Day 166 loves summer reading

All that traveling this past week left me with lots of time for reading. Something I used to only really do on subways and long greyhound rides. I loved having an excuse to get back into some books. So much so that I finished 3 books in 3 days. Winning! I truly recommend each of these. All are extraordinary in their own ways. Harry Potter needs no review I believe - just look at how well loved my copy is. The Help has been one I've been meaning to pick up for months and just finally got around to it. Worth it. I devoured this one in just about 6 hours. I may have to read it again cause I loved it that much. And Neverwhere by Gaiman absolutely blew me away from beginning to end. I hope you all pick up at least one of these at some point this summer!

Day 166 takes out the trash

This is the most spectacular piece of garbage I've ever seen. I passed this abandoned arcade game (Zaxxon, anyone??) on my drive to and from work, yesterday and today. Finally tonight I decided to stop and take a photo. My dear readers, this was a shady mission. The people throwing the game out live in this weird hippie commune type house. It doesn't look like any other house in the neighborhood and there are a bunch of abandoned cars in the yard. It looks like bad things happen there. I could've been abducted while taking this photo. All for the sake of art, am I right!? I wish you all could jump into the photo to experience the smell. It smelled like mildew and forgotten dreams. I'm very happy I risked my life to get a few snapshots before it gets collected tomorrow morning.

Day 165 feels so new

The sis and I had to take a quick, unexpected trip to her new apt tonight for a last walk through before we get to start moving her in. I was already in my pj's and none to happy about having to change and go on this errand, but we did get to check out her new hood a bit more, so all was not lost. The main street near her place has a ton of restaurants, some bars and shops, and this cute little theater. I've never heard of it and don't know what kinda shows are done here, but I like the name and choice of paint color for the building. This describes the vibe of her new neighborhood pretty well actually. Cool, young and something that stands out a little. All in all, a very awesome place to live I think.

Day 165 has a patriotic breakfast

I'm a big breakfast person. Eggs, pancakes, cereal - I love it all. I almost always eat breakfast before leaving the house. Sometimes I fall into a rut. My current rut isn't so bad, though. For the last few days I've been eating Cheerios with berries. Delicious! I could probably eat this for every meal - at least for the time being. I also just now noticed the red, white and blue-ness of my breakfast. Happy Unintentional Flag Day?

Day 164 has a good feeling about all this

I'm pretty sure I've done more traveling these past 3 months than I've done in the past few years of my life. I just spent 60 or so hours in Chicago, my soon to be new city. I slept maybe 10 hours total the past 3 days and am looking forward to catching up on some much needed zzzz's tonight. But before I get settled into bed - this is a shot from my lovely ride along Lake Shore Drive this morning as I headed to my first appointment of the day. The weather was divine, the city was gorgeous and the coffee was delicious. So it was all, ya know, kinda perfect.

Day 164 thinks she's fancy

Generally speaking, I'm a fan of ginger ale. I especially like the cranberry variety. For some reason, when I was younger I thought it was fancy. Like I was a fancy eight year old because I drank cranberry ginger ale. Don't let the sweatpants and frizzy hair fool you, Eight Year Old Katie is one fancy lady.

Day 163 is all over the place

Eeeeek, late post! Blogger fail! You guys - I don't feel good about this late post. I blame exhaustion and not so good internet in Chicago. Apologies all around. Sunday I had some chill time in the morning (chill time = hangover recovery time) to get some work done and do more Chicago exploring. Twas fun, fun! I know it's the last thing you're supposed to drink when recovering from a booze filled evening, but I needed coffee more than I needed to keep breathing, ya know? So coffee I got. It was 2pm by the time I was getting my "morning" coffee and it was worth the wait.

Day 163 bought the necessities

I went to Target this morning and bought these three items: a dress, Mad Men Season 4 DVD, and Essie nail polish in "master plan." Necessities, clearly. It was a more sophisticated shopping trip than my usual Target buys of soda cans and generic pain pills.

Day 162 got a tattoo

My friend had a tattoo party today. No, I did not get inked. I went for moral support, hand-holding, and food. I like the idea of getting a tattoo, but I'd rather wait and get something deeply meaningful. Though, there was a full back tattoo of an owl in one of the shop's books...

Day 162 had a bittersweet birthday

So I've been in Chicago for roughly 10 hours and am in love with this city all over again. One of my besties (and future roomie!) KGrahams is taking me around to some parties in the city and introducing me to new, awesome peeps. We had some amazingly rich chocolate cake from Bittersweet Bakery and while it didn't go so well with those margaritas we had at dinner, it was worth it.YUM. I mean really.. yum. I believe I just found my new fave sweet shop in Chicago.

Day 161, and so it begins...

The packing has officially begun here. My sister has jumped head first into packing up the living room tonight. I've taken the "stand back and watch" approach. It's working out well for me so far. I'm off to Chicago in the morning for the quickest of trips pre-move (for those of you who aren't in the know, I'm moving to Chicago in... 20 days!). I wish I could be here helping her pack up over the weekend, but I'll get my fair share of packing when I get back I'm sure. Oh, moving. I hate you so so so much.

Day 161 & J

I have not prepared a meal for myself since Tuesday. Gross. Wednesday and Thursday I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner with my co-workers at our seminar. This morning I wanted every extra minute of sleep I could get, so I had a (disgusting) muffin at the office. Also, I ran out of time to make lunch before I left so I devoured a salad for lunch. If you are still reading, I guess you find my daily eating habits more interesting than I do. For my late night dinner I'm making myself a PB & J. I'm a strawberry jam kind of girl. Did you know that about me? Now you do. And I'm kind of obsessed with this "natural" peanut butter. I'm a little wary of foods with too many ingredients on the label. Plus, it's made with honey! How can you go wrong?

Day 160 got stuck

There are some days when I have to drive my sister to work and it always requires me waking up at some ungodly early hour of the morning. Today she let me sleep in until 7:15. How generous. After I dropped her off I got stuck at this light for literally an eternity. I aged a year, I'm sure of it. Gray hairs and everything. With all this free time, I decided to take a picture or two. This hill, McClellan, is terrifying. When we first moved her and had to drive it every now and then, I would clench onto the door, close my eyes and try not to pee myself. Seriously. Scary, scary shit. I'm glad I was at the other end of it today and didn't have to drive it. Phew!

Day 160 can find me in the club

To cap off my seminar for work, we had dinner at the Union League in Philly. This place is pretty fancy and apparently didn't allow women in the club until the 1980's. I had to miss my improv class for dinner, but the food/wine (crab stuffed artichoke, Loch Duart salmon, waffles & cream) was really delicious so I can't complain too much. White wine. Also, for some reason the pictures I took of the flags in front of the building disappeared from my camera. So here's a statue of some dude holding a phallic-looking object.

I ate Day 159

There may or may not have been a brownie on this plate. And by "may or may not" I mean definitely was.  And I ate it. Then later when I went to put the dish in the sink... I ate another one. Whoa - this blog just turned into confessions of a food junky. You guys want some brownies? There's plenty and I'd love for someone to eat them before I eat them all. Kthanks.

Day 159 has it in the bag

I put in a nearly fourteen hour day today at a work seminar. I am beat! Here's a little glimpse into the contents of my purse (moleskin notebook, petty cash envelope, bra, keys...). It's maybe not the most organized I've ever been, but I sure was prepared!

Day 158 is summer lovin

I'll be working from home for the next few weeks. I know that seems like a walk in the park, but it's actually not quite as fantastic as you would think. I mean, don't get me wrong - it's fantastic, but it's not a whole day of vacationing, if you know what I mean. I still get up early, set a daily work schedule for myself and try to remember to schedule some time for things like exercise and stepping away from my computer for a few minutes. I got a ton of stuff done tonight, and decided a beer with dinner was well deserved. The sis and I are loving this summer ale. It's all kinds of yummy, and made this work from home day so much sweeter.

Day 158 sits back

I don't have anything particularly interesting or exciting to report today. The next few days are going to be really busy for me at work. So right now all I want to do is sit back and look at this gorgeous June sky.

Day 157 is a believer

It was about 6 months from when I got my first pair of Toms until now for my sister to get on board with the Toms goodness. It does take a hot second to get used to how they look on your feet. My dad likes to call them my "middle earth shoes", and there's some truth to that. They're all earthy and organic looking. I get the hesitation. But seriously ya'll - it's like giving your feets a hug with every step. So freaking comfy! And! Think of the children! Wow this post just got real linky. Oops. Anyway - this is how the sis decided to dry her shoes after washing them. I've definitely made a Toms convert out of this girl. So when are you guys getting on board already?

Day 157 is in my happy place

After dinner tonight I decided to treat myself to some water ice at Rita's. If you don't live in a state with a Rita's I feel bad for you because their water ice is delicious. Not only can you enjoy fun flavors like S'mores cream ice (like I got), but you can grab a soft pretzel (which I also got). This photo was taken on location in the Fundai because I couldn't wait to get home to enjoy my dessert!