Going on a trip

Is soooooo much work! Laundry and errands and plans and so much work. Plus the cat seems to have decided to lose his little mind. So cranky and needy this week.

But I will probably not be blogging too much while gone. But maybe not as I do have the new itouch (although probably they will be short blogs).

Valentine's day

We stayed home and were lazy and cozy. Sam made a dinner of some strip steak marinated a la an Alton Bron recipe as well as a yummy 5 cheese homemade mac and cheese and an arugula, cabbage, carrot salad with Gorgonzola dressing. I made dessert which was a french silk pie (graham crust with a creamy chocolate mousse filling), and we had champagne and strawberries.

I got Sam a new wallet, some balloons and a plant delivered to his office (where the plant can continue to live), and two battery operated tshirts. One tshirt has a drumset on it that you can play and the other lights up to show the strength of the wireless networks near you. They are pretty sweet (and in a picture below).



Sam sent me flowers to work in a cute little silver cup (see in the picture below), a gift certificate to Sephora (yea make-up! and yea! Sam for coming up with this after having to go with me to pick something up there one time), and a little box from Tiffany's in which there was a little "h" necklace in sterling silver. I LOVE IT!! And my sister has a matching "n" necklace that I got her for Christmas.

Perks of Membership

I am a member of the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago which means I can go for free whenever I want which is very nice considering I work around the corner and it makes for an excellent break at lunchtime.  Plus I get to bring a guest for free whenever I go, so it ends up being frequented when I have out of town visitors or newbies to Chicago.

 

Well, they just opened their first very special extra admission exhibit since I purchased my membership.  Wait, actually tomorrow they open that exhibit, but I went yesterday for their exclusive member preview.  Just me and maybe 100 other people wandered through many, many gothically lit galleries all displaying Edward Much and his contemporaries paintings, wood cuttings, and sculpture.  I felt very important and fancy, and it was a FABULOUS break from my job.

 

But I don't really like Munch.  At most I enjoy some of his color combinations, and he had this series of sort of blue, gloomy, serene paintings that seemed very dreary but appealing to me (mostly because they were filled with the colors in the palette of my own wardrobe).  But there were some really awesome paintings by other painters on display.  A fabulous Monet portrait of Mrs. Monet in a red kerchief and a few other bright expressionist street scapes that I want to hang in my house although I suspect they are out of my budget.

 

Alas, I knind of had to breeze through it really fast, and I don't even remember seeing "the Scream" if it was even in the exhibition, but that seems a weird omission in such a comprehensive display, so I guess I will go back later.  Because my membership card means I get to see these exhibits for free as long as they are not at capacity.  I think that is cool.  Although all Chicagoans, the musuem is free all February except for the pay to play Munch exhibit (which I think would still be cheaper than regular general admission), and they have redone things up in the last few months all in preparation for their modern wing to open in the spring.  That means the Pollock is no longer out as well as the stuff near it, but they have beautifully rearranged a lot of the rest of the collection including the dreary and dark hall of armor becoming a bright and airy hall of asians (well you know ancient asian art).

This is what I did this weekend

Here is Sam and I on the train back in from the airport earlier today. It really is irrelevant to the rest of the posts, but I really love the look on Sam's face, so in it goes.

This is the weekend. This is the beach in Mexico in the state of Michoacan. It was a little random place that rents cabanas on the beach and seemed to be unknown to tourists, really only known to people familiar with this pretty wild stretch of the Pacific Coast.


Here is Sam on the beach, looking the other direction.


We headed to Mexico for my Christmas present on Friday afternoon, and we got back today, and it was awesome. We flew into Guadalajara where we spent the weekend with Sam's foreign exchange student and good friend Ivan and many of his friends--all young, educated, well employed, Mexican hipsters. The first night we went down to the main plaza in Guadalajara and just sort of soaked it in for a bit, then we hit cafe for dinner and then we met up with Ivan's friends at a bar called El Pony. It was strangely like a bar we could find in Bucktown, a little trendy a lot hipster. I wish that I had not forgotten my camera because there was a man in 80's high 'v' waisted over the belt leopard print pants. The belt was bright red, he had pointy gold shoes on and on top was a low v black tank top with a little skinny grey cardigan over it. IT WAS SO MUCH LOOK! I could not handle it all night. The guy worked there so he was always around.

The next day we got up early and drove to the beach about 5 hours away. We drove out of Jalisco (where Guadalajara was) into Colima where I saw a volcano, coconut farms (more palm trees than I ever imagined seeing in my life), sugar cane fields, lime trees and banana plants. All from the car window, with my camera locked in the trunk (yeah, I know, good thinking right). Then we drove into Michoacan and got stopped at the military checkpoint on the border between the states. That was interesting. It was a military check point, and it was very strange but they quickly let us pass.

At the beach, we just hung out and napped in the shade of the simple palm leave covered structure and splashed in the divinely warm pacific ocean. Then we drank under the stars and the near full moon, and then we slept and repeated the next day. The beach was awesome!!!! Late Sunday we drove to the nearby village and had lunch in a little open air seaside restaurant where a parrot was climbing around the dining room, his wings seemed to either be clipped or hurt and he could not fly. There we had ceviche and seafood with fruit salsa, and it was very good. Then we drove back home a few hours later (lunching required naps).

Once home we went to bed, and then got up early this morning to fly back. It was a short trip, but wonderful. I recommend a beach in Mexico as a perfect prescription for the winter blues.

is this wrong to do at work

I have a DVD of a spoken word performance, and I thought it would be good company at work because it is a spoken word performance, so I don't need to see it just here it.  Is that wrong?

jokes are fun

So, I don't think it should come as a terrible shock to any of my blog readers that Sam and I are pretty serious, and we both know that we will get engaged sometime and then married at some point after that.  Although those sometimes and some points are very fluid and should encompass many years in total at their smallest points.  Anyway, because of that and the fact that Sam has now met my dad, there is a small possibility that Sam will officially propose with a ring and stuff at any moment now, BUT the likelihood of that happening increases with the amount of time passed, so it is very tiny right now and all this spring/summer/year it will remain small.

 

Anyway, that is background.  Sam's company like all the rest of us, is feeling the economy pinch and therefore will not be giving lavish bonuses or raises.  People will get them, but from a smaller pool and raises will be reserved only for the truly exceptional and will smaller than usual, so Sam is not expecting the usual bounty he has gotten in the past.  I have been teasing him when he says that we can't get engaged because girls cost money, by saying that well when he gets his bonus he can blow it all on a ring for me.  However, he teased me that this year it doesn't look good.  This makes me think that the next time we see the two guys who founded the company, as we have gone to dinner and concerts with them upon occasion before, I should tell them that we aren't engaged because they did not pony up enough of a bonus for a ring this year.  I think this will be hilarious, and I think they will be amused too because well they have senses of humor and Sam and I met because of their company (it hired my friend, she introduced us at a work event, etc) and they know the whole back story. 

 

This story/joke is less amusing than I feel it should be.  And it is because I totally jumbled the backstory and constructed it very poorly.  Part of me wants to go back and polish it up so Alan won't give me grief, but I am too lazy.  Deal with it Cate Blanchett!

Tarot cared from sallyacious.com

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Superbowl

An example of why I love Sam as much as I do:

We are not watching the superbowl, or we are but on delay. On that delay (thanks Tivo!) we are just watching the commercials and the halftime show. That's all. Also he keeps calling the Steelers the Penguins. This is what I call superbowl sunday!