Aug 24, 2005

My boy, my baby, my love, my puppy, my Booper, my Chester-bester boy. He may not be around much longer. News broken to me by my dad while I am at work. I cried. I looked up plane ticket prices. I cried some more. Even if you can't wait until I'm home in October, I'll be there, Chester. I need to say goodbye to you. You'll always be my boy. I love you, Booper.

Aug 23, 2005

It is one of those days that never ends, when you have something to look forward to (Star Wars, yay!) and nothing to keep you busy until it begins. I am spending my time daydreaming: earrings to make, books to read, unwatched CSI episodes, imagining myself as a student at Kendall College...our visit Saturday has left me in complete awe and envy. Now I REALLY want to go to school there, I want to fondle the fryers, stroke the marble pastry countertops, poke around the walk in fridges. I want to cook in one of the teaching kitchens just once, prepare one meal on the gorgeous state of the art 8-burner ranges. I want to spend my time with hundreds of passionate chefs-to-be, learn how to make a good souffle, watch someone mold fondant. I want access to unlimited resources and ingredients, an insiders knowledge to every meal I eat out, a justified snobbiness from years of education and experience. But at over a $200k price tag, maybe I'll just keep teaching myself...learning by doing. After viewing the facilities at Kendall, I have designed my dream kitchen in my head. At least I have that.

Seriously, the spice lecture was fascinating, and if you ever get a chance to visit the Spice House or go to one of their lectures, take it! Tom and Patty are both hilarious and knowledgeable, and incredibly entertaining. They told us many things that I already knew, but much much more that I didn't. They also inspired me to completely clean out my spice and herb cabinet and spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on fresh ones.

Aug 19, 2005

I went shopping last night; 8 stores, 5 purchases, 4 espresso mugs, 1 coffee mug, 1 pair of jeans, a pair of earrings and a jacket, and one purchase for the kitchen at work. Success. Pending Hubb's opinion I may return the jacket, a funky white blazer with big brown buttons, but I really like it, so I'll probably end up keeping it. I can't wait for Fall.

I bought a new pair of jeans to help manage my increasing sensitivity to the size of my ass...I'm taking a medication that has helped me to gain 5 pounds in the past few weeks. For petite little me, that's a pound a foot! Not fun. Now, I'm not incredibly abnormal, but I have never been able to find a high end pair of jeans that fit me correctly. I guess that's because they're all made for tall skinny women, and I don't fit into that category so much. I went out last night fully intent on spending upwards of $100 on some quality denim, and ended up buying a perfect pair of jeans for $19.99. In the past year, all of the best pants I've owned have been under $50. I'd love to wear Chip & Pepper, Citizens of Humanity, Seven, Joes and Paper Denim Cloth, but they honestly don't fit my body type. I guess I'll just have to spend the other $100 on other things. Like beads. And shoes.

The weekend is looking promising, with a housewarming with friends, a tour of Kendall College (yay!) and some rest and relaxation. I may finally get a nice romantic date with the Hubb tonight, a rooftop grilling and some movie-time cuddling. Or some sushi. It's been too long, sashimi.

I wish I had a bottle of sake at work.

Aug 17, 2005

Ok, ok, so I know it is only August, but I am already having a winter shoe dilemma. I now work in an extremely casual, comfortable environment, so my past pointy high heeled winter boots aren't going to be as appropriate this year. I'm searching for something funky, fun, slightly dressy and warm for this year's fashion, and so far I'm drawn to these three:


Yes, they are all the same brand, and yes, they would be black. I can't decide. Even though I have two to three months to do so.

I just realized that I have been wearing strictly flip flops for almost 6 weeks straight.

Yay, shoes are back at work in progress!

Aug 16, 2005

So I broke down and wore my swimsuit (nearly naked!) in front of my coworkers over the weekend at The Office Barbecue. It took some convincing, but I did it. And I swam in a lake. And went for a boat ride. And saw a turtle. And didn't mind getting rained on because I was already wet with lake. I miss nature.

I also hung out with kids and ate delicious foods and drank a little too much too early in the day. But it was fun and rewarding and a huge relief because it was I who planned the event. I feel like I accomplished something grand and magnificent and made 25 other people's lives that much richer and fuller. But it was just a barbecue. In Indiana.

I pull out my tackle box of beads and wire nearly every night now, and have at least a dozen pairs of earrings and a few necklaces to show for it. And the ideas keep coming. It is incredibly relaxing to have something productive to do in the evenings. As opposed to cooking, which is consumed and gone in a matter of minutes, making things that will be there tomorrow gives me a sense of something heavy and solid. I guess that's why I like to cook in big batches. Leftovers. A reminder of the time and energy involved.

Hubb and I received out first box of organic veggies from our Angelic Organics share this weekend, and are left with quite a few veggies to cook this week. We have some mixed greens, eggplant, basil, dill, kale, fennel, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, corn and garlic. I made eggplant parm last night, with my own tomato sauce. It always feels good to eat homemade. I will learn to use fennel later this week. That's one of the perks, at least in my eyes, to the veggie box: I will need to learn how to cook a few new things. I'm absolutely thrilled about that opportunity. And the fact that until Christmas I'll have plenty of fresh produce around.

Heirloom tomatoes and carrots with the tops on make me happy.

Aug 12, 2005

I am almost over the shock of The Best Bachelorette Party Ever, and my eyes are still adjusting from the mayhem and outrageous debauchery they witnessed. They hurt a little. Incredible fun was had by all, and I think I may have seen more boobs than weenies...which says something about the friends I have. I miss them terribly sometimes. And I get to see them again in a month! Woo! More boobs! And a wedding! Yay! Three cheers for matrimony and gratuitous nudity!

I'm wearing a pair of matching earrings and a necklace that I made with the beautiful amber and yellow jade beads I bought a few weeks ago. I am a nerd and I like to match. I also just purchased some pretty jade, jasper and aventurine beads today. I like the word aventurine. It makes me think that when I make that pretty green necklace I will be filled with an insatiable urge to try some new wild and crazy thing. I've been totally bitten by the bead bug. I really like pretty heavy things.

Aug 3, 2005

I had a wonderful experience last week meeting and falling in love with (for my hair's sake) a new hairdresser. I finally received a good haircut in Chicago! Yay! I did not go home and cry, as I have been known to do after every haircut I've had in the past three years, but instead went home and jumped up and down and flipped my hair in the mirror and giggled and had a glass of wine in celebration. I finally found someone who understands curly wavy frizzy locks such as mine and I absolutely love him for it. In between calling everything "bitches" and discussing The Cure and other bands we both have loved for years, he raved about my "curly as shit" hair, and how he thinks my look is a great one. Nice. I very much enjoyed the ego stroking. And the haircut. I can't even communicate how thrilled I am. I am slightly obsessed with my hair, if you haven't already figured that out. Woo! Hair!

And now to drastically change the mood: I had two incredibly vivid apocalyptic dreams last night, which sort of freaked me out. In one I was driving with my mom down the highway somewhere, when out of nowhere all of these grey WWI-style airplanes and helicopters started coming out of the sky and crashing into the traffic. I knew right away it was the end of the world, and I immediately prayed that one would hit our car so that I would die instantly rather than live through the intense horror of Armageddon. As if it heard my thoughts, a plane headed straight toward me and I dreamed that I died. The pain was real and intense, and as I knew it was only a second or two, it felt like an hour before I thought to myself, "And...I die..." in a Shakespeare inspired fashion. It was very strange and I am deeply disturbed by the possible meanings. I'm not depressed, much less suicidal... I am not quite sure where this thing came from.

In the other apocalyptic nightmare I was in a city with lots of churches, big heavy stone churches with iron gates. There were dinosaur-like creatures, huge and looming, tearing through the city and I was trying to convince someone (Hubb?) that we had to get to the outer edges of the city and hide in the basement of one of the old churches. The whole dream was a struggle trying to convince this person to go with me, but for some reason they didn't want to leave the center of the city. Meanwhile the monster things were getting closer and closer, and I imagined our doom as the buildings around us began to crumble. This one probably has to do with recent conversations between Hubb and I about moving to the suburbs someday, his violent opposition to the idea, and my openness to it.

What is freaking me out the most is the incredibly vivid quality of both dreams. I've never dreamed like that before. I'm curious to see if this vividness transfers to good dreams as well.

Aug 2, 2005

So I've found a few fantastic sites for beads and jewelry supplies, and I've taken the plunge and placed a few orders. That, combined with a trip to Pearl, will begin a new chapter in my crafting experience. I'm thrilled to begin creating my own earrings and necklaces, and plan to make a multitude of gifts for every woman in my life. I don't think I'll even try to break into the money-making side of this new venture; Chicago has enough jewelry crafts-persons as it is. It's just that I always want what's not out there ... and I get such a good feeling out of saying "Oh, thank you. I made it myself!" I'll post my progress. I've ordered some gorgeous yellow jade, aventurine, amazonite and ambronite beads, enough earring hooks, hoops, wire and pins to last a decade, and the tools to manipulate it all. After spending what I have on supplies, I sure hope this isn't one of those fleeting interests of mine. But I'm incredibly excited, and have tons of ideas that I can't wait to execute.

This weekend I head to Atlantic City for a bachelorette party with my college girlfriends. I can't wait to have some quality girl time of drinking, playing dirty party games, teasing the bachelorette about the imagined perils of married life, and having lingerie-clad pillowfights. I miss girl time. I was kidding about the pillowfights, by the way.

I'm finally relaxing and getting used to this summer heat and humidity. I've grown accustom the thin film of sweat that consistently envelops my skin, the slow and sleepy way in which I walk to and from the bus and the train, and the sauna that my apartment has turned into. It is sort of refreshing sweating all the time. I feel cleansed and healthy. Sweat. Sweat is good.