Vida

All my bags are packed I'm ready to go... Well, technically, that's false.  My bags are not packed (I'm always last minute, yet efficient), but I am most surely ready to go. This coming week, I'm spending the week at the beach in Florida with my family and I'm pretty excited.  This week I felt quite run down and the entire week became a countdown to the trip (although there were most definitely some highs mixed in there too). I plan on completely checking out from email, social media, etc. and enjoying the limited time I seem to always have with my family. I love you all & I'll see you on the flip side!

Sunday is Father's Day! We had a bit of an early celebration this year, even though we'll actually be spending the actual day together on the beach ;) Sunday we all sat down for breakfast in the sun room and Karen & I pulled out our Father's Day gifts. I'm definitely a card person and I'm not lying when I say I found the perfect card this year.  My mom thought I wrote the book titles on the card, they were so perfect for my dad.  Thank you to Powell's in Portland! Then comes the gift.  Karen & I went back and forth with what we should give Dad this year.  He's definitely a barbecuer, he loves baseball, he likes to read, but doesn't want any more books at the moment.  We've all dipped in each of those interests for gifts in the past. Karen ended up with a picture business card holder, with this gem on the fancy silver  "It's a conversation starter" I decided to give Sprezza Box a try. Sprezza Box is a men's su...

Have you ever noticed your body holds on to stress? I most definitely have noticed that in the past AND, most recently, in the past two weeks. I try to balance it out with yoga. Today I moved into my first downward dog and I could barely get into it, I was so tight. I've heard you store stress in your hips (yes for me) and I also think you store in your shoulders. As I moved through our extreme flow yoga class (which is exactly what I wanted today) I was patient with myself and let myself slowly open up.  I think this is not only physically, but emotionally too.   Yesterday at the office, everyone was ready to offer their critiques of the conference, which I appreciate and know are very important. At the same time, I couldn't carry a conversation about any of them to explore solutions.  Part of this was pure exhaustion.  Part was the stress still lingering, I think. I worked my way through the poses and gradually opened.  By the end I was in sco...

This week felt insane.  Here are a few notes: *I got a free oil change.  Because they took forever...and I let them know it.  Karen was trying to get me to relax and smile and I refused. *Big Chicks has great weekday specials.  $1 burger or veggie dog w/ fries.  Okay *I found myself practically sprinting...everywhere...during work hours.  This conference, man, I'm pretty excited for it to be over. Justine: Are you excited for P3 to be over? I didn't even let her finish Me:  Yes. *Me = So Tired *I got to ride my new bike to work all week.  Which is so lovely and much safer than my bad weather bike.  Yes, I realize this doesn't make much sense.  Although today while the sand pelted my new bike with the strong wind, I kept thinking, 'not my new bike! stop getting sand in my new bike's chain.' *Working on scrapbook catching up. *Ran my largest (and probably most important) meeting at work.  It went well.  Hooray! ...

As I quickly find out, it's not nearly as romantic as it sounds. Actually, it's pretty awful sometimes, especially if you go for strict definitions and firm rules. Those locavores gaily frolicking through fields of squash blossoms on the cover of a food magazine? Ten bucks says their smiles are as airbrushed as a Victoria's Secret swimsuit catalog. I read through  My Week of Eating Locally -- and What I Learned  and as someone who tries to eat local foods, I appreciate it. Now that I think of that wording that I try to eat local foods I feel like I'm running into the same feeling the author encountered.   What does try actually mean? For me? I like farmer's markets.   I like supporting my small local friends rather than the big chain.  For example, coffee and tea exchange vs starbucks.  Or local restaurants over the big guys.  Partly this is because I think the quality is better (and sometimes cheaper, especially for what you're getting). ...

It's sunny, a nice day for a walk, and they recently set-up a food truck spot even closer to our office.  All reasons to visit a food truck. I wouldn't say the Chicago Food Truck scene is booming, like other cities, but it is pretty solid and there are a lot of trucks roaming around. Here's a great link to see what's around you.  I can't vouch for the reliability of the open later tab, but open now is usually pretty accurate. I work in River North so when my co-workers and I make our way to food trucks we usually go over to NBC tower where there are usually a few congregated.   But now!  There's a spot a few of them come every Wednesday at Illinois & Rush, which is super close to us. There was even the doughnut vault one at the green city farmer's market last Saturday, which I went to with a friend.  I got some salted caramel doughnut or something of the sort.  It was delicious.  Especially comforting on the cold, rainy day ...