Time Flies...

Time Flies..my last post was a month ago. What have I done in that time? Worked, a lot! De cluttered my house throwing away bags of junk, took my little one three places to enjoy the Halloween Haunts, voted in this historic election, found out what was wrong with Jeff, pondered having our second child sooner rather than later, though it will still be later, and picked a paint color for my house overhaul come winter break. My house courtesy of Jeff and my dad will be painted bran muffin over break. Yes bran muffin, funny how the hippy in me always comes out!

I have also come up with a list for my birthday, yes in a little over a week I will begin the downhill slide to thirty. Joy. So I want some presents, however I have declared November a No Buy month because really I don't need more stuff, but if you do feel so inclined to get me a gift feel free to see the list below:

I would like this in a size medium from downeastbasics.com

I like this from clutterbags on etsy.com...

Also, gift cards to Cafe Rio are always welcome in my book! I wouldm't mind a massage either...I know I'm spoiled...

Anyhow, ta ta for now! Have a wonderful week and just for some cute eye candy:

Chicago Part 2!

So Wednesday morning I manage to get myself to a session bright and early that is being put on by the National Collegiate Honors Council. It was pretty ok, I guess I was expecting more. Interacting with colleagues from all across the country and the world even was enlightening. It was interesting but I think I was hoping for more application and less theory.

After that it was lunch time and so a few of us meandered over to Corner Bakery and Cafe. (Note: This will become a very, very frequent habit, My wallet did not thank me, but I am sure the company's stock did...) It was yummy. The place is kind of like if Einstein Bagels and Panera Bread had a love child...

After that I had the whole afternoon free since I only had pre-conference sessions in the morning. I did a lot of walking, but it was fabulous to see so much and be outside getting fresh air. I came back to work yesterday and I saw the sun at 7:30am and 5:30pm. Yeah, that's it.

First up was the Art Institute of Chicago. No, I am not talking about the slightly shady school that seems to pop up in every metropolis( Did I say that??? Lol...) Though I did think that was what every was referring to when the mentioned it at first. No, it is a fabulous Art Museum. It is so amazing to me that these things, i.e paintings, vases, glasses, survived so long and through so much. Very enlightening.

Next up we decided to walk further down and we happened upon the Shedd aquarium. So cool, so many neat things to look at. I particularly liked the giant Starfish and even better the HUGE stingrays. I mean huge, they reminded me of giant pancakes or flying black saucers. They were fascinating, seeing a snake so large you could not find its head was not. That was absolutely frightening. It makes me shudder to think those are somewhere in the sea..but since all I have is Lake Mead I apparently have no worries...because I don't even know if fish can survive in that ever shrinking lake. Want lake front property move to Las Vegas.. we get new islands appearing every minute..

Ok that was bad and I have work to do..so i will update about the evening at a later time...

Tah Tah for now...

Chicago Part 1 of ?

I have yet to upload my photos but I want to say that Chicago is an amazing city! I got home early last night and the last week has been a whirlwind. Aside from conference meetings, I was able to explore the city in the late afternoon and early evenings and it was so fabulous. My friend Aaron, who used to live in Chicago made an excellent tour guide!

Day 1: Tuesday: Arrival Day

So after arriving at the Midway Airport at like 2pm, I proceeded along with a lot of my other UNLV colleagues to take perhaps the scariest shuttle ride of my young life! The guy was a madman, I kid you not he almost ran a guy off the road who was in a wheel chair. When we got to our destination, both myself and another advisors proceeded to jump out and proclaim LAND! If you have ever seen the movie The Pacifier, it was like that exactly like that!

Then we checked in and our rooms were really nice. I had a view of part of the city and a really modern room which is so my style.

So after that, some of us were hungry and proceeded to the Billy Goat Tavern. So I did not know much of the history here other than it is a legend among Chicago and was part of an SNL skit. The place was like the classic hole in the wall, but so neat! The guy at the grill was old and I know I have some older readers..but yes OLD! He said he had been working their 70 years. At first I was like Nah...but now I am not so sure.

Then it was off to WICKED! SOOOO Amazing. I loved it so much. In fact, I can not get the song "Popular" out of my head now. I encourage anyone to go see it. It was so so good! Chicago is a nice city to walk around and before we had left the hotel I had seen an ad for the Redhead Piano Bar and being a redhead I was naturally interested in anything even remotely my namesake. So with a little, OK a lot of help from Aaron's I-phone. We found it! I was skeptical about I-phones before but now I am truly in awe of their prowess. It makes my Moto Q look like its from the stone age, OK maybe not that bad, but a bad 80's knockoff at the most...

So we proceed to hang out there, marvel at the lady who ran it and the guy who sat at the bar alone..drinking water..I don't think we went as far as pitying him..but it was definitely..shall we say..we think he has a story!

All in all a great kickoff to the trip and now I think I am forever in love with the Wizard of Oz and Broadway Musicals...it only took me 26 years to get "it"..but hey at least I got it...finally...