happy thoughts!

last week i was feeling very overwhelmed and stressed out. i still feel a bit stressed but there are too many things to be happy about to let it get me down! happy thoughts include:

it's chicago restaurant week! already had a fabulous dinner with darcy at NAHA on sunday and rob and i will be dining at chicago q this friday!

it also means that chef's week is just around the corner! made a reservation for late march at MK. CANNOT WAIT! the chef's week restaurants had me foaming at the mouth. so excited!

a good friend got engaged over the weekend and i'm so excited for her and her hubby to be! i'm so looking forward to their wedding and i'm already having a blast talking wedding with nicole. love all the fun details!

huge news - the depaul women's basketball team got bumped up to #7 because of their big win vs georgetown. so proud of the ladies! march madness will be here before you know it!

it's week 8 of the quarter which means spring break is near! i'm going to take a couple of days off to sleep, read, veg and clean my apartment before next quarter starts and i'm taking 2 classes and my life is over as i know it.

i'm going to michigan this weekend to visit a college buddy and i can't wait! she has a house i haven't seen and 2 pups i've never met! she's taking us to a craft brew festival which i'm really looking forward to! it'll be nice to get out of the city and get some quality girl time.

just updated my march calendar and it's full of wonderful things to look forward to - time off from school, a visit from the liebls, bday celebrations, concerts and dinners with friends. doesn't get much better than that!

hope everyone else has plenty of happy thoughts these days :)

valentine filled weekend.

i spent the entire weekend with my love and it was a great one. on friday we went to the counter, a build your own burger place in lincoln park. i had a groupon that was expiring soon so we decided to use it up. i went for a turkey burger, with blue cheese, lettuce, onion, scallions and hot wing sauce. it was super spicy but good! rob got a spicy burger of his own and we split cheese fries. we were stuffed but we always have room for bobtail! i also had a groupon for bobtail ice cream and it's really close to the counter so we went for it. i wanted to try something new but i go there so rarely i HAD to get my usual: cubby crunch (cookie crumbles, toffee and little candies in vanilla ice cream) with hot fudge. rob got cappuccino yogurt and white chocolate pb cup. they have games there and i made him play this really really old word game. i thought it would be fun, it was not, but we laughed a lot. afterwards we watched the fighter which was very good! on saturday we ran some errands and i had to work the women's basketball game vs marquette. my parents drove up and rob came to the game too. it was a close game and kept us on the edge of our seats. afterwards we grabbed a late dinner and drink at state, my dad's favorite. when we got home we watched somewhere. i scrapbooked rob's israel trip while we watched and wasn't too impressed with the flick. sunday we celebrated valentine's day a little early with brunch at our favorite - julius meinl. it was gorgeous out for february so the walk to southport felt great. we ordered quite the spread - i got a slice of their cheddar, potato and bacon quiche with a side of marble rye toast with their awesome blueberry jam, a peppermint hot chocolate with whipped cream and ended with traditional apple streudl. i'm full just thinking about it. rob got their famous baked eggs with sausage and some toast and a carmel apple danish and a cappuccino. then we walked down the street to the music box theatre, one of my treasured chicago spots, to see casablanca. it's my parent's favorite movie and i have never seen it all the way through! they started with a cute old man playing the organ and a funny man singing old timey love songs. it was pretty adorable, even rob sang. the movie was fantastic and it definitely put us in the valentine's day spirit. afterwards we had some downtime and i worked on my homework while rob watched tv. this morning he had beautiful roses and dark red carnations sent to my office and we're going to cook dinner together and open presents. truly one of the most memorable valentine's days to date. i'm so lucky!

happy valentine's day everyone!

snow days

so as everyone has heard, chicago was hit with a boat load of snow this week. i was one of the non-believers and was convinced i'd still be going to work on wednesday and that it wouldn't be that bad. well on tuesday morning we got emails saying we were required to leave by 3 p.m. and that we'd be closed on wednesday and tentatively opening on thursday. depaul hasn't closed in ages for snow. so then i knew it was a big deal. i was not super thrilled because i have SO much to do at work these days and it meant i couldn't do my work out classes! but my freaking professor still decided to conduct an online discussion class that night which i still think is still total bs. so i left work around 330 and i decided i need good snow day food so when i got off the bus and was hit with icy snowflakes and insane winds, i booked it to treasure island and picked up some fancy cheese, crackers, a fro pizza and some cool beers. rob got home shortly after me and we just watched footage on the storm, watched it dump down out my window, checked out weather maps online and listened to the thundersnow. i did my dumb discussion class and then we went downstairs before bed to check out the street and it looked insane! drifts were so high and the winds and lightning were nuts. the next day neither us had to work but i worked from home the best i could but took a break with rob to scoop out his car before everything froze. it was kinda fun but a lot of work. by wednesday night i was super stir crazy so we made a walk to the mailbox just so i could move around. i also started scrapbooking rob's israel trip to keep busy. on thursday rob had to go back to work but i was stuck at home again. i did some work from home and then ventured over to campus to print my homework assignments and work out. it really wasn't that bad but i'm glad they didn't have school. it would have been so tough for commuter students to make it in while campus was still being cleaned up. after my work out i had dinner plans with two of my girlfriends. walking to my friend's apartment was like hiking a mountain. half of the sidewalks hadn't been plowed and it was still pretty windy and very cold but it was worth the trek. we had a great time celebrating my friend's new job and i was so grateful to get out of the house. on friday it was back to work and i worked my butt off trying to catch up but i'm still behind thanks to the snow days. it was definitely an epic couple of days and i'm a little bummed that i didn't take more advantage of the days off to just rest or do fun things like day drink or watch movies all day or something like everyone else did. but it's been a good weekend filled with lots and lots of sleep and fun friend time so i think it all evens out. hope everyone else survived the crazy weather!

why january rocked!

2011 is treating me well so far. even though i'm drowning in work and school stuff, i'm still having one of the best months ever and here's why....

birthdays galore! i celebrated 1 cute little 2 year old's, 2 coworkers', 2 friends' and my man's birthday this month. i had a ton of fun celebrating all of them! i love getting big groups of people to celebrate someone's special day. we had a girlie party for bella, cookies & burgers for my 1 coworker, cupcakes for my boss, manis for mary, a shady bar bar crawl for ryann and ping pong bar night for rob. all so fun!

also had a couple of free swanky parties thanks to my girl's places of business. tara's work party was at privet where we enjoyed pink champagne and caitlin's was at a cool private space called annex where we enjoyed the photo booth and button making station.

i got to a hawks game with mary and caitlin and they won! i did my first depaul women's basketball game with my parents and rob and they also won and are now ranked #9 in the country!

i had a few really successful events for work including one at the chicago cultural center that had nearly 500 people in attendance - the biggest reception

ever!

i ate really well - bbq brisket and cheesy potatoes for rob's birthday, a visit to girl & the goat, meg's homemade goodies, junk food at meg's dinner party, lots of great junk food - sweetwater, dmk & redflame pizza, lots of cheese - some from pastoral, lots at work events and @ a wine tasting with the girls and lastly various ethnic dishes @tara's dinner party.

i saw weezer's memory tour in the vip section, saw rob's bro play some outstanding bluegrass and attempted ice skating again.

overall, it's been a great month filled with lots of quality time, lots of laughs and lots of fun. i certainly hope the rest of 2011 is just like this!