My Grandmother is a fantastic lady

Email from my grandmother today :

WHO WAS THAT OLD LADY?

Sept. 3, 2009

I woke up this morning about my usual time, went to the bathroom, got my clothes ready for the day, took off my gown and started brushing my teeth, naked. I made the mistake of looking in the mirror and actually seeing the reflection of some old lady I didn’t recognize. That person was totally covered with really big wrinkles, puffy eyes and wild hair. What happened? In my mind it should reflect this young, 120 lb female, who was getting ready to go work out at Jack LaLane’s gym and then preparing dinner for her husband and five beautiful children. I’m just never going to look in the mirror again except to put on makeup and I’ll be putting it on my grandmother.

In reality I have several grandchildren off to college or in Reid’s case, about to depart for college and realize what a wonderful life I have had, in spite of many very sad events along the way. Few people make it for 85 years without such events. So, my granny speech for today is—enjoy life and appreciate all the good events as they come along and don’t dwell on the sad ones. AND, when you get old don’t look in the mirror. Love, granny

Hi again

Hey there. It's been a while. Sorry about that - if you want updates on a regular basis, follow me on Twitter. It's been a crazy summer - I moved June 1 and have spent it with anywhere from 2-5 roommates on a given night. It's quite fun actually - turns out I wasn't ready to be done with the part of college where all of your friends stay up late hanging out.

Family reunion in Tahoe was lots of fun this year, as always. The cousins are getting older so we're closer to being on the same page - the next 4 cousins after me are all through at least a year of college and both of my older cousins were around this year so we hit the Casinos together.

The job is going alright, it keeps me busy and I haven't gotten bored yet, so that's good.

I miss all of you that still read this even though I never update - please send me an update on your life :)

Musings

1. Wisconsin is pretty. Its kind of like Kentucky.
2. Wisconsin made me remember how much I like trees. And hills. And driving on country roads. Mmmm driving.
3. I hadn't been camping in about two years (as far as I can remember). Camping is fun and I should do it more.
4. When managing people, and making them work late, buying them dinner is a nice gesture.
5. Online shopping is fun.
6. Bourbon marshmallows are delicious.
7. My new apartment and my new roommate are amazing.
8. Hooray for getting security deposits back!
9. White Water rafting is fun.
10. I want to have a "Grade school lunch party" where everyone brings something (Capri Suns, squeezits, gushers, fruit by the foots, fruit roll ups, etc) and you have to trade to get a complete meal. Dunkaroos FTW!

So

I've been too busy to update the blog lately. No really. Too busy.

Derby two weekends ago. San Diego Last weekend. And the week days haven't been much less crazy.

So I'll post the nutritional facts for my normal Chipotle order instead.

Nutrition Facts
Amount Per Serving
Calories 1310	Cal from Fat 590
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 65g	99%
Saturated Fat 18g 90% Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 70mg	23%
Sodium 2270mg	95%
Total Carbs 152g	51%
Dietary Fiber 29g 116% Sugars 18g
Protein 34g
Vitamin A 0% • Vitamin C 0% Calcium 0% • Iron 0%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
INGREDIENTS: Tomato Salsa,Corn Salsa,Rice,Black Beans,Fajita Veggies,Cheese,Sour Cream,Guacamole (4oz),Chips

Click Here to view

A much needed vacation

The last weekend was... very much needed. I feel refreshed, and like I found myself without realizing I had been lost.

Wednesday - Drove down to Champaign with James, Nikki, and Weseloh. Had dinner at Mandarin Wok with my sister, and went to Jarlings for dessert. Stopped in Metropolis Illinois to take pictures with the giant superman statue. We arrived in Nashville around 1am. Get to the room to find we don't have a suite, but two queens beds. The addition of a rollaway and James' air mattress led to a very cozy room for the next several days.

Thursday - Met up with John at UCP of Middle Tennessee at 8:30 am. Started building the ramp, had lunch at the Farmers Market, finished the ramp in a race against the ran. Went back to the hotel, showered, and decided to head to dinner. Sushi and sake bombs followed a sprint in the rain. Proceeded to the Charlie Daniels Museum and Big River Brewery.

Friday - Met with John again at UCP at 8:15. We had a big day ahead of us - had an entire porch to take down off a trailer home and a new ramp to build. Thursday we were smart enough to have packed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, peanut butter oreos, honey wheat pretzels, fruit roll ups, and bananas. Finished the ramp, went to see the Pantheon, and went to Monells for dinner. If you are ever in Nashville, Monells is a MUST. You sit down at a table with strangers, and the food is served family style. Greatest. Food. Ever. Followed up dinner back at the hotel with some Dr Horrible watching and general chill hangouts.

Saturday - Met John at UCP. Drove 20 minutes, and were challenged to a 2 hour ramp build. Completed the ramp in 2 hours for a really sweet woman. Went to the bicentennial park by the farmers market, walked around the farmers market, had lunch outside, and just relaxed. Went back to the hotel, found a concert to go to at Twelfth and Porter(part of the Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival). Bought a cd which was later listened to probably ten times over the next few days (check out Roots and Wings - a duo consisting of Heather Morgan and Ross Copperman). From there, dinner at Jack's BBQ, followed up by several hours at the Cadillac Ranch. Finished up the night at Paradise Park - a trailer park themed bar, and then grabbed some Tater Tots.

Sunday was originally the day we were going to drive back to Chicago, but had found out none of us had to fly on Monday... plus it was going to snow. So we changed our route and headed to Lexington. Grabbed dinner with my family at Pazzos, icecream at Graeters with a large crowd of my friends, and wrapped up the night with TWO Lindsay Lohan movies simultaneously on TV on different channels (Mean Girls and the Parent Trap...).

Monday we walked around Keeneland, went to Joseph Beth Booksellers, walked around Ashland, had lunch at Bourbon and Toulouse, and hit the road towards Louisville. One stop at the Buffalo Trace Distillery, followed by dinner at the Ram in Indianapolis, and we successfully managed to avoid the snow in Chicago.

We did a lot, and it was awesome, and very much needed :) Yay!

Musings

I don't know why I'm not in bed, seeing as I worked 33 hours in a 72 hour period and am tired and brain dead. Maybe its that I've only gotten halfway through the 190 items that stacked up in google reader. Maybe its that I just can't go to bed early. But I need to be at work at 8am to try to debug the project I rolled off of Wednesday night...an "urgent" issue or whatever.

I haven't been taking many photos lately. Which is fine, except my memory sucks, a lot. And I've been doing some exciting things - I didn't take a single picture when I was in California. I didn't take pictures hanging out with Caragh. I didn't take any pictures when my sister randomly came up to visit. People I saw in California I didn't take pictures with - my grandmother, my aunt, Francisco, Caryn, Carolyn, Dave, and all the San Jose Labs folks. I didn't document the 6 wineries we went to. I _sort of_ took a video at the Jonathon Coulton concert a few weeks back - because he and Paul and Storm covered BirdHouse in Your Soul, and it was awesome. I do have pictures from the Superbowl of my friends wearing multiple pairs of 3d glasses. I do have photos of a silly brunch and friends sticking crayons in their hair and holding crayons with various parts of their faces.

Spring. Spring is so. Good. As nice as the weather is in California, there's something to be said for surviving the winter, and getting to see the first signs of flowers down my block. Chicagoans seem to be so proud of surviving the winter - it builds character, or whatever. But seriously, its just such a relieving feeling when it starts to get warm - and its a change you can see in all the people around you. As much as the cold sucks - bundling up isn't so bad (I think people are more attractive with more layers and you see people's styles more when they have to wear layers), and the whole mid-west has several months where its ok to sit inside and watch movies and not leave the house.

I'm getting a haircut on Saturday, yay!

Moo

Caragh wants me to blog, so that I can have some stories that might barely compare with her ridiculous life of goofiness and debauchery, but I think I am going to go read until I fall asleep. Because my life is that exciting.

No, seriously the last month of work has taken a lot out of me and it won't be done till Friday. And I took a muscle relaxer to help my neck loosen up (taken before bed since it causes drowsiness and not during the day since I have work to do). Oh, and because I was in a car that got rear ended last Friday - I'm ok, really, its more annoying than anything.

But if you're lucky I'll remember to write a post about California :
Dinner with my grandmother
Dinner with family + friends together
The car accident
Dancing with a random dude at a club and him giving me his business card when my coworker saved me
Driving to Berkeley on a work night and having a chef from San Francisco's Millenium providing dinner (And High School Friends)
Being two hours late to (my own) happy hour
Wine tasting starting at 11am after a night of insanity, hitting 6 wineries

Or maybe I'll just leave it at that :)