1960s style

I often find myself searching for any distraction possible to keep myself from studying.

Tonight it is... making fruit and yogurt smoothies... and watching my Netflix DVD... which happens to be Disc 4 of the Madmen Series, Season One.  

Some days I wish I could dress like the women do in Mad Men. 
1960's suburbia housewife. 

My style probably relates more to the 1960's hippie movement.  

One day I will possibly attempt to look more put together. For now, I enjoy my cardigans, boots, and scarves.  Or... summertime outfit of sundresses and flip flops.

Smiling with pride.

     I picked up one of my bestest friends, Ashley M at 8:45am.  As I sat in her driveway, I thought to myself, "Is this an awful idea?"

     With my windshield wipers on full force and the rain refusing to let up, I wondered if we were making a mistake by starting this journey into the city.  As I looked down at my outfit of a turquoise summer dress and flip flops, I was ever so thankful that I brought my disposable poncho that I had originally bought for unexpected down pours in Ireland and never used.  Luckily, Ashley M (or Shley, as I have always called her) had been in contact with a coworker and resident of Chicago, and the rain had not hit the city just yet.  We decided at that point that whatever happens, happens and we would just go on with hopes that the terrible storm above us would move far away from Chicago.

     We made our way down I-90 toward the city, with a quick stop at my friend, Madeline's home in Oak Park.  Our little stop in Oak Park helped verify my love for that town.  The trees, unique houses, and its closer distance to the city all make it that more appealing to me. 

     We took the green line train from Harlem, transferred to the red line train at Lake and landed at the Addison stop next to Wrigley Field.

The weather was beautiful at this point... sun shined down on...
Chicago's 41st Annual Gay Pride Parade! 

     We donned our sunglasses and were ready for "people watching mode".  I have never seen so many shapes, sizes, and colors of people all in one location.  People were dressed in costumes, others just wearing underwear.  

Some men were wearing headdresses, others just dresses. 

We even came across a man with a giant tropical bird on his shoulder.

     The parade made me so happy. Seeing how such support Chicagoans have for the gay community was a really great experience.  

The Chicago Police department showed their support.

The Stanley Cup arrived and helped bring the Blackhawks support to the parade.

The Chicago cubs had a float bringing their encouragement.

     People were dancing, smiling, cheering, and showing their love. It was fantastic. Days like this remind me how great Chicago summers are.

     I could have stayed and stared at people all day, but I had my first encounter with a thing called claustrophobia.  We were sandwiched between a big crowd that was enjoying the parade and the glass entrance doors to Center on Halsted.  People were sweaty, I was hot.  It was muggy outside.  The temperature kept on rising. The sun was out, beating down on the pavement, and the music was loud. It was a glorious time, but I needed to breathe!  We stepped out of the crowd and backed away for awhile and from a distance I enjoyed the scene.  Next time I go, I will be better prepared with coolers, chairs, and an earlier trip into the city to stake out a good location.  Overall, a fantastic experience and one that I hope to experience again in the near future.

Smiling with pride.

 

Shley and Me

    Madeline and Justine (Madeline's high school friend who found us)

My Spring & Summer Fun To Do's

• DONE Go to the beach
• DONE Go to a museum
• DONE Seek out photo ops 
• DONE Go to Ireland (June 2-7)
• DONE Kentucky Derby party @ Mike and Shley's (May 1)
•  DONE Visit the Sears Tower (not Willis darnit!) Skydeck
• DONE Have a bonfire
• DONE Paint pottery
• DONE Lake Geneva trip with my favorite ladies (June 17-19)
• Go for a long (for me) bike ride
• Go to my cabin  (July 10/11 and Aug 7/8!!)
• Ride a roller coaster
• Hot air balloon ride
• Have a picnic
• Go to the zoo
• Go to a concert
• Pride parade (June 27)
• Volunteer
• Play bocce ball
• Gamble at a casino
• See a movie in grant park
• Go to a cubs game
• Pitchfork music fest (July 16-18)
• Play tennis
• Go camping
• Chicago Jazz Fest (Sept 3-5)
  
• Paint with acrylics
• Oktoberfest Chicago (Sept 24-26)
  
• Summerfest for the 4th of July in Milwaukee, WI
• Sturgeon Bay, WI for my birthday with a few of my best ladies (July 21-23)
• Family Picnic (July 24)
• Possible South Carolina Trip (mid September)

Found

Found these photos... from years back. love them.

 London's Heathrow Airport.

the Philippines

U of I Quad Tree.

 Damen, North, and Milwaukee... Chicago, IL

Fruhlingsfest in Stuttgart, Germany (my friends were up there)

My cousins in Chicago

Vacation of Strawberries.

This past Wed, Thurs, and Fri I was up in Lake Geneva for one of my favoritest people's birthdays...  (gotta love my English)

Laur turned 25!

We walked around downtown Lake Geneva and found that one of the oldest and cutest arcades is shut down...

 sad

 in the lake house bathroom... I just like the wall paper

A field by Laura's lakehouse

...apparently it is being sold and will probably have a big, lame, suburban subdivision soon.

Manda's favorite street in Lake Geneva

Sitting by the lake, or any large body of water, has a really calming effect on me. I love just staring out into the endless body of water.  We hung out on the pier and relaxed. I really needed some relaxation.

sitting by the lake

 
A huge storm hit our first night there, so we stayed in, drank some beers, and went to bed.

We woke up the next day and went strawberry picking. A first for me... but hopefully not the last time I do this.  I had a weird couple of months where I couldn't eat strawberries. Something about the tartness paired with the texture just did not sit right in my mouth.  I have since overcome this weird anti-strawberry kick, but now that I went to this strawberry patch I think I have become a strawberry snob... the best kind of snob! 

The strawberries that you pick up at your local Meijer or Jewel are absolute garbage compared to the strawberries we picked.  These strawberries I ate right off the plant and they were soooo sweet...soft... and scrumptious (I have come to the conclusion I am awful at using descriptive words to really explain the true essence of the food I eat... Note to self: improve upon this)  I usually have to eat strawberries with whipped cream or something sweet to battle the tartness, but these strawberries I ate by the handful.

 The large strawberry patch

See how red they are on the inside? ... even the small ones are sweet.

My favorite picture of the whole trip. 

Yumminess by the handful

My mutant strawberry

All in a days work

My list of everything strawberry I had in ONE day..

-Ate strawberry bread

-Picked strawberries

-Had a strawberry milk shake

-Ate strawberry donuts

-Drank strawberry wine

-Bought strawberry cookies

-Hung out with a strawberry blonde (Shley)

Strawberries Galore!!!

We waited for the other ladies to arrive and we went out to eat ... Friday Fish Fry!

My Mad Men photo of Laura

An actual Mad Men scene from Don's kitchen

Friday Fish Fry!

Afterwards it was ladies night out for Laura's birthday.  Fun fun.

Shley (HAPPY BIRTHDAY - June 14)  ..   Me  ..    Laur (HAPPY BIRTHDAY - TODAY)

Manda, Me, Franke

Hilarious

This sums up our night.

Oscar (laur's pup) looks so unhappy... but I swear he loves me!\

 

 

 

My Spring & Summer Fun To Do's

• DONE Go to the beach
• DONE Go to a museum
• DONE Seek out photo ops 
• DONE Go to Ireland (June 2-7)
• DONE Kentucky Derby party @ Mike and Shley's (May 1)
•  DONE Visit the Sears Tower (not Willis darnit!) Skydeck
• DONE Have a bonfire
• DONE Paint pottery
• Go for a long (for me) bike ride
• Go to my cabin  (July 10/11 and Aug 7/8!!)
• Ride a roller coaster
• Hot air balloon ride
• Have a picnic
• Go to the zoo
• Go to a concert
• Pride parade (June 27)
• Volunteer
• Play bocce ball
• Gamble at a casino
• See a movie in grant park
• Go to a cubs game
• Pitchfork music fest (July 16-18)
• Play tennis
• Go camping
• Chicago Jazz Fest (Sept 3-5)
  
• Paint with acrylics
• Oktoberfest Chicago (Sept 24-26)
• Lake Geneva trip with my favorite ladies (June 17-19)
• Summerfest for the 4th of July in Milwaukee, WI
• Sturgeon Bay, WI for my birthday with a few of my best ladies (July 21-23)
• Family Picnic (July 24)
• Possible South Carolina Trip (mid September)

Carpel Tunnel Much?

So I said I would update today... 

My finger hurts from uploading about 800 pictures to Facebook in the last 24 hours... but I am strong and I WILL blog...

Since being home from Ireland, I have been a busy.. BUSY body...  

For the Blackhawks game I was convinced by my friends to go downtown and hang out in Wrigleyvill at the CubbyBear to watch and celebrate their (potential at the time) win.  I would be a liar if I told you I actually care about hockey, but I am glad I went out to celebrate, because it was an overwhelming moment in time. I am happy when Chicago teams win, in general, so I am happy they won.  Everyone went crazy after the win and the entire neighborhood of Wrigleyville was madness.  I honestly didn't even realize we won when we did, I was staring at the screen and all of a sudden people were throwing beer everywhere... "What? We won? Did the puck actually go in? Why is there beer all over me? I guess we won! YAYYYYYY" <--- thats about how it went.

Inside Cubby Bear... Blackhawks Win!

Streets of Wrigleyville packed with fans

Some of the ladies I was with

On June 12th, 2010...Jay's friend Craig got married to the love of his life, Shauna.  It was a fun fun wedding.  Jay and all his buddies from high school were all there. I happened to have danced my rumpalump off. I really love weddings.

 Shauna and Craig

Me and Jay in our formal wear. We clean up nice, dont we?

 The gents looking mighty fine.

Mike and Jess

Table 15, the bride and groom, and then some.

That's me enjoying a cigar... I wanted to be one with the groom and his gents.

The day after the wedding, I had lunch with my old roommates from U of I (minus one).  We are all grown up now, its pretty fun trying to think back to where we were 3 years ago...  

 Franke, Me, DJ

 Shley, Me, DJ

Shley was an English major who loved to slack off and write her papers 2 hours before they were due... and somehow being able to pull of getting A's and B's on all her papers.  Now she is working at a publishing company, married to her high school sweetheart, with a house, a kitten, and their dog Maddie.  

DJ was a community health major in college, who loved to dance around our mini Christmas tree in the middle of Spring and frequented Firehaus and Brothers (2 of her favorite bars on campus).  She went straight into getting her doctorate in Physical Therapy, which she just graduated from and is now Doctor Deej!  

Franke was a speech and hearing major in college , who loved taking notes in multi colors and did the sudoku everyday in the Daili Illini (our campus newspaper), she also ate tomato soup almost everyday in college.  She is now working at an elementary school in our area as a speech paraprofessional and also as an associate at The Gap (discounts!).  

Shannon (the one missing) was a speech major in college, played for the Illini girls soccer team.  She is now working as a speech therapist for a school near her hometown and is also playing for the Irish National Soccer Team with her younger sister.  She is the one who gave me advice on places I needed to visit in Dublin.

I was a biology major in college, who often skipped class or slept through them.  After college, I went right back into school and got my nursing degree.  I am now working as an ortho/neuro nurse and I am in school getting my Women's health Nurse Practitioner Masters degree.  

We are all somewhat adults now... when 3 years ago we were at the bar Firehaus 3 nights of the week and Murphys Pub another 2 nights of the week.  We used to stay up til 2am watching Planet Earth or my room mates would watch The Hills (I refused).  How things have changed.

After lunch with the ladies, I picked up Jay and we went to my cousin Alyssa's 8th grade graduation party. She looks so much older than an 8th grader, but she is still such an innocent lady.  My family is so large, they rented out a country club for her party.  

Alyssa is in the middle... she looks so much older than an 8th grade graduate.

Joelna and OJ are at her side, Joelna is 7 months preggo! :) Can't wait to see their baby!!

Alyssa and her mom are in the middle in the back row

... and they are surrounded by 10 of my aunties... who are all my dad's sisters.

... oh wait and my mom (back row, second from left) 

Yay my fingers have not fallen off from all the photo uploading and typing!