Day 1 and counting

I signed us up for a new gym. It has a 20M lap pool (with very narrow lanes) and lots and lots of cardio equipment and classes and everything a gym rat wants. Tony loved this place b/c he feels that it has a modern feel to it. The only downfall is that I realized it will cost me $100 a month in CTA fees if I go 5x a week by bus/el. Hmm, will have to figure that out.

On my first day, I trekked to the bus, transfered to the El, and made it to the gym rather quickly. Yay me. I found an elliptical close to a mirror (for my profile view, not forward facing) which I like b/c it helps me correct my tendency to slouch. I found GH and began moving and shaking. I am always a complete gawker... I am always checking out what people are wearing, what their hair looks like, what music device they have, what headphones they use, what technique they use, if they use a towel to wipe their brow, what kind of shoes they are wearing, how they tie their shoes, what kind of fitness level I think they are, what they're paying attention to, etc., etc., etc. There were 5 other women on the cardio floor while I was there. Each one of them could not have been more than a buck twenty five. This was very annoying. And then there were like a dozen or so guys there all on cardio equipment. There was the Tony guy - a guy who make a TON of noise while working out. Loud, excessive exhaling, grunting and other noises that make it seem like he's doing more than he actually is. There was the I-hate-this guy - the guy who HATES cardio, the gym, the fact that he is overweight and is just barely making it all happen (I'm probably most like this guy). There was the I-am-a-bad-ass guy. This guy is so chiseled, he quickly reminds me of Mark Wahlberg (body, not face) and how much I like MW with no shirt on. And the last guy is the I'm-trying-to-look-like-a-fitness-expert guy. This guy has obvious technique issues but swears he is doing this right and will lean over and correct YOUR technique. I hope this guy falls off his treadmill.

On another note, I signed up for some personal training to get started. I was thinking about what my goals are with my trainer. I specifically asked for someone who has a swimming background. I haven't really ever had my swimming assessed, so I'm excited to hear that she teaches the Total Immersion method. I got into this shortly before leaving CA, so am excited to get tweaked. I also want to do a dang 5k. I really want to do the Wrigley 5k, but it's April 25th and I have to spend the first week and a half of April in Plano, so no can do. This trainer is going to be very challenged in getting me to run. It's always been a goal of mine to nail down the running thing, but I have all kinds of fears and tears about the process. I think Tony, Sean, Mary and Joe have all heard me complain abuot my issues and ailments and they've kinda given up on me (not that I blame them) when it comes to this endeavor. Last, but not least, I need to drop at minimum 40 lbs by August (am also willing to translate this into a loss of at least 2 dress sizes). I'm going to use DCI weekend as my big goal weekend just because.

On another note, I was thinking about how Yukon is going to turn 6 on April 8th (yes, the same day as our wedding anniversary). I can hardly believe that we have had him that long. This also means that Bumble will turn 5 in May. Bumble and I need to focus on dropping 9-10 lbs off of him again. He came in at 60 lbs at his last appointment in February. It made me feel very ugly inside b/c it was a reminder that I'm not keeping him active enough. Naturally, Yukon is his normal perfect 5-0. Bumble and I find this irritating.

I had a very fun visit with Karen Fitting last week. I was so excited to see her, show her a bit around Chicago and have her over to our house. She is the easiest person to be around and I find her to be very uplifting. I am hoping that she'll come back with her husband, Drew, very soon.

Stay tuned for future days at the gym. I'm sure you're just on the edge of your seats in anticipation. I'm off to Best Buy b/c of course I need an accessory for the gym... would like an iPod thingie for my arm.

The turn of a decade

I didn't realize that with 2010 looming just days away, we had 10 years under our belt since 2000. For those of you that really know me, I know that's not surprising to you. I have always been god awful at math. Other numbers to consider: I'm in the middle of my 14th season with the ice rink. Yukon turned 5 this year. Bumble turned 4 this year and it's our 4th winter in Chicago. We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary this year. It's our 2nd time celebrating Christmas in Chicago and Tony celebrated a 2nd DCI World Championship with the Blue Devils. Hmm. Have to think about what happened for the first time ever this last year...

I wrote our annual holiday letter and finally ordered the photo cards today, so will hopefully get these out the door in the next week. I have completely given up trying to get them out in December... I have so many reasons that I just can't get it done. I do love getting everyone else's in December though. Tony was very surprised that I could capture a significant something worth mentioning for every month of last year. Some things required me going back in my calendar while other things were unforgettable.

So, it's that time of year when we make resolutions. I used to make them, never achieve them and then pretend I never had them to begin with. Then, I decided not to have any since I didn't believe that I would ever reach them. But what about now? Now, they are more like things that I hope to do and want to make time to do, but they are not things that I'm going to kill myself to do. This year, I really want to get back into crafts. I literally have thousands of dollars worth of scrapbook, stamping and other craft supplies. I've taken a couple years off from picture taking and I want to get back to it. Both of my Mom's have lots of pictures that need properly archived and captioned, so I think I should focus on doing this with them. I also really want to buy a sewing machine and learn to sew. I have very rough skills at this, but I think my good friend Susan, has really inspired me to make some real efforts to get into this. I'd like to start off small and just make some tablecloths, placemats and cloth napkins. I only want to do this if I can tackle the scrapbooking and stamping.

The other thing that I really want to focus on is reading. My sister-in-law bought me Twilight last year and loaned me the rest of the series and I just can't get into it. I can't believe that it's this hard for me to get into. I have a huge stack of books that I want to conquer and I'd also like to find a REAL book club. Not one where everyone doesn't read the book, gets drunk on wine and then talks crap about their significant other... one where everyone reads the books and really challenges one another to discuss. Since I think that I'm going to be traveling less, I am hoping to try the Chicago Lakeshore Alumnae Book Club - it looks like they are going to try to get it going again.

I'm looking forward to a short work week. I want to enjoy the Christmas decorations while I can and before we have to do the unpleasant process of putting it all away. I really love how our tree turned out this year :-)

Ahh chick flicks...

I am normally horrible at admitting that a movie is a chick flick. Tonight's pick was an A+ chick flick, as noted by the couple sitting next to Suzanne this evening...

Setting - the end of the movie
Chick says - "See it wasn't that bad"
Dude says - "I just want to kill myself right now"

I don't know much about Julia Child except that she's quite tall, is known for french cooking and has that unmistakable voice. If the movie depiction of her is correct, she was really a remarkably driven woman who had a good sense of life. She was a roll with the punches kinda gal. Her husband adored her and I always fall victim to that story.

It made me think about my own love of cooking. My Mom is shocked that I can cook as well as I do and even more shocked that I actually like it. We were an average, middle-class, meat-and-potatoes kind of family, but I always considered my Mom a wonderful cook. She always made things we liked and to this day, I dream of being that kind of cook for my family. My favorite things were porcupine meatballs (a classic Betty Crocker recipe) and my Mom's handmade egg rolls with homemade bbq sauce.

I often give my Mom a lot of jabs b/c I consider her a cheater now... she doesn't do as much from scratch, eats a lot more frozen foods and can be completely content with a sandwich on a paper plate. That is simply not how she raised me though. We always had full place settings at the dinner table and we ate together. Napkins were folded under forks on the left side of the plate, glasses were placed on the upper right corner of the place setting above the knife and we ALWAYS had place mats. I didn't love it when I was younger - I was the table setter and dish dryer - but I love it now. It just seems proper and relaxing to sit down to dinner that way.

Tony and I love watching Food Network now, looking at cookbooks and cooking magazines and wandering stores like Sur La Table and Williams-Sonoma. We appreciate kitchen gadgets that are functional and have done quite a good job at using everything that we have. It was do-or-die on using the immersion blender recently - we got it as a wedding gift but I only recently opened it for the first time. I loved every second of it! I love making soups (just made a chicken curry and vegetable udon for the first time - so good) and I love making side dishes like salads. My all time favorite is a Martha Stewart macaroni and potato salad. More than cooking, I love baking! Baking is all about the yummy. This week, stay tuned for lemon pudding cake.

I'm not sure what kind of cook I will be for my kids, but I hope to expose them to lots of foods and to teach them that it's okay to hate foods, as long as you try them.

http://www.julieandjulia.com/

Friday @ 18:00

I have discovered that Friday at 18:00 is really my favorite time of week. There is so much potential at that moment. For this post, I have to acknowledge that I am finally going to catch up and import my old blog here, so that Christie Lynn has something to read. She certainly deserves it for indulging me and Lil Julie by posting her first pregnancy pic! You look fab Christie Lynn!

I'm mostly very excited b/c Tony is coming home for a few days tomorrow. We're going to jet off to NYC for a mini-vacation where we'll see West Side Story, hopefully make ourselves into Muppets and indulge in our favoritest mac-n-cheese from Virgil's (44th and Broadway for fans). He surely needs a break from being in the hottest places on the planet all summer - Central Valley, Vegas and Dallas in particular. Luckily he's coming home to sunny and 70 in Chicago. I guess I should put all of his shows back on the DVR.

In the meantime while Tony has been gone on tour with drum corps, I have found myself completely addicted to Twitter, finding concerts to go see and enjoying the summer with the boys. I get the feeling that since June and July have been so mild, Mother Nature is going to release her wrath and make August and September miserable (a.k.a. hot AND humid). My other theory is that Mother Nature is rewarding us for making this past winter so f*ing miserable.

Since the start of his new show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, I am also completely addicted to Jimmy Fallon and the Roots. I was able to find tickets to see him at The Vic in mid-June with SGumin. His stand-up is very funny, although he's a bit of a tweaker. He kept rubbing his eyes and it was driving me crazy. I send a weekly tweet to Jimmy and Questo requesting that they bring Raul Midon on the show. Now, besides wanting to have my question read on Mail Time on PTI, I really want Jimmy and/or Questo to tweet me back. I think that this obsessive behavior comes from my friend Susan in Tampa.

I'm going to try and get some sleep, which has been very difficult this week for some reason. I also need to decide if I'm going to read Harry Potter (I've been stuck on book 5 for 2 years) or finally get involved in Twilight. Either way, both books are a pain in the ass to travel with.

Please Remove

Can someone please remove this image from my head? STAT! I just want it and need it to be overwith - stricken from my brain. I don't want to think about how it feels or how it looks. I just want to break up and not look back.

Saturday

I get to the weekend and I forget about all of the things from earlier in the week. Maybe that's a good thing!

I went to my first Opening Day baseball game this past week. Despite rain - lots of it - and 40 degree weather, Sean and I enjoyed most of the game from a rooftop club and then we went into the stadium for the last 3 innings. We barely made it through those 3 innings because of the cold, although it was still warmer than the Winter Classic. The new Captain Morgan bar that is connected to the stadium on the Sheffield and Addison side is U-G-L-Y. Regardless, the Cubs won the game and made it all worth it.

I was also thrilled to find out that Duran Duran is playing at the Saratoga Mtn. Winery this July. I am SO going. Tony and I love that venue. I'm going to Jennifer Hudson and Robin Thicke next weekend with Mona. Also have tickets to No Doubt in Chicago, the weekend after Duran Duran. We're going to see Pat Benatar in August. I can't wait to see her hotty guitar playing husband. I really want to go see Jimmy Fallon and the Roots - need to work on that.

In other music, I saw the Susan Boyle audition from Britain's Got Talent. It brought me to tears. She has an amazing voice, I'm a huge Les Miz fan and I was just touched by her story. If you live in a bubble and haven't seen it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

I loved seeing Simon Cowell's face light up with genuine awe as he listened. And it's another lesson to all of us - never judge a book by it's cover. As of today, 26M people have viewed the video. I hope that Susan has much success and that her dream to become a professional singer is achieved.

March travels

I went to Cincinnati and NYC this past week for work. I squeezed in some peronal time with a visit with Barry & Trish in Cinci and my first visit to Mesa Grill in NYC. It is ALWAYS so fun to see Barry & Trish and they are one of the few things that I look forward to on my East Coast travels.

Mesa Grill. 102 5th Avenue in the cute neighborhood of Gramercy. I really enjoyed this restaurant. The room is gorgeous, but comfortable. I decided to break out of my shell and try something new - I wanted something flavorful and exciting so that I would have a good report back to Tony. We started with yellow and blue cornbread muffins. I don't know what made them so fantastic - but they were FANtastic. Buttery, slight crisp on the oustide and tender on the inside. I had the baby romaine salad - baby romaine is so much better than hearts of romaine. I really dislike the spine of romaine. The chorizo was finely chopped and cooked very crisp - the texture of crispy bacon. I love cojia cheese, so everything in this was so good. For dinner, I ordered the cornmeal crusted chile relleno with a side of roasted corn w/ smoked chiles, cojita cheese and lime. My dinner partner ordered the mashed potatoes with cilantro pesto and I tried some - both were excellent. The chile relleno was very flavorful - stuffed with a perfectly melty, oozy cheese, but I have to admit, it was too spicy for me. I could tell my stomach would rebel if I ate it all. Tony would for sure love this dish. The restaurant is known for their pork tenderloin, so I will be back in April to let you know how it tastes. Either way, 5 Zino's for Mesa Grill. Put it on your list and be sure to check it out if you're visiting. Lots of shopping in this neighborhood if you head down early.

Jimmy Fallon. I have never been that into Late Night talk shows. Paul took me to say David Letterman in person and it was very cool, but that was my first interest in any late night talk shows. My parent's didn't watch them, so I didn't know anyting about Johnny Carson or anything like that. Now that I'm older... much older... I love watching late night TV. My favorite by far is Craig Fergsuon (whom we saw in person last weekend in Hammond, IN at the Horseshoe Casino). I was excited to see Jimmy Fallon take over the Late Night b/c it was the first time that I was really going to be able to see someone from the beginning. Week 1 was funny - he was nervous, but honest and I love his little quirkiness. He had some great guests - JT singing as Michael McDonald doing a Bud Light Lime commercial was freaking hilarious, Drew Barrymore who was excited by the Lick it for 10 skit and I have to say, seeing The Roots every night is awesome. Does Quest Love always wear a pic in is his fro? Curious about that. I have many high hopes for Jimmy and I encourage you to check him out. It's the perfect thing to Tivo and just watch when there's guests that you like. And if you forget to record it, do what Berma does, and watch it online (although you don't have to do it at work like Berma does). If you're an Oprah fan, Jimmy Skyped in on today's Friday's Live and was so adorable. He said that he's a huge Facebook fan and updates his status at least twice a day.

To round out my week, I was highly disappointed when I skipped a chance to upgrade on my way home from NYC and discovered Mark Consuelos sitting in seat 3B on my flight. He's very cute :-)

Finally, I was thinking about all of my Alpha Phi sisters today. I know that many went to honor the life of Christie Williams, a very young Phi who passed away from Addison's Disease early last week. Christie was a member when I was very involved with HCB and her parent's both served on the board with me. It's a moment when we all take a step back and remember to be thankful for every moment that we have with one another. My heart and thoughts are with everyone. *AOE*