YOY...it's spreading and an update

Last night a co-worker was talking about dating and what not and she was saying how she felt like she was in a rut. Conversation turned to more conversation and I informed her about the Year of Yes. She couldn't believe that she hadn't heard of it before and thought it was the best idea ever. So when I ran home on break, grabbed the book for her and took it back so she had the original source of the craziness. I do believe she is now doing the Year of Yes. Perhaps I will also be able to blog about her random stories and updates, too.

My only update of late comes from Saturday night. Mel and I had headed out to our usual favorite bar, The Four Corners. It was late, I had just gotten off of work and wanted to sit and relax. With in ten minutes of being in there at least 5 sweaty guys had run us over as the place was packed and impossible to move around. I voted that we head somewhere else as I was not in the mind set to deal with so many people.

We decided to hail a cab to Greek town and see what was going on over there. With many unsuccessful attempts as getting a cab by standing on the corner(read: there were people in them, not that we don't have mad cab hailing skills). So we walked to the Marriott and Mel flipped the cab switch herself and with in 10 seconds we had our cab. Short ride to Greek town and we headed into the dive-ish bar called Duggan's, where we had been once before. Right after saddling up to the bar we noticed several mullets and knew we were in for a good time.

About half way through our first drink a man walks in and sticks his hand straight into the popcorn machine, pulls out a hand full and pops it in his mouth. He walks up to the bar right where I am sitting and I turn to him and say "Did you just dive into the popcorn machine bare handed?" He asked if it was that obvious and I responded to the affirmative. Anyhow, it turns out that he ended up sitting with us for the whole night and left with my number because he claimed that he wanted to take me out on a date. Since it is the YOY, I had to say "yes" and dole out the digits. He really spent most of the night trying to analyze us and determine why we were single. He claimed that we busted peoples balls a lot and that I was a hard ass. Mel and I made a bet. I said he would not call and Mel said that he would, he has not called yet. I am pretty sure that Mel said he had two days to call. It is the beginning of day 2, no call....and no, I am not sad that he hasn't called.

Internet Cafe

Out apartment has also become an internet cafe. Mel, Megan and I all have lap tops and will frequently all sit in the living room enjoying the wireless internet. It is quite the site.

Hotel de Stawojo

Our apartment has been much like a hotel the past few weeks with all the visitors we have had. Mel was here at the beginning of the week before flying out to Walla Walla, Washington for an interview at Whitman College. No, they don't make the chocolates there, I asked her. Just so that questions is not burning in all of your minds for some time to come. Well, she flew back into OHare yesterday and once again took up residence here on W Harrison St. It is sad to think that soon her trips to visit may not be so frequent as we always have a good time.

Megan's boyfriend is also currently staying in our apartment as he is in town for some hearing conference or something.

Well, must get ready. Headed to have a partying in my mouth at Orange. If you are in Chicago and you don't eat there, you are making a big mistake.

a fly on my wall

Sometimes I turn up the music and dance around my apartment.

I may feel like crap but my feet look hot

Sorry about the lack of blogging besides pictures, but I haven't felt up to much lately as I have come down with some kind of sickness. Perhaps it's a summer cold. I have a lot of congestion in my lungs with a constant sinus headache and pain.

To make myself feel better, I did go and get a pedicure today. I love them. They are a guilty pleasure of mine. My tosies look great in OPI's Strawberry Margarita!

Shop 'til you drop

Little Mama was worn out and took a little nap in the Banana Republic on Mich Ave.

C'mon and ride the trolley

Mom and Josh riding the free trolley from Navy Pier to Michigan Ave to do some shopping. There we also ate some tasty Garrett's Popcorn.

The underside of the bean. Pretty trippy.

I want to pump you up!

Dad is checking out his biceps in the reflection of the bean in Millennium Park. Josh is pretty intimidated.

Water, water everywhere

Here's Mazel and Pop's in front of Buckingham Fountain with full bellies after eating breakfast at Orange.

Take me out to the ball game

The fam at the Sox vs Rangers game on Friday night. The Sox lost bad, but the weather was perfect. There was a great fireworks dispaly post game as well. Did I mention that it was mullet night at the ballpark? Business in the front, party in the back.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Megan Mulvey has always been a very animated and dramatic person...perhaps the reason she named her blog The Drama Queen's Palace!!!

Well, when recently(tonight) looking at her blog, I noticed that she ends almost every post with an exclamation point!

So, in light of this observation I looked at every post from the 19 months that she has had a blog and realized that she only ended NINE of the posts with a period!

I think Megan may need to calm down or has a way more exciting life than me!!!

Anyhow, she just put up a lot of fun new pictures on her blog, so swing by The Drama Queen's Palace and leave her a comment!!!

Viva Huevos Rancheros

Mel was in the area to visit a friend, so we met up for breakfast today. We headed back to our new favorite spot, Orange. Mel had a delicious looking bacon breakfast burrito that was plenty spicy and loaded with hot peppers. I stole a bit and it was yum-o! I had the huevos rancheros and was still dreaming about them at work tonight. So great. I am definitely taking the fam there this weekend. Mel and I also hit up the Target on Clark and I played personal stylist for Mel and encouraged her to buy 3 shirts, which she did. We actually now own 2 of the same shirts.

For a second weekend in a row, there will be lots of Lens family fun to be had. That's right, mom, dad, and brother are all headed to the windy city. Currently on the agenda are lots of places I would like them to eat at with a Sox game mixed in on Friday night.

Tentative plans include:

Friday- Everyone arrives late afternoon/early evening. Have Giordanos for supper and go to Sox game. See Sox win.

Saturday- Possibly hit up the farmers market and get some fresh produce. Eat at Orange for a late brunch/early lunch. Do Millennium Park...see the Bean. Lincoln Park Zoo? Possibly Cheesecake Factory for supper with cocktails at the Hancock Observatory.

Sunday- Say goodbye to the brother early in the a.m. and see what the weather is like and hit up the Botanical Gardens.

If you have any other ideas, comment them to me.

Dad Sandwich Take 2

Dad was definitley not expecting a dad sandwich this time. It took mom so long to take the picture that we threw him into a coughing fit for a good 10 minutes afterwards. It made me laugh pretty hard.

Inaugural Season

The fam before we headed into Busch to see the Cards beat the Dodgers on Friday night.

After these messages, I'll be......right back

I am hanging out at my brother's house in the STL and am soon to head back to Chicago. My parents were down this weekend for my brother's birthday as well.

Friday night we saw a great Cards game, where Carpenter threw a 2-hit shut-out and the weather was pretty decent. The new stadium is fabulous.

Saturday we ran errands and went out for a birthday lunch for Josh. Then Josh, Jill and I played some vicious games of Monopoly. Jill and Josh were close until the end, but I think Jill cam out to be the winner. I sat in jail most of the first game and lost miserably. We took a break from Monopoly and had dinner at macaroni Grille, where I discovered that I hate pesto sauce. I had some excellent tomato creme sauce with a leaning bellini for a cocktail(delicious). After dinner with our bellies full and new statagies at the game we settled down for another go at Monopoly. The outcome was a little more lopsided the second time around.

I'm packed up, we are headed to the mall, eating some lunch then I am going to the train station to head to Chicago.

Stay tuned for pictures to be put up when I return.

Happy Birthday Bub!

I think this is how my brother feels about turning 27 this year. I am headed to the STL for the weekend to visit him and celebrate his birthday on Sunday.

Schweaty "thick" Beast

I feel totally gross. I just got back from walking down to State St and back(about 5 miles round trip) and thought it would be a nice little walk. I was WRONG! While it is only 74 degrees out, the humidity is at 80%. Gross. I came back dripping sweat.

On the way back, I passed a group of guys outside of Dominick's and one guy yelled at me "Damn, girl, you are tall....and thick." Being that it is the Year of Yes, I was supposed to respond kindly to him, as I am sure he considered calling me thick a compliment. I was gross and was just trying to get home, so I just ignored him. Also, I don't consider being called "thick" a compliment and wanted to tell him that he didn't need to inform me that I am tall, I am already aware. I have only been this height for the past 10 years.

A little little life update

**The Year of Yes has been as exciting as watching the grass grow during a drought lately. I have been working a lot and some weird hours. It's summer time and lots of people are going on vacation at work, so my hours haven't been all that normal lately.

**Speaking of work, I had my first near major injury at work the other day. We had to take down an aggressive child and while trying to take off it's(I don't normally refer to patients as an it, but am doing so now to protect the patient's identity) shoes, one of it's legs got free and I took a kick straight to the face. The kick went directly into my nose and mouth and I just kept thinking "my teeth, my teeth, my teeth." I really didn't care if I had a broken nose, but I didn't want my teeth messed up. Fortunately, there wasn't enough force behind the kick to do any damage, but the whole situation was a little scary, and my face is a little sore today. The highlight of the whole take down was when the patient yelled "Sorry Stacey" while kicking me in the face.

**I am very excited to be traveling to STL this weekend to visit my brother for his birthday. My parents will also be there! Yay for family fun! AND we will be headed to the Cards/Dodgers game on Friday night. Go Red Birds!!!

Let me see your grill! Show you my WHAT?!?!

Mel showed me her grill. Bling bling.

Somebody dropped something

Someone farted and we just smelt it. Not really, but that is what we were pretending.

Goldie

In this picture we were pretending to be Minnesota's Goldie the Golden Gopher. That thing has buck teeth and NEVER stops smiling.

Poor, poor puppy

Aaron was in Chicago for the night, so Mel and I went up north and met Aaron, Chrissy, Court, and Nate out. Aaron and I proceeded to take a series of pictures as well. We would come up with a scenerio and then make a corresponding face. It was quite fun. In this picture we just witnessed our puppy getting hit by a car.

Now that's a glare

Here's another great glare.

VIVA LA GLARE

Mel said I glared at her while she was visiting me, so then we took a series of glare pictures. They are all quite hilarious. Here's one of my favorites.

The Devil Wears Prada

I don't go to movies often, but Megan, Mel and I ventured out to Oak Park to see The Devil Wears Prada.

Great movie. I loved it.

Meryl Streep needs to win an award for her great acting in the movie. Just fabulous.

I'm not going to blab on, just go see it.

Happy Birthday to the Weinermobile!

It used to be my dream to drive the weiner mobile for one summer. Particularly the summer after I graduated from high school. While that dream didn't come true for me and I have never even owned a weiner mobile whistle, the mobile is celebrating it's 70th birthday. Happy Birthday Weinermobile!

I've tasted Chicago

Happy 4th of July!

I headed down to the Taste of Chicago today. Having never been there before, I wanted to get there early to avoid the crowds, especially today. I arrived about a half and hour after it opened and found a ticket booth to purchase my tickets. Having reviewed the restaurants and the food their were serving before heading down there, I had an idea what to look out for. I first made a stop by the The Grill on the Alley and got a prime rib quesadilla and a taste portion of the grilled chicken lime salad. Then I headed down to O'Briens and got Celtic corn on the cob. The great thing about the taste is that you get small portions of everything so you can try multiple things. It was starting to get pretty crowded by then, so I fought my way out of the pack and headed back home.
With tickets left over, it is promising that I will make another trip down there this week. Perhaps I will try the alligator next time.

Ha ha

Taken from the Chicago Sun Times

Straight up: Gay bar makes Ozzie GuillenTini
July 2, 2006
BY KENDRICK MARSHALL Staff Reporter

At least one gay bar in Chicago was neither shaken nor stirred by Ozzie Guillen's recent slur against a Sun-Times sports columnist. In fact, it's naming a drink after the White Sox manager.

The Kit Kat Lounge and Supper Club, 3700 N. Halsted, a gay bar that features female impersonators, now has "The Effen Ozzie GuillenTini" on the menu. The martini is made with assorted fresh fruits, vodka and served with a complimentary Sun-Times sports section for $8.50.

Though Guillen has drawn negative attention by calling Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti a "f---ing fag" during a pregame interview, Edward Gisigler and John McCartney -- the brains behind the name -- wanted to draw positive attention to the Sox manager.

"[Guillen] has been a supporter of the gay community," McCartney said. "What he said was no big deal, and we wanted people to know it's time to get over it." "We decided to put "effen" in front of it because that's what he called Mariotti," said Gisigler, the club's owner. He said the club will sell the martini through the end of the baseball season.

Taco, burrito, what's in your speedo?

My burrito. D-LICIOUS!!!

Eat that dang ques-a-dilla

Megan eating her chicken quesadilla at the outdoor seating area at the Panch. I love the Panch and I would infact, marry Mr Panchero.

Old School Signagery

Here is a picture of the worlds oldest Arbys sign that Megan and I witnessed on our way to the NEW Pancheros Mexican Grill Restaurant in Westchester.