visiting chicago.

in ,


















funny how you don't always know just how much you need a little vacation until the moment is upon you.

i've done a bit of traveling this summer--quick trips to boston and connecticut, even taking on the city as a tourist upon the visit of my mother.

but there is something about this vacation--these few days in chicago--that is entirely selfish. entirely for me. {and sometimes that's important}.

it all happened because at a family dinner just days before christmas last year i mentioned a band. and my brother mentioned liking them. so i bought tickets--got him a christmas gift. and we saw a show. and it was love. and i was in love with live music.

so i saw another show. and another. became that person always in search of the next great harmonic high. and then i got a ticket for lollapalooza. by myself. and a year ago this never would have happened.

and that's kinda what this trip is about: vacation and rest and really great music, but also that i'm doing what i couldn't have done one year ago.

life changes and it gets better.

and you wake one morning and the oatmeal you've ordered with blueberries and toasted almonds and brown sugar is better than any donut you've ever had in your life.

{well, okay, almost better}.

on getting bangs.

in

i needed a wee of a change. you know?

and i thought, bangs, so very parisian, no?

yesterday a man stopped me at work and asked if people don't tell me all the time i look like carla bruni?

i do not. i do not look like carla bruni. and i've never gotten it before. (she's far better looking than i).

but i understand why he said it--it's the haircut. with the bangs and when i wear my hair down, well, i understand where this man was coming from. 

and listen, a compliment like that, i'm gonna take it and run.

after all i was going for french. and she's married to the president of france, so...

i might have over shot it. 







(ps: i'll get an email from my mother saying this photo doesn't really look like me. 
and she'll be right. 
but that's the miracle of instagram--it's a really cheap way of airbrushing 
{and making you look better than you do in real life}).

first dates and such.

in






























have i ever told you how very much i like parks and recreation?

i do. a lot. because it's about good people trying to do good things by actually doing...well-meaning things (and if you think about this premise, it's a pretty rare one on television).

anywhoo, one of my very favorite episodes is one in which the main character (leslie) has to go on a first-date.

and since i'm entering that period of my life (albeit, a little behind the curve) where i'm actually open to the possibility of first-dates i thought i'd share:


leslie: what if he shows up with another woman? what if one of my sleeves catches on fire and it spreads rapidly. what if instead of tic tacs i accidentally pop a couple of ambien and i have to keep punching my leg to stay awake?


ann (her best friend): those are all insane hypotheticals and i promise you they won't happen.


leslie: they have all happened. all of these have happened.


{cut to interview-style}
uh, no, there's more. one time i accidentally drank an entire bottle of vinegar. i thought it was terrible wine. once i went out with a guy who wore 3-d glasses the entire evening. oh, one time i rode in a sidecar on a guy's motorcycle, and the sidecar detached and went down a flight of stairs. another time i went to a really boring movie with a guy and while i was asleep he tried to pull out one of my teeth. i literally woke up with his hand in my mouth. we went out a couple times after that but then he got weird.