I am not a quitter. My therapist would say that this is due to my unrelenting standards and sure, she would be correct, but I am who I am. In spite of that personality trait, over the years I have gotten much better at releasing things (and tasks) that no longer serve a positive purpose in my life. Today I’m talking about in-progress craft projects. After having worked at Lee Wards Craft Store (a precursor to Michael’s) and using my employee discount with gusto for a few years and after Jim and I moved from a two-bedroom townhouse to a three-bedroom townhouse before we ever had children just so I…
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I’m One of Those.
I finally switched out the clothes in my bedroom closet today, trading tank tops and Capri pants for sweatshirts and jeans. I am SO HAPPY. Don’t get me wrong; I really like summer, especially now that we have access to a pool just up the street. As much as I enjoy driving with the sunroof open though, I get a little giddy when autumn kicks in. Just a few things I love about fall: Changing trees and fallling leaves Running our fireplace Hot cocoa with whipped cream The aforementioned sweatshirts and jeans Curling up on the couch with a blanket The seat warmers in my car Chicken matzah ball soup…
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The Dining Room and Other Ways We’re In Sync.
I figured a month was long enough to have my toilet paper obsession have center stage. Actually, to be honest, I’ve been too busy even to think about blogging. It’s all good, though. I’m in the thick of LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER CHICAGO season (13 days until the show! Need tickets? Go here.), work is gearing up to Level: Crazytown (#BlogHer17 is only two months away! Need a ticket? Go here.), and Jim and I are busily working on our new house in Knoxville. The house thing? It’s been awesome. As unhappy as I was when Jim and I were hanging in that special kind of limbo that occurs when…
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TGIF!
TGIF, you guys. I don’t have much today, but it’s Friday and I’m feeling some relief even before the day is over. My life lately has looked like this: stress exhaustion stress worry exhaustion stress stress overthinking exhaustion OMG TIRED Cubs Cubs Cubs Cubs CUBS CUBS! CUBS!! CUBS!!! stress exhaustion Cubs stress worry exhaustion overthinking CUBS!!! TIREDDDDDD stress stress OMG IT’S FRIDAY! TGIF! I’ve already written about the Cubs twice this week so I won’t say another word about them…except to say that today is Cubs Day in Chicago and I sobbed like a baby watching the festivities on TV. Dylan took the train downtown to watch the parade and…
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World Series 2016: Go Cubs Go!
My very favorite baseball team is the Chicago Cubs. Actually, my very favorite team in any sport is the Chicago Cubs. When you’re from Chicago, it’s kind of a rule that you have to pick a baseball team, because we have two. You HAVE to choose. The Cubs or The White Sox North Side or South Side Red, White, and Blue or Black, White, and Silver Wrigley Field or Comiskey Park (It’s not technically Comiskey anymore but go with it.) The thing is, I don’t actually remember picking the Cubs; I only know that I’ve loved them for as long as I can remember. One example of how fiercely I…
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Missy.
In case you didn’t hear me shrieking yesterday during Super Bowl 50, Missy Elliott followed me on Twitter. Yes, THE Missy Elliott. One minute I was tweeting a reply (“I’d like to see Missy Elliott back up there!”) to Sirius XM’s question about who else I’d like to see on stage with Coldplay, Bruno Mars, and Beyonce, and the next minute, Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott herself was following me. And that’s when the evening took on an ALL CAPS flavor. (Apologies to my friends. I know how annoying that is, but MISSY ELLIOTT, YOU GUYS.) I was so excited about it that I was doing a little bit of tearing up…
- 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.
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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Making Seventy-Seven Look Good
It’s Roxie’s eleventh birthday today and we’re celebrating! Err, I’m celebrating. (Jim doesn’t celebrate dog birthdays.) Where does the time go??? Roxie has accomplished so much in her eleven years (seventy-seven dog years, whew!). In addition to electrocuting herself as a puppy, actually eating a kid’s homework once, getting skunked, eating entire loaves of bread, bags of chocolate*, and part of a container of baking cocoa and living to tell about it, she has also run away for an afternoon (twice), ripped up paper money that totaled approximately $73 for all incidents, rolled in rabbit poo multiple times every summer, destroyed many stuffed animals, scared an infinite number of people…
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Back To Life, Back To Reality.
The past week was absolutely insane for me, and by “insane” I mean “moderately horrible”. I threw my back out two Saturdays ago doing who-knows-what (I think just walking?). Not knowing how an injury originated, by the way, does make the coping with it worse for me, mentally. I had to replace almost all of my normal activities with things like making sure to take ibuprofen regularly, sitting with a heating pad, laying down more than usual, and generally being miserable and crabby. It was awful. One bright spot came at the end of the week when I received a surprise flower arrangement from Kalla and the girls at Chicagonista…
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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…
