May 13

Today I went down and did the Y-Me 5K walk with my friend Amy and her family. I almost didn't make it, I woke up at 8 and had to make Mike take me down there ;c) It was fun and her family had a BBQ afterward. It was Yum-o for sure.

Walking toward the finish line

Papa Choate, Choater, and Mama Choate cross the finish line!

May 12

Today I was in Indiana for my cousin Stephanie's wedding. Here are some shots from the wedding.

Little Brian walks Steph down the aisle

Steph and Jeremy
Steph's son Jayden and Jeremy's daugher Marissa
Aunt Sheri teaches me how to knit at the reception

The cousins (top row: Zach, Adam, Brian, Sarah, Steph and Jay, bottom row: Katie and I) Only missing Whitney and Sabrina!

It was good to see the family!

May 11

No picture today, nothing fun going on!

May 10

Tonight we had some time to kill before Mike met the boys at Gibson's for the NCAA tournament bet payoff dinner. So we went to Ditka's for a few cocktails. I had never been there before and I really liked it (minus all the cigar smoke). It was a nice place, the food and Ditka-branded wine were really great. I would recommend the Mike Ditka Pinot Grigio. ;c) In fact, I am totally going to go buy some.

May 9 - Happy National Choater Day!

Tonight we went to the Cubs game for Choater's Birthday. It was a lot of fun. I mean, c'mon, any day I can have a footlong chili cheese dog makes me a pretty happy camper (although I am less than excited about the nutritionals that I just looked up on aforementioned chili cheese dog). She had almost 40 people there in our group for her B-Day! It was a fun group and we had pretty good seats (200 level), so it was a good time.
For Choater's birthday present, Tracy took charge and got Choater's name on the Billboard. It was pretty cool, I have to admit. And the perfect present for the die-hard Cubs fan.

Happy Birthday, Choater!!!

May 8

Just another quiet night in the Wrigleyville neighborhood.

Indy Canal

A great picture I took of the canal in downtown Indy after the mini. So beautiful.

May 7

The invitations are DONE, man! (if by done you mean "all ribbons have been tied")

May 6

Today after we got back to Chicago, Emily and I went shopping and then hit up a wine-tasting class at Bin 36. It was really great, I want to go to more classes! The woman that taught the class had a lot of personality and was very approachable. We are having her into our office to run a class in a few weeks, and I am excited for the event.

The red selections

Emily, taking advantage of the fact that I drove to wine class and therefore couldn't finish my own selections

May 5

Trying to put on a brave face before a 2 1/2 hour run

Tracy told me at dinner on Friday night that we graduated five years ago today (May 5). To me, it's kind of fitting that today I ran the mini-marathon. Both the college graduation and mini-marathon were pretty big accomplishments for me. I was the kid in high school that failed the President's Physical Challenge solely on my mile-time alone. I was the kid who didn't play any sports because I was so uncoordinated that anything I did would require hardcore practice to even be mediocre at. And I was way too ADD for hardcore practice on anything. I quit everything from piano lessons to softball and never looked back. I don't even really know if I was good at being social back then, which would mean I wasn't really good at anything except for the actual schoolwork. I look at my socialness as something I have gotten better at over time - if I can make people laugh then maybe they won't judge me based on my sports ability and awkwardness in some social situations. Failure and rejection is scary to everyone - and is the reason that I don't try and accomplish some of the things that I most want. I don't want to ever feel like that kid that didn't get into the National Honor Society even though she was ranked third in her class again. But to actually accomplish anything, I need to put myself out there. That is what I decided to do with this. As childhood issues go, mine are on the light side, I will admit. I have lived (and still do live!) a very charmed and blessed life. But the lack of athleticism is something I have wanted to improve for a long time.

So, today I ran my first real race, and did pretty well. I'm not too sore and just have one blister to show for it. My time was 2 hours 33 minutes and 24 seconds. That is a pace of 11:43 minute miles - my goal was anything under 12 minute miles. And I did it!

A pic of me crossing the finish line (that's me, with the big red arrow and circle!)

May 4

A photo from the expo while picking up my race packet!

May 3

Last run before the mini-marathon. I was feeling pretty momentous, so I took a pic.

May 2

A few pics I took on the way back to my client from the Speech Therapist. My vocal chords, they are ADD! Vocal chord retraining makes me feel like a giant tool.

May 1

Happy May Day!!

Here is a pic of me posing in my fancy new shades.
Please also note: bad post-workout hair and shirt that has says "Don't drink and Dial" below the picture that you can see. I love that shirt.

April 30

Nothing quite like a completely finished to-do list on a Monday! Unfortunately this list doesn't include the massive list of to-do's associated with getting the wedding invites out the door. Doh!

April 29

Holy cow, today was a BUSY day. I also spent, like, a million gajillion dollars. Here is what I bought:

• Rehearsal Dinner Dress from Anthropolgie
• Dressy Spring jacket (Michael Kors at Nordstrom Rack. Awesome.)
• Outlet Mall stuff including new Coach wallet, sunglasses, and all kinds of clothes (As a sidenote, Beth is one of the best shopping partners of all time. She's totally just like me - go in, look around, don't waste time, try on and get out. Power shopper extraordinaire.)
  

So yeah, I spent alot of money, but I have summer clothes and the four big ticket items that I wanted purchased. Let summer begin!

Mike and I also had lunch at Harmony Grill with his Dad, stepmom Vicki, sister Andrea, and cousin Shelly. That was fun, and we walked all over Wrigley and then drove downtown to see his other sister Ashlee at work. We were going to take our engagement pictures and set off from Washington and State to walk to the Museum Campus. By the time we got to Lakeshore, Mike was sweaty and grouchy, I was sweaty and my hair looked awful, and we were both just ready to throw in the towel. So we decided to go home. But not before we got this one, which I love:
We've made another date in a few weeks to try to take more at the Museum Campus, so hopefully those will turn out well.

April 28

Today was the 10 mile run day and one week away from the Indy Mini Marathon that I'm doing on Saturday, May 4th. It's my first race any longer than 5 miles, and certainly the only one that I have seriously trained for. I am very excited and can hardly wait. The 10 mile run went well and I seem to be keeping up with the 12 minute mile pace pretty decently, so that bodes very well for my future.

I have a lot of fun events coming up, so hopefully the pictures will be far more interesting from here on out.

I want to try and take Mike and I's engagement pictures with my Nikon D50, so I experimented with depth-of-field today:

April 27 - Happy Hour and Running!

Today after work (OK, so if we went at 3:30, is it still 'after work'?) we went to happy hour for Val's going-away party. So sad, we will miss her, but she is going to the client I am at now so I will see her even more!

The Happy Hour Crew

Nick doing God-knows-what

After Happy Hour, Beth and I hit the gym for a 5 mile run. Almost to the mini! So close... For dinner, Mike and I went to Leona's for some pasta and the biggest sundae I have ever seen. I would highly recommend the brownie-cake sundae.

April 25 and April 26

Gah, with the forgetting photos. Mike was out of town on business both Wednesday and the bulk of Thursday, and true to form I didn't do much other than work, go to the gym, and eat. On Thursday, our power went out around 8 and I heard an explosion - I'm pretty sure a transformer blew up down the street or something. After realizing that the whole block was out, I called Chadly and Rogus and popped down the street for some Grey's Anatomy. Fun times!

So since I forgot to take pictures, I figured I would post a few pics I already had.

This first one is of my Dad and Ditka. Dad saw Ditka at O'Hare and just had to take a picture. Awesome!

The bluescreen I get ALL. THE. FREAKING. TIME.
That's it for now. I have a ten mile run this weekend, wish me luck.

April 24

Emily and I were walking up Michigan Avenue, and I finally saw one of the R2D2 mailboxes when I had my camera with me.... how cool is this thing? We also went to BodyWorlds tonight, but they didn't allow any picture-taking, so this is the only picture you get from me for the day. But I can tell you that the exhibit is super freaking cool and I would totally recommend going. There are all kinds of different bodies preserved by this plastination process, which was awesome. And there were all kinds of examples of different body parts, affected by cancer or smoking or stroke or whatnot. It was VERY interesting to see how a normal organ would look and then how it would look with something like that affecting it, not to mention the full-body plastinates were just unreal-looking.

April 23

The new website I'm using to track my calories and exercise, The Daily Plate. Pretty cool stuff.

April 22

Today was a relaxing day... just chilling around town.

With Chad and Mike and Southport Lanes. Nothing like an afternoon cheeseburger.

Who has been eating orange popsicles? I have no idea who.

The kabobs I made for Sunday dinner at the Boy's house. These are just the leftovers, I made a ton of them.

April 21

On Saturday, we did the Junior Achievement Bowlathon. It was a pretty good time, except our team lost and we had to sing "I'm a little teapot" right there in the bowling alley. ;c)

April 20

Tonight we hit Kirkwood, the Lincoln Park IU bar, for a little happy hour and general fun. It was a good time, except they took our table at 10PM. Jerks! But I just love the food at Kirkwood, it's yummy.

Amy, Me, and Emily

Chad, me, and Rogus

April 19

See that $20 in my shoe pocket? That means I didn't have to ditch out on my run and catch a cab. Go me, 9 miles along the lakefront and around downtown!

April 18

On the agenda for tonight, some LOST. It's getting great!!!

April 17

Do you ever wish that you had an internal camera? Something to store an image just the way you see it, or to take a picture that is available NOW and not five seconds from now when you can fumble your camera out of your purse, or when you want to inconspicuously take a picture without being noticed? I do that all the time - mostly on the El or around the city when I see people in particularly horrendous outfits, or when I'm driving or on the bus and see something beautiful.

Anyways, this morning, we were driving to work and we saw a bright spot on Lake Michigan. The morning was a bit overcast and there was one spot where the sun had broken through the clouds and it looked like the kind of sunbeams that you imagine with angels, or something. But it was really beautiful. I don't think my photography skillz would have done it justice regardless, so it's probably better I didn't try and get a pic of it. The skillz would not have done justice to the 100% pleather outfit I saw out on the street either, but that's neither here nor there.

So THAT is my picture of the day. While I didn't capture it digitally, I did capture it in my head. And it was more beautiful than anything else I saw today, so it wins!

April 16

On Monday, I went back to Northwestern to see another doctor (this time a head-neck guy, someone in Otolaryngology, I believe), to try and clear up the mysterious case of "Why a 27 year old would get croup." For now, we're going to go with a combo one-two punch of acid reflux (which I very rarely, if ever, actually feel) and disfunctional vocal chords, because he is the doctor and I have no freaking clue.

On the way in, I see multiple instances of this: some HUGE car (hello, this one is a Navigator) parked in a spot marked "Small Car ONLY", pretty much taking up two spaces. This guy was monopolizing the one to his right, and leaving the one to the left pretty much open, which is more than I can say for most folks. The Northwestern parking garage is the biggest cluster I have ever seen: people parking crappy, driving slow, driving fast, not watching, etc. Pretty much any bad driving you can think of.

And, for your enjoyment, part of the conversation with my doctor:

Doc: Do you ever get out of breath when you run?

Me: No more than anyone else, I would think. Isn't that kind of the point?

Doc: Well, some get out of breath worse than others. Or it's more of a gasping.
Me: I don't think so. But then again I don't run very fast. I'm currently at a 12 minute mile.

Doc: 12 minutes? I am no expert on running or anything, but that is very SLOW.
Me: Thanks

Doc: No, I just mean, do you go slow so you don't get out of breath?
Me: I don't know. I just go slow.

Doc: Did you ever get out of breath doing sports as a kid?
Me: I didn't really do sports as a kid.

Doc: What do you mean? Everyone does a sport as a kid. Did you not do sports because you got out-of-breath?
Me: No, I didn't do sports because I'm just not very sporty. I just recently learned how to use an elliptical machine without falling off. I am very uncoordinated.

Doc: ... (Blank stare. Wonders how people like me exist)

Med student who is observing: (understanding nod- Seems like the kind of guy who wouldn't do sports as a kid either)

April 15

Seriously? Organic Rice Krispies and Mini Wheats? The funniest thing was is that they were priced much cheaper than the regular version... must not be too popular of an item!

April 14

AGAIN with the forgetting to take a picture. Today I spent largely on the couch, fighting off a nasty cold and a nastier hangover.

BUT Chicago won the U.S. 2016 Olympic bid! Yay!

April 13

Today we went bowling with the work crew. This is Beth showing off the special beer bottles at the bowling alley. How cool are they?

April 12

Aren't these the most sullen, weird-looking mannequins you have ever done seen? Good job, Macy's on State (RIP Marshall Fields)!

April 11

Seriously? Gah. Spring is my favorite season, and it looks like we're not getting one of those this year in Chicago.

April 10

Tonight, Cory and I hit a training dinner at Morton's. Yum-O!

Taking being "That Girl" to a whole new level

Things I have purchased very recently:
-Pink ipod shuffle (1G! Great for the running! If it ever does get warm....)
-Pink underarmour tank to wear for mini-marathon
-Pink underarmour sports bra (OF COURSE to go with the pink tank top! Duh!)

I think I need to go to "Pink Stuff Rehab"

I also forgot to take a picture! BAD MONKEY!!!

April 8

Today we celebrated Easter by going to church at Pisgah (where Mike went to church in high school). Mike's friend Dale's wife is very sick, and any prayers for him and his wife would be greatly appreciated! Then, we went to lunch at Grandma Hoch's, and dinner (@ 4! I am surprised I was able to eat!) at Grandma and Grandpa Kovacs' house. All the food was so good, and I got a good pic of Aydan:

Then, we were driving back to Chicago and I got some good shots of the skyline and Soldier Field: