who's doug?!

ok, here's what all of my (3) loyal readers want to know. who the heck is doug?! doug is a guy i met through work 5 or 6 years ago. he works for a broker dealer in ohio and we sponsored their conferences (we sponsored tons of those things for all kinds of broker dealers). this particular conference was always held in new jersey. i got to go to this conference every year and i think the first year i went was in 03...maybe 04. in any case, it was always my favorite b/c the reps were all so much fun. everyone partied til all hours, drank way too much, and were mostly loud, obnoxiously awesome long island and nj guys. who all loved me :) well, hey, i made them tons of money and what's not to love about me?! so doug was one of these guys...but unlike the majority of the reps, he was from ohio. we hit it off and would hang out every year.

we would talk off and on and sometimes randomly and also emailed throughout the years. a few weeks ago we were texting back and forth normal random stuff and then he says something totally in context and at the bottom puts "and don't fall in love with me!" wait, what?! so now we laugh about that... but i'd be lying if i told you i didn't like him like that... he's 35 and never has a girlfriend...not sure why...or maybe he does sometimes as he'll disappear for a month or two and then pop back up...but i think that's more that he's just busy networking and traveling and such. he told me that his parents had been married over 50 years so it's not that he's afraid of a broken home or something dumb... anyways... now that he's said that it's kind of a challenge. and you guys should check out his gorgeous eyes. i'm such a sucker for pretty blue eyes. ok, back to the story: then, when i moved here, he came to visit some clients and we went out for drinks. we had a blast, he kinda spent the night, almost missed his flight home and that was that. he's a cool guy in that he has a passion for travel and has been more places than i have which i'm quite jealous of! in any case, we just have fun. we've talked about going to fl or ca since he has a conference down there in san diego now - (he's switched broker dealers and his is now based in ca) and he has clients in fl. we haven't gotten around to those yet, but who knows... in any case, he had to come out here last week for a meeting and so he stayed with me this time instead of booking a hotel we both knew he wouldn't stay in...

he drove in on tues night and i met up with him after the movie in the park (psycho). we went for a drink with kyle and katie and then we went up to wrigleyville to meet up with a couple of his friends (roddy and sam) who were in town too. drank at a couple of those bars and then headed back to my place. the next day, he got up and went to his meeting and i went to the beach with his two buddies. after awhile at the beach, we went up to castaways and had some lunch and an afternoon of drinking. once doug's meeting was over, he came and met us at castaways. we then went back to my place, got ready and went to barleycorn's and ultimately the cubs game which is what you read about in the other post. and then on thursday morning, he had to get up early and head home after an awesome night so that he could get back in the office in time to finish up a few things. so since then, we've continued our texts and whatnot. who knows, but it was fun! and i'm hoping he'll have to come back out here sometime soon :)

yeah, you guys saw this one in the last post, but i don't have any other pics and i like this one. i never took pics at conferences b/c that would have just been weird...

i 'heart' the cubbies!

I ‘heart’ the cubbies

Cubs games are awesome. If you’ve never been to one, you need to come visit me immediately or if not this season then next… they are just so much fun and there isn’t a better ball park out there than Wrigley.

My friend, doug, was in town for a meeting and he got here Tuesday (the 11th) and left this morning (the 13th). That story is for another blog. I’ll explain who he is and what else we did then. But for this story, we met up with a couple of his friends who also happened to be in town. Sam and roddy. So last night, we scored awesome tickets b/c of his friends. The night before, sam and roddy had gone to barleycorns which is across the street from the stadium. Their waitress, michelle, was super cool and offered them these awesome seats on the third base line for free. The story, according to the guys, is that she dates the owner of the bar who has a bunch of tickets so she can give them out if no one is using them. She told the boys she might have tickets for the wed game too. So we ended up going to barleycorns again to see if we could get 4 tickets to last night’s game. Is this confusing?! I feel like I’m not explaining myself well…anyways…

Sam and roddy went to barleycorns to get some food and doug and I met them there. Luckily, michelle came through once again and gave us four tickets to the lower section along the 3rd base line! They were $75 tickets that we got for free! The boys tipped her well and doug tipped her on my behalf (see? A guy who won’t let a girl pay. Good.) we got to the game just before the 2nd inning and the cubs were already losing. And it didn’t get better from that stand point. It was an ugly 12-5 defeat by the phillies. However, I had loads of fun at the game hanging out with the boys, eating hot dogs and drinking beer. Since the cubs were losing so badly, loads of people started leaving as early as the 6th inning. We had our eyes on the even lower section that is also guarded. The first usher caught us and wouldn’t let us in the section. So we found another section and slipped right on in as some drunkies were on their way out. We sat for a couple innings in seats right behind the cubs dugout which were about 5 rows up. So much fun!

After the game, we went to few more bars: harry carays, red ivy, and then the cubbie bear where super loud karaoke was going on. after a few drinks, doug and i left the two other boys there and headed back home for the night.

this guy in red was loaded...we all thought he was hitting on doug which we all found hilarious - he kept coming over and pretending to kiss his biceps and be some big huge broad shouldered body builder type guy. then he talked about his gf and how she wants a baby...we were all, hunh?! but he kept coming back over...like 5 or 6 times...so finally i had to get a pic with doug and his admirer and roddy.




look how close we were!


i like this one of me and doug... check out those eyes!




illustrating how close we got...as in front row!

movies in the park.

movies in the park are done all over the city in various parks during the summer. the biggest venue is in grant park. there is a huge screen and a huge field that literally fills up with thousands and thousands of people. then there are smaller parks with big screens but not as big of crowds.

this is the first summer i've been to movies in the park - mostly b/c i forgot about them or just never got around to going. um, never ever will i make that mistake again!! i fully plan on making this a summer ritual and making the rounds to the various (non ghetto) parks! grant parks are usually older movies/classics and they are always on tuesdays. the other parks have weekly movies too on a variety of nights.

las week for my first tuesday, i prepared by going to walgreens and getting a fold up chair (9 bucks!), some plastic cups (12 for 3 bucks), a cooler (3 bucks), some bug spray, and movie snacks. i was pretty proud of my cheap acquisitions! i put all that in my beach bag (gap special for 10 bucks) with my new picnic blanket (14 bucks online - made especially for grass so you don't get wet if the grass is), threw in the snacks and some wine (not technically legal, but whatever, everyone does it!) and got on the train to grant park. there, i staked out our spot - i got there early - about 6ish which was not as early as i had intended, but still early enough for a decent spot. i was met by katie, mark, some of mark's friends and kyle for a showing of psycho. they brought wine, snacks and food too for our outdoor picnic. believe it or not, i'd only seen parts of that movie before. and by parts i mean i'd seen that famous shower scene and that was it. i rather enjoyed it! the night was so nice and i think just being outdoors was awesome.

super blurry shot of the screen showing psycho...i waited too long and it was too dark:



then this past tues, i packed the blanket, bag, snacks, a subway sandwich and other stuff up for a movie at the park on north and clark (closer to me than grant - it's basically the intersection where we meet for runs). the movie for the week was the break up. which we'd all seen before, but is clearly set in chicago and outdoors so therefore it was awesome. katie, kyle, megan and i had a great time laughing under the stars and enjoying the movie.

katie + wine:


view from park:


it was held on the chicago historical society museum steps:


me and megan:


the screen:


the four of us: megan, me, katie & kyle


movies in the park end soon - this coming week is basically the last and i am so so bummed about that b/c i won't be here... but already i can't wait for next summer and more movies in the park!!

susan visits!

susan is a culver friend who used to live in indy and just got married - i couldn't go b/c it was the same day as matt's wedding. she know lives in nc with her husband, jeff. she came to chicago for a visit last weekend (aug 15th-16th) and stayed with alice. she came in on friday and we got to spend the afternoon hanging out. on sat, we went to the cubs game (the won, yay!), then we walked around and saw some of the air and water show which was cool. susan's hubbie is a pilot - tho he was not flying in the show. then we all went to dinner at kamehachi, a yummy sushi place just down the street from alice's house. from there, we went to trump tower to check out the new outdoor space.

it was such a hot hot hot day!!




from our not so awesome section 516 seats (i got spoiled from the game with doug!)


out by the belmont harbor:


cocktails inside 16 bar at trump while waiting for a table:


we realized that we've known each other since fall 95. that's 14 years (almost half our lives!!)!! here we are outside at trump:


me and alice


since it was a sat night - there were fireworks at navy pier - it was an amazing view...too bad my camera wouldn't cooperate!


walking to the next bar to get alice food at emerald loop:

movies!!

one of the perks of having loads of free time is that i can go see all the movies i want during the day when the theater is less than crowded. even when it's a new movie and i get there just as the previews are starting. i love that! i've seen 3 movies in the last couple of weeks: harry potter, julie and julia, and time traveler's wife.

1. harry potter: loved. it was so good. i enjoyed every minute and i need to reread the book b/c i read it so long ago.

2. julie and julia: so much fun! you all already know how much i love to cook, but i thought this story was so well told. and the love story part was all so warm and fuzzy and gooey and sentimental and where the f do i find one of those guys?! i'm also wondering how tall julia and her sister were. i bet my height. just back then everyone was shorter... i'll have to look that up. anyways, it was a lot of fun. now i think i'd like to read her book.

3. time traveler's wife: i read this book in about 2.4 seconds - i loved loved loved it. and i want to reread it again b/c i loved it so much the first time. anyways, i thought the movie was great. was it as good as the book? no - they never are... but it was still a very good representation of the book. and i loved rachel mcadams and eric bana in it. i couldn't have pictured better people to portray those two characters. now... again... where's my epic love story. hmmmm... in the meantime, i'll live in this fantasy world b/c it was such a good movie. and when you go see it, bring loads of kleenex. you'll need it. i balled my eyes out!! and i knew the ending b/c i'd read the book!

getting rid of the ugly...

one of the things to be accomplished on this trip was painting my bedroom and bathroom. i couldn't handle the bright yellow anymore. yellow is supposed to be happy, but it certainly was not my happy color!! the painting was their idea by the way...i in no way forced labor upon my parents. before they came, i went to home depot and bought all kinds of painting supplies: brushes, rollers, edgers, tape, paint... etc.

my parents flew in on fri evening and after picking them up, we went to leonas for dinner which is one of my mom's favorite spots. we enjoyed a nice sidewalk table then headed home to just hang out. then early sat morn, mom and i woke up and went to the farmer's market. i'd had my eye on that pie that devon had gotten a couple weeks prior and i knew i needed one of those! instead of one pie, we ended up with 3. raspberry (delicious), mixed berry (good too), and apricot/apple which was terrible, but it was also the last one we opened and maybe it was just old? anyways, yum! we also got fresh corn and some beautiful flowers and raspberries & blueberries & plums. we had our hands full as we forgot to bring a bag. whoops.

after the farmer's market & a quick trip to home depot, it was time to start clearing out the bedroom/bathroom and prep for painting. that was probably the hardest part... moving the furniture and taping the whole room. what a pain in the arse. glad to have dad's help for sure! then we all started painting... the bedroom is now a beautiful 'warm caramel' which btw, is a top 10 glidden color. and no, i didn't use valspar (sorry!) i would have but they don't sell it anywhere near where i live. we let the first coat dry, taped the entire bathroom, got our showers, and then had some lunch.

mom is such a good edger!

look at my dad roll!

had to take one of my dad painting behind the potty. my parents are the best! i could never ever have done all this by myself!!!


otis is enjoying the open window as the paint was kinda smelly and we needed fresh air:




after lunch, it was time to meet up with my aunt and uncle. they had just closed on their new house in winnetka (a northern suburb) and they wanted to show it off. it is a gorgeous modern place on a beautiful lot. and it has parking for me. yay! no more driving around looking for parking at their house. however, it is a further drive.

aunt & uncle in front of their new place:

another view:


so much better!!!

stepping inside the box.

so i already mentioned my parent's visit. we painted, we rocked n' rolled, we ate, we farmer's marketed, and we hung out with my dad's brother and wife. dad had to leave monday morning since he actually has a job and mom stayed a little longer to enjoy the city with me. on monday, we tooled around nordstrom's and michigan ave. we also toured a property - 310 s michigan - that we'd seen the day before...gorgeous old historic building right across from the museum. they'd slashed prices ridiculously and mom and i were having fun thinking about them getting a summer place here. so we took a tour! they were gorgeously done with the most amazing views of navy pier, the museum, parks, museum campus, buckingham fountain, and duh, the lake! while they are a fantastic deal, my dad isn't sold b/c he doesn't really want a place in chicago nor does he think he needs 3 properties. i see his point... but it would be so nice to have mom and dad nearby for part of the year! after the tour we headed home and went to target to get me a new pot to replace the one i ruined and a few other things. we came home and were exhausted!

on monday, my mom who is deathly afraid of heights suggested we go do that glass box at the top of sears tower. i thought she was kidding. she wasn't! so on tues, we got up and went downtown. luckily there really wasn't any line and it wasn't too crowded. she was super apprehensive at first, but she did it! that box is so freaking cool! the views are amazing - it's kinda pricey just to go up there, but i think it is definitely worthwhile!

i'm such a dork!


me and my momma


did you know lincoln logs were invented by frank lloyd wright's son?! there's all kinds of cool trivia up there to learn about:


some not so cool trivia - read this... can you imagine?!


after our daredeviling, we headed back towards my house for a delicious brunch at nookies, too on halsted. from there, we went to get pedicures and then we rested for a bit. and then, we got dressed and went to topolobompo which ever since i'd read holly's blog, i'd wanted to try and also he was competing on top chef masters. love that show. and he seems like such a neat guy, i just had to try his restaurant! it didn't disappoint and neither did rick as he won the competition! yum! after all this fun, it was time for mom to leave on wednesday. it was a busy busy trip!!

my hot new accessory!

so i have a hot new accessory: a boot. and a purple cast. oh yes, you read that right! i'd been having pain in my heel after long runs that started after the half and hurt so much it made me limp and walk super slow. then it got better. then that next sat i did 8 miles. it was fine! one of the coaches thought i just needed new shoes. i didn't get a chance to get new shoes until this week so i had one more sat run on those shoes which i know was a brilliant idea, but whatever... so last sat was supposed to be 14 miles in two loops: 8 & 6 miles. i got about 3-4 miles in and the heel started to hurt. i ignored. then i got to about mile 6 and really couldn't ignore anymore. i hobbled and tried to run the rest of the 2 miles. by the time i got back i could barely walk it hurt so bloody bad. the coaches had me ice it (didn't help) and then coach holly said to email her and she'd give me the name of her podiatrist who is really good. so on monday, i emailed her and also made a free appt at athletico to have them check it out. i thought it must be a soft tissue thing that would go away again. no biggie. once i got the info from coach holly, i made an appt. for today. after x-rays and an ultrasound, the doc could say he was 95% positive i had a stress fracture on my heel. the only way to be 100% is to do a bone screen or something - which would be at a hospital and would take years (ok, hours) to do. i asked if he recommended that and he said no. he said from everything he'd seen, i had a stress fracture in my foot. i cannot run for 4-6 weeks. i can only do non-impact things: swim, elliptical, and bike. awesomeness. i may not be able to do the chicago marathon. i should be ok for the nyc one. if i keep up my cardio. which i will. but i am so so disappointed. i even just got my garmin watch and was so excited to use it! and now... well, now i get a purple cast and a boot. he says we'll see where i am in a week. i get to take the cast off on mon b/c i'll be in mexico. he says he will allow me to have fun down there, but i have to wear my boot. then i get back and on mon will go see him. he may or may not put it back on then. but i'll get to keep this awesome boot that i'm supposed to wear even at the gym for at least 4-6 weeks. saaaaaaaaaa-weeeeeeeeeet!! who's jealous?! i can send you the boot when i'm done with it... :)

btw, read below for another new blog. and i'll post pics once i take some of this lovely boot of mine.

matt + elizabeth = wedding!

i've been a bad bad blogger as of late. ooops. this one goes all the way back to july 18th! this was matt and elizabeth's big day!

the ceremony was held at at. alphonses church on lincoln and wellington and 1:30pm. after the ceremony, the bridal party went to take pictures and there was a several hour lapse between that and cocktail hour which started at 530pm in the ballroom of the hotel allegra. to give everyone something to do, they had cocktails and snacks set up in a suite which was nice. then came the cocktail hour and reception. they had a super fun photo booth and all kinds of other cute things. in the interest of keeping this short, i'll just post the photos and give small comments along the way.

for those of you not familiar with matt, he is a friend from NNN days and he's kind of like a little brother to me. love that guy. he met the lovely elizabeth at his ex-girlfriend's (c- none other than jessica johnson!) wedding. they connected once matt moved to chicago in oct 06 as she already lived here and he didn't know many people. turns out it was true love!

st. alphonses church

elizabeth and her dad walking down the aisle:


look closely - matt and elizabeth are at the alter. it was a beautiful church!


got this pic from someone who posted it on fb...this was during the 'break':


back at the suite: me and brooke


still in the suite: me, becky and brooke. becky is my friend and also matt's sister who is pregnant with baby #2 that has a due date right around my bday!

the pretty ballroom:


the really nifty name cards for table seating - once a card was removed, it revealed the scene beneath it so the chicago skyline always came through:



every true LA fan needs this as their groom's cake!


some of my table: me, yena and her man, and simon


clearly they had their names in lights on the dance floor!


aren't they adorable and happy looking?!


me and mod (matt o'donnell):

obviously towards the end of the night:

no idea if this is wedding night or another night, but i thought it was awesome. i'm guessing elizabeth didn't find it quite as awesome...

after a long night of dancing - they kept extending by one hour until it was 2ish and they could no longer extend the party - i think originally it was supposed to end at 11? anyways, we were starving after all of our dancing and drinking and therefore simon wanted a gyro so we had to go to greektown with him and a couple others. it was delicious!