• Blessings,  Family Fun,  Food,  Friends,  I've Got Mad Skillz

    10 Things That Made Me Happy This Holiday Weekend

    It’s not even Sunday yet and this long holiday weekend has been packed enough for a whole week. It’s been great, too. In fact, I’m wishing it wasn’t ending tomorrow. Anyway, we arrived home after this evening’s festivities a little late and I need to get to bed soon so I made the executive decision to write up a listicle so I can check “Write today’s blog post” off of my to-do list. Ten things that made me happy this holiday weekend? Let’s count ’em down. 1. Jim and Jason came home for the holiday, so all four of us were under the same roof, yay! 2. Thanksgiving was gloriously…

  • Friends,  Fun in Chicago,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Pretty Pictures

    Cubs Day

    One more about the Cubs and then I’ll shut up about them…until next Spring. Let me tell you about Cubs Day. MY Cubs Day. After the Cubs won the World Series for the first time in 108 years, most of the city of Chicago was on a crazy baseball high. (Some of us still are.) The team even had a special day (Friday, November 4) designated as World Series Champions Chicago Cubs Day by Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner. That was the day of the parade and rally, the one whose estimated crowds of 5 million people made it the seventh largest gathering in human history. I had to work on…

  • Friends,  Spreading the Bloggie Love

    #NaBloPoMo: 30 Days of Back to Basics

    I celebrated my ninth blogging anniversary last Friday. Well, “celebrated” isn’t entirely accurate. I literally noticed that it was the anniversary of my first post, mentioned it on Facebook, and whispered to myself, “Yay me!” That’s it. Nine years of blogging is nothing to sneeze at, however. It’s a pretty nice accomplishment. Sure, I don’t blog nearly as much as I did in the beginning or even five years ago, but I still love to write here when I can. November is National Blog Posting Month, or NaBloPoMo. During NaBloPoMo a bunch of us crazies make a commitment to ourselves to post something every single day. (November is also National…

  • Amazing People,  Friends,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz

    Personal Evolution: It’s a Thing.

    I enjoyed lunch with an old friend today, someone who I last saw only in passing when we were teaching spin classes at the same health club (years ago). Our lives have been intertwined in a bunch of different ways since we met in late 1995. I used to care for her school-aged kids in the health club nursery while she taught classes at night and on school holidays, and years later her daughter babysat for my boys in the summer when I worked full-time. She was a mentor to me when I was studying for my ACE Group Fitness certification and then when I became a spin instructor, and…

  • Food,  Friends,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz

    New Food Swap Book! (Get it.)

    Local food swaps have become a thing. What are they? Well, they’re all a little different but the basic idea is that a bunch of people from one community come together to trade homegrown or homemade items. After everyone arrives, time is spent walking around, checking out what everyone brought (and sometimes sampling), and then when it’s time to swap there’s a negotiating frenzy. Typically everyone goes home with a bag (or box) full of goodies, extremely happy about trying some new things. My friends Emily Paster and Vanessa Druckman created the Chicago Food Swap a few years ago; the first one was held in December 2011. I was able…

  • Best Thing Ever,  Food,  Friends,  Travels

    That Voodoo That You Do (or, Big Bucket of Donuts)

    I’m currently in Austin, Texas for work (we’re here to do a site visit for #BlogHerFood16, which happens in October and have you registered yet because Earlybird pricing ends 3/31!). It’s a whirlwind trip and sadly, I had to tell several friends and two relatives that I just couldn’t make any plans to meet up this time (argghhhhh). Liz and Brandi (my social media team partner, or PARDNER as they say in Texas…don’t they?) and I arrived at the Austin airport within minutes of each other, which was a pretty cool thing considering we were coming from New Jersey, California, and Illinois. We took a cab to the hotel, checked…

  • Childhood Memories,  Confessions,  Food,  Friends

    Candy Girl

    Over the weekend while at a candy store I came across some Spree candy in a bulk container and paused for a moment. I hadn’t enjoyed Sprees in years, as in “I can’t REMEMBER the last time I enjoyed Sprees but I think it may have been the early eighties”. Honestly, I couldn’t even remember what they tasted like other than my childhood. After standing there for a moment staring at the colorful disks, I reached for the scoop to put some in one of those “fill-your-own” buckets. When I was six or seven, I attended the birthday party of my cousin, who’s just a year older. My aunt came…

  • Friends,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Travels

    I Love L.A.

    I just returned from a visit to the site of the #BlogHer16 conference in Los Angeles. I love L.A. I. LOVE. IT. Of course, my rose-colored glasses were deeply tinted on this trip, what with the “late January getaway from Chicago winter” and the “spending three and a half days with the most awesome team ever” elements. Los Angeles was a dream, and I wish I could’ve “slept” a little longer. Literally and figuratively. On the way out, I got to walk through my favorite corridor at O’Hare airport. Of course, when I was sitting at the gate in the middle of a flight delay that would last nearly two…

  • Friends,  Spreading the Bloggie Love

    Blogging Like Nobody’s Reading.

    Blogging like nobody’s reading. I just posted it as my current status on Facebook and the “likes” are rolling in from all of my blogger friends. We’re closing out 2015’s NaBloPoMo tomorrow and, more than ever, this one has been truly about blogging for one’s self. Besides the fact that many people don’t blog as much as they used to, many people (including me!) also aren’t reading as much as they used to. We’re busy! Or is it just my community? Or is it just me? Hmmm. We returned home late this afternoon from our Thanksgiving trip to Tennessee and as I was thinking about what to write this evening,…

  • Bean,  Childhood Memories,  Confessions,  Friends,  Music,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz

    What Happens In High School…

    I attended high school in Knoxville, Tennessee so when we come here to visit our parents (both sets still live here), I always try to make time to get together with one of my oldest and dearest friends, Kate. We went to high school together and were extremely close in our junior and senior years. While we lost touch for nearly eight years after graduation, I sent a letter to her parents’ address when I was pregnant with J and we reconnected. I love our relationship; it’s really stood the test of time. In addition to our high school adventures, she flew to Chicago to be the decoy surprise when…