New Website!

I am now back withmy own website – -

Go to:

www.stacyjillontheweb.com

I wont be updating here anymore.

Yikes!

I love long weekends

This past weekend had a few firsts in store for me:

• The first time that I have ever camped in an actual tent
• The first time that I was able to spend Slay’s birthday with her
• The first time that I traveled to Galena, IL

It was perfect timing on Slay’s part (her birthday being on Aug. 30). We decided to get the hell out of dodge and take a road trip. I love that we both have this sense of adventure and wanderlust. It’s one of the things I love about her, that she is fascinated about exploring as I am.

Galena is about 3.5 hours West of Chicago and is a beautiful historical town that has only 3,500 actual residents. It’s seems to be mainly a tourist destination these days, with trolleys to show you around town (US General Grant’s house is there among others) and tons of small town goodies like this amazing canned good store where we gorged on pretzels and yummy gooeyness like strawberry jam and spicy honey mustard cheese.

On Friday, I was able to get off work early and tried to dash home as fast as I could. Unfortunately the EL had other ideas and it took forever to get home and to get us out of the house. We finally got on the road around 5ish and hit traffic. It took quite a while to get out there, but once we did, the giddyness erupted. Yes, we were tired from the drive, but I was excited to get this weekend started!

I followed Slay’s advice when setting up the tent, putting one piece into another, thinking that she knew exactly what she was doing. She didn’t admit until we got into the tent that this was the first time that she had used the tent! Sneaky!

Since it was so dark out, we didn’t realize how slanty the ground was until we started to go to sleep. I was wearing my favorite black track pants to keep warm, but ended up stripping down to shorts because I was slipping into the tent! Our tent was slanted ever so slightly, but enough that the combination of the sleeping bags and my pants made for slip and sliding all night long (and not in the good way people!!! ) (oops – sorry Brothers and Mother who read my blog… move on, move on)

All of a sudden I heard some howls.

“Babe, is that what I think that is?”

I hear more howls, now multiple howls…

“Babe… “

“Yes, those are coyotes”

I squeezed her super tight. It was freaky yet exciting at the same time. Thank god we left all of the food in the car. I didn’t want any scary visitors in the middle of the night.

The sun beamed early in the morning and as we stirred awake, my bladder went psycho. As most of you know, I gave a kidney to my dad almost 6 years ago and since then I can’t hold it like I used to. Slay was still sleeping and since it was light out, I couldn’t find a good place to crouch down, so I took the car and drove to the bathrooms. Yes, I know, it’s not roughing it, but give this Jewish American Princess a break!

After my attempt at making French Toast on our friend’s borrowed grill, we took off for the first adventure of the day. I reserved a tandem kayak for the two of us and a tour that would take us down the Mississippi for 10 miles. I thought when I booked the reservation that we would actually have a guide – oh no – they gave us a map, plopped us in the water and away we went. It was beautiful, calming, yet intense! There was absolutely no current, so we got ourselves into a rhythm, moving our oars in sync to the sights and sounds of ducks and birds along the riverbank. I am so glad that we booked the early “tour” because as we finished at the boat docks, the sun began to pound it’s way onto the water with the noon sunlight.

We went back to the campsite and noticed a change. . .we weren’t alone anymore. There was a woman and her husband who set up shop early in the morning and wow, I hope to never ever be like them. The woman was yelling at her husband for everything, including things that he wasn’t even responsible for! On top of that, we had more visitors including a family of 10,000 who set up their tent about five feet from ours and even faced our tent. I know I haven’t camped before, but this was ridiculous. There were tons of spaces further away that they could have picked.

On our way back from town, we picked up some firewood from the front desk. I looked at the way our neighbors had placed their wood and assembled ours in a nice little spot. I took out the lighter fluid and started to douse the wood to get it light.

At this point, let’s get a collective groan going here people.

Yes… lighter fluid is great for charcoal… not so much for wood.

We finally figured out that taking newspaper, lighting it, and placing it under the wood would actually keep the fire going.

Go ahead and laugh. I dare you!

We made some yummy chicken sausages and chowed away before our night out on the town.

One of Slay’s friends from high school owned a bar in town and we ventured out there to grab a drink for her birthday. It was a fun night as we downed a couple of martinis (Slay actually had to finish my yummy Chocolate Martini as I was already tipsy after a few sips) and ate some yummy Bruscheta. I sang a really old song (trying not to kill the bar with my rendition) and listened as some guys tried their hand at bad karaoke as well. The owner (Slay’s buddy from high school) was hilarious and regaled us with tales of living life in a small town. It was definitely a fun evening.

Again, we ventured back to the campsite, tried to lay in bed and pass out, however our neighbors weren’t having any of it. Their flashlights kept beaming into our tent and they couldn’t stay near their tent. I kept hearing bodies walking past our tent every few seconds. It was absolutely annoying and if it wasn’t for the fact that they were big guys, I would have screamed at them. Thankfully, they finally shut up and we were able to get some sleep.

The next day we decided to pack it up, and head over to Dubuque, Iowa to check out the sights. Personally, I wanted to check out the Riverboat Casino and play some dime slots. We ended stumbling upon Eagle Point Park, which was a gorgeous retreat in this industrial town. Gorgeous old cabins and structures that were said to be inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. We traveled to each spot, took photos and communed with nature just a bit more.

Afterwards, we grabbed some lunch at A&W. Yay for rootbeer floats. They make me so happy.

Then.. the final part of our trip was at the riverboat. I lost my $20 instantly

while Slay kicked some booty and won $60!

Alas, the trip had to end, yet Slay convinced me that camping is amazing and we are going again in a couple weeks… too bad I learned how fun this could be so late in the season!

So much to say, so much to say

I have been a horrible blogger. I think the main problem is that my daily life has been condensed in a series of “tweets” lately. If you don’t know what that means, check out: Stacy @ Twitter . Twitter is amazing and evil at the same time. It’s great because I get to keep up with so many different people in the nerdsverse including top geeks in the industry and my good friends too. (Check out the people I am following for more info). The problem is that I have become lazy and haven’t taken the time to write a blog! I’m also doing it right now on the platform, waiting for the El.

I took an allergy pill from CVS yesterday at work. It said Non-Drowsy on the box, but for some reason, my body acted like it was the drowsy formula. I was dizzy, and I almost passed out at my desk. I ended up leaving early and going home. I almost didn’t make it home as I woke up right before my stop. Thankfully I made it back… *editors note – I looked at the box again when I got to work and bought the DROWSY formula. Oy.

This past weekend was fabulous. Slay and I ventured down to Springfield to see Obama and Biden. 35,000 people converged onto the Old Capital. It was incredibly hot and at one point I thought I was going to faint into the crowd. It was really amazing to see all of these people coming together for this event. Young, old, black, white, it was really inspiring. He really has done an amazing job of bringing people together. I’m going to figure out how I can help volunteer towards the election (and drag Slay too.. he he he).

On Sunday, my team, the ever-so-persistent Chaos won 1st place in the CMSA C division. I still can’t play because of my hip issues, but I kept score and screamed my bloody head off. We are a scrappy little bunch but we did it! What an incredible day. The final score was 8-7!

Weee!

Obama, here we come

I have to admit, I was definitely a Hillary supporter while she was running. A woman in the White House? Incredible! Those dreams have been dashed for now, but I will support Obama. It’s not like the one election where it was the lesser of two evils, Obama is definitely someone who I can see running the show.

Anyway, we got an email yesterday inviting us to go down to Springfield and I immediately sent Slay a message and asked one of my coworkers how far it was to Springfield. I think the last time I was there was during our junior high trip and one of my few memories is when one of the popular girls got caught smoking and almost causing a fire in the Holiday Inn.

I also get to finally meet Slay’s mom. She lives in Central Illinois and was already going, so that’s another reason why this little day trip is going to be exciting. I’m nervous. Why am I nervous? She has already met my family…but this is the first time meeting any of hers. Ahhh.

Regardless, I’m sure it will be a great trip and it will be a day in history as Obama is rumored to be announcing his VP.

The Book of Lies is coming….

I’m so bloody excited!

Nesting. . .

I never really understood that term until recently. Slay and I have been hanging out with friends here and there,  but have had a lot of time to our lonesomes. You know what too? I haven’t had the major itch to go out like I used to, and I think I understand how people become homebodies!  Of course that comes with a price, and we haven’t hung out with some friends as much as we’d like to, and my chance to hang out with a few friends the other night was killed by the fact that I was having a nice little dizzy spell. Joy.

This week was the six month mark! Yes people, it has only been six months. I know, it seems like a lot longer than that, but it really has only been that long! It’s amazing that there are no red flags going off in my head or being played out in this relationship. It’s an amazing feeling and I feel calm and serene (which for those of you who know me well are not two of my strong qualities!)

Next month I am traveling to Florida to see my family and I’m so excited. I haven’t seen my brother/sis-in law and the kids for almost two years and I miss my mommy and daddy. It will be really great to see all of them, although my youngest nephew will probably have no idea who I am. He was 1 when he left and is turning 3 this year. The oldest is going to be 6 in December. I can’t believe it’s been that long already. I remember when he was born  – I came in on January 16th to see my family and it was an insane time (a long story for another time), but I remember holding Dillon and being so amazed by this little baby with the shock of black hair on his head. He’s now from what I understand the little basketball star already. I can’t wait to challenge him in a game of HORSE.

If I was a newbie sportscaster…

For some reason, I woke up at 5am this morning (I think Slay got up and then I was just AWAKE), and went about my morning business. Cleaned out the kitty litter, checked email, made us an incredible omlette, and have now turned on the Olympics (which I am so pissed that our TIVO isnt working yet so I could tape everything.. yes.. I know its online… but I want to watch it on my TV, damnit!)

It’s 6:30 and the game on right now is USA vs China in the death-defying, thrill-seeking, nail-biting trials of the Badminton players! I didn’t realize that this actually in the Olympics!

The color commentator:

“Chay started playing at the young age of 8″

No kidding buddy, so did the rest of us!

“This Chinese team, is having a right handed and left handed player the best combination”

This guy is no Bob Costas…

How many of you remember this song???

I am playing music trivia with Slay right now as we are waiting for her friends and I pulled up one of my fave bands from college, Neds Atomic Dustbin. I think I got my first shiner at one of their concerts in 1992 at the Metro. I was completely in love with the lead singer John and was obsessive about them for a few years and I finally got the chance to interview him during my senior year. After the show on the way back to school, I heard on the radio that the show as their last as they were breaking up. So sad!
This song still makes me “happy”

Warming the House and other fun stuff

DSC01081, originally uploaded by stacyjill73.

I’m home by my lonesome tonight because I am absolutely exhausted from last night. Slay and I had a little gathering of friends last night to warm the house and it was an absolutely wonderful evening. Lots of different folks from all avenues of our lives gathering together for good food, including Slay’s awesome salads (beans, broccoli and other yummy goodies), my fruit salad, and my sister in-law’s most amazing guacamole (it’s seriously the best guac you have ever tasted from a non-Latina)

Our friends and fam rocked the hizhouse by helping us warm the house by bringing us some fabulously sweet and generous gifts for the house including: a gorgeous picture frame, a candle house, a cooler (my bff from college Jen was a lifesaver and she even found a Hello Kitty balloon for me -YAY), a lovely gift card to my favorite store in the world, Target (I am ALL about Le target and damn proud to admit it – ha), a fabulous artsy poster for our walls, Alcohol (which helped refresh the insane Sangria that I made) and a couple of our peeps brought this game called Dirty Minds. We were all perplexed by the game at first, as I think it’s an old-school game from 70’s era Swingtown, but it was a lot of fun to play at 1 in the morning when everyone was a bit off their rockers.

Speaking of Sangria. . . Oh My Gawd!

This was the first time that I made it and wow, that stuff was STRONG! A bunch of us were loopy from the wine fermented fruit and it made the night that much more fun! Slay and I are not drinkers, but we had enough to make us happy and silly for the evening.

One of the reasons we decided to have some people over this weekend is because we also have some fab house guests in from NYC! One of the two is one of Slay’s BFF since high school and I’m so happy to be spending another weekend getting to know her other half of her close peeps. They are really fun to be around and I’m sad that I’m not out with them tonight. I needed to rest up because, yet again I have a doubleheader tomorrow!

These double-headers are a result of our craptastic summer of rain, but you wouldn’t have thought that by the day that we had today! We went over for a bit to the Retro on Roscoe, ate some fair food, took some pics of cute kids and incredible retro cars and made our way over to the Lake. We spent probably a good hour or so just hanging by the steps near Irving Park. It was absolutely gorgeous and a great way to chill out towards the end of the day. It reminded me of when I used to live by Venice Beach and would walk down Washington Pier every night to watch the waves crash into the sand. I told Slay that we need to come down there more often. Waves have always been an incredible way of calming me and although it’s already August, I am going to start taking full advantage of our proximity to the lake.

You can see more of the pics over at Flickr