Happy Birthday Lauren!

I feel  very fortunate to have three ridiculously awesome siblings.  I also feel fortunate that now that I am back in Chicago, I can see them anytime I want to.

Today is Lauren's 26th birthday!  Happy birthday Lauren!!!  Welcome to the downhill slide of your twenties. :)

Goals Update: April

I have a feeling it is going to be my birthday (and thus - halfway through the year) before I know it!  April seems to have been a blur.

Here's my goals update:

1. WORK ON MY 101 IN 1,001 LIST - If I could remember to take pictures, I could check off a few more things.  Little bit little.  I'm getting there.

2. SAY "YES" MORE OFTEN - Brooke loves to remind me that I still regularly say 'no' to her.  My post the other day detailed why I'm struggling more than I want to on this one. I WILL address the house situation and get better at this soon.

3. SAVE, SAVE, SAVE - Considering I had to pay $1,900 to move my POD to IL, I'm feeling pretty good about this.  I chunked away a portion of each paycheck I received that still didn't have any insurance payments on it yet.  The last one of those was last Friday.  Now, I will have to re-evaluate what I have available with my new paycheck and make some automatic deposits from there.  


The biggest hurdle for me right now is dealing with the house.  I NEED to get rid of it and move on.  Which means, I am going to have to be heavy-handed with the ex.  Good times.

#4 Best Thing about living in Chicago

What seems like ages ago (okay, at least 7 years), we - Amanda, Brooke and I - discovered our favorite restaurant in Chicago....

Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba!

website

Anytime we had a special occasion to celebrate or a reason to head out to Chicago, we went there.  It is a Spanish tapas place with sangria on tap.  ON TAP!

Even when we would all have our "reunion" weekends in Chicago, we would make our way there at one point or another.  We have tons of jokes that come from nights at Ba-ba-reeba.  I've taken my siblings there.  I plan to take my DC friends there when we they visit.  I just love it.

While I lived in DC, I could never find a tapas place that I liked better (from the perspective of food AND drinks). 

Being back in Chicago means that I can to to Ba-ba-reeba whenever I want.  Like tonight!

Brooke and I are having a little birthday dinner tonight at our historical haunt.  Can't wait!

Pinterest

Here I am, minding my own business... browsing through my pinterest account.  Checking out what people have pinned while I was away, and what do I stumble upon.

yeah.  I got pinned (thanks Sarah!).  Makes me feel so special.  Also....  right about now would be a good time to start taking better photos.  :)

Happy Birthday Brooke!

Today officially marks Brooke's 30th birthday.  Now leaving me as the lone 29 year old of our gruesome threesome (since Amanda turned 30 last week).

I'm going to love hanging this over their heads until July! :)

Happy birthday Brooke.  Love you!

*Cabo 2011

Frustrated

I want to preface this post by saying that I LOVE my family and I'm so grateful that Samson and I am able to crash at my parents place until I get the house sorted in MD.

That being said, I'm frustrated.  Living in Evanston is wonderful.  It's close enough to the city that the "it's too far to get to" excuse doesn't apply.  But it's just far enough away that it is irritating to attend things.

On Saturday, I drove up and back from downtown twice.  It wasted a good chunk of my day.

Seeing my parents (when they are in town) is nice.  It's nice to not have to sit and eat dinner alone or watch a TV show alone.

But....

I want to say YES more. (It's one of my goals for the year). I want to go out more.  Hit up happy hours on a week day.  Workout with Brooke. But I can't.  I want to start dating.  Really.

I know that some things need to be worked around with Samson, but living downtown would help that.  I could stop home and walk him and catch a cab to head out (or whatever the situation is).  Now, I have to get home, walk Samson and drive somewhere.  Then there's dealing with parking and driving all the way back up to Evanston at the end of the night.

I have got to get something moving soon.  Ideally, I would like to be in a place in the city by the summer.  For sure by my birthday.

Weekend Wrap Up

Why is it that the weekends seem to FLY by and the week does not?

Friday evening I spend majority of my time updating my business logo.  For a few reasons, but primarily because I needed something new to help rejuvenate my interest in that project.  Plus, I do have a few things on my 101 list that directly relate to my business.

On Saturday afternoon, Brooke and I headed out to UIC to see my old coach/friend, Ray and watch NIU play for a bit.  They didn't play very well overall, but there were bits of good playing here and there.  It was so nice to catch up with Ray.  We had a good time laughing and doing out best to keep Ray's spirits high while we were there.

Then, Saturday evening, I met up with Brooke and headed out to Sprangers' fundraiser for her vball team.  There were several people from NIU there that I haven't seen since we graduated.  It was great to reconnect with people.  I had a good time.

Getting home at 4am and waking up at 8, but less fun.  Thankfully, my mom walked Samson.  Sunday was spend trying to recover from my lack of sleep.  And then I had my volleyball league.

Tomorrow I had to Atlanta for an overnight work trip.  This weekend we are celebrating Brooke's birthday.  I will try to be better about taking pictures next weekend.

Happy birthday Samson!!!

Samson turns 8 today.  8.  I can't believe it.  It honestly doesn't seem like I have had him for 8 years.

I remember going to visit Barb and the 4 week old puppies and falling in love with the one that sat in the middle of the litter just howling.

I remember having to hide him in our townhouse for the last year of school.  God bless Amanda and Brooke for putting up with puppy Samson.

Eight years old....  still as good looking as ever!

Color Blocking

I stumbled into this outfit today and I actually really like it.  I love when these types of happy accidents happen.

I actually was thisclose to throwing on my white keds and heading to work....  thisclose!

*sweater & skirt - JCrew, belt - Target, shoes - Payless

Happy Birthday Amanda!!!

Out of the "Three Amigos" (Amanda, Brooke and I), Amanda has the fortune of having the earliest birthday of each of us.

You know what that means....  she will be 30 first.  Followed closely by Brooke (next week) and trailing WAY behind :)... me!

Happy Birthday Amanda.  Love you to pieces!

*Cabo 2011

Work Outing Day

Today, my office is having a company retreat... at Top Golf.

A meeting and lunch followed by a rousing competition.

It's also supposed to be 70 degrees out today.  I tried to dress appropriately.

*top & cardigan - Jcrew, pants - Gap, shoes - KEDS

My LA Artwork

Remember when I posted about my trip to Palm Springs (two weeks ago) and said I would talk about the artwork I was traveling with the next day?  HA.  Yeah right.

Better late than never I say.

About 5 years ago (maybe closer to 6 at this point), I took a trip to LA to visit Amanda.  We did too many fun things to mention on this blog, but one of the things was to head to an Art Galley that her parents participated with.

While at this event, I ended up purchasing my very first piece of actual art.  It was beautiful and was not that expensive.

Unfortunately, it's been so long I don't really remember who the artist is or what the back story was.  But it's still beautiful.  It's oil on glass.

Here it is.

The picture doesn't do it the best justice, but I tried to show what it looks like with the sunlight coming through it.

Well, because it was on glass, we all agreed that it was probably best if it gets shipped to me and I don't carry it on the plane with me.

Fast forward 5+ years, several unsuccessful attempts to get someone to ship it, and well.... now it is in my hands.

Special thanks to Amanda's family for loving in and holding it for me.

The weekend wrapup

I had lots of plans to get things done over the weekend.  Instead, I accomplished only a few of them.

On Saturday, I headed up to Milwaukee to spend some time with my Markowski side of the family.  I hadn't seen my grandparents yet since I moved, so it was overdue.  The weather was beautiful, so MEM, Terri and I ran a few quick errands and then played some mini-golf.  I lost by the way.... terribly.

Then MEM and I played lawn golf for a while before we headed over to my grandparents for dinner.

Then on Sunday, I was going to be productive.  I was going to work on revitalizing my business blog. I was going to take photos of things in anticipation of posting to this blog.  Instead, I did laundry, went to the grocery store with my mom and read.  A lot.

Also, on Sunday was my first night at my new volleyball league.  I was told it was an intermediate league, so I was prepared for what I thought it was be like (similar to the intermediate league I had subbed for in DC).  Boy, was I wrong!!!  This volleyball was essentially indoor backyard volleyball.  The people are nice, but this is going to be a long 6 weeks of the season.  Needless to say, I don't think I will be playing again after this.

The only saving grace was that Brooke, Brendan and his two friends showed up and were loud and rowdy.  It caused a few extra laughs (and some not so happy opponents).

Oh well.

I [heart] Chicago!

Pretty awesome.

Places in Time: Chicago from Chris Pritchard on Vimeo.

Friday the 13th

If you had asked me at the beginning of the year what I would be doing today, I would've told you I would be in Houston running around like crazy running a conference.

Instead, I am here... at work, in jeans.  I'll most likely have drinks with Brooke.

Definitely not what I expected.

I received a slew of text messages late last night from old coworkers.  They were all down in Houston, out together, and all texting me.

I miss them.

So today (in addition to an outfit photo), is my "I miss my old coworkers" day.

*sweater - Express, shirt - JCrew, jeans - Bitten (old), shoes - Target (just got them last weekend)

April - the worst weather month

Come on Spring!!!  I'm really tired of trying to straddle the line between winter and spring.  As you can see, I'm starting to struggle a bit.  Really, I just wanted to wear these shoes, and it's supposed to be in the 60s today.

*tank - Jcrew, sweater - Express, jeans - Bitten (old), shoes - Nordstrom

PODS

I know I have mentioned that when dealing with putting the house on the market and moving, I used PODS to store and move majority of my belongings.  While there have been ups and downs, they have really been great.

Great and easy, but EXPENSIVE.

Today I bit the bullet and had my POD sent to IL to be stored here.  It cost me $1,900 (thanks to the discount the girl gave me).

So while I still don't have my own place and am living in limbo, I least I can drive to Bensonville and admire my things in storage anytime I want to. :)

House Update

It's been a long time since I've written an update about the house.  Why?  Because there has been barely any progress. 

I'm going to update in bullet points to try to give you the best understanding of what this process has been like.

1. October - put house on the market
2. November - send offer to bank
3. Bank declined offer, said they wanted $14K more
4. We appeal the appraisal price and provide comps from the neighborhood that are well below the offer price
5. Bank asks for more comps
6. Send additional comps
7. Bank rejects our request and stands at their $14K increase
8. Go back to buyer with bank's decision
9. Buyer says "no way, not worth more than the offer", sends MORE comps to the bank
10. Bank rejects their request - stands at $14K more
11. My title attorney says he hasn't heard from the bank in over a week - also happening with 3 other clients he's dealing with.
12. Title attorney is now trying to see if the bank would accept their $14K more price WITH $5K in credit to the buyer.  If they accept, my realtor will go back to the buyers with that.

So that's where we are today.  Waiting to see what the bank will say.  Apparently, my title attorney said that several of his clients working with my same bank are in the same situation.  The houses were over appraised and the bank is not bending on any of their prices.

This is not good.  It means we will most likely have to go back on the market at the banks price.  And NO ONE is going to buy my house at that price right now. 

So I'm stuck right now.  If the bank refuses and the buyer backs out, then we are back to square one.  That's going to mean some difficult decisions.  I can't continue to manage the house unattended from halfway across the country.  It's going to mean we either walk away from the house and foreclose, or I suck it up and rent it out with my ex.  Neither of which are good options and the renting (for me, at least) is even worse.

Flip Flopping Weather

My least favorite part about spring is when the weather keeps flip flopping back and forth.  It was in the 80s a couple of weeks ago.  Today... high of 50. 

It makes it impossible to dress.  I'm trying to stay warm (and covered) while still wearing bright springy clothes.

I think this outfit works.  Especially with the sock bun (oh, sock bun... I'm glad you're back). 

Also, when I wear high shoes, I have to slouch to fit in the mirror in my room.  Good stuff. :)

*Jeans - Rock & Republic, shirt & sweater - JCrew Factory, shoes - Nine West Factory, earrings - gift from Lauren

Post Easter

Easter was nice and relaxing.  We "hid" eggs for Kayla.  I use the term "hid" loosely, as they were basically out in the open in all the spots she likes to look at.  She enjoyed opening them and shaking all the treats out.  The dogs like that also.

Kayla really liked the cart that GiGi got her.

Then I made an early dinner for everyone and spent the day watching the Masters.

Kayla also enjoyed bubbles for the first time.

The weather here is that weird high 50s-low 60s with crazy winds.  It makes it really difficult to get dressed.  I thought I would bust out my new green pants today.  I bought them at Gap after I finally found my royal blue pants.  Last weekend, they had them in a bunch of new colors.

Colored pants are awesome!!!

*pants - Gap, shirt & sweater - JCrew, shoes - Target (old)

#3 Best Thing about living in Chicago

Since I have moved to Chicago (a little over a month ago), I have had to fill up my gas tank twice.

TWICE.

When I was in Maryland, I had to fill up at least once a week, usually every 5-6 days.

With gas prices at $4.50 a gallon, my wallet is thankful for this change!!!

Head Shots - The best of them

Remember when I first mentioned that I had to have head shots taken at work?

Well, they finally were ready for each of us to pick our favorite three.  From there, the creative department were going to crop them close and pick the one that would work best for all the office collateral.

Being the good blogger I am, I captured my top five, cropped them so you would have a better idea of what the final product might look like, and am posting them on the internet.  I may regret this later. :)

Below are my top five (sketchy cropping by me).

These were the top three that I chose for them.

 Not bad huh?  Our Production manager went through and did a little touching up under the eyes and smoothed my chin up in the one where I am smiling.

Now the only remaining question is.... how did the video turn out?!

Miss Kayla

I needed a good laugh this morning.  This totally did it.

I few weeks ago when we were visiting Melissa and Justin and Kayla, Kayla was fascinated by the things floating around in my drink.  This video only captures 1.36 minutes of the 5 minutes of entertainment.

Palm Springs

Sorry for the unexpected silence the last few days.  I can't remember if I mentioned it here or not, but I had to head out to Palm Springs to handle my first site visit at my job.

My flight on Friday night was delayed by over two hours out of O'Hare because of bad weather in the morning that pushed everything back.  Luckily, I was nice to the customer service person at the airport and she got me on the already overly booked and delayed flight that was leaving 15 mins from now.  I pulled a runner across the airport and was able to get there and secure my new ticket with time to spare.  After that fiasco, and the number of people that were unsuccessful flying standby, I was willing to deal with my middle seat.  Even if I sat by the "guy who has to sit with his legs apart and his arms all over the armrest" and the "woman who wouldn't stop shaking her leg".

I arrived in Palm Springs at 11:45pm.  Just in time to say hello to Amanda and head back to her parents house.

The best thing about this trip was that Amanda was able to come down and stay for the weekend, and her parents and sister were there as well.  It was a family reunion of sorts for me because I had not seen her family in at least 5 years.

We had a lot of fun wandering around doing some shopping, hitting the Living Desert, and just have a relaxing time chatting and catching up.  I did manage to snag a few photos.

First, after dinner Saturday night, we swung into a sunglasses shop.  I was trying on a few regular glasses.  Have I mentioned before that I have glasses envy?  I have good vision and don't need glasses, but I wish I did. I love how nice people look wearing glasses.  I found a nice pair that I had to snag a photo for proof that I really have the "face" for glasses. :)

Then, on Sunday, we stopped at her family's favorite place.  It's a big resale shop for lots of estate pieces.  They have artwork, furniture, jewelry and other things.  It's seriously an amazing place.  If I lived down there, I could see buying most of my furniture.  I should've done a better job of snapping photos of things.  I did grab a shot of my favorite photo in there.  Shortly after I took this picture, Amanda told me she loved that photo.  Guess just more evidence of why we are friends.  It is so fantastically retro and girly.  If she doesn't buy it soon, I may have her parents buy it for me.  Then I could plan a trip carrying MORE artwork (I'll get to this story tomorrow).

It was titled "Hairdresser" and was framed for $100.

Finally, on Monday, I had to actually WORK on this trip.  So I checked into the hotel I was staying at and took my site visit with my contact.  By 11am, I was finished (God bless the small meetings) and found some time to enjoy this view.... and the pool:

I left early yesterday morning to return to reality.  It was a nice break and so nice to see Amanda and her family.