Vida

I mentioned last week that my trips to the lake always relax me and help me return to a normal person. Today I used one of my other tactics to calm down... biking! I found this at my old job when I was an avid bike commuter.  Today I biked to the hospital I was working in.  It is in a bit of a sketchy area... to quote my contact at the hosptial once she found out I biked:  "you are a brave, brave soul."  I didn't have any real problems.  A couple Mexican men yelled at me (I wouldn't say rudely), but I am familiar with this because of Mexico. The bike ride home was what I needed!  It helped me return to a normal person and relax. What do you do when you need to relax?  I really think it's different for everyone.  You just have to figure out what works for you.

When my mom came up a couple weeks ago she brought me zucchini, potatoes, green beans, tons of tomatoes, eggs, etc. Needless to say, I was super excited!  All these fresh vegetables! I've been eating lots of tomato sandwiches and I'm planning on making a tomato curry. Last week I used up the last of the zucchini!  I made a couple recipes that weren't very good, and I didn't share them.  One recipe that was oh so good!   Spicy Zucchini Frittata I made some minor changes from the recipe listed: no salt, less eggs.  And I cooked it longer than recommended because I like my eggs completely cooked. One thing I didn't have in my place as I was getting ready to prepare it:  jalapeños!  If you know anything about me from reading about my cooking adventures, you'll know I like spicy food so I headed to the grocery store for a  jalapeño.  How much do you think it was?  I'll tell you.  8¢!  Yes, you read that correctly, 8¢ !!!  That right there is enough of a

I can't seem to justify spending hundreds of dollars for Lollapoloza.  I'd like to go, yes.  But I just can't. However, I justify splurging on a groupon rooftop ticket to a cards/cubs game (which is still expensive, even though it's a groupon).  My mind sometimes works in mysterious ways.  I can't help it.  This is a story for another time. Even though the game is Sunday and I'm super excited!  Rooftop is apparently a must do! So right now I'm checking out Lollapoloza's after-parties to see which ones of my favorites I can go to.  Who's on my list? -Of Monsters & Men -Ballpark Music -Temper Trap I think I'm behind the game though because they seem to be sold out. Fingers crossed I can figure out an after show to attend next weekend!  For this weekend, I'm excited for the official start of the olympics (even though it already started), my favorite street festival, the cardinals game, AND there's supposed to be beautiful weat

Today was a bad day! We all have them.  It's completely normal. It was one of those days where one day feels like a week. I'm going to try to turn it around though.  For every negative thing.  I'll think of a positive. It down poured basically my entire drive to Elgin this morning.   It didn't pour the entire way & it didn't hail. I was in the same, freezing cold room for approximately 10 hours.   I missed some traffic. I had 10 minutes to get lunch and get it down.   It was delicious.  Yes, maybe I had a bit of a stomach ache after since I ate it so fast, but it was good! I repeated myself all day and started to lose my mind.   The majority of the day I worked with Maria, a staff member, that I really came to like.  We got along really well. After spending the majority of the day with Maria, I had her rhythm down so I knew just how to time my talk so we had a great flow.  Then a different staff member came and annoyed me like crazy.  This was at the po

Check this out! They repainted Halsted between Diversey & Wellington and it is nice!   Can you see the dashes on the right side of the bike lane?  That's for car doors so it's not as easy to get doored!   And the path is spacious.   And notice the extra space on the left of the lane. Yes, it's only about 4 blocks, but it's the best 4 blocks I've ridden in the city! Today I'm thankful for legit bike lanes! Keep 'em coming!

This training season has been full of challenges:  a bird pecking my head (more days than one), waves crashing on me, oppressive heat, training while traveling, etc. Today was such a LOVELY run!  It was overcast, which I don't normally love, but much needed with the heat and sun beating down on me that's been the norm this summer.  It wasn't 90+ degrees either!  The heat's been especially hard to train in this season.  It slows me down and challenges me to listen to my body.  Usually I just push though things, but when I start getting goosebumps when it's so hot, that's a bad sign.  And I have to listen to that.  It's hard. Today I couldn't have been happier to get in my 8 mile run.  Even with the waves crashing on me.  Generally, I try to avoid the waves, darting out of the way, etc.  Today I just let them crash on me and pound through it.  It was kind-of fun.  There aren't waves when it's excessively hot.  Maybe that's why I was enjoy

I cannot even explain how happy I am about the new Share the Shore Campaign initiative for the Lakefront path! About a month ago I even started talking about the need for people using the path to be educated. "Throughout the campaign, Friends of the Lakefront Trail will be teaching participants tips for sharing the trail. According to the release, trail users should run, walk and bike single file or--at most--two-across and slow down when the trail becomes congested. Slower users should shift to the right of the trail and move off when stopped. For faster bikers, Friends of the Lakefront Trail said you should call out "on your left" before passing anyone." ( source ) THANK YOU!

Things that made me happy today... I believe every day has something good that happens.  Today was a pretty good day, but there are some days that are not.  It's finding those happy things and realizing them.  Sort-of like how some people keep thankful journals where they write down 3 things good that happened in their day every night.  I have done this at times in the past. There were a few things that made me especially happy today: *A couple of my friends gave me a fun new beer to try because... That's sort-of a joke... sort-of.  I always complain that I don't want to be an adult ;) Karen was in on it too when she wrote on my facebook wall with a similar statement.  Yeah, maybe I say that too much? *I parallel parked my car on the first try!  This came after a very frustrating parking time Saturday evening.  Where there were two different spots that my car would fit into, but I didn't have the skills to get it in.  Very frustrating.  Then I watched vid

I actually took some photos this week... * One of my roommates from Mexico came to visit last weekend (she still lives there).  One of my other roommates, who lives in Chicago, and I were able to spend a couple days with her as she kicked off her month in the US.  We missed our other roommate, but were happy for the time we got to spend together. of course that's tequila. these are my roommates from Mexico Sunday was a day made for the lake *Jason & I were in Champaign for work this week.  We ate at Radio Maria the first night.  That hummus was probably the best hummus I've ever eaten. *Rubina & I had a picnic on the lake.  We had a lovely time once we found each other, which is a completely different story.  It's nice that we both live on the lake, she's just a bit north of me. I hadn't seen her in too long so it was extra special. And she made me feel better about my concert I'm going to alone in about a month.  I just bought my t

The Olympics 2012 opening ceremony is TWO weeks away. Have I told you about my love of the summer Olympics?  I love them.   On nbc's olympics website, they have an easy tool to help you find what's on, when.  Usually I just turn on the tv and watch whatever sport is on, but I do have some favorites that it would be fun to watch. I can't wait! *I kept hearing more and more about the P&G commercials and how cute they are.  I just saw my first one yesterday and must agree!

Yep, it's recap time from the week my family and I spent at the Lake . My parents rented a house and a boat for our family for the week.  We were around mile 24 for those of you who've been there before. Dad, Mom, Jeff, Greta & Charlie all slept in the guest house so that meant... Karen & I had the whole main house to ourselves.  ;)  (If only we didn't disagree on the temperature so much. I like it warmer than her).   That might be a bit of an exaggeration.  We had the whole place to ourselves, unless someone wanted food, hang out in the living room, do laundry, etc. We pretty much relaxed the whole time we were there.   We were out on the boat at least once a day. Karen & I are ready for a day on the boat! We got in some tubing and skiing.  (No pictures exist of tubing, but it happened.  My scabs from the cloth burn just came off at the end of last week.  And just ask Karen.  She was sore.  We all were.) I think we were all pleasantly surprised w