New site alert!

For those of you who like watching those amazingly trashy and addictive shows like Gossip Girl or 9-0, you will LOVE this website. It's called SeenOn! and it has buyers that work on those sets with the costume designers, who then sell those items online. It's really cool.

http://www.seenon.com/account.php?f=invitecreate&token=1t3UoJeTn6KppZ4%3D&pa=soinvite

New Workout Trend Alert!

I came up with a new cardio workout today. It was accidental, but I find that's when strokes of genius are most likely to hit a person, wouldn't you agree?

Anyway, so I went down to the fitness center at school with my ponytail, leggings, and iPod. The beginning of this trend was the iPod, I must admit. The second ingredient was the emptiness of the fitness center. I was all alone! Perfect. So, I cranked my music and got on the elliptical. Kelly Clarkson started scream-singing,"SINCE U BEEN GOOO-OOOON," and THAT'S when the great idea hit me. You see, KC's tunes are pretty much rockin, and when I have headphones in, I can sing along and pretty much sound exactly like her (some people disagree. Okay, most.).

It's really, really hard to hear a song you like and NOT sing along, right? So, I kept ellipticaling (what would that verb be, I wonder), and started singing! What do you know? My cardio workout got harder. Granted, I started ellipticalling slower, but this gave me an idea! If all people tried to sing while they were running, biking, or stairmastering, they could intensify their workouts! I sang louder. By now, the high notes were getting harder to hit, but I made up for it with my facials. I was really givin' it to the audience: "I can breee-athe for the fiirrrr-st time," (when in actuality I could hardly breathe at all, but whatever). My eyebrows were down, my eyes squinting, I had a kissy-face, and I even brought the right hand away from the handle bar so I could use the mic. By this time, I'm sure my heartrate was a good 180, and I was getting to the really loud part where she goes, "again, again, and uh-GAAAIIIIIIN!" which was the precise moment a teacher (or fan) walked in. I barely saved myself from falling backward and cracking my skull (or injuring my vocal chords) because I was so scared out of my live, on-stage cardio workout moment, and it therefore took a minute to register the strange look I was getting from my colleague. (Who will remain nameless. I don't want to embarass her for her natural desire to lurk around so she could hear my siren's song.)

Anyway, I totally played it off and acted like she was the weird one. I'm pretty sure it worked.

So, the moral of the story is that you should not let my dediation in finding a good workout strategy go to waste. Next time you're working out, go ahead and try belting a few lines from your favorite pop star's album. You'll be surprised at the burn in your abs and the sudden desolation of the gym.

P.S.) This was also my perfect Crime Scene (for Criminal Minds) of the Day! I was so into the moment I wouldn't have heard a creepo sneak up behind me. And then Agent Morgan would have been forced to solve my case instead of hear me sing. Tragic. But a good setting, for sure.

P.S. Again) Unfortunately, there are no photos or video to accompany this amazing event, but there's always tomorrow!

Setting for Criminal Minds

I'm going to try something new. For those of you who don't know, I am recently obsessed with Criminal Minds. (The plot lines! The serial killers! The suspense!) Shonn and I stumbled upon it quite accidently, and have since begun to DVR as many epidsodes as possible. This obsession has begun creeping into all areas of my life. Take, for example, the other night when I was driving home. I saw a van on the side of the road with a flat tire. My immediate assumption: "A kidnapper trying to convince someone to pull over so he can snatch that person up and take her to a secret torture chamber!" This was all in the .3 seconds it took for me to accelerate and whiz by them, which was then followed by the guilt of not helping a fellow human. I've also found myself dreaming about the cast (not that way, even though Morgan is pretty hot ) and inserting myself into cases, where I use my powerful profiling skills to Save! The! Day!

This obsession has also created a new sense of creativity: I'm now viewing the world through the lens of the show's creators, looking for the next best spot for them to write a crime! That has led me to introduce:

The Best Crime Scene (for Criminal Minds) of the Day!

Exhibit A:

I love TJ Maxx. Shonn hates it. But, it was my birthday weekend, so we got to go. While he ho-hummed around, I was hunting for bargains and that led me to notice all the creepy places in that store. Now some TJ Maxxes are nice. The one in Decatur, not so much. Staffed by creepos and a little dirty in the corners, I started thinking Criminal Mindslike, and I found the perfect crime scene for their next season. The bathroom in the Decatur TJ Maxx store. Check it out. SCARE-YYYYYYY! Can't you just picture Hotchner and Dr. Reed kicking down the door and then examining the evidence in there?!

Don't you agree??

Birthday Dinner

We met Mom, Dad, and Matthew for dinner at Los Potros in Sullivan. (I think that's the name...) After the waiters were oh-so-nice to me all night, even bringing extra salsa and chips with what I perceived to be kind smiles, they tag-teamed a sneak attack - one brought fried ice cream and sang, while the other approached from behind - stealthily, mind you, and smashed whipped cream into my face! No one had any idea, and as you can see in the middle picture, my mom reeeeeally enjoyed the surprise.

It was hilarious and a lot of fun! It was the first time all of us had spent some time together since JANUARY (yikes - we live 5 minutes apart!), and it was wonderful to laugh, talk, and...get treated so kindly by the wait staff. We missed Mandy that night and I wish she could have been there, but the little twit is in Florida, probably reading a trashy magazine on the beach while the rest of us are running in and out of buildings in the godforsaken rain and cold. I'm looking forward to seeing her in a few weeks, though, when I go visit for SPRING BREAK!

The Cost of Open-Toes

With Springtime comes the arrival of my FAVORITE accessory - open-toed shoes. The unfortunate side effect of my beloved wedges, mod-clogs, stilletos, and sandals is the cost incurred by toenails that have been forgotten over the long, dark winter. Suddenly, they are shoved out into the world and put on display for the rite of passage of female-inspection. Whether stated or implied, all girls learn the rules of the pedicure somewhere around junior high school. For some, the lesson is learned by the words of a kind, well-manicured mother. For others, it is learned in the cruel confines of the locker room. For me, the lesson was the latter. I shudder still when I think about my winter-worn toes, making their debut in Mrs. Fetrel's PE Locker Room as we began changing into PE shoes. I took off my socks and my little toes clung to whatever warmth they could find, which happened to be bits of cotton fuzz my socks left behind. There, on my toenails, remained the chipped remains of Wet n Wild's fire red, number 812, that I had applied approximately 6 months earlier for the Back-to-School Dance. It was then that I noticed the other fuschia, magenta, and shiny purple tonails surrounding mine, accusing them of a breach against a girl-rule I hadn't yet learned: When you hit late February, the toes must be prepared. I cringe when I think of the humiliation of my little appendages that cold day in March, 1994, but it was then and there I vowed to make them proud to go bare among their fellow toenail friends and never have to curl away into the shadows of the locker room benches again.

That memory in mind, Abbie, Allison, Jayme, Lydia, and I all went to Jackie's Nails to begin preparations for open-toe season the way some men prepare for open-season on deer or ducks or whatever. Jayme must have known it was an important day, because she brought the necessary celebratory supplies: Solo cups and Riesling. We had such a great time pseudo-bonding with the people rubbing our feet (which is a rather intimate procedure when you think about how little you really get to know each other before the groping and rubbing begins) and talking about plans for a couples' cruise. We also enjoyed the rather...unique...massage chairs, but that's a story for another time...

Thanks, girls, for a great day! And please, let's be true friends to each other and gently remind when the polish begins to chip so we aren't reminded by the awkward stares of strangers. XO

Girls' Weekend!

This weekend, my friends Maria (Braham Fam), Krista (Ruddology), and Jenn (I Barely Have Time for Facebook, So Blogging is Out) all came to visit! Krista and I have been friends since 1997 (wow!) and Maria, Jenn and I met the following year. We don't get to see each other as often as we'd like, but when we get together, we always have a great time.

The girls arrived at about 7 on Friday, and we spent a lot of time lounging in our pjs, eating, talking, laughing, crying, and basically being girls. We stayed up talking all night on Friday and slept in on saturdya morning, a rare treat for all of us, for very different reasons. Krista is used to getting up with her two adorable boys, Lucas and Tyler; Jenn is usually on the road or running errands on Saturdays; Maria spends every other weekend with Craig's kids, Ethan and Julia; and I don't really have an excuse for not sleeping in except we have very rotten dogs. Regardless, it was bliss to sleep in and then wake up to muffins Shonn made for us. (He's amazing.)

We sat around and talked until about noon on Saturday, and then got enough energy to go shopping in Tuscola. (Krista's promise of a 20% off coupon at the Coach Outlet might have been the motivation we needed.) We had success at Coach and also loved the Bath and Body Works Outlet (for up to 75% off every day!) as well as Old Navy and Gap. The shopping trip was a resounding success, but the stop for caffeine at the Tuscola McDonald's was, well....confusing. It took about 6 times of ordering and passing items back and forth through the drive-thru window (as pictured in the collage) before we got our surely spit-in coffees.

Although we had ambitious plans to doll ourselves up and go out to Jibby's, slowly the idea of ordering in Monical's Pizza became increasingly appealing. (Apparently, Doug Wilson was not enough motivation in order to get us out in the cold.) Instead, the call of Monical's red dressing won out and we ordered pizza, salad, and had wine. (The girls brought pleeeennnn-ty.)

We ended up crawling back into our pjs, which were the standard uniform of the weekend, watching Confessions of a Shopaholic AND the original Footloose. (Kevin Bacon = adorable.) (I need to give a shout-out to Shonn for walking me through the using-Netflix step-by-step guide, which allowed us to have this enjoyable movie-watching experience. This might also be an opportune time for an additional shout out for his overall patience and interest in fishing or all things out-of-the-house this weekend.)

The weekend went by too quickly, and before we knew it, we were headed back into our own very unique, very different lives. Maria took the train back to Chicago and her husband, Krista headed south on I-70 to Edwardsville and her family, and Jenn returned to the suburbs and her busy life with family, friends, and work. This weekend was a great deep breath from our too-busy lives - a chance to remember how we became friends and a reminder of why we choose to stay friends. These three women are very special and important to me. And even though we come from and return to different places and different lives, I know we will always remain close.

xoxox