a note on the new template

those of you feed readers won't know that there IS a new template, but for those who do, i feel the need to explain a little bit.

i started seeing this template around sometime late last year/early this year and loved it, but since i had just updated mine, i decided to wait. but, because great minds think alike ;), my virtual friend tamara used the template on her 31datesin31days.com website which details her fun and successful dating experiment, and which has been previously mentioned on this blog.

not wanting to be a copycat, i decided to put it on the back-burner. but it's been seven months now, so i'm hoping she won't mind!

happy saturday everyone!

it's so nice to have a weekend at home! already this morning i've made a quick trip to old navy, stopped by aaa to pick up my international driving permit (me driving in germany should be interesting!), and dropped off my audio book at the library. it's silly how fulfilling these mundane tasks can be when you actually HAVE a saturday morning to run errands! hope you're feeling equally productive and grateful :D

chicago

chicago has and will likely always be one of my favorite us cities, despite this last trip having been a bit of a rough one. much of it can be attributed to my still being sick, and the rest to the unfortunate timing of everyone having hit their limit.

the co-workers i was traveling with are some of my favorites, but we are all tired, have been traveling too much, and really just want to be home. as a result, we ended up taking our frustrations out on each other during the show, which, in some cases, was not pretty.

the good news is that we genuinely like and respect one another, so in the final hours of the trip, disagreements were resolved, fences mended, and all will proceed as normal.

despite the turmoil, we still managed to enjoy chicago. when i arrived, it was in the middle of the filming for oprah's season premiere, an outdoor concert kick-off that shut down michigan avenue. my hotel was very close to the action, which, despite my best efforts otherwise, turned out to be as close as i could get!



after setup on the following day, and after most of my co-workers had arrived, we all headed out to have our own kick-off of sorts-pizza!

giordano's is a chicago pizza staple, and one i've never had the pleasure of enjoying before. we, of course ordered the stuffed crust pizza and enjoyed every single bite of it. i'm drooling just thinking about it. mmmmmm.



the following evening, i dragged along the group for another adventure i'd never experienced before - the willis tower (which was, prior to july 28, known as the sears tower). the building is the tallest in the united states, and as the elevator rose the 103 stories, a video indicated when we were passing the heights of other well known buildings....the empire state building, the eiffel tower....it was actually quite interesting!





the highlight of the sears tower is 'the ledge'. the ledges (there are actually three of them) extend about 4 feet from the skydeck at 1,353 feet up. the glass, as it turns out, is only 1 1/2 inches thick, although can somehow hold 5 tons of weight. as you might imagine the experience made for some great photos. :)



we arrived in time to get some daylight photos, enjoy the setting of the sun, and watch the city lights come alive. it was absolutely beautiful.



on friday morning, i offered to take my co-worker julianne, who has never been to chicago before, to see a few landmarks.



we took the subway down to the museum campus, which includes the field museum, the aquarium, the planetarium, and soldier field - all of which are incredible facilities. i love the way the campus is laid out, and had there been more time, i would have enjoyed wandering through them again.



since time was limited however, we opted to start walking back along the lakeshore, stopping first at buckingham fountain, which was even more impressive than i remembered it.



we also, of course, stopped at the giant bean in millennium park and took fun reflective photos.

the following, and final day of the show, was fairly quiet. that is, until vicki missed her flight. most of the team was heading out on saturday evening, and had checked out in the afternoon. as such, my room turned in to the camp out spot, as they staggered their airport departures. julianne and vicki were the last to leave, and i had been encouraging that they do so for 20 minutes before they actually took my gentle nudging.

for vicki, that 20 minutes turned out to be the difference between being able to check her bag. and since she couldn't check her bag, she was stuck. so, very frustrated, and clearly overwhelmed, she headed back to the hotel for a slumber party with moi! i had a room with double beds and vick and i are close enough that it made more sense than her picking up another room night.

we enjoyed dinner, came back and ordered dessert from room service before calling it night. we headed to the airport together on sunday morning and she was able to make the first standby flight out, while i was enjoying a row to myself on my direct flight. probably the smoothest travel leg i've had yet!

a little giggle, a big guffaw

i don't usually comment on the state of being single and over 30 in the mormon world (at least not TOO often), but i got a good laugh today and felt compelled to share.  for those of you outside my faith, the single adult program consists of single mormons, age 31 to dead.  which is why those of us on the lower end of that range, who also happen to live in an area where there is a 'mid-singles' program (roughly 31 - 45), are very grateful.

 

there is an upcoming single adult conference about an hour from where i live, and the following workshops are being offered:

 

1. Scam Awareness
2. Dealing With Adversity
3. Understanding Assisted living
4. Storing Food For One
5. Spiritual Video Presentation
6. Finance and Credit

 

now, does one of these jump out at you, because #3 almost made me choke on my lunch!  sadly, i don't think the intention of this workshop is 'understanding assisted living for your elderly parents.'

thursday thanks

it's thursday here in chicago and i've got a couple of things to be really grateful about.

the first is that my entire immediate family will be coming to california for christmas! i'm excited to take kendyl (who just started kindergarten) to disneyland, excited for our side trip to yosemite, and excited that they will all get to see what my life has been like for the last two (in october) years. it's going to be a non-traditional christmas, but i am sooo excited, and so thankful that they are willing to make the financial sacrifices to make it happen.

the second is that i scored, and i still don't know how, amazing tickets for an insanely low amount of frequent flyer miles to visit germany in november. seriously - those of you who are familiar with frequent flyer miles will know that 40k miles, roundtrip, is both a thing of beauty and a thing of legend, never before proven. for perspective's sake (and i actually feel really bad about this), it took 60k miles each ticket for my family members to come out to ca in december.

i'll be spending a few days with my friend arika in her new home in germany, visiting places like this:

neuschwanstein castle - the inspiration for disneyland's sleeping beauty castle

as an added bonus, i'll be doing a three day side trip to venice, seeing places like this:

the grand canal

and, if all goes according to plan, deb will be meeting me in venice for the weekend! she and i have been attempting an italy trip now for about five years, so this will be a perfect way to break the curse and enjoy italy together for the first, but not the last, time.

i'm so thankful to have so much to look forward to!