• Best Thing Ever,  Favorite Things,  Friends,  Fun in Chicago,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Music,  Pretty Pictures

    Pitbull In Pictures

    On Wednesday I had the extreme pleasure of, along with my friend Samantha, being an audience member at the taping of the season premiere episode of Steve Harvey’s daytime talk show. Steve is great and all (and in fact I found lots of his small talk between takes to be very inspiring), but the “extreme pleasure” part can be credited to the presence of his guest, Pitbull. Pitbull is currently one of my very favorite entertainers. His music makes me very, very happy. His music also makes me dance, even if I’m sitting down. Sofa dancing? Totally. Car dancing? Yes, please. When I’m standing up? Look out. For real. You…

  • Fun in Chicago,  Pretty Pictures,  Random Thoughts

    Up Close And Personal

    Yesterday I was walking south on Michigan Avenue from Tribune Tower so I could meet a friend at the Cultural Center. As I approached Lake Street, I glanced upward (as I often do; I’m always looking for photo opportunities!) and noticed a mural on the side of a building that I had never seen before. That’s pretty amazing since I have walked by that corner approximately twenty five bajillion times in my life. Anyway. I saw this mural, and I could tell that it was vibrant in color but couldn’t see the whole thing due to the fact that the adjacent building was blocking most of it from where I…

  • My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Reflections on Parenting

    It’s Okay To Be Okay.

    The other day I ran into a friend I hadn’t seen in a long time when we crossed paths in the parking lot of our local big box store. I remembered that she had just dropped her second child (her daughter) off at college for her freshman year, officially joining the Empty Nester Club. In asking her how everything went, I wasn’t surprised to hear that on the long drive home she had both happy moments and tearful moments. That’s pretty typical. Overall though, she’s fine. I was glad to hear it. She told me that her daughter mentioned that her friends were asking if she (my friend) was “going…

  • Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?,  I've Got Mad Skillz

    If These Walls Could Talk

    We’ve lived in this house for nearly fourteen years. Our family room, where we collectively spend the most time (hence the name) is home to an awesome and comfortable sectional couch, a bookshelf, a mission-style recliner, a chest full of quilts, and the television with all of the accessories that go along with it. We “finished” this room back in 2005, right before D became a Bar Mitzvah. “Finished” isn’t really the best way to describe it, though. It has felt decidedly unfinished to me for a long time. It’s the walls. The wall color is great. We painted it a light taupe a while back. I see too much…

  • Review

    Current Fascination: Tiny Houses

    I am a member of the Netflix Stream Team and will be happily sharing monthly tips and stories about how my family uses Netflix on a regular basis. (Okay, that’s an understatement. I should say CONSTANTLY. We use Netflix CONSTANTLY.) As a member of the Stream Team I was provided with a Roku and a voucher to apply towards my Netflix account. One of my very favorite things about Netflix is that we can browse various genres to find films that I normally wouldn’t have discovered in the mainstream. Our latest find has led to my new fascination. Fair warning: that “fascination” just might end up becoming an obsession. Over…

  • Best Thing Ever,  Blessings,  I've Got Mad Skillz

    Happy Friday!

    Indeed, it is. Sidenote: I absolutely know that just prior to 5:00 p.m. on a Friday is perhaps the absolute worst time to publish a blog post if you want people to notice and maybe even read it, but I’m throwing caution to the wind and just doing it. I’ve been trying to build back up to posting four to five times each week and I think the “posting” part is more important to me at the moment than the “having it read by actual people” part. (That said, big sloppy kisses to you if you’re reading this.) I have to say that I have felt an internal change over…

  • Friends,  Music

    What I Learned Last Friday Night

    Last Friday night Jim and I, along with Dawn and Scott (our oldest friends, who reside in central Illinois), road-tripped to the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park to see Mötley Crüe perform on the Chicago stop of their final tour (or so they say). This post is not about the concert. This post is about what I learned that night. 1. I learned that it is really kind of stupid to drive from our home in the western suburbs down to Tinley Park on a Friday night. Traffic was ridiculous. That includes the traffic on the highway, the concert traffic we were in the first time when we…

  • My Kid Has Mad Skillz

    Buckle Up!

    My nineteen-year-old son J is very good with money. He has a job during the school year when he’s away at college, and this is the second consecutive summer he’s worked his tail off at his job here in town for the express purpose of making a maximum contribution towards the cost of his tuition. I think it’s all that squirreling away he does with his money that doesn’t make me blink an eye when he tells me he’s spending what I might think is a crazy amount of money on something. He works hard, covers his tuition commitment to us, and is otherwise responsible with his finances (all good…

  • Best Thing Ever,  Blessings,  Pretty Pictures,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    Slow No Wake

    I went on sabbatical yesterday afternoon. It was extremely out of character for me, but I have been out of character for a while now. I’ve been working even more than usual, sleeping less than usual, and feeling more drained than usual. Last week it all seemed to hit me at once and I walked around on the verge of stress- and exhaustion-induced tears for days. I had the strong desire to take a road trip somewhere, anywhere. Just…away. That’s why, when I ran into a friend of mine while running errands and she noticed that I was so tightly-wound and subsequently offered up her lake house as a possible…

  • Random Thoughts,  Tough Questions

    I Still Miss Google Reader But…

    Back in the day, I used to keep up with my favorite blogs (all 150+ of them) on Google Reader. Come to think of it, back in the day I had time to read all 150+ of my favorite blogs. Wow. Anyway… I loved opening up my reader every day and catching up with everybody. If I had a busy streak and was unable to read blogs, it was fine because they were all there waiting for me when I returned. In what can perhaps over-dramatically be described as a crushing blow to me, Google Reader went away for some strange reason last summer and left me flailing. There was…