Breaking Ball

It's been said that there's no crying in baseball. I think the exception occurs when you break your finger at the game.


My lovely finger got to know a baseball quite intimately last night at Wrigley Field during the Brewer's batting practice. In hindsight, what the heck was I trying to do in attempting to catch a ball from our rivals???? I asked myself this question many times over the course of the evening: while trying to stop the cut from bleeding, while trying to eat a hotdog without crying, while receiving a splint in the first aid center, and while being x-rayed after we won the game 5-3. I'm even asking myself WHY as I sit here typing with one hand, and I will probably ask myself the same question when I'm waiting to see my orthopaedic doctor tomorrow. When you see a baseball hurling toward you it seems like a fun idea to catch it, until it ricochets off your finger and lands in the hands of some idiot man who then passes the ball to his idiot girlfriend and not the bleeding woman to his right.

I hope that man to the right is happy with his ball! Since I was having mobility issues I had to give him the finger for the remainder of the game, doctor's orders. They don't call it the friendly confines for nothing!

Homage to the Brewski

I have been working on this beer drawing for a while and it is finally complete. Yay! In the days to come it will be turned into something fabulous...stay tuned!

List Mania!

Here is a snippet into my life: I love making lists! I think it is both a compulsion and a pastime, but what you see above is creative cross-section of the bits of paper floating around my desk at any given time. Scary, I know. Most of my to-do's are to read, to listen to, to watch, to write, etc. The really important stuff gets extracted from a list and obtains a piece of paper all to itself. These notes usually say something like: RENT! and get strategically placed where I have to deal with them. The problem is, I usually find away to work around them. A great example of this is occurring right now as I type. Gee, is that a post-it on my return key? I hadn't noticed.

Who knows why I love lists so much. Maybe it's my love for paper and documenting things, or maybe it's the satisfaction of getting a pen and making that glorious horizontal line through the completed items. Some days, like today, I think a list merely helps give meaning to an otherwise unproductive day. Hurrah! Today I got 2 rolls of quarters, exchanged a pair of jeans, bought soap, and renewed a magazine subscription! Boring? Not if it's crossed off of a list. Now if I can just bring myself to book those plane tickets...

Blowin' In The Wind

A fantasy of mine came true yesterday! I was trapped in an adorable card shop while torrential rain and wind wreaked havoc on Chicago. I couldn't leave, all I could do was BUY MORE CARDS!!!!

It was all fun and games watching the wall of water blow down the street until I returned to my neighborhood and saw the damage that occurred. While switching buses I noticed that a gigantic tree had been uprooted, and then it seemed like every tree everywhere I looked had blown over.



This is just something that you don't see in the city, EVER. I'm a huge baby when it comes to tornadoes, so I figured it was time to get home since the word on the street was another storm was a comin', and a comin' quick! Traffic was horrid and I could see a bunch of sinister clouds rolling in as my bus crept along the street. The downpour started about 4 blocks from my apartment, followed by panic, followed by this sight around the corner from my place, followed by more panic!


I ran home as fast as my slippery, water-soaked flip-flops would take me, hoping I wouldn't blow away, and returned to my apartment to take inventory:
Us Weekly: Dry, Intact, In Mailbox.
Electricity: not so much....

Oh well, you know what they say: nor wind, nor rain shalt keep thee from thine celebrity gossip.

UPDATE:
The news reported that the peak gust in the city of Chicago was clocked at 74mph near Wrigley Field, which is about a 10 minute walk from me and that fallen street sign. The tree that you see uprooted above was one apparently of the largest to fall. This occurred next to the Chicago History Museum who also report a pane of glass blowing out of their revolving door.

Procrastination In Progress

I'm such a procrastinator when it comes to my projects! I think (ok, I KNOW) I have trouble focusing on more than one creative task until the others are complete. This has always been really weird to me since I'm really good at multi-tasking in every other aspect of my life. Oh well, change starts here! This chair had to be put on hold since I have had some art gigs for others that needed to be completed

but now I'm back and ready to tackle that last teeny corner with paint and then lacquer the whole thing! I told myself I wouldn't use it as a chair until it was finished, but that idea went out the window as several months ago when I threw a party. Anyway, operation chair 2007 officially re-starts today! I guess that means I have 15 minutes to work before I go meet friends for dinner. Maybe I'll push back the official start date until tomorrow...oh wait I have lunch plans. Friday! Friday the chair gets painted! Stay tuned.

Goin' To The Chapel

Last night I went to a spectacular wedding in the city. Weddings can be good or bad, but when you have a fun group of people, coupled with an awesome Chicago landmark you are guaranteed a good time! This picture pretty much sums up two reasons weddings are great:

You have an excuse to get a cute manicure and you get to drink free whiskey.

This is pretty much what everyone was doing all night long while they were eating, drinking, dancing, etc.

because this was overhead

The Chicago Cultural Center is so amazing! From the outside you would have no clue that this fortress of a building contains such beautifully detailed architectural elements. I've been obsessed with this building for years, and I have been looking forward to this wedding for ages, even more so when I found out the reception was being held here! The Tiffany dome is quite impressive, especially when you are looking up at it while singing Baby Got Back and twirling around on the dance floor. Oh my gawd Becky, look at that spectacular glass inlay...

Thanks for a fabulous night L&W, and cheers to the happy couple!

I Can't Contain My Excitement!

Tomorrow two of my lovely friends are getting married! The wedding will be fun, but not as fun as buying a box for their wedding gift!

There is only one place I can get a 12x9x1 box for $.99 asap and that is THE CONTAINER STORE! This mecca of organization might just be my most favorite place to spend time.....and money. I usually end up buying way more than I intend; and my shopping basket tends to be a mix of necessary items, like packing tape, and highly expensive, ridiculously unnecessary items, like a box of 25 sandwich bags with flowers printed on them for a mere $6.00. Let's do the math people...that's almost a quarter per baggie! I could walk to the grocery store and buy a gazillion baggies for around $.02 per bag...but they wouldn't have cute flowers on them, now would they? No. They wouldn't. Those baggies made bringing my lunch to work fun for a whole month! Ok fine, less than a month. There were only 25 baggies, remember?

Notice earlier when I said shopping basket. Getting a cart is a big no-no in the How To Shop at The Container Store and Not Spend More Than $100 hand book. If I make it out with a $40 tab I'm usually pretty proud of myself. The problem with this excursion is that my bus ride is going to cost more than my $.99 box. I might need to buy some more stuff to justify the journey. I could ride my bike, but what if I come across something I need and it's too big to bike home? Is there a support group for people like me? Clearly I have a problem.

UPDATE:
I made it out of there and only spent $18. I know, I know...I said I was only getting a $.99 box, but I decided to upgrade (and get some wrapping paper & tissue as well)!


A small price to pay considering how cute the stationary I made looks in the box! Awwwwww...

About Time...

Time is a funny thing isn't it? You either have too much of it, or not enough.

I've meaning to start a blog for a while, but I hadn't had the time. Now I have waaaaaay too much time on my hands and I'm getting restless. Clearly I can't win! I need something to give a little structure to the day. A job? No. A blog? Yes!

I hope this blog will serve excuse to get back into my writing, photography, and art. If nothing it else, it will legitimize my lurking on other people's blogs and give me something more productive to do in the meantime.

Enjoy my random thoughts and ramblings!