It's gonna be a cozy holiday!

We went with the "Cozy Holiday"cards from Paper-Source....can't wait until they come!!

'Tis the Season...well, almost!

I can not, for the life of me, decide what Christmas Card to send out this year. This is the first year that a majority of my friends are living out of Oak Lawn, so I thought it would be a great year to grow up, be an adult and start sending Christmas (or "Holiday") Cards. I found some pretty great options from Paper-Source and Papyrus, but I can't really decide. I gave these options to Erik so he can weigh in on the decision...

Chubby Bird on Branch

by Papyrus

Cozy Holiday
by Paper-Source

Merry Christmas Tree
by Paper-Source

Holiday Village
by Paper-Source

Starry Starry Night
by Paper-Source

Maybe I'm jumping the gun a little bit, but I can't wait to start decorating and baking and bundling up and getting cozy. I love the holidays and I want them to start now!!!! Besides, it takes a long time to write all of those cards...I just want to get a head start.

Special K Update

Well...we did it. It didn't really do anything for me (except force me to eat more than I usually do). Erik says that he thinks he lost weight, but not a whole jeans size. Oh well!

On another food-related note, I'm going to try cooking more. Now that I don't have rehearsals every night (at least for a little while) I have more time and energy when I get home from work. I usually just guess how to make things, but I think I'm going to try actually looking at recipes and making things correctly. I also want to find something awesome that I can make and bring to my family's Thanksgiving. The women in my family are pretty much all super-cooks, so it will be pretty difficult to impress them.

I may, from time to time, post some recipes that I've tried or am thinking of trying. Maybe this will turn into a topic for my blog! Right now it's just kind of anything...

And my boyfriend is awesome.

Let's see how this goes...

So, Erik and I decided to try the Special K Challenge...basically you replace two of your meals each day with Special K products (cereal, waffles, protein bars/shakes). You then eat your third meal as normal. You are also allowed to eat fruit, veggies and drink beverages as normal.

Day 1: I'M STARVING!!

I think the problem is that I don't usually eat breakfast. I usually go to work, drink some coffee, have lunch and eat dinner later. Eating breakfast this morning really threw me off and now I want to eat everything in sight. Including the huge bowl of dum-dums sitting on my desk. The idea was to eat breakfast, have an early dinner with my boyfriend around 4 and then a snack later on. Yikes.

Four more hours until I can eat....

FALLLLLLLLL

I love it. I can't get enough of Fall weather. Mostly just because I love wearing scarves, boots, tights, etc. My only problem is that 1. I don't have tons of money to buy all of the stuff I want, and 2. a lot of my fall clothes are in storage in my parents' basement. My apartment has zero storage so I've been forced to keep my different "seasons" in different places. If the weather would make up it's mind and stop being high-70's, I could just get rid of all of my Summer stuff and move in the Fall stuff!

Maybe next weekend.

Oh! I ordered this super-cute jacket - $29.99!



It's plum! After I ordered it, I found out that there's another one exactly the same, but with a hood....Hmm...I may return it.

We are weird...

Lastnight, Erik and I spent about 5 minutes singing "Row, Row, Row your Boat" in a round. For no reason. When we stopped, I immediately said, "What the fu*k are we doing? I have to text Julie". Julie is my sister. He got mad and asked why I have to share every intimate moment we have with my sister. I don't! She just appreciates weird things! I thought she would find it funny!

Later, as we were falling asleep, I told him a lame "Knock Knock" joke. So lame I cannot even remember what it was. He replied with:

E: Knock Knock
M: Who's there?
E: Interrupting Fergie.
M: Interrupting Fer...
E: DRAAAANK!!
M: ...gie who?

Bahahaha! I laughed for like twenty minutes.

I really wanted to text my sister, but I resisted :).

In Loving Memory

Yesterday, a piece of me died.

Erik and I went to Target to buy Scrabble (we used to play it all the time - until we moved and realized it was actually our roommate's). We didn't find one, but as we were leaving we swung by the jewelry counter to check on my friend...the Lobster Necklace.

Erickson Beamon for Target - Lobster Pendant Necklace

Now, I think this thing is absolutely ridiculous, but in a fabulous way. If it weren't $39.99 for the entire year that I kept seeing it (the only one) at this same Target, I would have bought it in an instant. I was honestly waiting for them to realize no one was going to buy it and lower the price drastically in which case I would buy it, wear it, get complements, forget about it, wear it 3 months later, get more complements and then put it away forever.

SOMEONE MUST HAVE HAD THE SAME IDEA. IT WAS GONE.

The other equally strange pieces of jewelry in the line were there and reduced to $19.99. SOMEONE HAD BOUGHT THE LOBSTER NECKLACE.

What's worse is that I can't find it anywhere else...not online, not on ebay...nowhere.

I guess it was never meant to be.

RIP Lobster-y friend...you will be missed.

Road Trip!!!

In about a month, Erik and I are traveling up to Canada for a little end of summer vaca. He's been doing a show and I just started my job, so there wasn't really a convenient time to go earlier. We already have tickets for two shows at Stratford (we're nerds) and we're also planning on visiting Toronto, Niagra Falls and just spending some good ol' time together.

Since the drive is about 7-and-a-half-ish hours long (there and back), I've been trying to put together a really great road trip playlist to download legally since most of our music is showtunes, Alanis Morrisette and Dashboard Confessional (we all feel emo sometimes). Here's what I have so far:

Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield
Livin on a Prayer - Bon Jovi
Our House - Madness
How Far We've Come - Matchbox 20
Who Knew - Pink
Somebody Told Me - The Killers
Life is a Highway - Tom Cochrane
Bohemian Raphsody - Queen
Respect - Aretha Franklin
I Can't Get No - The Rolling Stones
Dirty Little Secret - All American Rejects
It's the End of the World - REM
American Pie - Don McLean
Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Closing Time - Semisonic
Hey Jealousy - Gin Blossoms
If I Had a Million Dollars - Barenaked Ladies
Run Around - Blues Traveler
Mr. Jones - Counting Crows
Breakfast at Tiffanys - Deep Blue Something
Black Balloon - Goo Goo Dolls
Iris - Goo Goo Dolls
My Own Worst Enemy - Lit
Short Skirt/Long Jacket - Cake
Glycerine - Bush
Sex and Candy - Mercy Playground
Absolutely - 9 Days
Spiderwebs - No Doubt
Don't Speak - No Doubt
Wonderwall - Oasis
All Star - Smashmouth
Runaway Train - Soul Asylum
Fly - Sugar Ray
Every Morning - Sugar Ray
One Headlight - Wallflowers
Buddy Holly - Weezer
Are You Gonna Be My Girl - Jet
The Boys Are Back in Town - Thin Lizzy
Rock n' Roll All Night - KISS
Just a Girl - No Doubt
Seven Nation Army - White Stripes
Play that Funky Music - Wild Cherry
Brown Eye'd Girl - Van Morrison
Ballroom Blitz - Sweet
My Girl - The Temptations
Stop! In the Name of Love - The Supremes
I Can't Help Myself - The Four Tops
99 Red Balloons - Goldfinger
Your Song - Elton John
I Wanna Hold Your Hand - The Beatles
Hotel California - The Eagles
I Would Walk 500 Miles - The Proclaimers
Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol
Free Fallin' - Tom Petty
Born to be Wild - Steppenwolf
Summer of '69 - Bryan Adams
Don't Stop Believin' - Journey
Why Georgia - John Mayer
California - Phantom Planet

Ok, that's a lot. I basically just wanted a bunch of songs that we both know and will sing at the top of our lungs while driving in order to keep ourselves entertained/awake. Making this list made me realize 3 things:

1. I should have probably started downloading these, like, yesterday.
2. I didn't know the artists of a lot of songs I feel like I should have known.
and
3. I still second-guess myself when it comes to capitalizing words in titles...

and I probably always will.

YAY ROADTRIP! CAN'T WAIT!

Who are you dating?

The Jason Mraz concert lastnight at Charter One Pavilion was grrrreat. The venue was great, the concert was great and there were little babies walking around with empty beer cans - adorable. The only weird thing was how my boyfriend would randomly turn to me and tell me facts about Jason Mraz that only his girlfriend should know...

"He smokes a lot."

"He's married"

"His parents are divorced."

"He just saw HAIR on Broadway."

....

I think my boyfriend is a stalker.

This is the life...

I love Chicago...I really do. I grew up just outside the city in the suburbs, but it really doesn't compare. Moving here after graduating is probably one of the best things I could have done and I'm so glad that I resisted the urge to move home in order to save money. I love not having to drive, I love all the things to do and I love feeling like I'm in the middle of everything.

I could probably be happy somewhere else, especially if I had Erik, Penny and T. Rex with me, but maybe not as happy. I would for sure miss a lot about this city.

On a less sappy note...Erik and I realized that we may have nothing scheduled on our DVR for tonight. This is a travesty. So You Think You Can Dance ending has left us with nothing important to watch on Wednesday nights. We may have to...not watch TV?! Gasp! I think we're going to have to find a new Wed. night show...I'll keep you posted.