hands up and touch the sky

See you next year, summer. I'm a little sad to see you go, but I'll be glad to see 90+ degree days leave us. It's been pretty laid back, but a lot of stuff snuck in there -- the best kind of summer I think.

Summer 2012 tally:
- 2 weddings (with #3 coming up in a few weeks!)
- 4 Lou Malnati's pizza parties
- 5 concerts in Prospect Park (Laura Marling; Ghostface Killah; Childish Gambino/Danny Brown/SchoolboyQ; Wilco; Wild Flag)
- many first times including a trip to LA, hanging out in Jersey City, standing up in a friend's wedding, swimming at a NYC beach (the Rockaways!), and going to a bachelorette party (this is that scary part of our 20's where there's some kind of snowball and everyone gets married, isn't it?)
- a visit from two of my favvvvvorite people ever
- plus, 12 weeks of fresh summer vegetables (CSA!) and subsequent super delicious stuff being made
- this also just might be known as the summer of the frozen zombie fishbowl...we had a few too many.

I have no way to quantify the number of times I actually listened to Starships, but it's way more than what I recorded on last.fm. It definitely wound up being my song of the summer. I tried my hardest to avoid Call Me Maybe, but it was totally inescapable, particularly watching any sort of Olympics swimming coverage. yikes.

bring on it on, fall -- I have a sweater and some new shoes I'd love to wear. thanks. ::cue exit music::

I'm hiding out in the big city blinking

Happy 10th birthday, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. In honor of a landmark record from one of the best bands ever (and I'm not just saying this with my Chicago bias), let's indulge in a mutual love of Wilco today:

Their Tiny Desk concert from 2011, performing mostly things from The Whole Love, but also the YHF track "War on War":



What I'm pretty sure was my first Wilco song, which holds a special place in my heart - "A Shot in the Arm":



And, of course, the namesake track of the documentary about the making of YHF: "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart"

put you in a place where you could save yourself

Trips home are always packed to the brim, and this past extended weekend was no different. I went home for my mom's birthday/the end of Passover, so both of those occasions were automatic family time. I also crammed in a Cubs game, seeing two of my friends' apartments that I hadn't been to, and eating all of my favorite foods that you just can't get in New York. Plus, bars and running and CTA riding and figuring out how to drive my dad's car. I got ridiculously low amounts of sleep but it was well worth it.

drinks in Rogers Park 

brunch in Wicker Park 

(rainy and really cold) Cubs game 

Lou Malnati's - best deep dish in Chicago 

gratuitous picture of Sam, my family's cat

The most important thing I learned: the Buff Joe's cheese fries are not the same at every location. Clark Street is the pinnacle. I don't know what's going on at the Green Bay Rd location, but it is merely average-to-bad. 

PS, Chicago friends - I miss you all already!

duly noted (or should I say quoted)

I know, I know, I want lots of things. And, I have lots of things. But... my walls don't have lots of things! In fact, if it weren't for my nice blue and yellow paint, it would be pretty depressing to look at these walls because they're so barren. Something that would really spruce up the empty space would be these vintage quotation mark lights! If only...

1940's Quotation Marks, $195 at Agent Gallery in Chicago (via A Continuous Lean)

Happy 2010!

Last night we went to 2 parties: one UChicago law school party, and one art-y party somewhere near Lincoln & Diversey which was in a nice loft-ish space and had a band & DJ. Good times!




I'm horrible with resolutions, so I'm not making any. But here's to a new year, full of fun and good things happening!

p.s. They rang in the new year/decade by playing "Electric Feel". Approval.

end of the year odds and ends

As if to assert itself as really being winter, today it is snowing in Chicago:

(the view through our mailbox slot)
Clearly I am no longer in Hawaii. Sigh.

I had a lovely birthday dinner at Las Palmas (after suffering through horrible traffic coming down the Edens). I'll be home to celebrate NYE this year, which I'm excited about - I got a dress as part of my birthday/Chanukah gift from JCrew especially for the occasion! It's made really well, I'm very impressed (it's part of the JCrew Collection, actually, so I would hope that they exceed their regular quality production standards).

Speaking of birthdays, a few years back I received an overwhelming number of rubber ducks from my friends, because watching ducks swim in the lake is a favorite activity of mine. I now have so many absurd ones that I have no real desire to ever receive another one. However, I found this mirror (via Urban Outfitters) which is pretty cute (not to mention surrealist):

Silver Duck Mirror by David Dear

It's hard to believe that tomorrow night is New Year's Eve! I hope that everyone has fun plans to ring in 2010!

home is whenever I'm with you

I'm back from 9 days at home in Chicago for an extended Thanksgiving visit. The day-of was pretty standard, but the trip over all was great. It was oddly like stepping into a Twilight Zone version of my life in highschool because so many of my friends are living at home or in the area these days. We spent a lot of quality time together--pretty much every day that I was there--and did a lot of greatly nostalgic things.

Had all of the requisite foods for a visit home: Lou Malnati's pizza, Pita Inn, Buff Joe's (I'm so full just thinking about it). Went bowling at our old standby, Classic Bowl in Morton Grove. Also went to play Laser Tag at a place down on Fullerton which ended up being SO much fun! Played pool and darts, and I realized that I'm not 100% terrible at either one - just mostly. There was a semi-traumatizing throwback game of Kings/Circle of Death, which was probably the point at which we really felt like we had stepped back in time.

The highlight of my throwback week was watching some old home-movie footage that I took during the summers between junior and senior year of high school. It was hilariously charming to watch, and kind of startling to see the ways that we haven't changed. So many of those conversations could have taken place this week and not 6 1/2 years ago. I sadly can't upload any video because it's all filmed in analog (so old!) and, I barely took any photos all week long.

Air hockey pre-Laser Tag. Oh yes.

A nice candid shot from bowling...I didn't even take this

And to close this out, here's a little mix from my Thanksgiving week:

Thanksgiving 2009

Chicago vs. NY, round 1

I'm back in NY after spending 5 days at home in Chicago. My schedule was jam packed and I was all over the city/suburbs; to give you a better idea: my car is from 1999, I've been driving since 2002, it only had 20,000 miles on it when I came home, but I drove 400 miles around the city this past week. That would have been like...a month of driving for me in high school!

I saw high school friends and Cornell people, mostly. But I must say one of the highlights of my weekend was going to a dance party at The Hideout with Ali and Eric, where we stalked this guy:

Moustache + suspenders = <3

Also, on Sunday, Eric and I went to both Meatloaf Bakery and Molly's Cupcakes in Lincoln Park. For all the skeptics who think that meatloaf in the shape of a cupcake is gross, you're wrong. It totally changed Eric's mind. And then we went and had real cupcakes at Molly's, sat on some swings at the counter and played Connect Four (I lost...horribly).

I wish I had more time to see more people! But, isn't that the way it always goes? This trip was definitely the best argument towards living in Chicago I've had in a while. But then again, visits are never the same as living somewhere for real...