• Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Fun in Chicago,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Pretty Pictures,  Proud Moments,  Shameless Promotion,  Something That Could Change Your Life,  Spreading the Bloggie Love

    About Last Night

    May 7, 2012

    I’m having a little trouble. I can’t really wrap my head around the whirlwind that was LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER CHICAGO last night. I can’t keep using the word “amazing” and expect that 1. People will continue to take me seriously 2. People will believe that yes, I’m a writer …but the fact is, everything about this experience (well, not everything: there were a few snags in the planning process but everything shook out in the end) WAS amazing. I tend to be long-winded (or whatever that is in terms of writing), and although I can think of thousands of things to report to you about last night, I think…

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  • Childhood Memories,  Something That Could Change Your Life,  Travels

    The Love Boat

    January 11, 2012

    Back in the late 70’s through the mid 80’s, my sister and I were always in the same place on Saturday nights: in front of the television, watching “The Love Boat”. The weekly adventures of Captain Merrill Stubing (Your Ship’s Captain), Julie McCoy (Your Cruise Director), Issac Washington (Your Bartender), Doc Brinker (Your Ship’s Doctor), Gopher Smith (Your Yeoman Purser), and the parade of special guest stars that appeared each week (like Charo, Meredith Baxter Birney, Florence Henderson, Sonny Bono, and so many others) kept us glued to our seats from the intro song–which, at nearly two minutes, was clearly created in the days when the powers-that-be weren’t concerned about…

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  • Confessions,  How To,  Random Thoughts,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    On Kindness

    November 18, 2011

    Now that the holidays are upon us, it’s a really good time to start thinking about making good manners and consideration for others a habit so that when the holidays are over, we will be fostering a better environment in the world around us without thinking much about it. Wait…do you think you don’t have any issues with kindness? It’s possible that you don’t, of course, but sometimes–because most of us are so busy all the time–we become very emotionally impulsive and less thoughtful without even realizing it. I performed a little experiment last night and I challenge you to do something similar. I had to stop at the grocery…

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  • Confessions,  UGH.,  Writing

    Let The To Do List-ing Begin!

    November 16, 2011

    After yesterday’s announcement, I was pretty keyed up and had the absolute worst night of sleep in recent memory. It took me two hours to fall asleep in bed because I was thinkingthinkingthinking, and I was wide awake again after about two hours because I was thinkingthinkingthinking. I came downstairs at about 3:30 a.m., turned on the television and opened the ole’ laptop. I worked on a post, checked emails, and scrolled Facebook–but not for long because my friends were all sleeping at the time and there were few updates posted since I had gone to bed earlier. I finally went back to sleep on the couch and got about…

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  • Proud Moments,  Shameless Promotion,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    Listen To Me: I Have An Announcement! (Then, Listen To Your Mother!)

    November 15, 2011

    I am beyond excited to FINALLY be able to talk about this online, after six days of knowing about it. Six days that seem like six years, that is! I, along with my friend Tracey of Just Another Mommy Blog, will be bringing the “Listen To Your Mother” show to Chicago in 2012! What IS the “Listen To Your Mother” show, you ask? It’s a showcase of local writers who read, for a live audience, one “performance” only, their words about motherhood. The first show, in Madison, Wisconsin on Mother’s Day in 2010 was conceived (get it?) and produced by Ann Imig, who is now the National Director. This year,…

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  • Chicken in the Car,  Random Thoughts,  Writing

    It’s Never Too Late.

    November 14, 2011

    Last week I had the opportunity to speak about my book to a group of senior citizens at a local church. It was my first “real” speaking engagement. I have never liked speaking in front of groups generally… …although I have no problem wearing spandex-y workout clothes and a microphone headset while I sweatily teach cycling to large groups of people, go figure… …oh, and I did earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education, something that involves speaking in front of large groups, and taught second graders every Sunday for fourteen years, whatever… …but I really don’t like being in front of lots of people. Anyway, I was pretty excited…

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  • Friends,  Music,  Too Funny To Ignore

    Reestablishing Chicago As The House Music Capital of the World

    November 12, 2011

    I had a conversation on Facebook yesterday that made me positively giddy. I was in a back-and-forth with my friend who you might remember: Jane the Phoole from the Bristol Renaissance (Ren-AY-sance) Faire. One of the things I adore about “Jane” is that she may spend her summer days dressed up in 16th century chic, but she spends her nights listening to House music, which is SO NOT 16th century. The juxtaposition of Jane’s (whose real name is Ann) Facebook statuses cracks me up on a regular basis, because how funny is it to see that one day during Ren Faire season she’s posting something like this: “Join Jane the…

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  • Fun in Chicago,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Proud Moments,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    I Died At The Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Seriously.

    November 7, 2011

    I had a fantastic birthday weekend. Jim whisked me away to the city for a show and an overnight stay. When we came home, my sister presented me with the best birthday cake EVER, which you need to check out before you go any further because ohmygodyoujusthavetoseeit. Click here, and then come back. I’ll wait. I bet you’re wondering about the title of this post. Believe it or not, it’s totally true! How many people can say they made their stage debut dying at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, especially if they have never had any desire whatsoever to be on stage at all? (Good question, right? I’ll Google it later.)…

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  • Friends,  Fun in Chicago,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Skydeck Chicago,  Working On My Fitness

    Yoga On (Okay, NEAR) The Ledge!

    August 15, 2011

    One of the privileges of being a Skydeck Chicago Ambassador this summer was the ability to come up with a one-of-a-kind event to put on in the space on the 103rd floor of Willis (formerly Sears) Tower. We ambassadors started with clean slates, and could basically present any idea we wanted to the PR team and management of Skydeck Chicago for approval. For me, incorporating a workout was a no-brainer, because I love fitness and especially because Skydeck Chicago has nothing to do with fitness. I thought that mixing up the two worlds would be interesting and fun. Of course, I couldn’t exactly arrange to teach a cycling class up…

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  • Confessions,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Random Thoughts,  Tough Questions,  Travels

    Analyze This: The Doors and Windows Question

    August 25, 2010

    One of the things I’ve learned over the past six weeks in regards to myself as a “photographer” (I have to put that in quotes; I’m not sure why.) is that I really, really enjoy taking photographs of doors and windows. Open or closed, it doesn’t matter. Plain or decorated, it doesn’t matter. What does that say about me as a person? I’m certain that there is some special meaning hidden somewhere; it probably tells something about my personality. Hey Holger, what are you doing there? An “expert” might say that I like to look for other ways of doing things. Or that I am the type of person who…

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