today is a good day.

today is good because it's my last day of work until january 7! the university closes today and reopens on january 4th but i'll be in prague till the 6th. oh the joys of working at a university. seriously, it's great. however, i do start to miss my coworkers and have the desire to feel productive after awhile. i could definitely use the break though!

it is also a good day because the bf got his passport!! he lost his original one and had to rush order a new one yesterday. needless to say i've been very upset and stressed since we leave on sunday!!! so now we're all set. as long as he doesn't lose this one...

also, in case anyone was worried i'm starting to regain my memory and organizational skills. must have just been in a funk!

i'll probably be on blog vacation until i return from prague. so happy holidays and happy new year to everyone!

not the sharpest tool in the shed...

usually i'm pretty on top of my shit. i know when i need to be places and what needs to be done when. i can keep a visual calendar in my head and remember dates really well. these days i'm a mess. i'm forgetting one thing after another and screwing up plans all over the place. and i'm forgetting little things here and there. like the gym is closing for maitenance next monday and tuesday - both days i was planning on getting a hardcore work out before the holidays. yesterday i completely forgot i had made dinner plans with a friend for later that night. i was invited to an event earlier this week but i thought it was in january. i messed up training times for a service day i'm leading. seriously, i'm a mess. i'm not sure if it's because i'm on overload with the holiday planning and trip planning or if it's because i'm a little sick or what but i've lost it! i am up to my ears in prague planning, christmas gift shopping, holiday family time and friend time planning and last minute work projects before the holidays. due to my sinus infection/blahness i feel really foggy and i just want to lay down. i hate feeling like i'm dropping the ball so much and hope my ability to stay on top of things returns soon!

anyone else go through these phases????

pros and cons of sick days

so yesterday i took a sick day because i started to feel uber fluish on monday afternoon and my ongoing sinus infection was sucking the life out of me. we get unlimited sick days at work but just need to show a doc note after 3 consecutive days. i NEVER use them. i think i've used 3 full sick days in 2 years and a couple of half days. i totally hate missing work because i feel like im missing something and that there is always something i should be working on. i also get insanely bored and anxious just resting.

yesterday was no different. i felt bad about not being at work and felt as though i should suck it up but i knew i shouldn't spread my germs and should rest. i woke up fairly early at first but then i pretty much got immediately back in bed and slept for another few hours until around 11. then i parked it on the couch. i flipped on the tv from under snuggly blankets and found several wonderful things were on. my favorite: swiss family robinson. that movie just rocks. i went back and forth between that and anthony bourdain: no reservations. good stuff. i drank lots of ginger ale and water and ate toast. i was totally enjoying resting and snuggling thinking i definitely made the right decision to stay home. later on the great outdoors with john candy and true life were on. more good stuff. then around 1 i got antsy. only 2 hours of being up and i began to think how much it sucked being at home. so i showered and checked my email. i did a little work and did a little gchatting to feel connected with the rest of the world. then i got REALLY antsy and decided to make a trip to the store. BAD idea. it was freezing and every second of walking made me feel worse. i walked through treasure island in a haze, bought some fresh soup and hurried home. i ate my soup and then passed out for 2 hours. then the bf got home and took care of me. he served me grilled cheese and let me work on his laptop. he even made the sweets for my office party today.

pros: being taken care of by super sweet bf, watching great day time tv, no line at the store, wearing pjs all day.
cons: my personality does not allow me to relax so i end up making myself worse by not resting enough, i feel disconencted from the world and have a fear or missing something at work, it's boring as hell, there is only so much day time tv a girl can take.

overall i know it was good that i stayed home because i feel better today. but it was the longest day of my life!!! sick days just aren't as fun for me as they were when i was a kid.

the bug that never goes away....

the travel bug! i have it bad. ever since i studied abroad in prague in 2006 i've wanted to take international trips nonstop. during my study abroad program, i was able to visit brno and some other areas in moravia, krakow and vienna. i loved krakow for the jazz scene and vienna for the beautiful gardens and moravia for the wine! after my program ended in prague i went on to lucern in switzerland by myself for several days and survived off a brick of cheese and swiss chocolate. then i briefly went to milan before heading home. it was the best experience of my life and i got to see the most beautiful, outstanding sites and it doomed me for life. because now i can't stop.

pretty much as soon as i got home i began thinking about my next trip. so me and my two very good friends planned a trip to mazatlan for spring break. we had a fantastic time and but i got SOOO sunburned. this is why i should stick with europe.

after i graduated i planned a short trip to visit my bff in london. i had a great time visiting their free museums and checking out all the sites and spending time with my bestest. we went to bruges for a few days too and it was fantastic!! we loved the shopping and we loved the belgium waffles even more.

after that trip was the bf's sister's wedding in jamaica. we went to negril for 4 days and stayed in our own little hut at a cool resort. i snorkeled, water skied, ate a lot of jerk chicken and of course got to experience the beautiful wedding on the beach. i don't think i would have ever made it to jamaica if it wasn't for their wedding!

next up was a trip to visit the bff who moved from london to munich. i went for oktoberfest!!! no better place for a beer lover like myself. we had a great time! i checked out the sites while my friend worked and got to eat some amazing food (lots of sausages) and hit up the tents for one night. i also got to go to salzburg for the day which was beautiful and we went to prague for a few days. it was SO wonderful to be back and to be able to show my friend some of my favorite spots. i also got to connect with my tour guide from the program who i had formed a close friendship with.

after that i was motivated to bring the bf to see prague. because i get time off at christmas from work and i've never been to prague during the winter i thought it'd be the perfect time to go! so we are going dec 28-jan 6. i cannot wait!!! there are tons of winter things i've never experienced there since i studied there over the summer. they have the christmas markets through jan 1, ice skating, carriage rides and live nativities. my tour guide friend will be able to meet us again! the bf and i have never traveled together like this so i'm really looking forward to it!

and because my bank account suffers so severely from this travel bug i kept saying prague was my last trip for awhile and that i wouldn't be taking any international trips for awhile. however, i applied to go to france for a work trip that focuses on the life and legacy of st. vincent to depaul. i somehow was accepted and will be going in august. we'll spend a lot of time in paris and even get to go to southern france. i'll be traveling with 35 other staff members. most of the trip is covered but it is still pricey so my bank account suffers yet again.

even though i'm ridiculously broke all the time i think it's worth it for all the sweet trips i've been taking. after france i'm thinking montreal. maybe i'll even have picked up some french during my stay. then i swear that's it for awhile...

a go with the flow weekend.

i never really go with the flow. i always have things planned out and cram a lot in to a small period of time. this weekend i actually did go with the flow and only did things i wanted to do instead of things i should. it was nice.

friday i was supposed to go to a class happy hour but i worked late to prep for an event the next day so i just went home and hung out with the bf. much later we went to a midnight showing of a nightmare before christmas at the music box theatre. i love going there and it was fun to see the movie again since the last time i saw it i was only in 3rd grade. i only dozed off for a minute. i usually zonk out in the 12am flicks.

saturday i had a big event that kept me busy from 11-6. afterwards i got a message from a good friend that just moved back to the midwest from NYC. she had just flew in from a trip to ireland with her hubby and they were available to get drinks! what a nice little treat. i was able to go meet them with another one of our friends and catch up. it was such a nice surprise and it was great to see them. i hadn't seen either one in ages!! after that i made a quick trip to the gym-because that was the original plan for after my event. i got a short work out in and then went home. i was supposed to go out with my bff that night but neither of us were motivated to do that so the bf and i decided (very spontaneously) to go to see the fantastic mr. fox and go out for a drink. i got ready in about 4 minutes so we could catch the bus to make the movie. record time. the movie was adorable, clever and funny. i seriously really enjoyed it. afterwards we popped into friar tuck's this dive bar we always joke about going to. so we finally bit the bullet and went in and it was a riot. it's old tavern decor but currently covered in insane amounts of xmas decorations. it was fairly crowded with some interesting people to say the least. the musical selection included lady gaga, bon jovi and tracy chapman. quite diverse! we got to sit by a litle fireplace an enjoy a beer while people watching. then on sunday we went to a women's bball game with my parents. depaul dominated over loyola and then we went to a restaurant close by and got crazy big hamburgers that i'm still drooling over.

overall i got to enjoy a lot of quality time with my man and did not stress out over plans for once. i can tell i'm ready to hibernate for the winter. hope everyone else had an equally enjoyable stress-free weekend!

bad haircut, inappropriate dinner conversation & german food.

that title basically sums up my long weekend. i went home to the suburbs on wednesday night and was able to squeeze in a much needed haircut. i tried rocking the straight bangs a few months ago and they were alright but always ended up looking crooked so i asked her to cut them super straight. she did exactly as i asked but unfortunately i now look like jim carey as lady gaga. that's the only way i can explain it. i hate them and i plan to keep them pulled back until they have grown a bit. not fun.

on thanksgiving things were going well with preparation and pretty easy going. then one of my second cousins arrived - who i havent seen in years. he stumbled in with his dad and informs us that he recently had surgery, is miserable and is really down on his luck. then he moves over to the bottle of rum (that has been in my parents' liquor cabinet for like 100 years) and proceeds to drink heavily. no one really drinks at our family functions...a few glasses of wine here a few beers there but nothing intense. well drunkie mcdrunkerson is falling into things, swearing up a storm and just making everyone really uncomfortable. over dinner he fell asleep while cutting his turkey and dropped so many F bombs even i blushed. despite the awkwardness, everyone had a really nice time and i know that he was happy to spend time with family. hopefully he can remember it.

saturday the bf and i went downtown for the german christmas market in daley plaza. ive walked through it several times but never eaten there. we decided to go all out and got brats, potato pancakes and streudal. i basically died and went to heaven as soon as i sunk my teeth into that brat covered in super yummie german mustard. SO GOOD! it totally hit the spot and the apple streudal was to die for. after that we went to the cultural center which is one of my fav spots and the bf had never been. we really enjoyed it. then i went to the library so i could get back to reading for pleasure now that school is done for the moment. it was a really nice day :)

the holiday weekend actually made me more exhausted than i was so i'm trying to take it easy this week because i know the rest of december is going to be insane!