Fall Trips

Normally my fall is low key until the holidays hit...kinda like a summer recovery when I can just kick back and relax after the go, go, go of summer. But not this fall. This fall/winter looks something like this:

CHI>>>SLC

CHI>>>SFO

CHI>>>SLC

CHI>>>LAS

CHI>>>NYC

CHI>>>SLC

Actually, now that it's all written out, it looks like I have an addiction to SLC. What can I say, I've missed those mountain too much...and lots of friends are getting married in the next couple of months! So exciting!!

Anyways.

Just got back from the first trip. I will never get tired of fall in the mountains!

Seattle or Bust

Every time I go to Seattle, I fall in love with the place. Seriously, I used to think I couldn't move to the Pacific Northwest because of all of the cloudy skies during the winter...and now I live in Chicago. Go figure. Anyways. The Bobs and I went to visit our favorite Ilene and Eric for the weekend, and man was it a blast! Went to the spin class that Ilene just started teaching, explored downtown, ate a lot of amazing food, played some intense rounds of bocce ball, hiked some falls on Mt. Rainier, and showed the boys the amazingness of Pike's Place flowers. Such a great weekend with two of the best hosts I know!

On another note, life here has been crazy. Cuh-razy. Stress level has been schizophrenic, but hey, at least my gym time has gone up astronomically? (proportionately with my consumption of my roommates homemade brownies unfortunately) I cannot wait for the holidays to start. Halloween>>Thanksgiving>>Christmas>>New Years!! I knew I loved fall for a reason!

Apple Picking

Went up to Wisconsin this weekend with some of my favorite Chicagoans.

Apple picking, apple cider, doughnuts, and Wisconsin cheese.

I think we would all agree it was a fat and happy kind of a weekend.

...and now we have tons of apples.

TONS.

No. 1 Thing I Learned Today

Dancing around to this song never fails to put me in a better mood. Especially if it's in my office at work. On a stressful Monday.

Labor Day

Labor Day looked a little something like this this year...

...and let me tell you, it was great!

Lots of down time to go to the beach one last time,

bike around the city, go shopping, hang out with friends, sleep in,

cook breakfast, and enjoy a few intense rounds of Blokus.

I think every weekend should be a three day weekend.

Social Currency

I saw this ad this morning and it made me think about how dance used to be our social currency--the skill you needed to have to be part of the social scene and meet others.




And then it made me think about what our social currency is now. Obviously, it'll vary for different groups of people, but here are some of the ones I've noticed in the past couple years of my life:

Wakeboarding.
Skiing.
Tennis.
Golf.
Climbing.
Surfing.

Trust me, I'm no expert in any of these categories, I've just noticed that these are some of the group activities I've often found myself invited to participate in...and either been seriously relieved that I'm half way decent at said activity, or absolutely mortified at the thought of hanging out with the group due to my utter lack of skill in the area.

I'm curious what other people/groups/geographical regions feel their social currency is.

Cubs Game in Milwaukee

Whirlwind trip up to Milwaukee and back this past Friday

for some good ol' baseball watching with Bob's work.

The Cubbies did not disappoint.

The Spreckers root beer did not disappoint.

The Kopps custard did not disappoint.

Win. Win. Win.