Biking in Packs

I have FINALLY started biking to work again and am loving it...of course! It's been a very busy summer, nonstop activities, always go-go-go, and in the middle of that I moved to a new apt far FAR away from my gym that holds my very awesome Pilates Reformers classes. So ultimately this prodded me to break out the bike one morning when I knew I had class that night and didn't want to have to take the hour long public transportation trip back to my new place. Yes it really does take that long because there is no way to get across the city without transferring and when it's later at night there is no gaurantee that the trains or buses will be running too frequently. So anywho off I went merrily along one morning and before I knew it I was at work! I mean the whole ride prob took me 15 minutes, AND it's a ride I could easily do in say 7 if I actually tried.

The route I take to work is a straight shot down this one street and there are just groups of bikers who use it! I mean at different intervals you'll see 10 bikers or so going on their way! I love this becuase it means that the cars definetly notice you and know that this pack of bikers...is going to be on the road! haha, I love joining a pack every morning and feeling like we are pointing some kind of finger at the solo ppl in cars killing the earth! of course not to those ppl who NEED to drive but seriously it always amazes me how much traffic there is in this city when it's so easy to not drive! but that's sooo not my point.... not quite sure what my point is but YEA BIKING! which reminds me I should really bring the poor guy in for a tune up. He had some rough times in storage for 6 months and than the winter...

In other news work is work... the boss is about to have his first baby any day now which means that i've been handling a lot of our international work and will be sure to have more thrown on me once the little girl actually shows up. I'm semi nervous about this, not because I don't think I can handle it but because I feel that it's goign to make my work schedule very busy and really all I want to do is enjoy the rest of the summer! plus babies babies everywhere right now! I swear ppl need to stop having kids cause i'm not ready to deal with that whole thing yet! haha

Birthday month is almost here! I'm so excited for it! Have some awesome trips planned as well as some fun activities here in Chi-town. I think it'll be a good month :) Now time to do some work!

BonaROO!

A week later I am finally recuperated enough to write a post about what an awesome/amazing/incredible weekend I had at Bonaroo the other weekend. It was truly one of those perfect weekends where you couldn't have hoped for anything more to happen. So many stories and secret jokes and crazy times that will never be written because truthfully...what happens at bonaroo STAYS at bonaroo. So instead of stories and me quoting silly things that I'm sure will never be funny to anyone but us I have thrown in some pictures that grasp a little of what the bonaroo experience is.

The group I went to bonaroo with... 6 guys, 2 girls, 1 RV! Hanging outside of our RV. I have to say after tenting it the first year and then experiencing the RV I will never go back. It makes such a difference to be able to use your own bathroom and even though I only showered once the whole time it was nice to have that option. And yes I really don't mind living the hippy life... I could have gone without a shower the whole time but my hair becomes a major rats nest!

A few of us getting a little crazy. This was the Stevie Wonder show. Def not the best show I saw while there but it was fun. It was also crazy hot at like 11 at night which is why we were all still in our bathing suits. I pretty much lived in that outfit only changing up the suit I was wearing :)
Me and the bestie! I heart this girl with everything I have and we had such an amazing time together this weekend. I am not sure where we are or who took this pic but I like it! I can't wait until the next time I see this chica.

A group of four of us, we spent a large amount of the time together just walking from concert to concert and checking out the sights. I had never met these guys before and was so happy that I was so comfortable with all of them but these two especially. Just worked to make the whole 4 days the ultimate experience.

so that's all I got in terms of bonarroo! Freaking fantastic time. Next trip up is a secret because sometimes I get lurker readers here! but I'm also having a fantastic time hanging out here in chicago, made a new friend who has a fun pool and there might be some boat action this wkend. Who doesn't love the summer!

Happy Summer!

Hello June! You arrived in a flash with lots of changes and excitement lining up. Life has been a fast paced roller coaster these days which is good and fun but rather stressful and requires lots of going with the flow.

Biggest thing?? I'm moving next month... yessiree I have found an apt in a different part of the city that I am so excited to live in but I also feel like I just haven't gotten a real chance to experience the part of the city that I am living in now. So all in all it's semi bittersweet. PLUS I am horrifically sad about having to leave my gym. I have completely fallen in love with it and my pilates class, both instructor and fellow classmates. I'm debating sticking with the gym anyway at least through the summer so that I can continue going to my weekly classes and there are a few around teh city. It will def make gym going a little rougher since it won't be at the end of my block but i seriously love this gym so much that I think it will be worth it! I missed my pilates class the past two weeks and I just had so much fun tonight hanging with the ladies and seeing how much I've improved. And now I have to miss the next two weeks! why oh why can't we have a few more days in the week...that we don't work obviously :)

I've also been dating dating dating and nothing has been sticking. met a lot of great people and had a lot of fun but it definetly gets exhaustign and annoying... I mean its hard enough for me to say no to anythign much less saying sorry not interested in a second date! ah! haha. I'm def enjoying it but I'm also like really? nobody yet? I know i'm picky and usually when I know I know but sometimes I wonder am i TOO picky/judgmental/quick in my decision.

Work is a constant fluctuation of good, bad, yes, no... Socially things are picking up. We had a ladies happy hour a couple weeks ago and it was such an amazing thing to see these woman outside of the office. We work in a mainly male dominated company and though I wouldn't say they shut down their personalities we all have small changes that we perform in order to portray a competent and intelligent woman. But everyone was sooo funny hanging out at the bar and since it was just ladies it was a no-holds barred situation. Once a few were taken in it was the event of the evening to pick out hot guys for me to date! I am the only single one so they all think its freaking fantastic! It was hilarious seeing who they picked out. My fav coworker, she has recently become my cubby partner, had the worst beer goggles ever! loved it. And hey she has a 7 month old so she prob doesn't sleep.

Work, play, moving?!?! I think we've covered it all here... heading off for bonaroo next weekend and I can already tell it is going to be a very busy summer. so exciting! Every month this summer has at least one major trip and I wouldn't be surprised for a few more to be added in. I'm also estatic to be spending some serious time in my wonderful city! I think this will be the first summer that I will 100% be in Chicago and lets just say... i'm ready.

UPDATE: I Just read through some old "recent" posts and I am totally repeating myself! good to see that I'm consistent with my feelings at least!

PINK flowers

My roommates mom brought us flowers when she stopped by this weekend. I guess there home has these growing all along one side and their one of the roomy's favorite. She gave us 3 huge vases of them and their bubblegum pink color and fantastic smell has brightened up our living room! I love how it has layers and layers of petals... it's a whole piece of art within itself. so gorgeous! So I took pictures.... lots and lots of pictures of them. Here are a few of my favorites.

I love how the plate snuck into this one. I didn't even notice it while I was shooting, but it's totally trying to steal the show! This plate is nothing that I would have ever bought by myself, but it's the roommates and now that I've gotten used to it I love it!

Catchup Galore

Sooooooo I have been very very quiet this past month or so.... and not for any single reason but more because so much has been happening that I haven't even wanted to process things as they go. Thus, here are loads of thoughts about the major occurrences in my life currently.

The new roomy has become a great friend in my life. I have found it very interesting to be around her because as similar as we are... there are many many things that are different. And I can obviously respect these differences but I'm also enjoying what I am learning from them. She has a boyfriend who is living in NJ and basically is in the same position that I was in a little over a year ago, except that she is adamant that she wants to stay with this guy. Like she says she could see her life with this guy. So this is great... but it's been very enlightening to see how they make a long distance relationship work. This girl is on the phone NONSTOP! I mean coming home from work she walks in on the phone 6 days out of 7. Her bf calls her every morning to wake her up, then they text/gchat/whatever during the day and then she probably calls him 2 to 3 different times in a night. When I was in a long distance I would maybe talk to my bf once every other day. And this was a huge problem for me.... one that I didn't voice enough but it was a HUGE problem. And now looking at her I can see that when you are in a long distance you need to put in double what you would when you live near each other. Talking 5 times a day is not insane because think, if you lived near each other you would most likely talk in the morning before work, then during work a couple times, then when planning what to do that night, etc. It's a lot more work than I would ever think and I have been in one! kind of enlightening huh?

I've started dating.... pretty seriously actuallly. Which is fun but also enlightening. I can now really understand why girls can be bitches or confusing or what! I mean there is this one guy who is great, very fun and talkative and respectful... He even bought me chocolates tonight but I am not going to see him until maybe saturday and this doesn't make me sad. Which tells me that even though I have fun with him... it's not going to be a permanent thing. tricky business this dating thing!

work has been work.. has been work. every day I go in hoping something will happen and every day I walk out being so incredibly happy to breathe in the fresh air! Things are so much better now that I have a window in my office but I seriously am going nuts being in the office day after day. And the worst... I've seen myself busy and I still find myself bored. It's just not in a I'm bored and the time is moving slow... it's a I'm bored and yet how the eff is it already 5 o'clock because I still have a TON to do! lol. I def need to figure out what the heck I want out of my professional life.... I just am not sure what that is yet.

We are soooo close to warm weather time.... and yet Ms. Mother nature keeps looking for ways to mess with my sense of equilibrium here by keeping it freezing in the morning, nice after work, and then cold again at night! just give me warmth please!

The old boyfriend has been popping up.... It still blows me away that the feelings I have towards that whole situation changes daily. I guess the biggest thing is that at the end of the day I enjoy talking to him and I enjoy the conversations we have. I know it's all about balance, I just have to keep working to get there. Because I am. There are just constant obstacles. Lol.

Lastly I went to Hotlanta the other weekend (April 16th-18th) and had an absolute blast! One of my best girlfriends moved down there right before xmas and I was so excited to have the chance to get down and see her new place and meet all her new friends. This is a girl that I talk to all day every day while we are at work meaning we pretty much know everything about one another so I had heard everything about her atlanta life and it was so nice to finally see/meet/experience her life. I want to put up pics but she hasn't posted them yet so when she finally does I will do a whole atlanta post. Especially since this is already a novel.

and signing off on a monday night.... this week looks to be exceedingly busy but I'm excited for it all!

Time to Meet Dei

Dei... as in the name of my new DSLR!

So remember back when I put up a short little post announcing that I had invested in a new camera???? Well that camera came within a week! and after giddily opening it I put it back in the box and placed it in the living where I could stare at it whenever I wanted...and when I say stare at it I mean, stare at it. And for some reason that staring became a problem because that's all it was, STARING.

"Why haven't I tried that new camera yet?" I would ask myself... And I realized after almost a month had gone by and nothing had changed...that I was nervous! NERVOUS! For what reason? Who knows but there it was. And so as soon as I realized how ridiculous and silly that was... I signed up for a class and here we are.

So today, It was interesting to me to see how many people were in the class, granted it was free but I just hadn't really thought about how many people would own nice cameras. The professor was very knowledgable but still obviously loves photography and sharing it with others. That to me is a very promising characteristic in teachers as it makes me want to know why this topic makes them so happy! and so I learn it! The class itself was very informative in the basic basics of photography which was nice because it was the push for me to actually embark on this new DSLR journey that, but not too much that I felt overwhelmed with how much I don't know! even though it is a lot :) I def want to take another class but I am being thwarted by a number of options because almost half of the class time is spent in a lab and learning how to print, etc. It would be nice to learn but ultimately that is not a part of this that I want to experiment with right now. Plus I feel like most of that is just messing with the pic which is all opinion anyway! So yea, I would really love to find a class, that's not a boot camp... I know its out there!

After the class I walked around my little block and took some pics of the city and little signs of spring! It is amazing looking at my pics here and everything is so much sharper! Plus it's a real camera and I can play around with the settings! Here are some of the better ones.

Check out that cloud definition! Never with a point and shoot.

I will admit I feel almost self-conscious walking around with my camera but I think that is just something that will take time! And these guys didn't seem have much of a problem with it!

Gotta love day drinking... :)

A picture post.... with a few words

So it's April and boy is it thunderstorm season this spring. We have been leaving the windows open nonstop this past week what with the gorgeous weather and the smell of the rain has been fantastic. I feel like the whole new summer and starting and I can NOT wait. So in order to get rid of the ickiness of my last post here is a few of the milestones I have this summer.

To start off there will be lots upon lots of this:

Though of course it won't be this gorgeous tropical beach but there will be plenty of Chicago lakefront! Which I am totally OK with.

Then one of my bests is getting married this summer! It will be the first of my close friends to do this and I am so excited for her.
Then her reception will be on a riverboat so I will be wearing something like this... But much cuter with more anchors is how I picture it! My girlfriend and I will both be dressing like this with matching little sailor hats! We are so excited... going a fantastic Weekend!

I will also hopefully be going to this music festival this year. It will be my second time and I would be absolutely thrilled! The atmosphere's of music festivals just amaze me. Every single person just having a good time! And hopefully this year there will be no rain!!!

And finally lots and i mean LOTS of sitting outside in good ole chicago here enjoying good food, friends, drinks, and merriment! The cubs and sox have opened.... the bikes and runners are out.... it is officially warm weather time here in chicago!