• Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Favorite Things,  Food,  Friends,  Fun in Chicago,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Skydeck Chicago,  Travels

    Life In The Fast Lane Surely Make You Lose Your Mind

    July 30, 2015

    It just hit me on Tuesday evening, right after I dropped Liz and her middle daughter off at the airport (how much I hate goodbyes could be a whole other post, ugh), how much I had done/accomplished/enjoyed in two weeks. It made me dizzy, and perhaps piled on more exhaustion, on top of my exhaustion. It also made me smile. The last two weeks of July just might have been the busiest two weeks of my entire life, but I’m not complaining. It was a blast. First there was the BlogHer conference in NYC. I went into it exhausted; the weeks leading up to conference weekend are crazed for our…

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  • Amazing People,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    Invest In Others! Here’s Why.

    June 3, 2015

    About six weeks ago I wrote about my chance meeting with an old friend. We talked about how she wasn’t happy at work anymore and really preferred to get herself onto a different career path but had no idea how to get started. I offered to help her figure it out but, just as I predicted (sadly), I never heard from her. There are all kinds of reasons why people don’t reach out for help. Sometimes it simply seems easier to stay in the unhappy place than to get out. Instigating life changes is hard work. I would guess it’s almost always worth it, though. I was recently inspired by…

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  • Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Favorite Things,  Food,  Friends,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz,  Proud Moments,  Something That Could Change Your Life,  Travels

    My LTYM Travel Season, By The Numbers

    May 11, 2015

    Yesterday was Mother’s Day, and it also happened to be the last day of the 2015 LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER season. Each year I have driven to see some other shows, not only because I like hearing the stories live but also because I like to see how other cities do things (every city, while having to stick to certain national guidelines, creates a show that reflects their community), and it’s a way for me to support my fellow producers and meet up (on their own turf) with some of the teams I’ve coached as the LTYM National New Cities Mentor. This year, Jim was slightly astonished when I told…

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  • Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Blessings,  Favorite Things,  Fun in Chicago,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Pretty Pictures,  Proud Moments,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    All Over Again.

    May 5, 2015

    It’s all over, again. Every year, the experience of bringing a LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER show to the stage in Chicago seems to fly by with more speed. On Sunday, our fourth show took place at the beautiful Athenaeum Theatre and, while it was about ninety-five minutes long, it seemed more like ten. Add the three actual hours of pre-show stuff (photos, run-through, etc.) and you have…about twenty virtual minutes. Each year I find myself trying to figure out how to freeze time a little bit. Each year I also struggle to write a recap that adequately captures everything about show day, and frankly it’s impossible to do so. Expressing…

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  • Best Thing Ever,  Family Fun,  Friends,  Fun in Chicago,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    Whirlyball, Where Have You Been All My Life?

    April 1, 2015

    Actually, I guess it’s the other way around. Whirlyball has been a Chicago staple for years and years, right here in front of me, but for some reason–and I’ll be kicking myself over it for a long time to come–I had never tried it…until this week. (Disclosure: the fine folks at Whirlyball invited me and some friends in for some complimentary play. I was not compensated for this post.) Whirlyball, which is a combination of lacrosse, basketball, hockey, and bumper cars, is a fast-paced team game and SO MUCH FUN. Players are buckled into “WhirlyBugs” with a plastic scoop in hand. The idea is to get a whiffle ball through…

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  • Confessions,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Something That Could Change Your Life,  Working On My Fitness

    Rebalancing.

    January 26, 2015

    Making it through last week felt like a huge victory for me because, well, you probably read all about it already. Besides the moving parts of my life over which I have no control that I ever-so-vaguely mentioned, the other main source of my internal crisis was a repeat offender: hormones. THANKS, MOM. KIDDING, MOM. I took some action over the weekend and reached out to a friend who is a wellness coach and so smart about and active in treating things holistically that one of her nicknames is “Witch Doctor”. This is NOT my thing. I’ve always been skeptical of the healing properties of oils and other natural—what shall…

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  • Blessings,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz

    Reason #829 Why I Love The Internet

    November 22, 2014

    The internet is pretty awesome. Okay, it is awesome if you set aside the ways in which it sucks. I’m focusing on the awesome today. Here’s the thing. It’s very common for people on the internet to band together and come forward to be supportive when there’s a personal crisis going on. There’s always someone on the internet to say, “Oh my gosh, me too!” or “Don’t worry; that’s totally normal!” whether you’re talking about physical issues, mental issues, home repair issues, kid issues, or any other kind of issue, really. The Good People of the Internet* are right there, helping others feel better. I was having my own crisis…

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  • Fun in Chicago,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  UGH.

    Survival Skills

    November 18, 2014

    There’s a saying about how Chicago has only two seasons, winter and construction*. My little corner of my western suburb has been experiencing construction year-round for nearly two years now (even through the winter months), thanks to a gutting and extensive reconstruction of a major state route that happens to be one of the few roads that runs through my entire town from all the way north to all the way south. By the way, that state route happens to border my subdivision. The city planners back in the day had absolutely no idea that eventually Naperville would be the fifth largest (by population) city in Illinois and naturally, didn’t…

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  • Friends,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    Tea For Two. Or Four. Or Sixteen.

    November 14, 2014

    Have I mentioned how much I enjoy tea? Oh, right. Because I haven’t shut up about tea for nearly a month now, one of my friends—who I haven’t seen in forever—sent me a Facebook message saying that she wanted to go to Teavana with me. Again, this post is not sponsored. I could think of nothing more fun than meeting her at Teavana, getting her completely addicted to their tea, and then heading across the mall for a bite to eat so of course I said, “Absolutely!” Sabrina and I met as planned, grabbing a sample of tea on the way into the store. The whole time I was in…

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  • My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Spreading the Bloggie Love

    Catching Up.

    November 9, 2014

    What I love about NaBloPoMo is that many of my friends are writing way more often than they usually do. What’s difficult about NaBloPoMo is keeping up with it all. My Bloglovin’ feed is in a constant state of growth and although I try to read from it daily, I don’t have the time to get through everything during the week, especially when I’m trying to leave comments. I use the weekends for catching up. Sitting here all comfy on the couch with a cup of my favorite tea, I zip through a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty (I KNOW!) posts, enjoying every second of this ritual. And the…

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