but i didn't.... i just now thought about doing that. oh well)

before we started the draft, we all decided that going to lunch would be good. get food in us and hopefully not be at each other's throats. so we easily picked a place: thai food in the village about a mile or so away. maybe less. then, came the problems. first rounding everyone up. then deciding how to get there. my uncle had parked his big expedition rental in the driveway (which is long and narrow) and didn't want to move it yet. my aunt has a bmw convertible and we all know how many that fits comfortably. certainly not this lot of 6 big adults. so then my dad and uncle and a few others decide to walk. i was going to walk until i stepped outside and decided it was so freaking humid that i'd be a hot sweaty mess if i walked and i didn't want that right before lunch. also there were supposed to be t'storms brewing and the sky was rather dark. so we all argued about what if it rains and we are all walking... and i swear i was going to lose it... can we just go already?!?!? literally we all stood around in the front yard for a solid 5 minutes trying to figure out how to get there. while standing, we felt rain drops. so we made chuck back out his car and drive up there with all of us. lunch was very nice and good. and while there it absolutely poured.

once back, we began the draft. it was decided the order should be chuck, dad, ellen and then in reverse: ellen, dad, chuck. the games began and it was very interesting to see what people started taking. i thought that everyone would be fighting over the sculptures my nana had made. she was a very talented artist and sculptor. but they didn't! chuck ended up taking 2 and then started in on the silver. my aunt took one and then started on the smaller things like the limoges boxes. my dad continued to take the sculptures. yay! so dad/we ended up with all but 3 sculptures which i am thrilled about!!! after that, dad knew i wanted the limoges that my nana collected and her herrend collection (which bitch only sent 8 or 9 limoges boxes and 2 herrend - my nana's collections were much much larger. whatever, stupid ho - linda, not my nana!). then came the silver and glassware and other sentimental items. since my uncle and aunt had deemed my mom the archivist, we were able to save a couple of things that my uncle had wanted. my nana's bible from when she was a girl given to her by someone in the family (can't remember) and her diary from 1935 when she was 10 years old. i was dying to have that diary. it was so cute! there were only a few months entries, but they were so cute. so i'm glad that stayed in the 'archival' so conveniently located with my parents. ellen seemed to want almost nothing and only things that she could easily take that were small which was just fine with me... my uncle chuck seemed to want the silver stuff... again, whatever for the most part. i have no sentimental feelings towards silver with the exception of the ones monogrammed with my nana, her mother's, or my other great grandmother's (whose name was also katherine) names.

i got po'd with chuck twice. bc there was this great pink outfit that was beautifully embroidered with sequins and other shiny things and i thought that would be wonderful to have one day for my kid to dress up in. i loved playing dress up and i would have coveted that skirt! i'll show you guys a picture, but you can't see the beadwork... i couldn't get a good pic of it. anyways, my uncle is trolling for his next pic and my mom says jokingly "hey chuck don't you want the pink skirt? i bet it'd look nice on you". she was joking, but it called attention to the item and he decided he actually wanted it. arghhh!! then another time, it was my fault... my mom and dad kept assuring me that the last piece of limoges was safe b/c it was a champagne cork. clearly my alchy aunt won't pick it and chuck had already announced that he wasn't interested in limoges. well, he's checking out items on that shelf and picks it up to which i said, oh, i'd really love to have that thinking that if he only half wanted it he'd put it back and let me/dad pick it. he didn't. he took it!! really?!?! that was so mean. and then he says to me "don't you have a birthday coming up?!". arghhhhh. whatever.

the skirt... i was trying it on. my nana was 5'9 but a very slender woman!

at the end of the draft, there were so many items that chuck and ellen didn't want. i pretty much got everything that meant something to me so i am happy about that. my nana also embroidered and did needlepoint and turned them in to pillows and other things. i don't know if you guys have ever noticed, but i have to framed embroidery pieces on my wall as artwork. my nana made those when i was little for my dollhouse. they were dollhouse oriental rugs! i adore those and many years ago mom turned them in to framed artwork so they didn't get lost or ruined waiting in the hot humid attic for some grandkid to come and play with the dollhouse. my parents already have a bunch of pillows and they are great. ho had sent us 5 or 6 (which is so not all of them) and i was floored to find out that they didn't want any of them! what is wrong with these people?! maybe they don't want them, but what about their kids?! maybe i'm the only one who really cares. i think it is so sad. but again, whatever, more for us.

after they had all left (wed morn), mom and i finally had some time together and we could unwind from the stress of having everyone their and the high tensions. my poor parents though... even though chuck and ellen took a bunch of stuff and more was thrown away, there was still a ton of boxes and stuff around. it still looked almost as cluttered as it did before they came. i think my mom might lose it soon if she doesn't get her dining and living room back soon!

short post

just a quick note b/c i'm tired. i just got home. otis missed me terribly. the flight and getting home was beyond easy. i will have to fill you all in on yesterday. the day of the so called draft. but, that will take a long time and i'm hungry for dinner and ready to relax on the couch. so, look forward to tomorrow everyone!

the witch did send us an enormous amount of photo albums and pictures... among them, i found this absolutely adorable (if i do say so myself) picture of me and my friend heidi on the beach in maine. i have no idea how old we are but i'm guessing maybe 6 or 7.

let the fun begin!

so yes, i already missed a day of posts, but i can explain. and will do so today!

yesterday morning, i got up early and finished packing. i hauled my suitcase which fortunately wasn't too heavy to the el and got on the brown line. at washington/wells, i made the switch to the orange line and took it out to midway. i'd never done that before, but hey, i'm broke and thus 1.75 is a lot easier to handle than a $40 cab ride. it took twice as long but since it was more than twice cheaper, it was a bargain. anyways, i hopped on my southwest flight, made a pitstop in jackson, mississippi and then headed on to houston. mom was there waiting for me when i got to the baggage claim. we made our way home and my uncle chuck was already there. my aunt ellen and uncle jim were on their way over. chuck is the chicago uncle and ellen and jim are the dallas contingency of the family. my dad needed to be working and does this from home. so mom and i were left with the relatives (his brother and sister).

chuck is a natural organizer and hates clutter. my parents don't love clutter but somehow their house is beyond cluttered. to the point it drives me crazy and i really really hope that one day they sell this place before they die so i don't have to clean it all out. wow, moving my small places is enough work for me... this 3 story house?!?! oh boy...but i digress. so chuck wanted to get started right away going through everything the wicked witch had sent. i'm pretty sure i've told all of you that she set us over 100 boxes from both florida and maine. it cost over $13k to ship it all and most of it does not have much value monetarily but it does have a lot of sentimental value. and being the sentimental person i am, i am glad to at least have that even though the witch was such a bitch and still kept a lot of my grandmother's things and things that should be handed down to us. whatever. even worse, the witch sent us trash. and anything heavy. she cleaned out her f'ing attic of the house in maine that my family had owned since the early 60s. for example in a few of the boxes we received 1950s space heaters. 6 of them. more boxes of box of the unsentimental variety just bc they were heavy. then there were all the lp's. at least 5 or 6 boxes of those and you don't realize but those suckers are heavy! again, sock it to us. if you haven't figured out already, we paid for the shipping costs. she even sent us extremely dirty and moldy things. i mean when i say she went out of her way to be a bitch, i'm not exaggerating!

so, we sorted through things and made some good progress. there are a lot of things that chuck and ellen don't want which is good b/c that means we get them. and if we don't want them, then goodwill gets them. they voted my mom be the archivist and so all pictures and army related stuff (from my great grandad & gdad)and my nana and gdad's baby books and other interesting artifacts remain with us for my mom to preserve. awesome. but, that means my mom has a whole lotta work in front of her. which she doesn't mind b/c the history is fascinating, but still! they are leaving it to my mom to do which i find very selfish and odd. they don't think their children want any of it and they didn't want it b/c what were they going to do with it. i am super happy to have all of that memorablia one day so whatever. i just find it strange.

the items multiple people wanted all went in to a pile for the 'draft' as my uncle calls it. my mom had promised to stick up for me and get the things i wanted. she said i didn't need to be here, but i knew better than that and i was right. i was so angry last night! there is a little doll bed that used to belong to my nana. both ellen and i played with it growing up (i'll have to scan in a very cute picture to show you). ellen's daughter caitlin really wanted it and i think ellen did too. well, that was one of the most important things to me that i wanted. and my mom knew this! so when ellen said ohhhhhh, i want the bed - my mom said ok. just ok! what?! aren't you supposed to say that i want it too??? and that since it is in contention it goes in the draft. well, she didn't and i was pissed. not one to stay quiet, i made a stink about it. later my dad said he agreed with my logic, but during that time he was upstairs working. so here i am pissed as the stupid doll bed now apparently belongs to ellen.

after awhile, tensions were high. mom did it to me again on another item... can't even remember what it is now. but i was pissed! mom!!! really?! what was all this that you said you were on my team? sure didn't sound like it. she said she was just tired. she did feel bad later when we talked about it. same dumb excuse - she's the daughter and i'm just the grandaughter. yes, but ellen has drunken/dranken/drinken most of her memories away and i don't think she's any more important than me. and that's my view point. i spent a lot of my childhood with my nana. i would spend a month in maine with them every summer taking lessons and playing boardgames with my nana. she would tuck me in at night and read a bedtime story. she'd even play barbie dolls with me. i was her first grandaughter and only one until i was 8 or 9 so come on, let's be honest i was her favorite. and she was mine and i cherish those memories and i just don't feel like my memories and my love for her is any less important when i always felt and thought of her as a mother figure. anyways...

so we all head to dinner. tex mex. i thought dinner might be a little testy... but it was fine. phew. we then headed back to the house for some pie and ice cream. and the doll bed comes up again. i of course take my position. and i leveraged my persuasion. i knew my cousin caitlin really really really wanted my nana's wedding dress. i would love to have it too. however, neither of us can wear it. while my nana was tall (5'9) she was so small. i tried on the dress and couldn't get it over my shoulders. my cousin is smaller and also bigger than me. there is also a white mink that i knew ellen wanted so i said ok, i know caitlin wants both and i do too. but i'd be willing to give up the fight for the wedding dress if you'll give me the doll bed. she caved. yay!! it just wouldn't have been fair for her to have all 3. the reason i mentioned the fur is b/c i can't quite remember if i had to let her have that too... anyways... after all of this they left and we were exhausted. mom, dad, and i stayed up talking for a bit, but then it was time to go to bed. so see, it was a rather long emotional day and thus no post. but this is long enough and if you are still reading, i think it more than makes up for not doing one yesterday. i better head downstairs before someone tries to take something i want again!! the draft officially begins this afternoon once my dad can take a break from work. btw, i have no idea the last time chuck, ellen, or jim worked. chuck has 5 clients he manages money from, but it is his own business. ellen and jim used to own retail stores, but they sold those at least 10 years ago and haven't worked since.

ok, on to more fun! i'm sure there will be more stories and more long posts... stay tuned and check back in for my next daily post!!

happy birthday smac!

ok, so it isn't technically smac anymore, but i think it might take awhile for me to get out of the habit of calling you that! i hope you are having an absolutely fantastic birthday!!! lots of love....

jingle bell 5k

this morning i woke up at 6:30am in order to get ready for the jingle bell 5k for arthritis that i'd signed up for. i turned on the news to figure out what to wear. the weather guy told me it was 2 degrees outside. 2!!!! plus some mild wind and that made it negative. oh boy. maybe i should go back to bed... but no, i have a t-shirt from it and therefore, must participate. and i'd already paid for it. so i bundled up in all of my winter running gear and headed out. the start line was at merchandise mart -it was actually inside the building. well, not the start, but there was gear check and food and a warm place to wait for the race to get started. the organizers had all passed out bells for our shoes and people had dressed up like santa or reindeer. there was even a gingerbread cookie guy! they were fun. i finished my first mile in 10min 30sec which is very fast for me! i typically do a 12:30pace. guess i was cold and needed some warming up, thus ran faster. then mile 2, i was slightly slower at 22min but still... ahead of the usual pace. at mile 3, i was at about 34something or 35, can't remember... but i finished the 5k with the best time for me ever! in just under 36 mins which i was really happy with. and yes, it was cold, but it was not as bad as i was anticipating! it was fun as they had all past out bells for our shoes and people had dressed up like santa or reindeer. there was even a gingerbread cookie guy! they were fun.

shut up!! are you kidding?!

i happen to be headed to the houston airport on mon and again on wed. omg, if this thing is set up i am so so doing some terrificly horrible song!! my old boss just sent this to me.


Karaoke: One More Reason to Drive During the Holidays



Fed up with long lines at the airport? Try belting out a tune.

Houston's Bush International Airport is setting up karaoke booths for travelers, just in time for the holidays. One will be up and running on Thursday afternoon, airport officials said.

For the past two years, officials have invited choirs and bands from local high schools and churches to perform at Bush and Hobby airports during December. The karaoke booths seemed the next logical step, said Caroline Schneider, assistant airport manager for customer service.

"During the holidays, we have a lot of our novice travelers," she said. "We thought while they are waiting, they can just sing a song."

Aspiring vocalists can choose from hundreds of song titles, Schneider said. Small prizes will be given to the singers.

2nd daily post!

last night was so much fun. drunky drunk fun. my high school (culver) friend, laura, was in town. she lives in northern indiana and although it isn't that far, i don't get to see her that often which is sad, but... anyways i made the decision to go out on a friday and that i would in all likelihood miss the sat run. oops. but i feel ok about it b/c i am doing the jingle bell 5k which isn't quite the 5 miles i'm supposed to do, but eh, that's ok. so, alice and i went to her coworker's fundraiser for women who can't afford mammograms. it's called the silver lining foundation and it was at zella. i'd never been there before, but i really liked it. it was so much fun! laura and nicole (betti, not richman) and her husband chris all met up with us there. there was another coworker of alice's there too - his name is loren. he's super nice, but slightly annoying. that's ok. there were two great things about last night. ok, i'll tell you the second one first b/c the first one is way more exciting and you just have to wait for it.
so, we went out on the patio last night (it was tented) to get out of the very loud indoors as i was losing my voice and tired of talking so loud. so we headed out. i was talking with nicole and this very drunk silver fox comes up to talk to her. she manages to squirm away and leave me with him. so he's all where did she go and i pointed and said to talk to her husband. so then he decides i'm ok and hits on me. and i'm all how do i get rid of this guy?! this silver fox who didn't appear all thaaaaat old was telling me that he was staying with his sister in the city b/c he lives in the burbs at his parents' house b/c he's separated from his wife. oh wow, ladies, he sounds like a winner. anyways, i start looking to my group of girls who are completely oblivious to my plight and i realize that two more guy coworkers of alice's happen to be looking over and i caught their eye. one mouthed, help? and i just looked at him and nooded slightly. silver fox has no idea. he just keeps his close talking. so, this coworker guy i've never even met comes over and says hey baby, how are you?! or something along those lines and silver fox is all that must be your boyfriend and of course i said yep. and then i gave this guy a kiss on the cheek. figured why not. he was cute. of course then later i found out that he has had a gf for 5 years that he apparently isn't into all that much but that comes 3rd hand. who knows. whatever. i just found it to be a funny situation. and oh yeah, the gf showed up at the bar a little later and he tells her how he saved me and i think she was less than amused. eh, oh well. :)
the second fun news is that my friend laura is pregnant! she just found out yesterday and she isn't really telling anyone yet, but she couldn't help it. i've promised to say nothing, but since none of you know her or have the potential of ruining the surprise, i can write it here and spill the beans. she's 3 weeks along so like i said it is super early and we know something could happen, but it's still very exciting news and i'm so glad she told me!
oh and alice is never super super drunky drunk, but last night, wow! i was all go alice! she was dancing with a bunch of different guys throughout the night! she was so funny! until she started feeling sick, so i took her home. the cabbie was very nervous that she'd puke in or on his cab... she didn't. but i had to keep reassuring him she'd be fine. love it.

i'll post some pics of this raucous event soon.

holly wants daily... ok!

well, today i was hungover from going out last night. it really takes just about nothing to leave me a nasty one in the morning. ugh, i feel so old. in any case, i am headed out tonight again. tonight, i feel very special as i was in the shower and managed to cut myself on my razor. on my index finger. sliced it right on open. no idea how i managed that but holy hell it hurts. and boy did that thing bleed! yuck. tomorrow i will update you on tonight's events. and if holly wants daily blogs, well then that's what you shall get! i promise to even get in the hang of uploading pics. i have quite a few to put up here.

happy thanksgiving!

playing dress up
lake house
aunt/uncle/cousin
golf cart
wii
dinner!
leftovers
unpacking/arranging boxes


this is just my outline ladies so that i can remember everything. i do have some pics for this as well! as soon as my mom sends them to me. they were on her camera

drowning sorrows with booze...

oh yes, i lost my job. and not b/c my boss read my rant on this blogger :) nope, the deal that was supposed to go thru on fri, the 21st didn't happen and fidelity backed out of it. so, that weekend we all knew we were screwed, we just didn't know how soon. some of us joked that the doors would be locked on monday and wondered if we'd have a job on monday, but i think we all thought we had at least a few weeks if not more as the 1031 dept was the only profitable one. well, no, that was not to be the case and last monday i walked in to work as normal after receiving an email on my bberry that said everything was business as usual.... well someone should be shot for sending us that one b/c while apparently the rest of the company has time left, the 1031 dept up and closed its doors and i learned i no longer had a job. happy thanksgiving!! so, we all packed up and left. i really liked my coworkers so it was pretty darn sad. i think we were all just in total shock. so, there it is... apparently while our ceo was telling us everything was ok, it really wasn't and the company was in the shitter. and i'm guessing the rest of the employees that still have jobs will soon find themselves without one as well as the landamerica name is now completely trash. so when my friends heard about my day, they immediately said how about happy hour?! so some of us went to vines and drank a lot of wine and ate some food. megan found us a great mon night place with deals so it would be cheap - vines has 1/2 off night on mondays! half off everything including wine. it was a fun night, but i woke up with quite the hangover and then left for houston early on tuesday morning to start the t'giving holiday.

girls night out

oh what a night it was... story and pics to come

my rant for today...

yesterday, we received word that we were all getting pay cuts. today in our weekly newsletter, i read this (well, with my comments added):

ok, Really?!?!?! are they fucking kidding?! they just give us ALL pay cuts and then they suggest we INC our 401k contributions b/c they stopped making their match?!?!?! you've got to be kidding me!!!! these fucking assholes think we all have money to spare?????

"The company match in the LandAmerica 401(k) Plan match will be suspended. (Financial advisors suggest continuing – and even increasing – contributions when companies suspend the match.)"

AND

"The National Leadership Team, the Executive Leadership Team and the LandAmerica Board of Directors will all take pay cuts."

really!?!?!? really?!?!?! just now they are taking paycuts?! there were employees that took paycuts in other divisions a month ago - maybe more. and they've laid off how many thousands of employees over the last year? and they knew that if this buy out doesn't happen, we won't make payroll in the near future and NOW they say they will take a 15% paycut. wow, how charitable. what fucking management that is. at tsg, at least the execs quit taking any of their pay checks for months in order to keep paying their employees. that's stepping up to the plate. not waiting til the last second to take a paycut that hardly digs in to their big ass salaries and pockets anyways. i'm so pissed off. it makes me want to vomit.

the pre-thanksgiving thanksgiving party

On Saturday, dev and Patrick hosted a wonderful pre-thanksgiving thanksgiving dinner! It was so much fun and the food was delicious! But, I am getting ahead of myself. After our weekly sat morn run, devon and I along with my new running friend, jenna, went to Einstein bagels where of course I asked for pumpkin bagels. The lady said they didn’t have any…arghh! But then! Low and behold she checks in back and says there are a bunch that are just now coming out of the oven. Whoo hoo! So I got my very hot and fresh pumpkin bagel to eat then and one more to take home. So that guy in the other bagel store must have been lying or not knowing what he was talking about when he said that pumpkin bagel season was over….

Anyways… I get home from running and start to make holly’s nana’s cranberry ice recipe. I had wanted to do it on fri night and even went to the store to get everything I needed for that and a few other things too. So I get home and I all ready to start my foray in to being a ‘chef’ when I realize that I forgot to buy sugar. Friends, there are literally 3 components to this recipe: water, sugar, and cranberries. Since it was already around 9, I decided I was way too tired to track down some sugar and so I figured I’d just do it once I got back home in the morning. My attempt was pathetic. I have pictures to prove it. Basically I wanted to show devon that I had really tried to make it and I hadn’t just flaked out. I did bring crackers and baked brie cheese (which was yummy, but didn’t get baked long enough… oh well). Ok, so how do I screw up a 3 ingredient recipe?? No idea. But I blame holly. Her directions were a little confusing, but I tried my best! Ok, probably only confusing to me since I never read recipes. Ever. I think maybe the sugar and water didn’t form the ‘syrup’ holly said it should form. I put exactly the right amount of water and sugar in the pot and boiled it for 5 mins, but it looked like it wasn’t very syrupy. And then I was supposed to beat it once it set, but it never set so I couldn’t beat it. Anyways… this is why I stick to box mixes. I can do those.

So, it’s time to head over to dev’s house and I pick up alice and then I swing by and pick up lara who was at mannish’s house. Lara was in town for a conference and it was really fun to see her! We got to dev’s (late of course) and we were the last to arrive. Oops, oh well. The amount of food was amazing though! Pumpkin pretzels which sugar, squash dip, baked brie, raspberries, wine, champagne, and I can’t even remember what else, but that was just for starters! For the dinner: lara, me, alice, nicole and her boy carlin, Elaine and her boy, adam, amy, dev, Patrick, Christine, and nikolai. I think that’s everyone! So I was munching on everything in sight and kept seeing adam’s ring which looked suspiciously like a culver ring… I’m trying to stare and see if it is without being completely obvious and weird, but I can’t and eventually he mentions he’s from northern Indiana and me being drunk blurts out “is that a culver ring?!?!”. And it turns out it was. He had graduated in 90 though so he knew a few of the younger brothers and sisters of people in his class that were in my class. So it was fun to meet another culver grad.

Eventually we all sat down to dinner, there wasn’t enough room at the big table for everyone so me, alice, and lara were relegated to the little kids’ table aka the coffee table. We had all kinds of goodies! Turkey, cranberries (I think those were there in anticipation of my cooking being a failure), stuffing, green bean casserole thingy, mashed potatoes, and I’m sure I’m forgetting some other stuff. It was all so yummy! The wine was flowing… I’m now a cheap drunk… and I was rather drunk by this point. We then brought out the pumpkin pie and some cheesecake and I went to town on my piece of pumpkin pie. After some more drinking and hanging out, I was getting extremely tired and needed to put myself to bed. Thankfully alice was sober and she drove us home. It was such a fun party! Bravo to devon and Patrick and thank you again for hosting all of us!!!
pictures to come!

my second day trip to champaign

So in champaign, I gave my usual presentation and then afterwards there was a happy hour. I was talking to one of the guys who had attended and he told me that he thought “it was long enough to be appropriate and short enough to keep everyone’s attention”. And with that, I totally thought he was referring to the length of the skirt I was wearing!! I looked down at my skirt just to confirm that it was long enough, and it was touching just above my knee. Then the guy was all, no I was referring to the presentation! I felt so so stupid, but laughed it off as a joke. But, come on… really the way he worded it… couldn’t he have said the presentation instead of ‘it’!? I am still laughing at myself and that was about a week ago!

my first bears game!

On Friday night, I had a junior league event that my committee was sponsoring. I ended up talking to a girl who I’ve met a few times and are starting to become friendlier. She actually knows my good friend from high school because they went to college together. Well, she was saying how she had these two free tickets to the bears game on Sunday (bears are our football team, court) and that she had no one to go with because everyone was busy with something else. So, I promptly volunteered. And it was settled. I would get to go to my first bears game that Sunday.

Sunday morning rolls around and it is chilly! Ok, it’s brrrr cold. I met up with Kyle (the new friend) and we headed by el train to soldier field. I’d never been there before – it’s a gorgeous stadium! We get there (a little late) and set about finding out seats. They are in the nosebleed. Way up top in the 32nd row. So up and up and up the stairs we go… by around row 18ish we were dang tired and there were two end seats open. We looked at eachother and were in total agreement of sitting there until we got kicked out of the seats. Maybe 10 minutes later, the real seat holders came and we got the boot. We had seen some great seats over in section 209/309 which were directly across from us so we made it our mission to make those our seats. We head all the way to the left side of the stadium and then got stopped by the boxes and suites section… so we went all the way back around to the right this time… no luck… apparently the reason there were so many open seats is because they are reserved and only the ticket holders can reach that area. Danggit! Oh well, back to get another beer and figure out where else to sit. Turns out we didn’t sit for the rest of the game (which at this point it is half time). We found a great place to stand and see the game from the lowest level. There was a guy in those seats that literally was wearing a real bear skin… it looked like he’d pulled it off the wall and put it around him. We found him hilarious. To his right, there was another guy in a darker fur… kyle wanted to know if he was a gorilla. Anyways, we got the boot from that area and found a place right behind the goal to stand and watch. Amazing view! Kyle at one point decided she had to have a bear claw (no, not the donut, the big blue paw with orange claws). So $14 later, kyle had her claw and we headed to another part of the stadium. This time we snuck in and found a row where we could sit.. but this was towards the end of the 4th quarter and everyone was standing. So we stood in these great seats and watched the rest of the game. Unfortunately the bears lost to the undefeated titans…

At the end of the game, they showed the weather report and said it was 29 degrees out… and it was windy… and that would explain why even in all of our layers we were freezing! As for leaving the stadium, that was quite the process… it took forever to wind around all the people and plus they funnel you out several blocks before you can get anywhere. Even without so many people trying to get out, it would have been a 10 minute walk! Anyways, we headed for the red el line to get back home. It was such a fun day!!

pictures to come!

random work trips

winter warriors!

so there is a program that the chicago endurance sports (ces) puts on and it is called winter warriors. basically, you run at 7:30am on sat mornings outside. bright idea, right?! well, i thought so and somehow i convinces alice, becca, and devon to do it with me! we've had a few saturdays so far, but none was colder than last sat! and it wasn't even that cold - i mean it was, but by comparison to say a few weeks from now. i was about ready to turn around and say no way, but then i realized i was already almost there and really, just do it! so i did. and once we got running, it really wasn't that cold or that bad. and after all the running (this week 6 miles), dev, alice, and i (becca didn't make it sat) went to brunch at nookie's on wells street. annnnnnd, they had pumpkin pancakes!!! they were delicious too. brunch was so fun - it was definitely the perfect way to start a sat morning. and then, i'm not going to lie, dev drove us home and once there i went and put on sweats (sans shower... wet hair and cold = no fun so i decided against it) and took a nap on the couch under several blankets to warm up. i was frozen! and it was a great day.

the run for hot chocolate

this town is great. we run for chocolate. literally! this was the first year of the race and you could choose to run a 5k or a 15k. alice and i chose the 5k. devon was supposed to join us, but apparently her sweet tooth was acting up as she decided not to do the race after all. the race got off to a little stressful start as alice called me at 7 to ask if i was on my way - ummm, no! oops! i had screwed up the whole time change thing and my alarm didn't go off!! so i quickly got dressed and went to pick up alice and we were on our way. until we hit traffic. ugh, really? other people driving too?! no way!! the parking was a nightmare, but we eventually found a spot with about 10 mins to go until race time. phew! we got to the starting line just before the 15k'ers took off and then about 5 mins later, we got to start our race. it was really pretty! but not well organized...we gave them slack since it was their first year and all. the worst part of the course was all the duck poo - it was almost unavoidable. yuck!! stupid ducks. anyways, after the race, we went to the tent to get our chocolate! they had a chocolate fountain with graham crackers, bananas, and marshmallows to dip. they also had hot chocolate and an array of hershey's chocolate products! yum! they handed out reese's peanut butter cups, those minis that have the goodbar, krunch, and regular, twizzlers, and a bunch of other things. i was annoyed bc they had boxes of whatchamacallits and other good things and yet they weren't handing those out. boo! but, whatever, i had more than enough chocolate for a few days. it was a fun race!

halloween

halloween turned in to a very fun and long night! i had a few freinds over prior to heading out. the girls dressed, the boys not so much. they were no fun!! but in any case, megan, kim, jared, ellen, mar, and me all had some predrinks and then headed out for the night.

he hit up mickey's and drank some there and then we hit another bar across the street from mickey's but the name escapes me right now. maybe it is called jacks... anyways, we stay there waaaaay too long but it was so much fun. more drinks, more fun and then! we found mccain and obama coming to our bar! so of course we needed pictures of them. pretty much everyone did. they were a big hit. mccain was so hitting on me...

and then kim and jared and ellen and her boyfriend all left and we stayed. and when we did leave it was close to 3:30am or so and we were starving. so we headed over to the golden nugget and waiting fooooooooorever to get our grilled cheeses. but while we were there, we did run in to michael phelps! i guess he really does need a lot of calories to keep up swimming.
it was our waitress' first night on the job and i felt so bad for her! but we didn't leave there until around 5am. oops... and then i crawled in to bed and stayed there quite awhile!

a very long winded account of this weekend.

Family history is an interesting thing. And mine, I think, happens to be pretty darn interesting. For one my great great grandfather has a published autobiography that I didn’t even know existed until over the weekend. I now own a copy courtesy of my dad and started to read it last night. More about that later, but let me start with the beginning.

This weekend after running in the misty yucky chilly weather of Chicago with Alice and Dev and a bunch of other crazy people who joined the same program, I drove over to Muncie, IN to meet my parents and my aunt and uncle. It’s about a four hour drive from Chicago and I stayed awake with the help of an energy drink and a host of cds I’d made previously. The cds were great. They were all the best songs to sing along to. which I do. But only by myself. Unless we are in the karaoke cab. And Africa is playing. Which by the way, Africa was on one of my cds. So, I spent four hours driving along first the freeway and then a two lane highway with the volume high (to drown out my own singing) and singing at the top of my lungs.

I arrived at the Hampton Inn where we were all staying… and no one was there. They’d lost track of time and so I had to wait for them for almost 20 mins. we then had a couple hours to spend together catching up before we had to get all pretty and head out to a cocktail reception and dinner/fundraiser/90 year anniversary of BSU. This was all being held at the ball state university art museum for the descendants of the ball family. The ball family had 5 brothers and my great great grandfather was one of those (the most important one if you ask me). Because my granddad hated or resented my nana’s family, he essentially alienated them from her formerly very close family. As a result, they pretty much all know each other and I already knew anyone. The last time I’d seen some of them was for my second cousin’s wedding almost 16 years ago!

The reception was lovely. It was held in the foyer of the gallery and there was music and of course beverages. There was a group picture and after the dinner we were all given a very nice framed copy of it. I can literally name about 8 people in that picture. During the reception, some people roamed around the gallery. My parents had taken a tour earlier in the day, but my mom showed me around and told me some of the stories. BSU has one of the best art galleries in the country and it’s mostly due to my nana’s cousin, my great uncle david (who is a character all unto his own). Uncle david as he is referred to by my family grew up in Muncie with the rest of the family also lived a lot of his childhood in Ireland where his dad was the ambassador. I think it’s kind of funny b/c you can still hear some of that European accent even though he’s as American as they come. Uncle david is also interesting in the fact that he never married or had children… and the reason for that is b/c he is gay. He is marvelously affluent and extremely generous with his money. He is a great lover of art and has traveled extensively. He has also donated more than 15 million dollars of artwork to the gallery over the years and has started a campaign to raise 10 million more for expansion. If the museum can raise 5 million, he’ll donate the other 5. Hence the reason for the dinner and the reason for my dad and his siblings to ‘buy’ a room and name it in honor of my nana.


the room to be rededicated to my nana. my mom, dad, me, my aunt and uncle


the art gallery from across the lawn

After the reception, it was time for the dinner to start. Everyone went to a beautiful room in the gallery – it looked like an old theater or something. We were sat at table two! We had the President of the university at our table, the Board of Trustees President and his wife, the Director of Art for BSU, and also another Board of Trustees member (and also related to us) and his wife. My aunt and uncle were also seated there. We think we got the best table b/c we made one of the first donations, but also bc my uncle is co chair of the fundraising efforts and I think he has visions of sitting on the Board of Trustees. Anyways, we enjoyed a lovely dinner complete with wine.

the statue known as Benefience on the BSU campus. it was erected in honor of the 5 brothers (i can't remember by whom)

Once dinner was over, it was time to hit the audience up for some money! But, they didn’t do it aggressively. It was definitely a passive maneuver. Our new friend, Tom DeWeese (the BofT Pres), got up and gave some opening remarks. Then the President (we now affectionately call Jo Ann bc you know after a couple hours of dinner…) spoke. After that a film made about the Unversity’s history was shown and it was pounded in to everyone’s head how generous all of our relatives had been – including the 5 brothers who had bought the land and struggling college back in 1918. They revamped it and gave it back to the city. In thanks, the city renamed the college after them… Ball State University. After the video, we had five members of the family all get up and share their comments on whatever they wanted to talk about. It was long, but interesting and at times funny. One of the older members of the family, Frank Bracken, spoke and showed us a watch his grandfather (my great great grandfather) had once used. I’d never seen it before and when he got back to the table, I asked to take a closer look. It was a beautiful old pocket watch with an old photo of his kids on the left side and the clock part on the right. After everyone spoke, the President made her final remarks and an unveiling of a plaque was announced. It’ll be placed next to this statue that was erected in the Brothers’ honor.

After dinner, we all went back to the hotel and changed. Mom and I stayed up talking while my dad either patiently listened or was asleep. I was sharing a room with my parents b/c it was parents’ weekend at the school and also a home football game and their team is undefeated this year. The aerobed was awesome. My dad snored all night and I was freezing. But other than that, sharing a room was fine!

On Sunday, my parents didn’t have to leave until around 2ish for the airport so we had breakfast with my aunt and uncle in which a very heated discussion of politics and the economy ensued. After that, we checked out of the hotel and roamed around Muncie looking at the various homes and places my parents had lived and gone to in their youth. Then we hunted for treasures at a flea market and then headed over to Minnetrista which is a cultural center all about the… you guessed it… Balls. We headed for the gift shop and my dad bought me a copy of that published autobiography I mentioned earlier. After all of that, we headed for the best place to go get lunch. The Muncie mall. There is a cafeteria restaurant in there with not too bad of food (not the food court) and so we went and ate too much food. Then it was time to drop me off at my car and for both of us to head on home. Once again, energy drinks and sing alongs were my friend.

More family history if you guys would like to hear it in future blogs…

champaign.

no, not the bubbly tasty kind... the city type in il. b/c of budget cuts, i got up at 3:15am this morning to drive 2.5 hours to champaign, il. for a meeting that started at 7:30am. it was a breakfast meeting and there were supposed to be 15-20 people there. guess how many showed?? 4. 4 of the cutest old men you've ever met and super friendly. they all convene at panera bread like everyday. how cute is that?? sometimes this one guy goes to panera twice a day. once with his wife around 6 and then again to socialize with the other oldies around 9. he says it's a great place to get business and socialize. who knew?! so cute. anyways, then i had 2 hours to do whatever (blog/email) and in a few, i will be heading to lunch with an attorney and a title agent. and then i will get back on the road and drive home. ugh. loooong day. the budget does not allow for hotels or overnight stays or plane trips these days. fun times. in any case, i'm ready to get back home and after hitting up the gym - i'm prepared - i brought a bag of my gym stuff so i can drive straight there - i am super excited to plant my rear end on the couch and watch some good thursday tv. survivor and greys. i just have to make a long drive home first.

26.2 loooooong miles: my story

So my life has been pretty darn consumed by this whole marathon thing… it’s truly screwing up my blogging abilities! I thought you were supposed to get more energy from exercising…in any case, by the time the work day is over and I go to the gym and get home, I just don’t feel like sitting down to the computer to type more. I want to eat dinner and veg in front of the tv. I still need to figure out how to set up my wireless connection for the computer. I hear it’s pretty easy, but I have brain issues when I get home at night and the thought of messing around with something I’m not sure how to do seems to overwhelming to attempt… so I put it off. And now it’s been almost a year. Go me. I’ll have to tackle that asap…maybe this weekend. I’m a horrible procrastinator in case any of you didn’t know this about me…so enough blabbering, let’s get to the good stuff!

The expo! Holy moly this was a sight to behold. It was an event in itself! Alice and I attempted to leave my house a little before 4 on Friday afternoon. The theory is that it is less crowded on Fri than Sat plus it is a lot of walking and I needed to save my feet for Sun. We drove over to mccormick place which for those of you who don’t know is a convention center that is more of a small city. We drove around for almost an hour looking for the one parking lot that we were supposed to park in… and kept getting lost. Yes, it is that big with that many turns and it is so not well marked! We saw others getting lost too… it was pretty funny but so frustrating! We finally parked and made our way to the expo which was full of booths: everything from various upcoming marathons, to massage products, food stuff, to running gear, and even tooth whitening you could do right there on the spot. Of course this is also where we picked up our packets for the race and our new technical race t-shirts. They also had a huge Nike store in the middle of everything where I couldn’t help but purchase a new purple fleece and purple running shorts (in my favorite style) with the Chicago marathon 08 emblazoned on them. And I also got a nifty frame dealio that will house my medal, my bib number, some Chicago marathon artwork piece, and a little plaque with my super slow time on it. Gosh, the pressure, now I had to finish not only b/c of all of my hard work, but also because what would I do with this very nice $150 display thing if I didn’t earn my medal?! That would seriously suck.

On the night before the race, I made all of my preparations. I made a sign for alice’s parents to hold with my name on it. I colored in ‘harper’ to the front of my team in training shirt. I figured harper was easier to write and see on a shirt. Less letters. Incidentally, did anyone see that lisa marie pressly named one of her twins ‘harper’? and at the marathon expo, alice and I saw a very cute golden retriever puppy poking out of a girls tote bag. The dog’s name? harper. I’d find this much cuter if that stupid hobag’s son hadn’t named his daughter ‘harper’ in ‘honor’ of my granddad. It makes me want to throw up thinking about it. Thus, none of my children will ever have the harper name as their first or middle name. I digress. I got my water bottle filled up, I put the bib on my shirt, put the clothes out on the dresser, put the timing chip on my shoe, packed a bag for my stuff to check at the race, my sports watch, got out the body glide, the gu, the sunscreen (I burned anyways), and a bunch of other miscellaneous items that one probably wouldn’t think of if…I wanted to make sure I was totally prepared so I didn’t forget anything in the morning.

The morning of! I woke up early so I could have breakfast (a bagel with peanut butter) and that I could get fully prepared. Body glide, check. Sports waterproof sunscreen, check. Watch, check. And so on. I was ready! Alice, her uncle (also running), her uncle’s friend, and her parents all picked me up and we made our way to grant park… the starting point. We got close, but then we had to jump out of the car so that her parents could find parking and we could get to the charity tents and find team in training’s tent. I was very stressed out b/c I felt like we were running out of time. We HAD to be in the start corrals by 7:45 or we couldn’t participate. It’s was 7:04. Charity village was far. And then alice realized she forgot her watch. Without her watch, she can’t do her intervals which are 4 mins running and 2 walking. She was absolutely stressed out and about to cry. She wanted to jump in a cab and go home to get it. She thought she didn’t have any other choice otherwise without her watch she’d never be able to finish. I told her absolutely not. We have to find another way. The make that round trip, she would have definitely missed the 7:45 am time deadline. She didn’t have her phone so she couldn’t call anyone (didn’t know anyone’s numbers by heart). So her stressing out was stressing me out, but we made our way to the tent (which of course, was the furthest one from the entrance). We stashed our bags and I happened to ask if either of the girls happened to have a watch alice could borrow. One girl lent alice her watch which was fantastic. However, no one knew how to program intervals and we never figured it out so it was of no help there…we headed to the starting corrals and lined up with the pace we were starting with. We both started around the 12 min pace. In the huge crowd of 40k + people, we managed to find a few member of our team that we’d trained with all season and so that was nice. Alice was super relieved b/c they all adhere to the 4/2 pace too. However, they go slower than her. But, luckily a girl named Jackie was around and she wanted to do 4/2 but a little faster. So it ended up working out a-ok. Phew. Deep breath.

5…4…3…2…1! Now, hurry up and wait! Seriously. They let the really good marathoners go five minutes ahead of the pack. Five minutes later, we started but it took about twenty minutes to cross the start line. My time did not start until I officially crossed the line. So, off I went. Through 29 different neighborhoods of Chicago. My favorite neighborhoods were Boystown, Pilsen, and China Town. Boystown b/c as we turned on to Broadway, there was a band playing “On Broadway” and then there were the super gay guys all dressed up and cheering us (literally as cheerleaders) on. Then Pilsen. As we ran in to Pilsen, the sign said welcome to Mexico! Hmm. Ok! They played all kinds of fun festive Mexican music. And then China Town. It was near the finish line, but it was fun b/c they had a couple of Chinese dragons dancing for us. I can’t really remember what mile was where, but I know I heard my name and saw a sign for me around mile 8 or 9? Surprise! It was my friend Nicole (not the Scripps one) and her husband, Chris cheering me on. I had no idea they would be there so that was awesome! Then at mile 13, I knew to look for Alice’s parents. There was the sign I made! They also handed me some gu, and off I went. (gu is a small packet of nasty tasting stuff to give you energy b/c you burn so many calories). Also along the way Megan and Trish were cheering us on, but I never saw them. Alice did though! And another great surprise I wasn’t expecting was my name to be called out in the middle of the ghetto by devon! What?! Wait!! I hear my name “Katherine!” and it makes me look b/c I have harper on my shirt and it sounded like a voice I knew. And it was! A sweaty hug and a couple of self portraits later, I had to continue down the road to the finish line! I loved all the support. It was so great!! There were also so many people watching along the way. Many offered cheers, high fives, cookies, pretzels, encouragement, and in some cases they sprayed hoses on us – it was so freaking hot!! And a few times we were offered cold beers for free… I thought that might make me puke. No thanks. I passed. But even in all the heat, even as my knees, hips, feet and everything else was dying…. I continued to push forward thinking about all the reasons why I was running this race. Becky and matt’s mom, my grandpa, all the people who made a donation, my parents, and lastly but most important…that damn display plaque I bought that would be arriving in 4 weeks. If I didn’t finish, I didn’t get a medal and I would feel stupid about ordering the plaque. Just kidding. Well sort of. What truly kept me going was thinking about how much I had trained and how much effort I had put forth. I was not going to quit! Just keep going…every step you take is one step closer to the finish line. Cheesy, I know. But true nonetheless.

With a little more than a mile to go, I’m looking ahead of me and I see a purple tank and black shorts with a familiar blond pony tail…it was alice! I raced to catch up to her and we were both exhausted. But, it was so awesome to spend the entire race apart and then somehow meet up unplanned at the end when there were so many people out there. We ran the rest of the way together and even crossed the finish line at the same time. I know, it sounds so cheesy, but it was such an emotional moment and it was so amazing to have someone to share it with! And with that, just like that… we had finished 26.2 miles.

After the race, we hobbled to get our medals and then to get back to the team in training tent. Once there, we promptly signed up for the people to stretch us out… that was amazing. And we sat. and then her parents made their way over to the tent and we made our way home. Cab to car, then car to home. Once home, I jumped in to the bathtub and dumped Epsom salt in there (part of the previous night’s preparation). A lot of it. I read somewhere that it helps sore muscles. Once clean, bathed and showered I made my way to the couch. I ordered dominos and ate my pepperoni and mushroom pizza with zero remorse or regret or guilt. And then I was done. Just done. It was 7pm and I was exhausted. So I went to bed. Where I couldn’t sleep all night b/c I was so sore I could barely move. Literally I had to pull my legs up to get them to lift. And the worst part was, it seriously felt like I had to get up every half hour to pee. I drank so much water on the course, but never peed. But once I did, holy moly I had to a lot. I can barely move and yet I have to roll out of bed, sit, stand, and all the things that are normally easy (like walking) hurt like hell. But, I feel incredibly accomplished. I wonder what race I’ll do next…

me and alice at the finish line!
running at some point... no idea what mile this is...

happy birthday sarah lyman!!!

happy birthday sarah!!

i'm at work and can therefore not post any cute pictures of you at this time. but i am thinking of you and if you can't already tell by the facebook wishes, the text message, and the email...along with this blog... then i just dunno :)

here's to a wonderful year a head of you... i see good things happening!!

bucktown 5k

Sunday, the 5th brought the Bucktown 5k! Alice, Devon, Patrick, and I participated. Alice and I woke up early and drove over to dev and patrick’s where we met them about 7:30am. A little before 8 we headed over to the start line. The race was slated to start at 8:30. It was a brisk morning, but not too terribly chilly. A jacket and running shorts were fine attire. Since the marathon was only a week away, alice and I were taking it easy. So d, p, and the two of us agreed on a place for brunch. We determined Toast would be an excellent place though we were warned that it would most likely have a decent wait. So be it. D & p finished before us and headed on over to put our name on the list. They met amy and her coworkers over there where they were also brunching. After alice and I finished (under 40 mins), we headed over. It was about a 20 or so min wait, but SO worthwhile. Omg, I may just move in to this place. It was delicious. While we were waiting I was expressing my love for this time of year and all things pumpkin and was talking about wilma’s patio on balboa and their pumpkin pancakes. I knew pancakes were in my future, but I was really hoping they would be pumpkin! And lo and behold, the special pancake of the day was…. Pumpkin! It came with the best whipped cream ever – a hint of pumpkin and maybe some cinnamon. I also got a side of poached eggs and some potatoes that I shared. Yes, I was a piggy, but I figured I was entitled what with the marathon so soon and all! I ate well past full b/c the pancakes were delicious. After brunch, we headed back to d&p’s and chatted for a bit. Then it was time to head home. What a fun morning!

20 miler

ladies, i did my 20 miler and survived. my training is tapering down and soon my marathon training will be over. the marathon is only 2 weeks away! it's on the 12th...and i can't wait. i'm semi nervous, but not really. i feel ready to go. my 20 miles on sat (9/20) went ok, but not very well. i attribute that to the fact that the week before i was sick. i had a fever and then it turned into a small time cold. so i had to sudafed up and it worked kinda, but it was still yucky. i was exhausted afterwards, but i think that was more due to the lack of energy i'd had all week as opposed to the actual mileage being a problem. this weekend i'm doing a measly 5k - race for the cure. and i may do an 8k on sunday for paws which is a no kill shelter here. i'm not sure i'll do another marathon, but i really like the halfs and i definitely want to keep up with training though not as hardcore as i've been doing!

and thanks to all of you, i have raised and exceeded my goals for the fundraising portion!! thank you all for your donations. your support means a lot to me!! look for some pics in a couple of weeks of me crossing the finish line!

new posts

hi guys, it's friday at work and i decided to update my posts... i can't upload pictures here, but there are lots of new stories...and i'll post pictures soon... even after the old ones so there you have it for all of you who have been wondering where i've been... i've been tired. work and training for a marathon is very tiring...but don't give up on me! i promise to keep blogging!!

Ike!

Ike barreled right on through the Galveston/Houston area and pretty much destroyed much of the island of Galveston. So many people lost their homes or had so much damage. My parents were fine – they will probably have to replace the roof on the garage and the house, tear out some trees, fix leaks, fix landscaping, etc but they weren’t hit too badly. They did however just get their power back on today (6 days after the hurricane). The lake house was pretty much fine too, but there was some damage to the front porch and some rotted trees will have to be taken down (which btw, is going to cost 8k! what?! For taking down trees? Robbery there if you ask me). And it still doesn’t have any power and who knows when it will b/c it is in a super small town where they don’t move very fast.

Weekend with Susan.

Susan (who went to high school with me and alice) came up for the weekend from Indy. She came up on Friday in time for our fundraising event at McGee’s. McGee’s. wow, that was a scene and not particularly in a great way. We held a fundraising event for Leukemia and Lymphoma Research that would help us reach the goal set by Team in Training. So Alice and I planned on have a $30 package of all you can drink with half going to charity. We got there slightly late b/c I am forever running late and honestly I thought the thing started at 8:30 and turns out it was 8. Oops. Well, Alice scheduled it! And for some reason I had it drilled in my head that it was 8:30. In any case, alice and trish went ahead and I waited for Susan. She needed to park which was ridiculously hard and it was raining. We finally got to McGee’s which is on Webster and near DePaul… college and recent grad heaven! I felt old after immediately walking in the door. Oh boy. Then it took a hundred years to get a drink b/c the bar was so packed (not all for our fundraiser). Finally we got drinks and found our group and that was fun. It was super hot in there though. I ended up meeting a boy and I do mean boy. He was cute! And we danced and hung out and tried to talk (it was dang loud in that place!). I suspected that he was a youngin’ when he told me he had 2 roommates and that was the only way he could afford to live in the area and that he had just moved here from KY. Well, yes, I know that I have just arrived in this great city as well, but from other places… in any case I voiced my suspicions that he had just graduated to Susan. Who then (drunkenly) of course and thankfully while I was not around asked him how old he was. 22. That’s right, ladies, that officially makes me a cougar now. Great. And Susan has a lot of photo documentation of all of this occurring. Which come to think of it, I need to get those from her… anyways… we exchanged numbers but of course nothing ever came of it… I am so not in that part of my life.

On Saturday, we had to get up early and move Susan’s car b/c it was in a metered spot. All of us had to go with her to feel that pain. It was raining again and when I pondered ‘should I get us umbrellas’ they all said, nah, it’s just sprinkling. Ok. I was downstairs already and hung over. Didn’t feel like going back up anyways. So we drove around FOREVER to find a spot and finally did. And of course it was pouring. Great. We got soaked walking back to my house. Where we then decided to go to brunch. Wet. Figured why bother with an umbrella at this point. So we walked over to a place called Orange. And it decided to rain even harder. We walked in to this place drenched. Oops. But, they sat us anyways. And then they offered us some towels to dry off with! Brunch itself was ok. I had pancakes but they were smothered in jelly –which I knew, but I ended up not liking the flavor that much and there was a lot of it. And there was also a ton of granulated sugar on top (whatever that’s called). It was just too much. Not terrible, but I don’t need to go and eat all those calories again. After that we all plopped on my couch for some movie watching. My house was homebase that weekend – it was a fun slumber party! Then that afternoon we went with Susan to go wedding dress shopping. We went to la belle vie on Oak St. pricey. Very pricey. Anyways, she had seen this dress in a magazine and this store carried it – but strapless – and she wanted straps. But nonetheless she could try it on and see generally what it would look like. So many dresses later, we choose our favorite 3 and then made an appt for a few weeks later when there would be a trunk show of that designer’s stuff and her mom could be there too. We then did a little more shopping and went out for sushi. After that we were so tired, we decided to opt for a movie rather than go out to the bars again. So we went to see… gosh, what did we see? Um…. Can’t remember. Must have been really good! Hmmm… I’ll think about this one for a bit…

And then it was Sunday and alice went back to her house and susan left to drive home. It was a super fun weekend!! Dang, what was that movie?!?! oh and one more detail... this was the weekend where Ike hit and we got a ton of rain... and i mean it started on Fri and literally did not stop at all until the weee hours of Sat if not Sun. Sometimes it down right poured and others it was drizzle, but it did not stop.

settled!!!!!

yes, courtney is correct!! we have settled with the wicked witch of the east. that horrible woman still walks away with a completely unreasonable amount, but she was willing to settle and we were able to get 90% of what we were asking for in the lawsuit. We went this route since our attorney gave us a 50/50 shot of actually winning the trial. i think she settled b/c her attorney told her they were going to lose. we did have some pretty solid evidence. now mind you that 90% of what we were asking for was only that the 2007 will be overturned. we didn't have enough of a case to go after her for the 04 or any other previous wills which sucks tremendously. but, what sucks the most is that she is the owner of all three houses. including my beloved maine. see my earlier post on that - i called it my favorite place on earth and it's one of the earliest posts i did. in any case, i'm heartbroken that i'll never get to spend time there again or that i won't be able to take my future family there. even more sad is that this wicked witch refuses to give us a lot of the personal items. she is making an allowance and giving us some of the family heirlooms, but nothing if it looked or smelled like anything belonging to my gdad or his side of the family. including all pictures. are you kidding?! and if it was remotely valuable, forget it! but, at least we are getting some things so all is not lost of my nana's and her family's items. oh yes, and she has to pay all taxes on everything and also our lawyer fees. which i found out today were $470k. good.

overall, i'm relieved that we will have some of the things that belong to my nana and that this whole thing is almost over (it's over when we actually get the stuff). i never ever want to see that woman again unless she is dead and only then b/c i'd like to verify that she is gone. finally.

Labor Day Weekend…

It sucked. Well it didn't suck. I actually had a lot of fun. I was just mad that I didn’t get to use my free ticket to go see everyone in the LA area. I had booked a ticket on jetblue bc my free ticket was going to expire anyways so i figured might as well book it and hopefully get to use it... but, Boo for work. The only way I could use the free ticket was to go from sat-tues. only our ceo decided to fly in and hold a meeting with our office on that Tuesday and so the boss man said taking that day off would be a really bad idea. So I missed out on all the fun.

But! I did get to have a girly night with dev dev. I started by meeting her and Patrick at their place. Patrick made us really yummy mojitos and we drank them on the balcony where we met her neighbors at the building next door. They have a great patio and were grilling and drinking (and clearly had been most of the day). They invited us over, but dev and I politely declined as we had dinner plans. We dined at mado which is a very trendy place and super cute. I ordered fish which was really good – I just didn’t expect to have its whole head and body delivered to me… I wasn’t sure what to do with it… but I got over that and the fish was cooked perfectly. After dinner, we headed to bin café where we sipped on more wine. Patrick joined us a little later and we had a fun time. I then took myself home in a cab.
The next day, I decided that instead of taking a cab (too expensive) or taking public transportation (takes forever as there is no direct route), I would just run on over and get my car. So I took the little more than 3 hours in the heat and did a run to my car – hungover. Not a great idea and I realized at one point I was not in the best of hoods, but it wasn’t very far and it was a busy street so I figured I’d be ok… and I was. I was a hot sweaty mess by the time I got to my car, but pleased with myself for having taken the exercise route of picking up my automobile.
And, I did get to go to dev dev’s and have a really yummy feast! Dev had so much yummy food that I probably didn’t need to eat for 3 days. And as always, everything looked so pretty! Dev is definitely the hostess with the mostest! She had over several of her friends and we had a great afternoon enjoying the company and all of the food.

Happy birthday, nicole!

Nope, not the nicole you guys all know, but my other friend that lives here. She’s super fun and was turning 30. She didn’t want to celebrate at all, but alice convinced her to go to brunch. So we all met at the original pancake house on rush and ate delicious pancakes. Yum!

St Louis

It started off badly… I drove the 5.5 hr drive from Chicago to st Louis for a work trip. Which is boring enough… but whatever. I was trying to fiddle with the radio when I looked back at the odometer and realized I was going too fast. I slowed down, but the copper clocked me going 87 and pulled me right on over. Where I tried to not cry, but the tears fell anyways… crap! I can’t afford a ticket right now. That thing ended up costing me almost 100 bucks. And the kicker is, I hadn’t had a ticket or been build over since I was 17!! So I made it to my hotel finally and it was nice enough. I stayed at the crown plaza in clayton (just outside of downtown). They had a great workout room which I used each day. I had planned on spending some time at the pool which looked amazing on the website… however, it had zero sun and only 2 lounge chairs. What’s the point… I spent most of my time in clayton, but did go downtown where I saw the arch and the stadium – I thought about my blog and realized I had to take pictures, but I didn’t feel like getting out of the car… so I took some shots just for you guys from my car! Luckily nothing eventful happened on the drive home.