• Childhood Memories,  Food,  I'm Apparently Old.,  I've Got Mad Skillz

    Jell-O Times Two.

    Until the last six months or so since my mom started trying to minimize, we have always known that if we’re looking for something from our growing-up years, she’s likely got it. It’s for that reason that when we come for a visit, we usually find long-forgotten things either by accident or, if mom finds something she wants us to take home, left on the dresser of the room in which we sleep. I was tickled on this visit to find a short stack of old report cards, a program from an elementary school play, and a collaborative recipe book made by my kindergarten class on that dresser. The recipe…

  • I've Got Mad Skillz

    I’m Not A Snoozer.

    I’m a morning person*. Hardcore. Whether I’ve gotten a full eight+ hours of sleep (so rare!) or just four (more likely), I can actually get out of bed and be ready to leave the house—without the ingestion of caffeine, with a fully functioning brain and a smile on most days—within thirty minutes if I have to, singing in the shower included. My morning effervescence is super annoying to those who are exclusively night people, those who can’t function well without coffee, and my sister. (*waves to Jules*) My ability to cope with mornings like a champ includes the alarm clock. I have always, for my entire life, kept my clock…

  • Favorite Things,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Pretty Pictures

    To Market, To (Farmer’s) Market

    Yesterday I wrote about my love of taking pictures of Chicago buildings. Apparently I adore capturing lots of things that don’t move because another favorite photo walk for me is one through a good farmer’s market. I think farmer’s markets are beautiful. The way that the vendors deliberately display their goods so the people walking through can hardly resist is a real art form. They work so hard on it and I feel terrible passing through only taking pictures. In fact, these days I usually avoid farmer’s markets unless I have cash on me to make small purchases as I go, to make up for the fact that I’m walking…

  • Favorite Things,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Jim Has Mad Skillz,  Pretty Pictures,  Travels

    Epic Road Trip: Check!

    I just drove in from New Jersey and boy, are my arms tired! Ba dum bump! Wait, that’s wrong. That’s an airplane joke. My arms aren’t tired at all because I didn’t fly to New Jersey. Also, I’m not a bird. Maybe I’m breaking that down a little more than necessary. Maybe you’re clicking awaaaay….WAIT! Over the past few years, my fondness for road trips has grown immensely. There’s something about being totally in control of where I’m going, when and why I’m stopping, and all kinds of other things. When I was planning my third annual fall visit to see my sistuh-from-anuthuh-muthuh and the rest of her (our!) family,…

  • Amazing People,  Blessings,  Confessions,  Friends,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Jim Has Mad Skillz,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz

    Coping Skills For Mostly Happy People

    I’m lucky in that I don’t have too many bad days. I’m constantly counting my blessings and I realize all the time that my life is pretty darn good. I am a completely normal human being though, which means that I’m not happy all the time. Life is a roller coaster: ups AND downs are part of the deal. Yesterday? Was a downer. Being a mostly happy person, I tend to freak people out when I’m having a bad day. It’s not that my friends think I cannot have a bad day (or am not allowed a bad day), but when I’m walking around living a 21st century Pollyanna life,…

  • Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    How To Organize Your Inbox, My Way.

    Email, which is mostly awesome, has altered our perception of what is an acceptable speed of every day communication to the point where the idea of waiting two or three days for a piece of snail mail is almost totally preposterous unless you’re waiting on an old-school wedding invitation or a package from Amazon. The way I see it, there are two bad things about email: the way it has totally reduced our patience level (see above) and the way it can clutter up an inbox beyond belief so that you A) can’t find anything and B) lose your marbles over the sheer volume of it. Or is that just…

  • 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

    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…

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

    Just Give Me A Second And I’ll Figure It Out.

    Unfortunately, all of the answers can’t be found on Google. I mean, LOTS of them can…but often there are questions or problems that can’t be resolved by typing in a query. Here’s what I do when I have a dilemma: I call someone to talk it out. Now, you might think that when I say “talk it out”, I mean that I’m calling that person to have a two-person exchange about my issue and then hang up feeling triumphant because we have figured it out together. Good job. That’s what I thought I was doing too, for a while. Not so. I mean, that’s my INTENTION, but that’s not exactly…

  • Confessions,  Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?,  Friends,  Fun in Chicago,  I've Got Mad Skillz

    Just Noh.

    I’m in a mood this afternoon, because I scheduled a workout for 4:30 p.m. and one of my least favorite things to do is drag myself away from whatever I’m doing to go take an afternoon class. I used to do my workouts mostly in the evening or at 5:30 in the morning almost exclusively, so it’s not like I’m new at this, but I’m a creature of habit and changing up my schedule today hurt. I’ve grown quite accustomed to doing my 8:30 a.m. class and then being finished for the day. Actually, the fact that this is bothering me so much really tells me that I probably need…

  • Best Thing Ever,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Proud Moments,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    Just Do It.

    Last month I wrote about the sad state of my family room walls. After living in this house for nearly fourteen years and using the family room more than any other room during our waking hours, I never made the time to finish hanging things on them. Happy update: I finally did it. I received the photo canvas that I ordered online and hung it on the wall over the TV—i.e. the wall I stare at the most—and completed the wall behind my couch, which I adore so much now that it is the home of some of my favorite pictures. Getting the walls finished motivated me enough to tackle…