A Little Prayer

Don't you wish your life were a musical sometimes?  Or at least broke out into song?  Well I think it would be just fantastic.  Though ultimately, my abilities (or lack thereof) and stage fright would put me in a role similar to Julia Roberts' in My Best Friend's Wedding.  As the great Bieber says though, "Never Say Never."

Hope your weekend's just a chorus line of fun!

Street Sights

One of the great misfortunes about living in such a major metropolitan city is the amount of things to do. It's easy to take things for advantage, and even easier not to know things even exist.  For instance, there are transit lines I have never even taken before.  Well at least there's one less now, as I found myself riding the Green Line to the up and coming West Loop Sunday for the Randolph Street Market.  Beyond all the wonderful treasures and trinkets to be found all over, it was one of those lovely experiences that help to remind you to always look around you.  For the rest of the afternoon I found myself noticing all those simple things that make this city so arousing this time of year.  If that's not what a Sunday is for then I don't know what is.

Hallelujah!

Does it get any better than days like this one?  

The Rams game is on local Chicago television!

It's perfect weather to keep all the windows open and the leavers are a'changing!

It's grocery week, which means I'll be cooking tonight.  I'm thinking chili and cornbread would suit just fine. (Yes, I've actually taken this up as a hobby).

I'll finally be finishing the Hunger Games.  (I must admit, I've had a hard time getting into this one).

The Cardinals could be going to the World Series tonight!

...Aren't Sundays just the best?

A Rather Blustery Day

It's an absolutely picturesque fall day here in Chicago!  But just a wee bit blustery.

Happy Days

Not sure if it's the longer days, the lovely weather, or a lot of hard work paid off but lately I've been in an unstoppable good mood.  The best part about good moods is it makes the bumps in the road a lot smoother.  This weekend I'm looking forward to just not being so grumpy about winter and celebrating the rest.

A very happy weekend to all!

{Image Credit:  Hoot Design-thanks, Conroy!}

Big City Loving

Happy Weekend everyone!  I think it's going to be a good one.  Lots of things to celebrate with birthdays, parties, the Cubs/Cardinals rivalry, and the last sibling going off to college this weekend.  Not to mention I just found out that I will officially be moving to Chicago in just a few short weeks!  I couldn't be more excited.  Quite a whirlwind ahead of me with packing up and moving, as well as a visit to France in the middle of it all.  A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do though.  Enjoy and celebrate all of your good fortunes this weekend!

"Celebrate we will for life is short but sweet for certain."--Dave Matthews Band

Image:  Tiny Showcase

Pitter Pat

It could be the emminent end to the World Cup.  Possibly the weather.  Perhaps the lack of retail therapy in my life.  Whatever it is, my mood has reached an unfortunate point of sour this week.  While I've got a bit to go before meeting my happy medium, an ol' favorite came on my shuffle this morning, Isn't This a Lovely Day by Diana Krall, to start putting the wheels in motion.  With a couple more lattes, and maybe a few sneak listens to this song during the day, hopefully I'll be back on track to take me into the weekend.

Image from Trouvais

Roadtrippin'

It's going to be another case of the "Fridays."  Similar to the "Mondays,"  the "Fridays" are when you must sit through a day of work, but you're too excited for your pending weekend plans to be still.  This weekend I'm off to Kansas City to take in the I-70 interleague rivalry of my hometown Cardinals and the Royals.  Should be a great weekend filled with family, friends, and brats & beers.  Hope you enjoy the weekend, can beat the heat, and go Team USA!

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TS3

The much anticipated Toy Story 3 opens in theaters today, and grown adults everywhere can hardly contain their excitement.  It should contain just as many laughs as its two predecessors.  Let's be serious, they're talking toys.  What's not funny about that?  Above is one of mine and my sister Lauren's favorite Toy Story clips, featuring a cameo appearance from The Claw.  And just like the toy alien, I too am going on to a better place...the weekend!

Catch some sun (as long as you have sunscreen) and be kind to your Dads (maybe even take them to TS3)!

Lake Bound

After a long awaited three months, I'm finally headed to the Lake this weekend!  I'll be joining some of my dear college pals where we'll be reliving our sorority house days by packing into a nice rental house on the lake.  All too exctied for a weekend filled with dock laying, glasses of wine, and belly laughs .  Let's hope that mean rain stays far away...

Image credit via The City Sage

Celebrating a Quarter of Fabulous

It looks like I'll have to chalk this week up as an "off" one.  The festivities of wedding weekend (I will eventually post on that) took quite the gust out of me.  I found the majority of physical activity was put into pumping Ibuprofen into my immune system.  Fortunately, as this new weekend very quickly approaches, I'm ready to get back at it.  It's a very good thing too since Memorial Day weekend kicks off with my cousin Steph's 25th Birthday celebration.  For someone so fabulous, it would only be too appropriate to start the evening off by seeing Sex and the City 2 at the Moolah Theatre, complete with lounge seating and cocktails.  While a couple scratches are still left lingering in my throat, I have every bit of confidence that I'll make a complete recovery by 6:00 tomorrow evening.  After all, when one is blessed with such great company, she must always play amongst friends.

And the Crowd Went Wild...

Exactly 112 days after Graduation, 111 days since our last night on the town together, and 109 days since our last "goodbyes," 15 friends were reunited in St. Louis to celebrate one beloved tradition. The tailgate: a spinoff of the happy hour mainly used for college and professional athletic events. It is, however, a much more meaningful form of cocktail engagement because of its strong promotion of camaraderie. In no other social drinking situation is the sharing of food, beverages, high fives, and chanting more prevalent. What this most importantly amounts to though, is a lot of great memories and folklore.

While we all may have dispersed to various parts of the country, trading in our backpacks for leather brief cases, the basic philosophy and principles of the tailgate have not been lost on any of us. So with the 2009 Mizzou football season set to kickoff in St. Louis over Labor Day weekend, I found myself in the most fortunate of positions to be reunited with some of my personal favorite legends of game days past. The one thing we all just had to remember was that with a morning of tailgating, a 2:40 kickoff, and a city full of late night establishments, the day was to be a marathon. Not a sprint. Well needless to say, we all came down with short-term memory loss not long after that reminder.

The reemergence of such fan favorites as the "beer bong" and "Natty Lite" really brought that ol' college spirit out in everyone and kicked the day off in the right direction. By the time we actually made it Downtown for the real tailgating, St. Louis could not have been prepared for such moves as "Hot Legs" and the "Irish Jig." With the buddy system put in full force though, a good laugh lurked in every turn, and sometimes fall, that was made. I guess you could say we took the city by storm...as well as some bratwursts and potted indoor floral arrangements. But when the last unslurred word was spoken, and we knew it was time to head home, we were still able to maintain enough responsibility to hail a couple of vcabs. [A vcab, for those unsure, is a van cab. Well at least we think this was what one friend meant when telling me so via text at an unspecified late night hour.] So after another great journey we all made it home safely-that is to say until someone met up with the thermostat and jeopardized our chances of avoiding hypothermia.

While we may not be in college anymore, we did ensure that all principles and standards of the tailgate were still met. The most important one actually showing through more than ever: camaraderie. The amount of food, drinks, high fives and laughs shared in those 15 hours were insurmountable. If ever we needed a reminder that the good times would never really end, this weekend was it. Yes, it has been 109 days since our last goodbyes as students in Columbia, but not a day was lost on any of us. Because the thing about a "goodbye" is that it's not an affirmative end, but a lead way into the next "hello."

*There actually was a game played Sept. 5th as well and the good guys won. Mizzou beat the Fighting Illini 37-9.