I feel so productive! And morbidly obese.

So this weekend was a lot of fun and today has been super productive. Friday Eileen and I went to see (500) Days of Summer and it was awesome! I've already bought the soundtrack. It made me miss 3rd Rock From the Sun...I totally cried at the series finale. I love Zooey Deschanel and I now enjoy Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Yesterday was a Target run, and an afternoon of cleaning (always a blast). Then out to a party at Retro on Roscoe. It involved a 2am Ian's Mac and Cheese Pizza run which was completely necessary. It was the most delish thing I've ever eaten. Followed by brunch this morning where I decided to get a breakfast burrito. Again, completely necessary. 

Then we took Bruiser to the beach! Well, I knew you could take dogs to this beach, but we couldn't find the actual dog beach...so he just sat with us on the regular beach. And then I started to get paranoid about getting fined $500 if he doesn't have a special dog license. Its bizarre. Long story short, he doesn't enjoy sand and HATES children so overall, it was interesting. BUT I did get to try these weird Mexican pinwheel-chip-like-things with hot sauce. And then I had to have the corn with MAYO, BUTTER and CHEESE! I've never seen this before but It was amazingly fat and I'm worried about food poisoning as the mayo was in the hot sun...but I enjoyed it. And don't worry- I needed to get my protein in so a hot dog was my solution for that.

I then proceeded to book my flight to Cabo in February!! Finally, after years of spending money on my Mileage Plus credit card, I finally used points towards a flight. I'm very excited about it!

Now if you'll excuse me I just found a movie called Legally BlondeS, a British spin-off of Legally Blonde on TV...it looks awful so I'm sure I'll watch the whole thing. 

I'm back, I swear!

Ok I know that I've been MIA. I promise I'm back...I hope. I really just haven't been that interesting lately, other than my work trip to Seattle. And most of my shows ended so now I'm really boring. So I posted pics of Seattle below...at the first Starbucks ever. And PS their lattes are WAY better than the others. And thank God we got my bow legs in the picture...I was worried that we would miss them. I then decided that it would be appropriate to spend $200 on fish at Pike Place Market. Luckily in return, we got a picture with them behind the counter...totally worth it... I definitely liked Seattle and how chill everyone is there. I now need to plan my next vacation. Any ideas?

Congrats Kate!

Another good friend from High School has gotten engaged! Now 3 out of the 6 of us girlfriends is engaged. So excited for her and Nick!

Check out her AMAZING ring!!

I know, I'm the worst

I've been really MIA and my only explanation for this is that I've sort of been busy. Even though I've been moving for perhaps 3 weeks straight, I'm still not 100% organized. And I've had help.

A couple weeks ago it was decided that my room had to be painted a different color, as the glossy ugly blue was just too dark. So that entailed a trip to the Home Depot (my nightmare) and me blindly picking out colors in the sea foam color palate. I then needed primer (whatever that is) and certain brushes, tape, etc. Who knows that I bought but I left there $90 poorer and completely clueless. In the end I was banned from actually painting even the primer, as well as the paint (although I was allowed to paint the inside of the closet white).

Since then I have been moving my stuff in slowly but surely. My room is a lot smaller, but taking off the closet floor and installing a curtain rod, made everything fit. I thank Wendy for watching her fair share of HGTV.

I tried a cleanse one week. That lasted a couple days, and then I was over it.

Then 2 weekends ago, the boyfriend (aka Pepaw) turned...old... We had a delightful dinner at Le Colonial.

I then turned 25 last Wednesday. Went out to a delicious dinner at Capital Grille. I've been eating out for like the past month straight, and I now feel morbidly obese. So this week begins emaciation.

Throw in a costume party, a bridal shower, a cubs game in 3rd row seats, being sans internet and tv for the past week (I cannot handle it) and there you have my absence explained!

I may actually be famous

So my friend George sent me this picture that he made for his first annual PedCrawl. Apparently he took this picture of me in college sometime. I can't quite remember when, because yes I still have both that sweater and the awful hat. George started a company called Shirt and Simple, which basically takes any hassle out of designing, ordering, collecting payment and distributing large quantities of tshirts, i.e. perfect for bar crawls. God I miss Iowa City. George is brilliant, although I am STILL waiting for the premiere of his horror movie that I was an actress in. That could be some of the best acting that I have ever seen.

Marriage!

Here is Kathy Griffin at a proposition 8 protest. She's hilarious and I cannot wait for My Life on the D List to come back on (tied with Flipping Out).

I, myself, am extremely sensitive to the gays, example from a phone conversation last night:

On the phone with my lesbian friend:

Me: Are you scissoring right now?

R: What? No? Bah! Alright but really, its me and my girlfriend's one year anniversary coming up, what should I get her? I went to the mall to get her something... but I ended up buying myself hairspray instead.

Me: I don't know what you people want? Overalls? a ratchet set?

R: She already has one.

Me: A scooter?

R: I want one! I'm not getting her one!

Me: Oh... So are you guys going to get married?

R: Not anytime soon, but we've talked about it.

Me: Have you talked about who will carry the child, or will you both do it like that Cat Cora?

R: Oh I SAW that, isn't she awful? But no, my girlfriend can't have kids... but can you imagine me pregnant?

Me: Absolutely not, can you imagine how expensive your child's nose job will be?

R: Oh I know, right? We'd have to do that early on. PS You should talk.

Touché.

Yes, this is how we talk to each other. She calls me Smigel because of the similarities between our hair... Its love all around.

Its that time of year again :(

So here we are approaching May, meaning its time to find a new apartment! I dread nothing more than apartment hunting and I DETEST moving. Let's take a quick peek at the last couple years of my life in regards to moving which led me toward the hate:


May 2006: Pack my life into 2 suitcases and move down the Club Med in Florida.
*during that year I lived in maybe 2 or 3 different rooms and lived with: Treyanna, then Marie-Eve, then Joey, then Camila, then the ex and I could easily be forgetting people. Its a pretty transient place.

May 2007: Pack my Club Med life into 3 suitcases and head home to good old Illinois.
July 2007: Move into an apartment downtown with the ex. (brilliant idea)
November 2007: Move out of apartment with the ex and into a studio with one window looking at a brick wall for a sublease.
May 2008: Move into a 4 bedroom with my 3 roomies.
And thrown in an entire office move that I had to coordinate at the beginning of this year and that brings us up to speed.
So my roommate Carrie and I are currently doing the apartment hunt game which is awful. No luck yet, so if anyone knows of any good 2 bedrooms in Chicago for a 5/1 lease, let me know!

This time last year...

This time last year I was jetting off to DC with Meg to reunite with a couple of my favorites, Cunty Cat and Bridge! It was an amazing blacked out weekend and was actually warm enough to wear a tshirt! I don't think that will be the case this year in Chicago :( Luckily this year my shirt says "Magically Delicious."

Congratulations!

I have to give a big shout out to Eileen and Zack who got engaged on Valentine's day!!! Eileen is one of my oldest friends- starting waaaay back in the good old High School track and field days, and we are now roomies. Congrats to the both of them and I am so excited for them to start their life together!!!
Such elegant beasts back in '98

This also made my day

An email from Ben to Carrie attaching this picture and saying:
"Go ahead and forward this to Jen....in case she gets lonely at night"

Thanks for always looking out for me Ben.

This made my day

Tim: So I got hit by a car for the second time this weekend
Me: hhahahhahahaha what?
Tim: Ya dude. The first time was like in October while I was on the phone wtih my mom she was like what was that noise? I responded that I had just been hit by car.
her response: "were u jaywalking?"
no mom, and im ok by the way.
This second time was worse. I was like shot up onto the hood. Totally not my fault... the chick said she dropped her phone and wasnt paying attention. I walk into my place and tell Steve, his response: "were u jaywalking?"

Zelazowa

So Carrie and I are expanding our horizons and trying new things. This included last night, we went to a concert at the Elbo Room to see Zelazowa. My friend Chris from Club Med has a couple friends in the band, and is helping manage them. They are from Philly and are travelling through the Midwest putting on some shows. It was really great to reminisce about the old Club Med days and also to hear the band, they're awesome.

Ha, this was halloween when we basically figured out that our life was a joke.

I'm a giver...

So I read in the Red Eye that there is a shortage of blood in the Chicago Area. And they need all blood types but especially types O and A. I once gave blood in college, and I believe it was during Greek Week so that I could get our sorority points. See? Giver. Anyways, I was given a card with my blood type (O+) on it so that's the only reason that I even remember what blood type I am. What I'm getting to is that in the spirit of doing something somewhat beneficial to the community, I am going to donate blood tomorrow. I sent around an email to a few people just seeing if they would like to come with me. One response:

Tanq: "I mean cuz if I were A or O I would for sure do it. But being a vampire and all it'll be so hard to be around all that blood...but seriously I might do it so then I can get super wasted tomorrow night." If you couldn't tell, he's right in the middle of the Twilight series.

If anyone is interested in joining me, I'm going tomorrow at 12:30! You can go to Lifesource.org to register.

NYE

I usually HATE New Years more than anything. But last night was actually really fun! Trotter organized the night and rented out Wellington's. It was great catching up with friends and reminiscing about the good old Iowa days.

A look back at my 2008

A few highlights from my ultra exciting 2008.

One year ago today!

Kitty reunion in LA/San Diego Jan. '08

Reuniting with Bridget and Cunty Cat in DC for St. Paddy's day

Costume birthday party for Carrie's boyfriend

Cubs game this summer!

Jamie's bachelorette party and then wedding June/July

North Ave. Beach

Iowa vs. Iowa State game

Canada for my grandpa's 80th

"I die" Halloween
Back to Canada for Yola's wedding

TBox barcrawl

And last but not least: Wedding and Christmas 2008!

Xmas circa 2006

Two years ago I spent my Xmas in the lovely Club Med Sandpiper Village. It was the first year that I was totally away from all family for the holidays. The ONLY thing getting me through Christmas Eve was the fact that we were allowed to eat lobster tails for dinner. And I loves me some lobster. But of course, shortly after dinner I had to quickly get dressed in my "wedding dress" for the celebration! We also did a secret Santa, and I believe I got a miniature perfume set from Jack, the 94 year old yoga instructor (who only wore speedos). I somehow managed to lose this nice gift that same night, but it was much appreciated. In the picture above, Jessie is awkwardly posing with her hot chocolate gift that she got. She opened her gift, and thought it was maybe the greatest gift anyone has ever received. And God is dancing with the "Choke the chicken" (get it?) that thing was actually pretty funny. Ahh the memories... I will say that nothing beats family at Christmas! And this year I get to spend some quality time with half of the extended family which is going to be awesome!

Tbox!

This past Saturday was the annual Twelve Bars of Christmas bar crawl. Basically over 5,000 people head out at 10am to partake in an excuse for wearing ugly sweaters and day drinking. Since I didn't get a wristband ahead of time, we were worried that I wouldn't even be able to get one. So Eileen, in her crafty ways photocopied her bracelet, and then used green highlighter to make me a paper bracelet. And it totally worked!!! We started at Sluggers and looked even more cheap when we decided to get a 6 pack of tall boys Old Style to sneak in. There were maybe 8 million people, and about 3 decrepit bartenders, which should be illegal. And we were just trying to get drunk in a efficient manor. It was a great day full of seeing old friends, flippy cup games, sprinting down Clark from bar to bar, and "Happy Birthday Jesus" tshirts.