Awesome

Awesome:

My wedding bouquet is included in a post on sfgirlbybay this morning! How cool is that? I love her blog. It makes me crave another trip to San Francisco. (Pssst. I might get to go in January.)



I met with a couple friends last night who are starting a business that specializes in designing closet systems for shoe gals. I helped them out with some photo services so they're going to help pimp my 8 cubic foot closet.



Of my list of 5 things to finish this week, I've so far finished 3. Niiiiice.

I'm going to Kansas City to shop with a couple girl friends over Labor Day. Better get some of those invoices sent out so mama has some spending cash...

Well, hello!

Oh, hi there, Dottie Girl Tote!

How are you?

I'm well.

What's that? You want me to buy you?

Okay... If you insist... Just don't tell my husband, okay?

Khaki Dreams

I had a truly funny dream last night that I was dating the fictional man Vincent Chase, not to be confused with the real person Adrian Grenier. We were at some fancy restaurant with Ari for lunch and the waitress started coping attitude with me. She was saying that I wasn't "a ten" and shouldn't be with Vince, she wanted to bone him, blah blah blah. I said to her, "You think you should be with him, not me? Then explain to me why I'm having lunch with him and you're serving us iced tea in pleated front khaki pants."

Aw snap! That'll teach slutty waitresses to mess with my man. Also, who knew my hostility toward khaki extended that far into my sub-conscience?

Easiest Freaking Homemade Ice Cream in the World

I cannot believe this. Sugar free, fat free, everything free, one ingredient homemade ice cream. I will be stopping at the store today to buy the ripest bananas I can find...

How To Make Creamy Ice Cream With Just One Ingredient

Chicago - Day Two

The next morning we filled our guts with Dunkin Donuts blueberry coffee and checked out of the hotel. How awesome is it that it cost $89 for the room and $22 for parking? We didn't really have anywhere to go or anything to do, so we drove downtown and just walked around for a while.

We walked to the Navy Pier...





Where I had my picture taken standing on yet another pier.



What is it about standing on a dock overlooking a body of water that is so interesting to those of us that are land locked? Seriously, here's pretty much the exact same picture of me in San Francisco at Pier 39:



Navy Pier is boring so we left and thought we'd go up to the new sky deck at the Sears Tower but we chickened out after viewing the building from the ground.



So, we went and got Portillo's instead.



I have to pause for a minute and explain what Portillo's means to my family. My mom's family lives outside Chicago and from the earliest memories I have of visiting them, I remember eating Portillo's. After stopping at my aunt and uncle's house, it was always the second place we would go when we got to Bolingbrook. Then after the invention of cell phones, it became the first. We'd pull onto Boughton Road, call and get everyone's order, and pick it up on the way to their house. Portillo's hotdogs and Italian beefs are two of the most delicious things in the world. Bar none.

After eating we were ready to go home. Leaving Chicago is a pain in the ass though. It took about 90 minutes longer to get home than it did to get there. But we got to check out the Iowa sunset on the way home so that was sort of okay.

Chicago - Day One

Matt and I went to Chicago on Thursday for a Brendan Benson concert.

Ahh. Mazing.

The drive out was uneventful, other than paying roughly $84.75 in road tolls and me screaming, "OMG, Kate Spade outlet! Shut Up!" somewhere outside Chicago. But otherwise, a boring seven hours.

We stayed at the City Suites Hotel since it was blocks away from the show. It was an average place - not nearly as nice as it looks in the photos but not scary enough to make me run screaming from the premises. They did have some amazingly beautiful charcoal gray velvet duvets that I was afraid to touch. I did give one a little pat and it was super soft. Probably covered in semen and staphylococcus, but yes, super soft.



After we got everything settled in we walked around the corner to The Chicago Diner. I read about it on Princess Lasertron's blog and then it turned out to be right there, so we checked it out. Matt had seitan enchiladas and I had sweet potato quesadillas. His was fantastic and mine tasted like someone put baby food in my lunch. I would definitely eat there again though. The beans, guacamole, and salsa were fantastic.

After eating we took a nap in our room, watched part of Cocktail (the worst movie ever made thank you very much 80s Tom Cruise), and got buzzed on a bottle of wine. Then the following series of events took place which resulted in my husband being the happiest man alive:

(Sorry, Jen. If you're reading this you'll have to deal with hearing this story one more time.)

We were planning on walking to Schuba's where the show was, but after talking to my dad and having him essentially convince me that I would be abducted and murdered if I walked anywhere in Chicago, we got a cab. So we took the 45 second cab ride to the bar and got there 15 minutes earlier than planned. We sat down in the last 2 seats at the end of the bar, ordered beers (Chicago loves its Stella), and as we were reaching into our pockets to pay for them... the power for the entire block went out. Brendan Benson had two shows that night, and the first show was in its encore when it was cut short. It was about 8:50, we weren't sure what was going on, it was chaotic... I turned around to look out the window behind me just as Brendan was walking behind us. I nudged Matt to turn around but he ducked into the back room through to a door next to us.

Then he stuck his head back out.

And then my husband yelled to him, "You're the shit! We drove here from Omaha to see you tonight."

And Brendan said, "Thanks man, that's awesome!"

And then my husband fell a little bit more in love with Brendan Benson and called all his friends in the dark to tell them the story I just told you.

It took about 40 minutes for the power to come back on, but if it hadn't gone out in the first place, Matt wouldn't have gotten to give a shout out to his idol. Everything starting with the phone call to my Dad to the power going out was one huge case of happenstance.

The show was super fucking fantastic. We were about four feet back from The Man as evidenced by this grainy camera phone picture:



Turns out I could have brought my entire camera set up into the bar and no one would have stopped me. But that's okay. I didn't really need photos. I stole the gig poster out of the bathroom and had it in my bag. :)

Yawn. Monday Morning...

It's a short workweek for me. Matt and I are going to Chicago later in the week to see Brendan Benson...

Friday night Matt and I saw District 9. (I kept calling it 9th Ward. Oops.) For the first time ever in my experience, the movie didn't start on time. It started nearly 15 minutes late. It was like being stuck in a plane on the runway with 500 teenagers on board. (Loud, hot, cell phones going off, everyone getting tense, no alcohol.)

Saturday night I went out with some girls. It was declared to be a Dress to Impress night, which in Omaha equates to upgrading your black flip-flops to the pair with glitter. No one ever dresses up in this city. Which, don't get me wrong, I greatly appreciate a Sunday afternoon. But sometimes a girl just wants to look good. I went all-out and wore my birthday dress, black Betseyville shoes with big plastic bows on the vamps, a snake cocktail ring, oversized pearl necklace, polkadot purse, and bright red shiny lipstick. I looked like a hybrid of goth/pin-up/Minnie Mouse. I officially managed to impress one man at a bar who told me, "Your dress is fucking awesome." Mission accomplished.

Later Saturday night (approximately 11:00PM - officially marking my oldness) I shed my Hot Topic couture in favor of pjs and sat in bed with Dingo eating Sonic onion rings, watching DVRd episodes of LA Ink. It was heavenly.

Sunday morning I ran with Jen. We did 7 miles in 66 minutes which is probably a world record or something. I never payed attention to my time in the past, but that's because a 7 mile run took me 90 minutes. I never thought I'd be able to run at this pace, ever. At least not without a bionic leg transplant. We also decided to register for a mini triathlon with the UNO women's athletics department. It's a 100 yard swim, 6 mile or under bike ride, and 1.5 mile or under run. There are no times or awards so we thought it would be a good way to test out a little triathlon to see how it goes. Lifejackets are allowed in the lake so you can bet your ass I'll be taking advantage of that. I have not swam since junior high and I'm not going to rely on memory to keep me from drowning in a dirty lake.