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Wow, it was actually semi-productive this month! I am way ahead of where I was this time last year with my list...and it was probably one of the most list-worthy months I've had yet! Let's hope this trend continues!
1. Super Secret Mission #1 (let's just say this involves getting a certain someone I have a huge crush on to fall in love with me...you probably know who it is...) ;-) (5)
He's not mine...yet...but if sources are correct I think I was kind of near his apartment the other day...shut up...I'm not a stalker...I swear!
4. Get a chocolate manicure (4)
Mmmmm, looks, smells, and tastes yummy!
10. Get my hair cut more than once (1)
I tend to have this habit of never getting a hair cut. I got it cut once already though this week!
36. Retag and categorize all old blog entries (2)
I went through round one, but didn't get done with round 2 yet to clean it up...I'll finish that soon
42. See David Sedaris (2)
I saw him speak. He was awesome until he asked me if I was in high school.
54. Go to a coffee shop at least twice a month to write (5)
So, since I didn't want to lose an easy 5 points in the first month I brazed the near-blizzrd weather tonight to write for a bit. Two times this month!
55. Find the naughty lion book (3)
I found it!!!!
57. Get a new point and shoot (1)
Because Val doesn't have enough cameras in her life...
65. watch the final season of the OC (1)
I watched all 16 episodes in 2 sittings. And cried the entire time.
106. Go to 10 pin (1)
I finally made it there!
117. Get flowers from a boy (1 point if I get flowers from a boy who is not Josh)
Does a virtual flower count? I think it does! At least kind of. One virtual flower from a extra special someone=half a point!!!
139. Learn to snowboard (2)
Not crossing it off because I don't think I can say I learned. But I went. And I plan to go again. Soon.
147. Try three different wine bars (0.5)
Went to Volo, there's one!!!
148. Coffee shops that Time Out recommended in their coffee issue (half point each)
v. Kristoffer's Café and Bakery
They had yummy coffee. And a urinal in the bathroom.
January total: 13
Total Points: 13
It's funny when three people all have the same memory and it turns out to be wrong.
For probably twenty now I've been searching for a book. It was one of those things that was published well before I was born and was read to my two sisters and finally to me. I had a vague idea that it was a Golden Book (because, really, what children's book wasn't a Golden Book?) I had a vague recollection of what the child in the book looked like. I remembered one line "Ouch, you naughty lion. You mustn't bite."
I don't know why this line stuck with me my whole life. But I for some reason always wanted to find this book again. I'd flip through children's books at used book stores and search online for the line but could never ever find it.
About a month or so ago I searched online again for the phrase and this time came up with two websites. One was mine because I had mentioned this once before. The other was an answer man website where he helps people find books. Someone else was looking for this exact same phrase. The suggestion he gave was, of course, wrong. The book was too new and too many pages. I could tell just by looking at the cover. A few days later I found out who it was who was searching for the phrase: my sister Jen.
Turns out that all three of us, at one point or another, had been searching for this book. So I made it my mission to find it. Selfishly I think I just wanted to be the hero, the smart one, the one who could finally figure out this mystery.
While searching through titles and pictures of Golden Books, I started thinking that it could be one of these prayer books I kept seeing. The girl on the cover looked awfully familiar. But it couldn't be a prayer book because a) I was never in any way religious and b) why would a prayer book contain a girl with a stuffed lion in her crib? But it got me thinking that maybe that was the clue, maybe whoever drew those prayers also drew my stuffed lion.
So I found the illustrators name and started looking up her books and then started googling her name with descriptive phrases and parts on my line until I found one mention of the line, slightly different then the way I remembered it, with a book title.
I went to Alibris and ordered it (which, by the way, is the most awesome site ever for any book you can ever remember having). I chose to order the $15 copy that was torn up a bit over the $40 one in better condition.
A few days later it arrived and I paged through it until I came to the page. And there was my line, only slightly different than I remembered it. And there was that little girl with a little lion in her little crib.
"Ouch! Naughty Lion, you mustn't bite!
What caught me the most about it was that all three of us had been placing an extra "you" between "ouch" and "naughty" that apparently never appeared in that book.
Strange.
But now I can at least stop searching.
Story of the night.
We get out of the cab at whatever o'clock in the morning and walk into the lobby of Emily's apartment. "Wait..." she says..."where's my phone???" She checks her pockets. Not there. She checks her purse. Not there. She dumps the contents of her purse on the floor to riffle through them and it is nowhere to be found. At this point she's really frantic about losing it in the cab.
Heather decides that maybe we should try calling the phone and maybe the cab driver will hear it and answer. She's already holding her phone so she goes to dial. "Wait..." Heather says..."this isn't my phone!"
Yeah, so Heather was holding Emily's phone the whole time...And then we all died laughing because it was just too awesomely funny.
***
Before this hilarity was obviously a night of good times. We (Heather, Josh, and I) met up at Emily's, sat around watching the beginning of 10 Things I Hate About You (ahhh, Heath Ledger...) and then finally got off our asses and headed to dinner at Wakamono. I got the soft shell crab maki and a salmon nigiri. Yum. I went to the bathroom there, which apparently is the unmarked door next to the kitchen. I looked around forever for the soap which, apparently, is in the cast iron tea pot.
After dinner we again got kind of lazy again and ended up chilling with a bottle of wine and Heather and I made everyone watch Once Bitten. I love the movie and Heather loved it, and it was her birthday (kind of) so she had the power. Of course, no one else liked it. And Josh fell asleep :-( Once he woke up he insisted that it was the worst movie ever, so he went to IMDB to look up its rating and find which sucky movies had higher ratings. You will be happy to hear that The Gruesome Twosome has a higher rating :-)
After the movie we finally decided to get off our asses and head to the bars. We first hit up Moxie for their $5 martinis. Josh objected to any bar that turned Nirvana into a techno song. I objected to the fact that my melon martini did not come in a martini glass.
Later we headed across the street to the Ivy where they had much better music. Any bar that plays Like a Prayer AND Living on a Prayer (2 of the best songs ever written) is AOK in my book.
After a couple more drinks and me thinking my purse was stolen...twice (it kept falling off the damn chair and blending in with the floor), and Heather calling everyone (or making me call everyone else) to try to get them to come out (even though you couldn't hear a damn thing on the other end) we eventually called it a night...which then resulted in the missing cell phone hilarity. And then resulting in Heather thinking she lost her phone only to realize that she left it in Emily's boot. Then we all went to sleep.
Em had to leave super early, so she was gone when the rest of us woke up.We took over her apartment, got some Starbucks, watched the end of Ten Things I Hate About You (ahhh, Heath Ledger...) and then said our goodbyes. (of course, not before JOSH thinks he lost HIS cell phone...)
Happy Birthday Heather! Hope 25 treats you well :-)
PICTURES HERE!
p.s. did I mention that all these pics were taken with my shiny new baby?
1. MK threw a little wine tasting shindig tonight. I totally rocked the blind tasting.
Matt didn't do so well because he mistook the white riesling for the red pinot noir...I swear no one changed his answers while he wasn't watching...
It was fun because I don't think I've been to wine styles in over a year. The last time I can remember was the champagne tasting two new years ago. :-( I need to be invited back more...
2. I woke up the other day covered in bruises and scrapes. It was totally out of the blue and I have no idea where any of them came from.
3. This amused me on the train today way more than it should have:
1. Yesterday was apparently national pie day. Josh and I headed to Bakers Square to celebrate. They were giving away free slices of pie, but they ran out of basically any cream pie. I got blueberry. Mmmmm. There was a guy there returning a pie. He bought a week ago and he said that it tasted rancid. He had kept it in his car for a week and then ate it...
2. I bought a milk this morning but it turned out to be frozen.
3. Every time I order from J Crew the next day I get an email announcing free shipping. Either I always should hold off just one more day, or they do it on purpose.
4. You really shouldn't take a shower and than 10 minutes later go out into negative degree weather. Your hair just turns into a bunch of icicles.
5. When did it become a trend to wear giant furry Russian hats?
6. I am going to scream. Or cry. Or both :'(
7. It's a real Coke day.
8. I bought some shoes yesterday because the store was having a promotion where overnight shipping (which usually costs a LOT) cost negative $5. Yes, negative. They paid me $5 to ship the package overnight.
9. When someone starts a game of scrabble with an 80 point word using all of their tiles, you know you are in trouble. Until a few moves later when they haven't had any vowels and you land a triple word score with a z on a double letter :-)
10. I have nother else to say, but I thought ten was a nice, even number.
1. When I was growing up I always thought I shared a birthday with Martin Luther King because we would often be off on my birthday. It was only much later in life when I found out what the term "observed" meant.
2. I now have three dresses to wear to the wedding next weekend and can't decide which one to wear. Or whether I want to wear any of them :-(
3. The last thing Val needs to learn: My boss wants me to take classes in and learn digital video production. Stay tuned for less photos and more video! hehehe.
4. I am right now watching a movie right now that is a spoof of one of my fav HG Lewis movies. A SPOOF of HG LEWIS. That's the most ironic thing ever. Yes, Napoleon?
Yesterday I turned 22 (+5). Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate with me!!! It was definitely a day filled with the three things a woman wants most: chocolate, wine, and naked men!!!
1. Chocolate
In the afternoon Nadia and I met at Chocolate for Your Body. Nad got a regular mani and I splurged on a "chocolate signature". It's my party, I can splurge if I want to!
The manicure involved a cocoa scrub that made my hands nice and soft (and tasty I can assume), truffles (to eat, not for my hands), and coating my hands with a layer of chocolate.
After getting our nails all purdy Nad and I headed next door to Kristoffer's Café and Bakery
for some chocolate flan and coffee. It was a cute place but, let me tell you, I have never before peed in a bathroom that had a urinal in it. Ew.
2. wine
After gussying up our nails and caffinating ourselves, Nad and headed over to Jen's place. In the time it took to walk from the car to her place, walk down the wrong pathway and get locked in the alley, I seriously felt like my hands were going to fall off. Luckily we finally found the way in to thaw off. Then Josh called and apparently the bar lost my reservation for 15. Fuck. Isla came and drove us to the bar and they were working on setting up our table. Thankfully they were still able to accommodate us.
The restaurant we went to was Volo Restaurant and Wine Bar and it was delicious. We had good wine, good food, good friends...
I tried some marrow bones and will never ever eat them again. Honestly, I really think all those chefs pretend they like such things to be all pretentious. But how can anyone like that crap? It had the texture of sandy snot and tasted horrible. On a better note the steak tartar was DEVINE and the duck confit was DEVINE. Josh and I also shared some Seared Yellowtail Tataki, but we still haven't decided what kind of citrus was pickled.
15 people showed up, which was totally awesome. Sarah came and, despite the fact that she hardly knows me, she completely gets me because she gave me a pink sparkly dragonfly and a Victoria's Secret gift card (pink, dragonflies, and VS are three of my very favorite things). Chelsa from work came and brought a friend. Rob and Chris and Aimee showed up despite having to be at a party in Milwaukee later that night. Meredith and Isla and Jen and Alina and Jenny and Adam and Nadia and Josh came too!!! Jen gave me a cute Smurfette tee and a pink candleholder. And Nadia gave me what she described as a "lame" present of a candleholder. It totally wasn't lame! But she said it was my fake present because my real one, a pink Rabbit wine opener, didn't arrive yet...In talking about this some people overheard pink rabbit and assumed it was something else...
Josh showed me what he really thinks of me by getting me a bottle of Bitch wine.
The label is PINK and, well, I am a bitch, so it's only appropriate.
Honestly I did not expect anything from anyone, I was just happy people came out during the zero degree weather!!!
My wine was yummy too. I was bad and ordered whites then proceeded to order a lot of red meat. But ohwellz. I had a lovely white wine flight. Then I had a Gewurtztraminer. Later I also had a yummy muscado d'asti.
They brought me a yummyyummy flourless chocolate cake with mint ice cream and everyone sang and I got to make a wish on my candle, which is always my favorite part, because I wish on just about everything you can wish on.
3. naked men
After the wine bar I bid adieu to a few of my female friends and all of the few guys left and the remaining chicas headed to Annoyance Theatre. We hung out at the bar there and played the game of Memory that I found on the shelf. Did I ever mention how much I suck at Memory? Ask me exactly what a certain person said to me at a certain time and I can probably repeat our conversation word for word. Ask me to remember where the little black boy is and I go blank.
After a couple rousing rounds we headed into the theatre for SKINPROV and the perfect night of entertainment to get your mind off of the fact that your best guy friends all ditched you for another party and none of them even bothered to call to wish you a happy birthday. But who cares about that when you've got drinks and half-naked men!!!
We beat the rest of the crowd into the theatre for prime first row seatage. The show was basically a bunch of men improving scenes and taking off all their clothes. They ended the first scene by all taking off their shirts. A couple short scenes later they paired up for small scenes that each ended with "Let's take off our pants." By the end of the show (and some taking off multiple pairs of underwear) we were left with g-stringed and jock-strapped men and a whole lotta nakedmanass.
After the show we headed back out to the annoyance bar to talk with the guys, still walking around shirtless. They got me a couple of shots and I ended up having both a buttery nipple and a pussy shot on them. The one naked man told us that he'd sucked more cock than anyone else there...and then introduced us to his lovely girlfriend.
We stuck around until they closed, drank some drinks, chatted up the bartenders, then headed off to Uptown Lounge...mostly because it was just around the corner and fucking freezing.
The bar definitely wasn't my cup of tea. Mostly because I hate talking to people I have absolutely no interest in. And because every three minutes the waitress came up and asked us if we needed anything else. We stayed out till about 4:30, well past the text message the guys sent to say their party was over.
All in all my party was totally awesome and I am so happy that everyone came who did! I have tons of amazing friends and I am glad they came out to share my night of turning 22+5!!!
INCRIMINATING PICTURES HERE!
Today was our departments Christmas party. Yes, yes, I know that Christmas was a while gone by now, but we're busy people damnit.
So a bit after noon we took the rest of the day off and headed to Quartino for lunch. We had three pizzas (I ate two: one topped with bunches of fresh spinach and one with a slab of spicy but yummy sausage), Italian "sliders" (a small sammich of fresh mozzarella (made in house) and tomato), nice pillowy gnocchi and green beans, and a sulumi platter of Duck Prosciutto, Bresaola, olives, artichokes, cheeses, and a few spreads. Yumyum.
When they brought out the dessert menu I was told that since we were also celebrating my birthday that I had to order dessert so I got some yummy profiteroles stuffed with chocolate sauce and vanilla gelati. When they delivered it everyone sang Happy Birthday. But then the restaurant staff brought me a cup of gelati with a candle so they sang again. I passed around the cup but was ordered by the boss to eat my whole dessert myself. Done and done.
After lunch we headed to 10 Pin for some bowling. It's a cool little place (I actually always expected it to be bigger) with a nice (but expensive) martini menu (I had a yummy peachy keen martini) and giant screens of music videos playing above the lanes. The first round sucked. I came in dead last. The second round I had the second highest score. I attribute that to the fact that for that round the scoring screen had turned to PINK. The next round we did a face off of marketing vs. pr with the losing team having to buy Starbucks for the department. Alas, marketing lost :-( I was horrible that round. The next round I did better (because the board was now a different shade of pink), but we still managed to lose again. Ohwellz.
 
  
 
 
1. After about 6 months...
The mutual funds from my financial advisor have made me $177.86
The savings account I set up with HALF AS MUCH MONEY IN IT has made me $251.63 in that time.
:'(
2. Did I mention I gave my financial planner both a kickass car and a kickass tie for Christmas and all I got were 2 promotional pocket calendars?
3. I was frustrated while looking for a pair of jeans today. I kept looking for my size and all I saw was 25, 27, 28...and kept thinking jeez, I'm a 4, why are there only racks for big people? It was only much much later that it snapped that those were waist sizes...when did they start switching to those???
4. Greatest quote in American Idol history:
"Simon didn't go down on me too hard.
Simon goes down on everyone."
All in all so far this season is better than last year. Last year they showed way too many bad people and no good people. It's about 19 good to 29 bad thus far.
1. I wish I was skiing right now :-(
2. Let me rephrase that...I wish I was on a ski trip right now.
3.
faeriewingtips: even I am getting sick of reality tv...you know that means its bad
wetwilli106: good lord
wetwilli106: i'm pretty sure that's a sign of the apocalypse
4. Reality TV:
- American Idol starts tonight...I don't even care. In fact, I'm kind of dreading it. Hell is freezing over. Don't get me wrong though, I'm still goning to watch.
- Jamie Oliver is back on TV but he is no longer naked. :-(
- Celebrity Apprentice sucks because Trump is so full of himself and a hypocrite. And because there are no celebrities on the show.
- Am I the only one who loves the new American Gladiators? My favorite is Titan because he reminds me of a He-Man doll I used to have. I think I like it because they really didn't change too much and kept many of the old challenges. My only complaint is that they seemed to have gotten rid of the life sized hamster ball one. And the contestants really have to realize that it's faster to just fall and climb back up rather than attempt to actually use the hand bike.
- Americas Next Top Model is not on right now. But VH1 keeps showing marathons of it nonstop. I can't stand to watch them. It used to be that when they were on I would be incapable of doing anything else all day. Maybe it's because I've now seen each season ten times or maybe it's because I no longer have homework to avoid.
5. I was really depressed about my birthday for a variety of reasons including I wasn't sure what I wanted to do and I had been hoping to have a party but didn't have anywhere to throw it :-( Then I came up with a plan I was really happy with and was excited :-) Then I found out that a certain someone is having a bachelor party that night and so that meant that a lot of my really close male friends can not come to celebrate. This really bummed me out a lot. After wallowing for a bit (and taking the advise that MK jokingly gave me) I came up with an even better plan that makes the most of the situation and I am again really excited for Saturday!
6. I took 10,328 photos last year. Hood took 11,408. He beat me once again :-(
7. The dry cleaners refused to take my pants.
Josh is back from Korea! Last night we hit up Piece. He was actually the one who brought up wanting to go and brought it up, which was funny because I had only just been there with Emily a few month ago. It was rather crowded when we got there, but luckily it didn't take the full hour wait they said it would. As we waited I ordered a beer called "Festivus" which actually was probably the most pleasant tasting real beer I've had. I'd seen it in Time Out so I decided to get it because it description sounded OK: "he leaves spices out altogether and instead coaxes a maple syrup-like sweetness from this strong, dark, Belgian-style ale with a touch of toasted malts in the finish."
We finally got seated but our table was right near the door/check in area so people walked by and bumped our table all night. We ordered up some yummy guac which was tasty but a bit spicy. I gave Josh his Christmas present which included an iPod sock and Beatles playing cards. He gave me a cute pink pouch thing and a letter opener that doubles as a hair clip, both from Korea. I can't wait to wear it in my hair so when someone asks me to open a letter I can say "Sure!" and whip it out!
I wanted to introduce him to the wonder of the white pizza with mashed potato and bacon topping, and he wanted meat so we also got a red pizza with meatballs and Italian sausage (I shot down his wanting ricotta.) They were both yummyyumyum.
On our way home we drove my Brookfield Restaurant and saw that it is no longer Brookfield Restaurant!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WTF?
At least the cow is still there.
We then stopped for Coldstone because, you know, 2 pizzas and guacamole and beer isn' enough to fill you up... So I ordered a small strawberry shake and then they asked me if i wanted strawberry ice cream with strawberries in it (which was what was on the board). I said yes and they said they wanted to make sure because some customers get mad because they wanted vanilla with strawberries. Who wants vanilla in a strawberry shake???
We called it an early night because Josh doesn't get any sleep.
And then I watched part of Alice in Wonderland on On Demand but passed out a little after ten.
What's the funniest thing ever? When one of the most brilliant minds of modern American humor goes for the cheap joke.
"If pocketbook means vagina, what happens when your pocketbook gets snatched?"
***
Anyways...Last night Em and I went to see "An Intimate Evening with David Sedaris" over at Steppenwolf. I picked up the tickets a few months back because I really wanted to see it. I think I managed to score the very last pair available. I've been taking a buy now ask later approach lately, where if I see something I want to see I just grab the tickets and hope someone will go with me. Luckily Emily took me up on it.
Before the show we stopped off at a little Italian place across the street, Mangia Roma because it was raining outside and this pace was close. I thought it was closed because it was dark and empty and I didn't see any staff but the sign said "open" so we went in. Turns out it was just dark and empty. I ordered a drink they dubbed the "Leaning Tower" which was Bacardi, pina colada, and grenadine. Basically if I sipped from the top it was all rum and if I sipped through the cocktail straw it was all grenadine. There was pina colada mix floating in the middle that you couldn't drink through either technique. The salad was really good with this somewhat spicy basil vinaigrette and they gave us some really buttery focaccia. For dinner I had gnocchi with mushrooms and clams ending my year and a half avoidance on all things clam (see: food poisoning in Florence). It was tasty and spicy, but much more expensive than I had anticipated.
After dinner we crossed the street to the theatre and headed to the upstairs venue. The show itself was awesome. David Sedaris is an amazing writer who is probably one of the few authors who is even better in book on tape form. I've never seen him live before so it was a treat to listen to him perform. He started out with the aforementioned joke because the producer who introduced him had been talking about the next Traffic Series production, the Pocketbook Monologues and had said that "pocketbook" means "vagina." He then went on to read a new piece he's working on for his upcoming book. The story was about an old neighbor he used to have and their relationship.
I was expecting for him to read shorter pieces, but this one was rather long, but it was so incredibly intriguing and interwove together so seemlessly. After reading he explained that it was something that he was still working on for his book. He went into a spiel about how Wal-Mart wanted him to change the cover (a skull with a cigarette in its mouth) because they thought it was depressing. Sedaris said that he thinks Wal-Mart is depressing. I agree. He then said that it looked like a book he would want to read. "Say there are four books in front of me. This one has Jesus on the cover. This one has Jesus on the cover. This one has a pony on the cover. And this one has a smoking skull on the cover. I'm going to pick up the smoking skull." He said that he named his last book "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" as such because his boyfriend Hugh had a dream where someone was reading a book by that title and Sedaris 'wanted to make his dream come true." He really was as interesting and entertaining just talking as he was reading his work.
Then he read parts of a second essay about fashion, parts about glasses and why he would rather just squint ("If something is more than 6 feet away, I'll just deal with it when I get there.") and bow ties (and how he came to realize they were for impotent men).
After that he fielded questions about his writing process and said that when he is stuck for writing he takes out high school text books and does the homework assignments in them.
Since I first heard/read Sedaris I loved his work, and I'm really happy that I got the chance to see him read. It was a great evening. My only complaint was that he really only read one and a half essays. Granted the full one he read was a longer piece (he said to someone later that he normally reads a few shorter pieces, but wanted to do this one since he is working on the book) was amazing, but I wanted more.
The thing I think I liked most about him was when he couldn't hold back laughing at his own humor. It's one of those things you're not supposed to do when performing, so it made him seem more like a regular person. There were a few moments when reading when he just smiled and tried to stop but you could tell he was chuckling at what he wrote.
Emily took off after the show, but I waited around and bought one of his books that I didn't own to get it signed. I'm really surprised at how many people left right afterwards. When I got up to see him the first question he asked me was "Who did you come with?" Hilarity ensued:
David Sedaris: Who did you come with?
Val: A friend of mine, but she had to leave.
David Sedaris: How are you getting home then?
Val: The train.
David Sedaris: Are you in high school?
Val: Ummm....no...I'm....
David Sedaris: How old are you? You look like you're 15.
Val: 27.
David Sedaris: Oh, I guess it's OK that she left you here then.
He then said that when my friend wants me to go see David Copperfield with her and she wants to wait afterwards that I should leave. He then drew a picture of me vomiting because that's what he does on people who ditch him.
A month or so ago I was talking to a friend who said to me, in so many words, "your blog is your passion." This hit me like a ton of bricks because, really, it seemed like something so trivial and so silly and so stupid to be passionate about. I mean, I know I write in my blog a lot and I probably post at least twice as much (if not ten times as much) as some of my friends, but to call it my passion? It seems so insignificant. Especially so when the person who said this is one of the most passionate people I know, who has so much drive and so much ambition and who is probably the one person on Earth who I wish more than anything would see me as someone amazing.
In truth, I don't think it's my blog that is my passion, but instead it's a medium to explore my other passions: writing, photography, web design and, most importantly, trying to live a life that's worthy of writing about. I started writing this thing just over two years ago (my first post was January 7, 2006). I had returned from a trip to California a few weeks earlier to visit Mat.
On this trip, he had told me that he loved me and for once I didn't actually believe it and for once I didn't actually say it back. He didn't say it at the right time and he didn't say it when I actually needed him to and I knew he had only said it because he wanted to sleep with me. I'm not saying I didn't sleep with him then, I'm just saying I knew it was a lie. When I came home he stopped returning my calls and started completely ignoring me. This was nothing strange for him as he'd often go through patches of not talking to me.
He had said something else to me, though, that effected me more than the fake declaration of love. He had said, in so many words, that I had no life and that I had no friends. And I couldn't argue back. I rarely went out, and when I say rarely I mean I sometimes went months without seeing a single friend (and often felt like I had no one at all) and my life basically consisted of watching TV and sleeping.
I wanted to prove to him that I did go out, that I did have friends, that I had a life, that I was an amazing person. I guess I kind of thought that if I could show him that I was social and that people liked being around me and that I did more than just sit around alone in my room, that maybe he'd actually mean it the next time he said he loved me.
So I started my blog. I had had a website for years that had dormantly taken up its space on the web and I'd had a livejournal which I posted in only a handful of times. I combined their forces but still realized that I needed to do something in order to fill the pages. I started being a bit more proactive. I started hanging out, for a while almost daily, with someone who'd I'd been kind of friends with for years but had never really hung out with. I got a passport and decided to accompany another friend to Europe. I more and more started to do the things I always wanted to do but never thought I could. More and more I wanted and needed to fill a pages and pages with stories and pictures of everything I did.
Did my blog become my passion? Maybe. But more so (and this may sound even more trite) it became my lifeline. I don't think I'd do half the stuff I do if I didn't have this tool to broadcast it to the world. It motivates me to want to do more to see more to experience more so that I can have something to write and so that I can take photos to share. I'm afraid that if I didn't have this blog I'd revert back to my old ways and that I'd be as depressed as I was and as sad as I was and as lonely as I was.
I know that I tend to post a lot. A lot. I hope I don't bother too many people with the fact that I blog nonstop about every intricacy of my life and will post anything short of what I had for breakfast each day (well, about 95% of the time that would be nothing anyways.) Truthfully, I now write this blog more for me than for anyone else and that as many people as do actually read this surprises me. This blog gives me the motivation to go out there and be the person I want to be, and compacted into 472 entries, my life over the last two years seems pretty damn amazing to me.
Friday
After work MK picked me up from the train station and we headed back to his place to wait for Em and her friend George. We piled everyone's stuff into the AstroVan and were off to Indianhead Mountain.
After driving about halfway to our UP Michigan destination, the Garmin, our only source of direction, said that the battery was low. We had no reason to think it would go low as it was plugged in the entire time...except now upon checking, the cigarette lighter was not working. So it was off on a slight detour to go on a hunt for tools, including stopping at a couple of gas stations and finally a Wal-Mart. MattyK then took the van apart and fixed the cigarette lighter. Who can do that? We decided that he's Superman and that George is Jimmy Olson.
After fixing the car and finding a Burger King that was open past midnight (seriously, what's with all the damn fast food places being closed?) we were finally back on the road just in time to make it to the cabin after 3am and all cram into the one king sized bed that was left...
Saturday
Saturday we woke up early and got ready to hit the slopes (by hit I mean literally, at least for me). We got introduced to everyone who had been sleeping when we got in, gussied up into warm layers and took off. MK was too lazy to walk down the street to the ski place so he drove us there. I then rented a board and Em and I went out to the training hill. Em had me strap in just one foot and practice moving around like I was on a skateboard. MattyK told me I was doing way better than he did when he tried. Unfortunately, that's about where I peaked.
We went to the training hill area and practiced going down a bit, still with only one foot strapped down. I took a little break and then was going to go back out, but we ran into the boys and they were going in to get a drink/food. I wanted to go with them because since I am so bad and they are so good I never get to see my friends when we go skiing. Hilarity ensued as we tried to find the bar and kept having to go up and down the stairs. Perfectly fine
So we sat around a bit and got food then went back out again. This time Emily and I headed to the actual bunny hill (I hadn't even made it to the bunny hill yet!) and she strapped down both of my feat. Cue nervous breakdown. Seriously, I couldn't stand up because when I tried to stand up I would just start sliding down. And then I'd fall again. And then that would just repeat. And then this is all while massively hyperventilating and crying.
Have I ever mentioned my intense fear of heights? (and the fact that this bunnicula hill went down a bit then was blocked off by a measly looking fence that I could easily fall through and then roll out onto the big scary hill next to it?)
Or my intense fear of not being in control? (I think I know where that one stems from and I won't go into that...)
Or the fact that about four years ago I think I sprained my foot, never got it checked out, and haven't been able to walk without pain since... and that snowboarding puts an awful lot of pressure on your feet? (I know I know, I should probably go to a doctor about that one...)
So yeah, combined all of those things made me an absolute wreck so I hyperventilated to the point where I told Emily that I would just go inside the rest of the day and that she could go join the others to board so wouldn't waste her time. Em left, expecting me to turn in my board and just be done. I wanted to quit but I knew I couldn't do that. I went into the bathroom and locked myself in a stall to cry to the point where my nose ring fell out on the icky floor. :-( I went outside and collected myself, then strapped on the board (by one foot only) and went back to the training area to practice.
I just needed to do it by myself for a while. I did the same thing when I "learned to ski" last year. I'm kind of that way with many things I guess, that I just need to be by myself and kind of practice on my own until I can get it right and figure out what I need to figure out. So I practiced for a while until I felt like I could go back to the bunnicula hill. But then Emily had disappeared, so I waited around until they all finally came back. So I stole her back and we practiced more going down the big scary bunnicula hill...but still with just the one foot strapped down :-(
Soon after we wrapped up for the day. We headed to a gas station to grab alcohol and snacks. The lady who worked there wished me a happy almost birthday. Then she did the oddest thing ever. My total came out to be $8.03. I handed her a credit card, she took three pennies from the give a take a cup and charged my card $8. Weird.
The rest of the afternoon was kind of totally boring. Basically I watched a couple of Emily's friends play a video game. For hours. But everyone else was napping or listening to their iPods and I had absolutely nothing else to do. Then we made pasta. Two pounds of pasta. We had, for some reason, decided that this was a good idea. Two pounds is an aweful lot of pasta. Especially when everyone who would eat it was asleep. Just saying.
So we ate the pasta and then finally everyone was up so we started a game of asshole (which I still don't understand for the life of me) but really just ended up watching Out Cold. Then we watched some Duck Tales (woo-oo). Then we called it a night.
Sunday
Sunday we woke up early, packed up our bags, and headed off to the mountain for some quick skiing/boarding. First though we found out that the trunk to the Astrovan was broken and would not open, so everyone's gear had to be loaded in through the side door (which, btw, is also broken and does not open from the inside).
Basically we went back to the mountain for about an hour and a half, which means, after having to rent a board, that I spent about 40 cents a minute to fall on my ass. Em wanted to actually snowboard, so she went off with the boys, leaving me to my own devices. I practiced on the little training hump for a while, and wanted to go on bunnicula again, but there was seriously not a single other sole there, and I was afraid to go there if I was the only one there. Finally someone else went down, so I decided to go. Basically I practiced all day what Em had been teaching me the day before, which was turning your board perpendicular to stop. But by stop I kind of just knocked myself over a million times, resulting in my legs being immensely bruised today. Of course, I still couldn't bring myself to strap down both of my feet.
Towards the end of it I actually think I was getting better and just riding. I was sick off trying to stop because then I just fell and injured myself so I just rode down the hill more before trying to stop. Of course then the fall was worse because I had more speed...
After a very short time we decided to hit the road back to Chicago. For the most part the ride was fine. Then we were stuck in bumper to bumper for a long while and couldn't get onto 90 when we turned off. I have never seen a highway closed off for that long of a stretch! Turns out the heavy fog caused pretty massive pileups.
Finally we were back on track and on our way. We listened to some CDs then plugged in a laptop to listen to some Eddie Izzard. It made for a pretty funny setup with everything plugged in.
I was all set to caption that picture "fire hazard"...but then it blew a fuse. Did you even know that you could blow a fuse in a car??? The radio didn't work, none of the lights worked, the Garmin and laptops couldn't be plugged in. Silly car. That meant that we actually had to make conversation. What's with that?
We finally made it home with a semi-working car and a semi-working Val.
I guess I can't really cross of "learn to snowboard" from my list as I didn't really learn to do anything. Hopefully Em and I will go somewhere local soon and we can work more on it. I need to work on it a lot because everyone else is so good and it got very lonely out there all by myself when I knew everyone else was up on the non-bunnicula hills having fun. Don't get me wrong, I had tons of fun. It would just be a lot more fun if I could actually go somewhere and hang out with my friends.
More Pictures Here!
On Thursday I was driving to Oak Brook mall to celebrate my favorite holiday - The Victoria's Secret Semi-Annual Sale - when Jen called me to see if I wanted to head to Hollywood Boulevard to see "I Am Legend" for free in fifty minutes. I told her yes, and then hit the gas to try and make it to VS with enough time to get to the theatre. It was the first day and I wanted to get there while there was still some goodness, and since I would be gone all weekend I knew I would miss a lot.
I shopped the sale like a pro. I kind of just grabbed at anything girly and pink and in my size. I didn't really pay attention to what I was taking or what it cost and I ended up with an armload of stuff in seven minutes...but then I got into line and waited for half an hour. I had to call Jen twice from the line to tell her that I thought I might be late and then that I definitely would be very late. I was only behind three other people too...of course it was three people with $200 worth of sale merchandise along with a clerk who I could tell was seasonal.
So I finally got up there and got my hot, sexy, pink (not all pink) loot:
and then paid and got outa there...yeah, I only left the store at 8 for a movie that started at 8 :-(
I made it to the theatre at about 8:20. I don't think I've ever been so late to anything ever in my life. Luckily Jen was able to leave my ticket up at the front and left me a text to tell me where in the theatre her and MK were sitting. So I found them, ordered up a Pepsi and some sweet potato fries then tried to figure out what the hell was happening in the movie. I thought I must have missed a big plot point that explained what was going on, but apparently Matt was confused as well. It was aprett good movie, except I hate all this modern technology crap that makes movies look cartoony and fake. I would much rather see a puppet monster. It was better than the movie where Tom Hanks is all alone, and the dog is more entertaining than the volleyball (spoiler: although admittedly, I did cry when both died...yes I cried when a volleyball died...do you know me at all...shut up...). About halfway through the movie I looked down and realized that I was completely covered in powedered sugar. My damn fries dusted it all over me. ohwell. At least it made me sweet and tasty...um...yeah.
So in conclusion: I am sweet and tasty and have new cute underwear which could make for some fun ;-)
Welcome to 2008!!!
For 2008 I have devised a little game! I made a list of 100 things to do this year. Each item has a point value from 1 to 5. In addition to the regular points, I will also get extra credit bonuses on a 1/2 to 2 point scale for everything I accomplish that was left from 2007. There is a total of 359 (potentially more...) points possible (300 regular + 59 ec) and the goal of the game will be to collect 150 points by the end of the year! The number of points alloted for any given task is in parentheses at the end of each list item. Jeez Val, way to get complicated!
This will be a very fun year! I'm especially looking forward to my NUMBER ONE AND TWO SUPER SECRET MISSIONS of the year ;-) (I guess if you don't know who number one is about you can email me and ask...)
If there is anything you think you'd be interested in doing, leave me a comment or send an email!
So, without any further adieu, I present Val's 100 in 2008:
Top Secret Missions
- Super Secret Mission #1 (let's just say this involves getting a certain someone I have a huge crush on to fall in love with me...you probably know who it is...) ;-) (5)
- Super Secret Mission #2 (no clues for you on this one) (5)
Val Time
- Make out with someone in the back seat of my car :-) (5)
- Get a chocolate manicure (4)
- Suck it up and get my hearing checked (4)
- Get a massage (4)
- Throw a coffee/tea party (3)
- Eyebrow threading (3)
- Order Room service (2)
- Get my hair cut more than once (1)
Travel
- Leave the Country (5)
- Visit Scotty in Seattle (5)
- Coney Island for the Fourth of July (5)
- Vegas (this is on my list every year...) (4)
- Crazy Fun Road Trip of another state (4)
- Do two experimental travels (3)
Local Adventure
- Turkey Testical Festival (it will make great silly america fodder, right?) (4)
- Starved Rock (4)
- Go to two parades (3)
- Adler Planetarium (3)
- The Museum of Holography (3)
- Looptopia (3)
- Chicago Botanic Garden (3)
- Crazy Chicagoland mini golf extravaganza! (3)
- Ride the entire length of the pink line (2)
- The Hancock Observatory (2)
- Go to Chinatown (2)
- Go to the McDonald's museum when it is open (2)
- Lincoln Square Lanes (2)
- Go to Buckingham Fountain at night (2)
- Around the Coyote (2)
Web Stuff
- Officially launch sillyamerica.com (5)
- Brush up on CSS (3)
- Brush up on flash (3)
- Brush up on photoshop (3)
- Retag and categorize all old blog entries (2)
Entertainment
- Go to a comedy club (4)
- Dirty Dancing The Musical (4)
- See two other musicals (3)
- See a non-burlesque cirq de soleil show (3)
- See the nutcracker (2)
- See David Sedaris (2)
Learning
- Take three professional development courses (5)
- Learn photography for real (now I really have a reason to, thanks Jen and Andrew!) (5)
- Learn to drive stick shift (4)
- Learn to swim (4)
- Take a gogo/strip tease/burlesque class (4)
- Take two dance classes (4)
- Learn embroidery (3)
- Take a cooking class (3)
- Learn how to work a grill (2)
- Learn to make good crepes (2)
- learn to make gnocchi (2)
Boring Stuff
- Go to a coffee shop at least twice a month to write (5)
- Find the naughty lion book (3)
- Get the cd rom on my computer fixed (2)
- Get a new point and shoot (1)
- make a list of everyone I know's birthdays (1)
- finally set up direct deposit for my pay checks (1)
TV and Movies
- Music Box Massacre (4)
- Watch all the seasons of 24 (3)
- See 5 Dario Argento films (2)
- Watch 5 Bond movies (2)
- Watch all the Indiana Jones movies (I have honestly never seen a one of them) (2)
- watch the final season of the OC (1)
- watch the final season of Joan of Arcadia (1)
- Watch 3 Fred Astaire movies I have never seen (1)
- Watch Eraserhead (1)
Fun Stuff
- Ride a rollercoaster (5)
- See a psychic (4)
- Go fishing (4)
- Happy New Month! (4)
- Critical Mass (4)
- Play bingo (3)
- Hockey game (3)
- Go camping (3)
- Go to a sing a long movie (3)
- Christmas light hunt (2)
- Attend an oktoberfest celebration (2)
- Make shrinky dinks and suncatchers (1)
- Go to a farmers market (1)
- See nadia's wedding pictures (1 - Half a point extra credit if I see the wedding video too!)
Food
- Moto (5)
- Eat ten things from Time Out's "100 Best things we ate this year" list (5)
- 3-course meal at Marche (4)
- The Tasting Room At Randolph Wine Cellars (4)
- Go somewhere that has a world's largest food of some sort and try to eat it (even if with a friend) (4)
- Find the best milkshake in Chicago (3)
- Evil Olive (3)
- Margie's Candies (3)
- Hopleaf (3)
- Dave and Busters (I have never been!) (3)
- Beat my taste-going record :) (probably not possible as I hope to be in NYC for much of it, but I can try!) (3)
- Superdawg (3)
- Pannenkoeken Cafe (3)
- Elephant and Castle (every time we pass it Emily says we should go) (2)
- Feed chicken shack (2)
- Swedish Bakery (2)
- Eat a Chicago style hot dog (2)
- Olive Oil Tasting (2)
07 Extra Credit
- Move out (2)
- Furnish, unpack all my boxes and decorate (2)
- Find a man (2 points...each ;-) )
- Get a tattoo or at least get mine touched up (0.5 for getting mine touched up, 2 for a new one)
- Audition for American Idol (I crossed this off last year by applying to a reality show, but I get ec this year if I actually audition for AI) (2)
- Go to 10 pin (1)
- See the Christmas trees at the museum of science and industry (0.5)
- Go to the 80s dance club (this one may have closed though) (1)
- Go to a carnival (half point if I ride a ride)
- See a concert (a real concert) (0.5)
- Ride the Navy Pier ferris wheel (0.5)
- Go to at least 2 book readings (0.5)
- Go to MCA (0.5)
- Watch all the 80s cartoons I have on dvd (0.5)
- Go to at least one midnight movie at music box (0.5)
- Take a bubble bath (0.5)
- Get flowers from a boy (1 point if I get flowers from a boy who is not Josh)
- Resurrect Valerie's movie night at least a couple times (1)
- Throw a housewarming party (1)
- Throw a wine and cheese party (1)
- Throw a pajama party (1)
- Throw a game night (1)
- Throw a Christmas party (1)
- Read ten Pulitzer Prize winning books (1)
- Write a good draft of my memoir (2)
- Edit that draft (1)
- Write an article and send it out (1)
- Finish a good essay and send it out (1)
- Finish a good short story and send it out (1)
- Learn Actionscript (0.5)
- Finish my website (so many little things I never finished) (0.5)
- Relearn basic php and mysql (0.5)
- Apply to do freelance editing (0.5)
- Organize my recipe collection (1)
- Organize my photos (0.5)
- Develop a financial plan (0.5)
- Design a freelance website (2)
- Learn to use my ipod and get all my music on it (0.5)
- Learn to snowboard (2)
- Skate along the lake when it is nice out (0.5)
- Go ice skating (0.5)
- Go to a roller skating rink (0.5)
- See Takeru Kobayashi (2)
- Go for a fancy tea (0.5)
- Learn to make good soufflé (0.5)
- Eat duck fat fries at Hot Doug's (0.5)
- Try three different wine bars (0.5)
- Coffee shops that Time Out recommended in their coffee issue (half point each)
- Metropolis
- Charmers Café
- Lakeside Café
- Café Ennui
- Istria Café
- Medici Bakery on 57th
- Third World Café
- Julius Meinl
- Pick Me Up Café
- Uncommon Ground
- Intelligentsia
- Ventrella's Caffe
- The Grind
- Beans & Bagels
- The Perfect Cup
- Swim Café
- Atomix
- Mercury Café
- Muse
- Café Mestizo
- Jumping Bean
- Kristoffer's Café and Bakery
- Marshall McGearty Tobacco Artisans
(though they now have to give up serving coffee, damn city!)
- Filter
(this closed, hopefully it will reopen somewhere...)
- Half & Half
- Caffe de Luca
- Moonshine for mohitos (0.5)
New Year's Eve
I have spent every New Years that I can remember with my best friends from grade school. OK, so maybe that isn't exactly true as I do remember two times where I didn't see them, but basically, it's not a New Year's celebration unless I'm with them. It's also usually not a New Year's unless it's the day before the big day and we still don't know what we're doing. But this year, we all surprised ourselves and managed to plan ahead.
The night started off at Fuego for some Mex food. I met Jen and Adam at their house and we headed off to the restaurant. Due to her work kidnapping her, Nadia was running a bit late but that was OK as it took a while for us to get seated and we were able to get some yummy tableside guac and drinks. I had two strawberry coladas that tasted like milkshakes and were the tastiest drinks ever.
Nad finally arrived with her husband Bryan and Joel in tow.
We exchanged Christmas presents. Nad really liked the Kobayashi trading card and cloud necklace I got her and Jen liked the photo frame and softest sweetest socks I got for her. Jen got me some hot cocoa mix and a Starbucks and movie theater gift cards and Nad got me a cupcake cookbook complete with a cupcake tester and spatula. The first cupcake recipe I turned to contained smoked salmon. Score!
Dinner came. Jenny's tostadas looked like they would feed ten people. I just ordered an appetizer (thankfully because I was pretty full on chips and guac) of shrimp and scallop tamales. They were OK, but the sauce on top was way too hot for my taste and the shrimp were those baby shrimp that come in fried rice that I don't consider to be real.
After dinner we headed down the block for our show. We went to see the Second City Dysfunctional Holiday Review. None of us had seen Second City before so that was kind of awesome, even though it was the touring group (how the first time I go to SC is a touring group when the real group is 12 miles away, I have no clue). The show was funny though! I wished that there was more improv, they only did two improv and the rest were sketches. Artificial insemination! Hopefully I'll be able to catch another show soon!
The show ended with 15 minutes before the big countdown. We grabbed some champagne and noisemakers and awaited the big moment. They brought out Father Time and Baby New Year and counted down. Come midnight I celebrated with my best friends, and toasted some toasts.
Soon after, Jen and Adam called it a night and Nad, Bryan, Joel, and I headed to a house party at one of her coworkers. The party was fun. The woman whose house it was sings with this guitar dude. So they played music and later it turned into karaoke style where we all got to sing. Then Joel told a joke and totally killed the party. Just saying. Bryan nicknamed me "Valgina" and I kind of hate him for it because I kind of like it. And then one of Nad's coworkers asked me "Are you seriously with him?" And then I said way way too loudly "OH GOD NO!!!!" And then the guitar player started hitting on me and told me that he thought I was a foreigner because of my broken English.
And then around 4:30 or so we called it a night and I went back to my car. I was frozen out of the front and so I had to crawl in through the back door, and scrape the hell out of all the ice that had frozen on my car. But alas I finally cleared it out enough and headed back home.
More New Year's Pix here!!!
New Year's Day
I slept entirely too little. I got home at around 6am then woke up at maybe 10am. :-( Then I basically bummed around until it was time to head to JoeJoe's for the Rose Bowl. Quite honestly, I don't think I've ever watched a Rose Bowl game in my life. But the Illini were playing so I was totally psyched.
I, of course, arrived at Joe and Alina's way too early and told Joe that I must not have taken his advice on a New Year's resolution. Then more people came and it was game time!
There was lots of yummy food like brushetta and dips people made. And Joe tried out his new drink pouring machine and it seemed to work.
The Illini...well...sucked. I guess that's enough said on that.
What didn't suck? The phenomenal cake I made! I spent three days on this thing and dyed my hands completely blue in the process. It was a 2-layer cookie cake with blue frosting, an Illini I made of orange rice krispies, and orange roses I made from gum paste. Everyone agreed that it was very sugary.
About three quarters from the game I leaned over to Joe to ask him what USC stood for. I really never had bothered to find that out. He said University of Southern California. It was a toss up for me between Southern California and South Carolina, but I had had no clue.
Whatever team they were they were much hotter than ours. Sorry Illini, it is true. Glen made fun every time the announcer said "John Davis Booty" and Julie was sad that there was no one named "Dick" on our team to tackle him and how it was too bad he wasn't the tight end.
Alas, the Illini lost. No, wait. The Illini were slaughtered. Throw the damn ball once or twice, will ya???
I hope everyone had a very Happy New Year!!! Can't wait to see how this year turns out!
2007 was both the best and worst year you could ever imagine. OK, so definitely not the worst year ever, but at the same time I feel kind of shitty that I didn't suck it up and accomplish the two biggest things on my list. I'm still living with the parents and I'm still single :-( Other than that though I had one of the most amazingly awesome years you could ever imagine! Thank you so much to everyone who helped make my year so sweet! Highlights definitely include Nadia and Bryan's wedding, the Illinois road trip, Warped Tour exhibit at the Rock Hall, the Krystal Square Off, meeting Kurt Halsey (and him recognizing me!), and meeting Pat Bertoletti (and him remembering me!). Oh! And the Kwik-e-Mart...and my birthday...and skiing...and cicadas...and well...I guess a whole lot more!
Despite the fact that this year I also completed my masters in writing, I think i probably can sum up the year best in the 10,328 photos I took...
(Don't worry, I didn't really post here all 10,328 photos. But sorry they go so fast, I had too many!)
For those brave ones, below the cut is a recap of my "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" 100 in 2007!!!
Valerie's 100 in 2007:
At the beginning of the year I composed a list of 100 things to do this year with the goal of completing half of the list. I didn't get through everything, but I did succeed at my goal and completed 55!!!
General
1. Move out, 2. Furnish, unpack all my boxes and decorate, 3. Find a man (or twelve)
- nope :-(
4. Pick a hair color and stick with it
I did I did! I went blonde and stuck with it. I haven't even dyed it since August!
5. Get a tattoo (or at least get mine touched up)
Nope. Don't even know if I want any more.
6. Stand up at my best friend's wedding
7. Stand up at my sister's wedding
8. Audition for American Idol :) (or at least apply for one reality show)
AI did not audition in Chicago. I did, however, apply to be the next Elvira!
Entertainment
9. Go to the top of the Sears Tower (hello, when is the last time anyone did that?)
We saw Chicago from the top!
10. See a roller derby bout
Saw the Windy City Rollers Summer Slam!
11. Have a picnic
Nad and I picnicked at Jazz with the Joffrey!
12. Go to 10 pin
Still haven't made it there :-(
13. See the Christmas trees at the museum of science and industry
Didn't make it here either :-(
14. Go to the 80s dance club
We tried to go for Nad's bachelorette, but who knew they weren't all 80s all the time?
15. Go to a carnival
So what if I didn't ride any rides? I saw some cows and ate a lot of carnival food. Funnel cake, corn dogs, and lemon shakeups are really the only reason for going to a carnival anyways.
16. At least 2 Chicago summer festivals
Printers Row Book Fair
Gay Pride Parade
And the boring-ass Do-Division Festival.
17. Free dance lessons in Grant Park
I went a few times and learned some funfun dances!
18. Go to Bromann Park
I have a park!
19. Go to Millennium Park
Went several times for several reasons
20. Go to a haunted house
I actually got out of Statesville Haunted Prison alive!
21. See a concert
Well, I saw some crappy opening band who broke the stage so I could not see Plain White Ts and a short concert of Sister Hazel
22. See fireworks on 3rd/fourth of july
23. Ride the Navy Pier ferris wheel
Hopefully next year!
Arts
24. See Blue Man Group (I haven't seen them since HS)
Saw the blue men, got banana all over me, drank hot chocolate
25. See Second City (I've never seen them)
Saw them for New Year's!!!!
26. See Naked Boys Singing
There was a lot of singing...and a lot of penis!
27. See the Kurt Halsey Art Show at DVA
I met Kurt! And he remembered me from the drawing he did!
28. See at least 3 plays
House Theatre's The Nutcracker at Steppenwolf
House Theatre's The Sparrow at the Apollo
Steppenwolf's Good Boys and True at Steppenwolf
29. See at least 1 ballet
I saw ABT's Romeo and Juliet and kind of saw the Joffrey at Ravinia.
30. See plenty of Opera
I saw half of Cosi fan tutte, Dialogues of the Carmelites, La boheme, Die Frau ohne Schatten, and Doctor Atomic. I could have definitely seen more...but I say this counts as plenty.
31. Go to at least 2 book readings
Nope.
32. Go to at least 1 art show (other than Kurt's)
I went to a show for Cynthia's friend Gabe and a handful of CharlieD shows!
33. Go to MCA
Nope.
34. Go to the Renegade Craft Fair
Went and scored some cutecute stuff
Movies
35. Go to a midnight opening of a movie
I went to see the Simpsons as soon as it came out!
36. Watch all the 80s cartoons I have on dvd
Didn't finish but I watched a lot!
37. Watch 3 80s movies I have never seen before
The Gate
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Can't Buy Me Love
And I'm sure a couple more.
38. Watch The Science of Sleep (looks interesting)
Yup! Watched it and thought it was...interesting...it was a very nice, but odd, film.
39. Watch every Hellraiser movie (I've already seen all the F13s, Halloweens, Elm Streets, and Childs Plays)
Hellrasier - Jesus Wept
Hellbound: Hellrasier II - He's ba-ack
Hellrasier III: Hell on Earth - I remember watching this when I was 12.
Hellraiser: Bloodline - every horror series has an obligatory movie that explains the origins and an obligatory movie that takes place well in the future. This one was both.
Hellraiser: Inferno - detective crime movie. I think Pinhead was in it for 30 seconds.
Hellrasier: Hellseeker - I remember seeing this before, but can't place where or when for the life of me.
Hellraiser: Deader - my favorite part was when the reporter from LONDON bribes a landlord from ROMANIA with an AMERICAN $20
Hellraiser: Hellworld - the one where Pinhead learns to use the internet.
40. Go to free movies in the Grant Park
I saw Sound of Music there!
41. Go to at least one midnight movie at music box
Not a one :-(
Pampering
42. Get my nails done
Got falsies for Nad's wedding
And went al natural (and pink) for Jen's
43. Take a bubble bath
Nope.
44. Get flowers from a boy ;-)
OK, so not exactly what I meant...but Josh got me flowers for my birthday!
Entertaining:
45. Resurrect Valerie's movie night at least a couple times, 46. Throw a housewarming party, 47. Throw a wine and cheese party, 48. Throw a pajama party, 49. Throw a game night, 50. Throw a Christmas party
you can't really entertain if you have nowhere to entertain.
Books:
51. Read ten Pulitzer Prize winning books (my goal is to eventually read them all)
I didn't get to ten because I have taken to only reading computer manuals and travel guides, but I did read Middlesex, The Fixer, Gone with the Wind, and A Thousand Acres
52. Read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genious
Finished it in April!
53. Read A Million Little Pieces to see what all the fuss is about
I finished it in February!
Writing:
54. Write a good draft of my memoir, 55. Edit that draft, 56. Write an article and send it out, |
