Christmas highlights

Yeah... I know it's a bit late but you didn't want me to write about Christmas earlier in the week. Trust me. I was stuck in this angry fog and I couldn't break free but I've had a couple of really good days/nights now and I think I'm past it :)

So Christmas. A few highlights:
~my PRETTY PINK iPod Nano!! Especially exciting since the battery on my old iPod was lasting approximately 21 minutes...
~seeing how excited my dad got when he opened the present I got him (an orange Dick Butkus Bear's jersey).
~being able to afford buying real gifts for people
~my new 7-cup Cuisinart. It expands my culinary horizons SO greatly!! (you just wait to taste what I'm making for New Year's -- almost ALL of it will have been made at least partly in the Cuisinart!). I'm such a dork... I think I'm more excited by the Cuisinart than I was by the iPod...
~Not so much a Christmas highlight, but discovering how much cleaner my electric toothbrush (which I got for Christmas) makes my teeth has been pretty exciting...

There have been some good highlights since Christmas too:
~Getting to wear jeans to work this week (hey, if I have to be there, at least I can be comfortable!)
~Seeing everyone over at Joe's house the other night. Always wonderful to see Joe and Kendra and there were lots of other people there that I don't see often either. It was so fun and so worth the trip out to Winnetka!
~Coffee with Jamie yesterday. I miss him!!
~An amazing phone conversation with Emily last night. I miss her too!!
~Other surprising phone conversations that leave your head spinning.
~Finding out that more people are coming to my New Year's gathering :-) It's gonna be fun... there's gonna be jello shots...

There's more, but that's the really important stuff. There were, of course, lowlights as well, but no one wants to hear about those and I'd rather not dwell on them, at the risk of returning to angry-land. This weekend should be good. Happy Friday!

WHY??

Please excuse this brief rant...

In principle, I understand the flex scheduling system that the NFL uses. They want to be able to switch games around as the season goes on to make sure that interesting and/or important games get the prime time slots. That said, WHY would they move Sunday's Bear/Packer game from 12:15 to 7:15 LESS THAN a week before the game?? People make PLANS that night. Now I can't go to the game because I'm having people over (you people better come over...). Not the end of the world not to go, and I would rather spend NYE with my friends than with drunk Bears fans, but I was sort of looking forward to going to the afternoon game. Even if they'd moved it to 3:15, I could've dealed. But it's just RUDE to move it to 7:15 on a night when people have other plans. Rude and sort of stupid. Because does the network really think that on New Year's Eve, they're goign to get higher ratings for a 7:15 game than a 3:15 game? I don't think so...

OK, rant over. This wouldn't bother me so much if I wasn't already in more than a bit of a funk (nothing I want to get into here, nothing serious, nothing to get worried about, just a REALLY bad mood). Grrr.

Merry Christmas!

Hey, don't have a whole lot of time but I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas (and Happy Hanukkah since I'm not sure I did that last week). It has been a wonderful day so far. Hopefully it will stay that way. More later. But MERRY MERRY!

deep thoughts

I think I've figured out the reason behind my angst as of late. I think I'm just having some trouble coping with my lack of a winter break. Because I'm lucky if I don't have to do work this weekend. And that's a BIG change from being in college and law school where I had 3 weeks of no responsibility. And I'm also kind of jealous of my friends who do still have winter breaks. Or who can take time off of work this time of year. Oh well. I guess this is part of growing up and I'll just have to learn a better way to experience the holidays in the future.

Oh well. Even if I have to work, I've still got lots of fun planned in the next week and a half. Including 2 Sister Hazel concerts (YAY), Bears game (against the Packers, should be awesome) and I'm hosting a New Year's party (well, if some more people would RSVP it would be a party... right now it's just a small gathering). I just need to focus on the fun!

*sigh*

This was supposed to be a pretty good week. Crazy, sleepless, but really fun. Unfortunately, it hasn't really panned out that way. Nothing terrible has happened or anything but the fun stuff hasn't happened so that sort of sucks. One more chance for it tomorrow, but the odds are pretty low... Major bummer. And all of this adds up to me just being in one of those moods. NOT a good thing. Especially this time of year. :(

good weekend

I have had a really nice weekend. The only slight downer came this afternoon when I burnt some almonds, but that's life... Anyway, I won't bore you with the details. But I thought that someone should know that I'm pretty happy with my life right now, and that's a good thing.

black saturday?

Why is it that all of my "going out" shirts are black? I noticed this as I was getting dressed this evening. I have zero going out shirts that I actually like/wear that are in any colors. Sad. This needs to change... It's getting old always wearing black (though it is a flattering color...). Just thought I'd share this insight.

crazy life

Being a first year associate is just so bizarre.  In many ways it doesn't always agree with me because it is very unpredictable and, as my mother could tell you, I'm not exactly the most flexible person out there.  This week has been a perfect illustration of that.  Tuesday and Wednesday were absolutely insane.  I billed almost 24 hours in 2 days.  I expected today to be crazy too, but instead today has been SO slow as I've been waiting to receive documents for some deals and further instructions on others.  I actually wanted to be really productive today because tomorrow afternoon is our office party and I'd love to not have to come back afterwards (it goes until 3) but if I don't receive what I need until tomorrow... Oh well.  That's life I guess.  I need to work on that whole "flexibility" thing... 

 

In other news... well, there isn't much other news.  I've been too busy at work for there to be other news.  Hopefully this weekend will be good though.  In an ideal world, I'd stay in Friday night and go to bed super early, wake up early Saturday morning and go for a long run (because Saturday is supposed to be really warm!), spend the rest of the day Saturday in the suburbs doing Christmasy stuff and then come back into the city to go out on Saturday night, only to spend all day Sunday in my pajamas doing a little bit of cooking and a lot of nothing.  I'll let you know how that turns out :) 

pre-holiday stress

I should preface this post by saying that I've had a really nice weekend. Last night I had a few friends over for dinner. I spent all day yesterday cleaning my apartment (which was really good -- I really needed a reason to do a deep clean of the place) and cooking. I made lasagna and I think it turned out really well. I'm not upset that I'll be eating leftovers of it all week!
That was us after dinner (and after a few bottles of wine...).

So the weekend was pretty good. But I am getting STRESSED about the next few weeks. First off, work is going to be INTENSE. December is generally the busiest month for the kind of work that I'm doing (at the moment, mostly real estate) as companies try to finish transactions before the beginning of a new tax year. And it's good that I'll be busy. But it means that I'm going to miss out on a lot outside of work I think. I have a lot of friends who will be in town for only the week between Christmas and New Years and, unfortunately, I'm going to be working that whole week. Also supposed to go to Sister Hazel shows that Thursday and Friday and it's looking pretty unlikely that I'll make the Thursday show. Major bummer. All I can do though is hope that my friends understand and get through the season one day at a time. Because I can't control it. Just need to go with it. Now if only the emotional part of my brain would communicate with the rational part of my brain...

not a night owl...

You know what sucks? When you get home from work at 7, make dinner, clean a little and start getting ready to go to bed early so that you can wake up at 5:30 to get to the gym only to get a phone call at 9:10 from work asking if you can "help out a little" and then spending 2 HOURS helping out, t hereby staying up way past your bedtime and getting too wound up to sleep anytime soon. UGH. It has not been the best of days and this was just the icing on that cake...

go bears!

So in case you were worried, I made it through the Bears game. But it was damn cold!! Good thing we won, because I don't think I could have withstood the cold and losing!

I've spent the last 2 hours trying to get warm again. Let me tell you that regaining feeling in ones feet is a little painful! I think that I'm all good now though and ready for a cozy night in.

BRRRR (GO BEARS)

I'm going to the Bears game today with my dad and some other people. It is SO cold outside. We might be crazy. Seriously, it's 17 degrees, and with windchill it feels like 6 (or so weather.com tells me). I am wearing so many clothes. Not all the way dressed yet, because I'd boil in my apartment if I was, but here's what I will be wearing:
Long underwear pants, lined running tights, snow pants, long underwear shirt, fleece pullover, fleece jacket with windstopper, parka, 2 pairs of ski socks, winter boots, glove liners, ski mittens, ski helmet liner, winter hat, fleece neck gator. Also we're bringing hand warmers. But I still might freeze to death. Oh well -- GO BEARS!!

ugh

So I haven't had the best day ever today. Started out well. Started out very well actually. But then went downhill from there. The lowest moment was definitely while I was trying to drive home from Glencoe and my car had some issues. Engine problems I think. I made it home safely but it took FOREVER and I have to find somewhere to take my car this week. Ugh. Plus it means that I can't go out to my burbs tomorrow for dinner with the family (assuming I don't freeze to death at the Bears game first). So frustrating. And probably made even more frustrating by the fact that I hadn't really eaten anything besides a couple of granola bars since lunch Friday. Oops. Fixed that though -- had a Chipotle burrito for dinner. That always makes me happy. And my apartment is warm. That makes me happy too. I think I'll go to bed now.

A happy discovery

Made an exciting discovery (maybe it's a re-discovery but whatever) this week -- BATHS. No, I was not unhygenic before, but I always showered. It had been YEARS since I'd taken a bath but last weekend I really wanted a bubble bath and, well, I've taken 3 since then. It's just so nice to lose yourself in the hot water and bubbles (with a trashy magazine and glass of wine if you're so inclined :) ). Might be also that this is the first place I've lived in a long time with a halfway nice bathtub but I must say that I'm definitely enjoying it! Don't know why you care about this, but I thought I'd share anyway.

snow snow snow snow

It is SNOWING outside.  And it is a MESS.  I can't see anything at all outside the windows of my office but I keep hearing large chunks of snow and ice hit the windows.  Kind of weird actually. 

 

I love snow.  I don't always love walking in it, and I definitely don't love it when it turns to sluch, but I love its existence. 

 

I don't love cold.  And I am FREEZING right now.  Partly my own fault -- I usually keep a sweater in my office but brought it home earlier this week to take to the cleaners.  Of course I didn't bring a new one back...  But temperature control in this building is impossible.  So much glass... It sometimes feels like the wind is just coming right through the windows.  Brrrr!!  Might have to make a trip downstairs for a hot Starbucks drink soon...