Grab a Cup-o-Jo

We've got some cathcing up to do!

Since the 22nd I have been in Minnesota with family and friends. Thus far I went to my friend Cate's baby shower, visited with Eleise, Amy, Alyssa, and Andrea. I have spent quality family time with Mom, Dad, Grandma, and my favorite aunts. Christmas was enjoyed at my Aunt Lisa's home, which was full of Christmas treats and mushroomy-Minnesota hot dishes!

Later in the week, I made Mom and Dad Verne's garlicky-pasta dish; I went thrifting with Grandma where I picked up some cute earrings, jeans, and sassy tops; I obtained additional bargains at Mom's store, including a pair of kickin' black boots! I sunk my teeth into the best Pumkin bread ever made by my cute 90-year-old Grandma.


Time has also been spent making two pairs of earrings, reading a juicy novel, and enjoying breakfast at the Bad Waitress on Nicollet, Nina's on Selby, and my fav... Mom's kitchen for the most delicious biscuits and gravy! Other eating hot spots I have frequented here in Minnie include the Uptown Bar & Grill for a Rueben with Alyssa; Tortellini soup with Amy at Damico & Sons; and some yum Chinese at Relax on Eat Street with Foxy E. I also got a chance to see the Frida Khalo exhibit at the Walker and boogied to Dave Pirner and The Volunteers at The Cabooze on the West Bank.

Can you tell I am enjoying my vacation time away from giftware?

Oh, and of course, I have snapped many photos and look forward to sharing them on this blog in the months to come....

Until then...

Can I take your blog order?

Frozen

I'm too cold to blog! I'm freezing in Minnesota! It's been snowing here on and off for days...
Yeah, sure it's pretty...but I'm a girl that prefers lush greenery to deceiving sparkly snowflakes.

Poetry addiction and my new BF

And yes, another poem...(sorry the winter makes me emotional)....

Do we give to get in return? Or do we give to feel good and don’t worry about getting burned?
Do we love to get love? Or love, love, love, and don’t worry about love in return?
I give and give and give. It feels good and love myself for the return.
Sometimes though it would be good to not always rely on one that is I for the return.

And onto the boyfriend portion of this post,
Val Emmich is incredibly talented and seriously, so nauseating cute! He makes me weak in the knees. Check his music out and his adorable stint as coffee boy on 30 Rock.

Style Icon

So I have been reading the lists of worst and best of 2007 and I have come upon someone saying that Cameron Diaz' 2007 Golden Globes dress is a worst. I remember at the time of the event others just bashing the dress as well and I kept thinking are you people blind?


This dress is amazing and completely represents the personality of which I think Cameron D. is: a quirky, confident, beautiful woman. She looks amazing and she takes risks; those two qualities alone equal a style icon!

This dress is so couture and glam and different. I love love love! In my book, I think Cameron D. has some of the best fashion sense in Hollywood..

Thanks for the inspiration Cam...and um, sorry that I'm the next to date the Timberlake.

Hope for Spring

Thanks to Darling E, I have discovered this lovely little poem. Enjoy!

I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.

“We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,”
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.

- Oliver Herford (1863-1935)

So Darling!

This is my grandma. She is 90.
She lives by herself and keeps a beautiful home. She has so many visitors. She cooks for herself! She's nearly blind and has some aches and pains, but does she complain? Nope not at all. She's headstrong, smart, and quite funny. Oh, and she's SO SO CUTE! I love her. She is my thrift store diva partner. My cute Grandma.

December 7, 8 & 9

Highlights for the weekend of Dec 7, 8, & 9...

Visited Mingo in her cube one last time on her last day at the office.
Ate a cheeseburger, and enjoyed many cocktails as I said goodbye to Mingo at Redfish
Got to see Ms. Camri, and of course Miss. manicured Jen!
Laughed my arse off at Elm St. Liquors for dancing.
Woke the next morning a little groggy, but rested.
Picked up a bagel and coffee and heard kind words from my SUPER cute coffee crush.
Enjoyed my coffee while blogging about my new grinch name: Frownyfrown Wickedham.

Made delish truffles, sprinkled with hot pink cookie glitter—all for the cookie exchange!

Attended the party at Leigh and Ryan's beautiful home!
Laughed even more with Mandy, Leigh, Ryan, Kris, cute boys, and new friends.

Snapped shots of cute Mandy and Kris.

Learned how to play a Hanukkah holiday game and enjoyed eating the game pieces.
Awoke the next morning to a very annoying cat that loves to hollow and destroy any paper, fabric, and shoes in her line of fire.

After being awoken a third time, instead of feeding the annoying creature, I locked her in the kitchen with my cool kitchen door!
Got googly again while smiling at coffee crush.

Just now noticed a funky pink restaurant I must have walked past 100 times before.
Surprised Amy and Marshall with truffles. Wished her luck in her new adventure.
Stopped by Jen and Andy's to see their pretty Christmas tree.
Picked up MORE cat food for what seems to be starving animal.
Made salad, crab-stuffed flounder, and mac and cheese for dinner.
Watched a silly movie while snuggling with the cat between her food breaks.

And, of course, continued to keep my grinch chin up.

FrownyFrown Wickedham

So I am a holiday grinch. Frownyfrown Wickedham, I found out through a very important website, is my official grinch name. In the past week I have thought about changing my attitude toward Christmas and embracing the season. I thought I need to turn my holiday frown upside down! Be happy, dress Honey up like an elf, bake some holiday cookies, sing some holiday songs! But now that I have one of the COOLEST grinch names ever I am afraid, for the sake of being able to call myself Frownyfrown Wickedham, I'm just going to have go on about being a bitchy old bitter Christmas grinch!

But darn it all I do have to make some holiday cookies for my cookie exchange party tonight.... hmmmm sugar treats, that is kind of a fun thing about the holidays! I'll be making my special truffles, a holiday recipe from Mingo of course!

GREAT RECIPES!

While I have no real holiday photos on hand to make everyone smile, I do have this great pic of one of my fav dinners from last week...this special ancient recipe was found centuries ago written in the sand on the beach in a small Indonesian town....it is called catpowconraw. A dash of sea salt and a squeeze of lemon and viola, a feast for a Queen. Delish!

Yes I am a freak and it's so good to be here.

Already Missing Mingo

Today is Mingo's last day. I'm VERY happy for her; sad for me. I will miss her TONS. Mingo is my girl! We're very different but have become good friends and can always connect through two major things: cats and the color pink! And not only is Mingo a great friend, but an amazing designer; I have come to rely on her here at work! Her designs always and completely correspond to the visions in my head!

When I do the Gazette in the magazine Mingo is always the BEST designer. For the April 07 Gazette she made it soooo girly sweet... here's a look at the cover, first page, and a favorite photo page!


What will I do without Mingo here in the world of Giftware? Who knows...? But I do know we will remain to be good friends! She's a good girl, and way beyond making an article of mine look good, she has given me so much more... help in designing my new apartment (and pushing me to make the change!), great food recipes, advice on life, love, and clothing... the constant lending of her digital camera, great picnic lunches, silly pictures with large poster heads and, most important, lots of laughs!!! Congrats Miss. Mingo on your new adventure! I know you're only going to be two blocks away, but I am going to miss you so much!! xoxo

Love Love!

I will admit this out loud: I am a Jennifer Love Hewitt fan. If I have no plans on a Friday, I will get home by 7:00 for the Ghost Whisperer. I will tell co-workers I love Love. I have made peace with Love portraying the un-portrayable Audrey Hepburn in the made for television movie, The Audrey Hepburn Story.

Her entrance as Amanda Beckett in the movie Can't Hardly Wait—cue slow-mo special-affect with the Sneaker Pimps' 6 Underground bellowing in the back—was classic.

Her movie, Confessions of a Sociopathic Social Climber was cheesy-bad! I own it and have seen it more than once. I forgive her for making me cringe in the past (and, I'm sure will in the future) when she is making a giddy fool of herself on late night talk shows. She's nervous, immature, giggly, vomity perky, and, a little embarrassing—I think it's adorable because it's absolutely real! She's not playing a part, she is not censoring herself, or making it seem she is something she is not, she's just being herself. And once again Love has proved again how real she is...

If you're an Internet junky as I, you no doubt have seen the latest Hewitt headlines... they go something like this "Hewitt Fights back after Bikini Insults." Or my favorite headline, from a London online journal, 'I love my body': Jennifer Love Hewitt attacks Hollywood's Size Zero obsession.

The thing is Love is, by Hollywood's standards, considered fleshier than she should be....But, in my book, I think she's still super skinny! And looks amazing! Women should have curves for goodness sakes.

So, as a Jennifer Love Hewitt fan and a big believer in the curvier woman, it seemed quite appropriate to sit down with a box of chocolate macaroons and write a little blog dedicated to Love and her curves. As she's noted in her backlash at the photogs that snapped the intrusive pics, if anything comes of this, hopefully it's that young women that may not be too happy with their bodies can see it's normal to be a bit curvy, normal and beautiful.

Without sounding too "you go girl"... well, um, you go girl.

Negative Nelly

So I don't like Christmas—at all. It's a boring, cold, and miserable holiday. Do I sound like Scrooge? Yes I do and Jimmy-Crack-Corn I don't care. I am just being honest. Christmas is phony to me... you pretend you're happy...you pretend you're best friends with your family, even though you barely speak the rest of the year (my cute parents excluded), you pretend you don't notice the commercialism, you pretend you don't notice the war, poverty, abuse of everything....you pretend you don't notice how absolutely freezing cold it is outside and you pretend you don't notice all the winter weight you're gaining...

I am a Negative Nelly and I feel quite positive about that.. I guess just because that term is so cute to me! Okay so I will turn this Christmas frown upside down... what do I like about this time of year? Because there has to be something, right!!?? Well I do LOVE getting presents and I love giving presents just the same...I wish I had more people in my life to give to...and children. Kids are fun this time of year and I know not a one.

I like the Christmas songs "You're a Mean One Mister Grinch" and "Christmas-Christmas" by the renowned Alvin and the Chipmunks.... I like the movie the Christmas Story and I really love Han's Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl....and the girl even dies at the end of the story! Now that is a Christmas play for this Negative Nelly—forget It's a Wonderful Life, Han's Christian knows how to rock it! I mean just look at the original Little Mermaid story...it's beautifully tragic.

Illustration by Odessa11
So I remember, during one holiday season when I was about 10-years-old, going to the Children's Theater on a class trip for the play The Little Match Girl. I was mesmerized. Here's this little girl, so poor and poorly dressed—she has bare feet in December! She is forced to sell matches on the street and scared to go home because her father beats her and to stay warm she must strike her matches. This is when the magic begins... Upon the first match she has a small vision—a light flickering. Soon, with each strike, she begins to see a life she longs for, complete with a cooked goose, a decorated Christmas tree, candles, and, finally a vision of her smiling grandmother—the only person who has ever loved the Little Match Girl. And with that last match, the Little Match Girl huddles in an alley, in the city, all the while Christmas shoppers past her by, and she dies! It's SO sad, but so telling.

I guess with my own Negative Nelly attitude and recollection of a favorite Christmas story, I suppose what I am saying is Christmas to me would be a lot nicer if we all would remember things like dying Little Match Girls.

MEOW!

Looks like Halloween isn't over in Jolene's World.... Here's a look at my THIRD costume this past Halloween.

Looks like I wasn't the only kitty. The other kitty is Monica, Frank's sister. And yes, Frank is the Super Chicken Hawk.

Good Stock

This is my family.

Who knew they cleaned up so well!?

This photo was taken for my Grandma's 90th Birthday last October. Can you tell which one is my cute Grandma? The rest of the people are her eight children. EIGHT! Yikes I have gray hair from one cat.

Can you tell which one is my Mom? Um yes she is the cutest one! That's her in the blue, sitting next to my Grandma. My Grandma likes her the BEST because she is the best! And because she also created her favorite grandchild. Um, yes that'd be me!

Color Me Proud

One of my dearest friends is Miss. Eleise.

Eleise is one of those people that after speaking to via the telephone, or seeing in person, even just for a minute, you feel like a million bucks. She's classy, beautiful, super intelligent, cultured, funny, but most extraordinary, she is truly so compassionate, accepting, and, oh how do I describe it? She just this great gal! She's the type of woman that you can call 12 times in tears and she isn’t even phased by it, instead after a few moments of her compassionate words you find yourself laughing and realizing how silly you're being because E has this way of making you see yourself in this positive light. Not once has she judged me, or anyone for that matter. She has this way with words and simply just viewing life. Now don’t even get me started on her emails. Truly elegant prose, seriously! Well she is a writer by nature; she could be writing about the most mundane thing (which E rarely would do, but she could be) and you’d be reading this with edge-of-your-seat interest, because her writing is so fluid and elegant.

It's things like this that make me think, "Why do we live so far apart?" I met Eleise in Minnesota about seven years ago. The first time I saw her she was understudying a role in Rosetown’s production of Hello Dolly starring my other amazing friend Cate as Dolly.
I was in awe of these women’s talent. The following fall Cate, Eleise and myself were cast in Rosetown’s Dracula. I thought Eleise was a high school senior because she looked so young and the theater often cast high school students. Turns out E is three years younger than me. Well we hit it off right away and became friends.

So now in 2007 I am in Chicago and E is in Boston. Prior to her living in Boston she lived in London for three years getting her Masters in Chinese studies!—I told you she’s smart. Through it all E and I have remained close and I am thankful for that.

Okay so why am I going on and on about Miss. E? Well for one, why wouldn't I? I mean being friends with E just goes to show everyone how cool I am, right? Truth is I am proud to call her my friend! Now secondly I spoke to E yesterday and she was quite down and this breaks my heart, while she is all the attributes I listed above, smart, funny, amazing, etc. etc. she’s not perfect. E has had more than her share of hardships, and it’s about time this woman got a break. So when she is blue I just wish I could make her feel better, like she has helped me in the past.

So I guess you could say this post is a Casey Kasem Long Distance Dedication to Miss. E!

Now the third thing is to announce yet another reason why I am in awe of E.

This fall Eleise performed in Manhattan! Okay I can already hear her say, “Um I performed off-off Broadway.”
But Hello! How spectacular! When Eleise arrived in Boston for a new job almost a year ago she made some friends fast that were involved in this dance production: The Big Moves Dance Company. This company celebrated the larger lady and were putting on a show where they need a few ‘skinnies.’ With a background in dance, E auditioned and was cast as one of the ‘skinnies’ for the production titled Lard: Like Grease but Thicker!

I spoke to E and she said the shows went really well! So congrats to E, my friend who performed in Manhattan.

Funky

Today is one of those days, a mood day. I'm funky, moody, slightly bitchy. But mainly I'm non-chalant, nothing makes me really bat a lash. Except for maybe this cute pic of Miss. Honey:

It's an X-ray of her belly. See that white dot?
That's a be-be pellet. Sad.

This weekend is the weekend before Halloween. It's weird being out of gay town, Halloween just isn't the same. Gay town is full of gay ghouls and goblins.

This year I am slated to attend a party at some che-che hotel downtown.... I am suppose to dress up as a celebrity, these are the party 'rules.' I have chosen to dress as Dita Von Teese, that is if I go. Dita's hot and refined. I'm considering instead to be Britney that way if I end up getting trashed and flashing my boobs I can say it's all about the costume.

I should rent some scary flicks for the weekend. I could rewatch Knocked Up that is one scary movie—scary to think that load of crap made people laugh.

Seriously, what's a truly scary movie? When I was nine that movie was Children of the Corn; who freaked me out more Isaac or Malakai? Isaac. Even though Malakai killed with a machete, Isaac killed with one darn awful creepy sneer. Chilling. Steven King certainly offered up some truly chilling characters.

One word: Pennywise.

A movie that I recommend for a chill is Fire in the Sky. Its about these men that swear their friend was abducted by aliens in 1975 Arizona, why it's so chilling is that it's based on a true story.

Renting a classically scary movie can always be a real treat, try Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, and of course, The Shining!

Well my mood hasn't changed with this post... I thought it may help, instead it's just made me realize I need to plan a trip to the movie store...also I must get my other costume ready. On Wednesday the girls here at work and I will be dressing as Mary Kay girls... that means hosiery, face powder, pink lipstick and super high-heels. It is my hope that at lunch we will harass real MK girls.

Have a happy and safe Halloween. Make sure you keep your kitties safe, especially the black ones, there are way too many freaks out on Halloween.

-Dita

Halloween Inspiration

Burlesque performer and MAC Viva Glam spokesperson, Dita Von Teese... is my Halloween Inspiration...What do you think, can I pull off this absolutely flawless specimen of glam? I'll be lucky to absorb even one percent of the glamazon. Photo by David Azia.

Next to Butter

Aaaah reminiscing...This was my first solo apartment on Grand Avenue in Minneapolis. I lived in the top right corner apartment...for five years. I painted the walls lavender, yellow, and rosy pink. I had that much room. Two walk-in closets, a dining room, full kitchen, separate bedroom and spacious living room. My rent for that first year was $550 a month. Weep.

The building is right next to Butter. But when I moved Butter was still Sweetskies—super pink and girly with to die for eclairs and a very butch lesbian owner. Prior to Sweetskies it was the Good Food Cafe, a strictly vegan restaurant. It took sometime to figure out why they hated me so much when I came in for coffee. It hit me a year later, I was wearing my leather jacket there...

Ahhhh those were the days of a young naive Minnesota girl... now I'm just a tidge bit older, still a sweet Minnesotan and only about 10 percent less naive.... oh if you happen to be around in the hood, do keep an eye out for Miss. Xena. This was her last home with me and Miss. H.

One thousand and 80 bazillion kisses to her.

Keen on Keane

You know you've seen them: big eyes; big, sad eyes; giant, depressed, sad eyes on sweet little girls, puppies, and kitties. I am speaking of the paintings of Margaret Keane. Popular in the 60s and 70s, Keane's paintings often adorned many young girls' bedrooms.

Funny thing is Keane's paintings were credited to her second husband Walter Keane. As the Wikipedia site stated, under the name Margaret Keane, "Many reasons might be put forward to explain this, but it was also one of the reasons they divorced."

The site also says that Keane did not want to relinquish the rights to the artwork when they divorced. Thank God! So the divorce went all the way to Federal court. At the hearing, to prove she was the artist of the Keane paintings, Margaret painted in front of the judge, which showed her obvious talent. Of course Walter couldn't do this and deniied the chance to paint. In 1965, the courts sided with her, enabling her to paint under her own name.

Why I am speaking of Keane is because her paintings certainly had an impact on Jolene's World... of course! While I did not have Keane's work adorn my childhood walls, two of her prints decorated a wall in my Grandparent's guest bathroom in Monett, Missouri. To this day I can still visualize nearly every detail of that bathroom. I loved it because it was very pink and very girly!

There was the mauve and light pink shower curtain tied back with decorative pinks ropes. In the corner of the bathtub rested a bottle of hot pink bubble bath emblazoned with a pink rhinestone brooch. Across from the toilet was a tiny bench with a deep mauve velvet bench cover.

And of course there were the Keane prints.

My father bought them in 1962 while visiting San Francisco and gave them to his mother. When I was little, visting Granny and Gramps, I'd ogle the prints and think that someday they’d make a great addition to my home.

After both my grandparents passed I received the prints and have had them hung in my home ever since. Not only are these prints reflective of my tastes, but they also have much sentimental value.

Above they are shown in the old EP suites. Now that I am getting ready to decorate my new apartment, I am reminded of how I love these prints and I am excited to see which wall will request their presence today... to find out stay tuned for more posts!

Welcome to my sale!

So I have officially moved out of the EP Suites. I had a good three-year run there—me, honey, the steel giraffes and one goat—we were all pretty happy. But considering I was in the heart of boystown, it was, I suppose, a matter of time the rent would skyrocket, and it did at a jump of one hundred dollars!

So I thought, hmmmm, I don't like moving, but $800 for a small studio apartment infested with centipedes seemed like a rotten deal." So I began my search for my new apartment and also began packing up the old. It was about this time I realized "Wow I have a lot of junk! It's time to have a sale!"

Turns out the neighborhood was hot-to-trot for a Jolene Special sale! Items that were most memorable selling include a hot pink T-Shirt with the phrase "Sun your Buns." The guy that purchased it was so excited with his 75-cent purchase, he put it on right on the sale grounds!

Another fun item that I sold was a tween-inspired pink sequined phone with feathers... (sorry mom)... I knew this phone would be happier elsewhere considering I was no longer going to have an actual phone line, and let me tell you the gentlemen, about 35, that purchased it, could not have been happier.

And then there was Karen the Quinceañera doll.

About two years ago I went to my first Quinceañeras for my co-worker's daughter, Karen. Well as you leave, part of tradition is take a gift, I immediately scooped up this doll. I was quite proud to carry her down the street and into the bar later that evening....

But with any move, sometimes it's time to part with those pieces that brought you happiness at one time, but soon just weighed you down, (kinda of like the Jennifer Lopez CD in the background.)

The phrase, "Another person's trash is another person's treasure" couldn't have been more accurate a statement than when it came to Karen, the Quinceañera doll.

This gentleman literally jumped out of his friend's moving car to pick-up Karen, and not only was he psyched about this great find he was insisting I take an extra dollar for Karen...but alas I said "the price tag is a dollar sir; your happiness and one dollar is all I ask for!"

And look how happy he is!

After he hurriedly paid, posed for this lovely pic, and then ran off back to his friend's car, I realized a mini traffic jam had occurred all because of my hot and sizzling sale!

Numerous other shoppers stopped by to pick up a great cd, or a dvd, such as the compelling Spanglish. Other happy customers included my friend Mandy and her boyfriend, Ben. Mandy left with a black skirt and pink plastic bracelet.

My best shopper though was Frank. When traffic was low Frank would jump in the middle of the sale and "pretend to shop." As passersby strolled by, Frank would make such statements as "Wow this is a collectors edition." Or "Man I remember this from my childhood!" This earned Frank the title of "best pretend shopper."

Frank's first title of the day though was "stock boy" as he unloaded all the merchandise from my apartment to the sales floor. Later, aside from being a pretend shopper, Frank was also head of loss prevention. He was quite good at all duties.

All and all, I was very happy with my sell, not to mention, $152 dollars richer!

Dead Leaves on the Dirty Ground

I found these cool leaf pics online done by Minneapolis' photographer David J. Turner; his stuff is pretty cool and he makes these dead leaves look like blooming flowers...it makes saying goodbye to summer not so bad...

Designs by AimLene

Ooooh so cute! Frank just emailed me these photos that I took with his camera... Amy and I made baby onesies for Wil... we cut out fabric shapes and used the iron for adhering them to the onesies...aren't they the cutest!?




Here's Amy at my old apartment (sniff). She's showing off her ultra fashionable onesie titled "Fresh Farm Eggs."



Can you guess which two onesies I designed? Take a guess!! Yes, I did the kitties! Do you know that baby boy clothes rarely ever feature cats or kittens, apparently felines are for females and dogs for boys... well Camri and Chris only like their two kitties so Wil is a cat baby as well then—and for that he needed a onesie with kitty cats! Meow.

The above photo shows the back of the onesies, while the photo to the right shows the onesies' front sides.

The other one I designed is on the far right, the ice-cream cones. Camri loves ice-cream, so naturally since I'm sure Wil got lots of it la la tummy land, he loves it too!

Aside from Fresh Farm Eggs, Amy also designed the colorful onesie with shapes and circles. We loved them.

Of course the more wine we drank, the cuter they got!

Karma

It's times like this that I am happy I have a blog. A moment when something happens to me that I am quite pleased to share with you fine folks.... so here's my quick, but seriously funny story.. okay wait I hope it's not one of those stories where you "had to be there" Nonetheless, if you use your imagination you will love this story!

(I giggle now as I begin to write.)

This evening on my way home I decide to stop at Treasure Island (note to Minnesotans, this is not a casino, in Chicago Treasure Island is a 'European' grocery store.) So I am making my selections, the regular pathetic single-girl fare, (today it was tortellini/mozzarella salad, one can of soda, one meatball, a baguette, and a bottle of wine.) So I'm looking adorable (I think) wearing a uber cute dress slightly reminiscent of Edie Sedgwick, I have on a pair of killer black tights and my black Kedzie pumps; I'm listening to music, bopping around. Suddenly a favorite song comes on my Ipod, Walking with a Ghost by Tegan and Sarah.

I'm feeling good.

I'm in the back of the store and need to get up front to the wine cellar, but dare I go through the produce section. No, the produce section always makes me depressed. So I whip down the dairy aisle and there's a guy with his Ipod pumping and I think "wow we're both jamming to our tunes and we are happy." So I sashay pass him, showing him how cool I am with my own happy musically inclined mood, not to mention how cute I feel in my pretty dress. I pass him, I'm a super model, I'm strutting it, I'm feeling Tegan and Sarah and suddely a thought goes through my head, but before I can even compute the thought it happens!

My left ankle whips out from under me, my right foot goes for the save, but to no avail and both my legs fail me and the next thing I realize my entire body is lunging forward, hands and head first and my music is pumping in my ears but I know I scream "Oh my God." As I slide across the floor with my basket of goodies and my purse, both lopsided falling next to me, my whole body splatters on the floor. I'm mortified; I'm beet red and, of course I start laughing, half because it's damn funny and half to say "hey look I can laugh at myself!" Within seconds the music man is running toward me and one of the workers is right behind him with a second worker nearly ready to call the paramedics straight behind him. The stranger offers his hand and helps me up and I laugh, catch my breath and then tell them about that sudden thought.

I had almost fallen at work earlier that day as my ankle had gone out on me in the lobby, and that sudden thought was "oh I best slow down or I'm going to fall for real!" I couldn't believe these two men were not laughing. They were gentlemenly and concerned.

If I were them I would have laughed just like I laughed at the girl that fell on the bus yesterday morning. So I guess that's why I fell.....Karma.

My knees are killing me!

Babbling and words

Man, Woman, Cats and Dogs, I promised myself I'd be better at keeping the blog up to date.... and yet I have been busy.... and now, here I sit in front of this blank screen with nothing to really say, except, again I have been busy. I have been busy procrastinating the important things, wasting time, working a lot, and paying immediate attention to emergencies.

This morning Miss. Honey was diagnosed with a bladder infection, thus crowning her the world's most expensive cat. Meow! What can you do? You can't ignore the cries of an animal, unless if you're evil and mean. Or if you're super poor and you think that maybe it was just due to a switch in food....and things would clear up....

So last night I started to freak because she demonstrated to me that she was now peeing part blood. My friend Brett is married to an amazing woman, Jill, she is a vet tech and so super smart and good with animals. She suggested I come there where she treated Honey with meds and fluids and got her comfy for the night so I wouldn't have to sell my ovaries to pay for the animal ER.

It was Sunday night and these two people opened their home to Me and Miss. Honey.... you gotta love that! What good people.

Aside from taking care of The Kitty, I have had to work some part-time hours back at the restaurant because A: My current job has low pay; B: I have spent too much on cute clothes, shoes, and cat care that my debt is too much to manage, or C: all of the above. For fun I have been flirting with the opposite sex, but haven't met anyone to spark my fancy. I've always enjoyed my independence, but I tell you as of late I am getting dog-tired trying to stay afloat all on my own.... Can someone please hire my cat?

Aside from the flirting, I have been watching movies....but I haven't seen anything recently that was profoundly wonderful. I did enjoy Year of the Dog with Molly Shannon—her dog Pencil broke my heart in two. When Pencil dies (not a spoiler, it happens in the beginning of the film) I cried as I recalled my life with Miss. Xena. Shannon is so delicate and pitch perfect! The movie kind of went off in a weird track, but all and all it was fairly enjoyable.

Other happenings of my world include graduating from S of SSKCw/oS (that is the School of Successfully and Swiftly Killing a Centipede without Screaming. This just happened last week. The apartments here on Elaine Place are invested! I finally had had enough of the drama of half killing a CPM (Centipede Man-don't ask).... this often involved legs dangling on a wall and a large body squirming away somewhere on my floor. Now I scoop it up like it's a hunk of jelly, fast, quick, without thought! I'm really quite proud of myself. I remember a time when I was about 14, reading around 2:00am and a CPM crawled next to me and I freaked and woke my dad up who groggily killed it for me. Thanks Dad!

So I am getting retardly excited to move out of the hood up to Ravenswood, just on the outskirts of Lincoln Square. My new place is sparkly clean and uber cute! I will be having a sidewalk sale to pay for the movers!!! It will be quite the event!

Aaaah October is a good month, I get to move, my parents will be celebrating their 38th!!! Anniversary and My grandma turns 90! Yowzers, I think October will be my new favorite month, not to forget it's also the fun, spooky month!

On that note.... I must go back to something else productive, such as write correspondence for all the September Birthdays I sadly fell behind on...bad Jolene!

Run Forrest Run

This summer has been so fun, ever since I succumbed to the fact that I hate winter I have fully embraced the summer months. And aside from just loving summer, I have made a point to seek out exciting summer events, such as Ladies Hat Day at Arlington Park Horse Track.

So, just a few weeks ago my dear friend Amy accompanied me on the Metra train to go out to the Arlington race park, just a mere 30 minutes from downtown Chicago—also near Sarah's Grove where our friend Ashley resides!

The three of us donned our finest hats to enjoy the races!

Since we had hats on, and we are ladies... we got in free! And so we enjoyed some bloody marries for breakfast, champagne for lunch and bets all day! As part of Ladies Hat Day the Millinery Arts Alliance held a special event in the Governor's Suite where they sold hats, had free champagne and hot pink frosted cupcakes and the prime view of the horses!
Turns out many others were just as excited about hat Day, including the CUTEST couple in the world (besides my parents) this red hat polka dot duo! Now that is love! And you can't tell from the pic, but she had some hot black fishnets on! Sexy!

There were four couture hat designers at the hat day, and the cheapest hat was probably $275. Later, on the Metra train home Amy noticed this lady had two hat boxes- a guess of a $600 dollar value! Her hubby loves her!


This woman's hat was designed by Nicole M. Le Blance. Ms. Le Blance was also the designer of the hat that I wore that day! See, you can see it here as I intently watched my horse.

A note about our betting: Amy and I first bet on the horses that had names that were interesting, this proved to be fruitful for Amy, not me. So I went my separate way. I decided to bet on the third favorite horse, figuring it was his time to shine. This worked once and I won $8 bucks! But then it stopped working and Amy too was not having luck. Finally we realized it was all about the outfit! From then on out we only bet on the horses that donned pretty attire. Amy won $12 on the horse and jockey that had a purple suit with lime green polka dots! Yay! Since fashion seems to mean a lot, I decided to enter the Ladies Hat contest...and guess what!? NO I didn't win, BUT I was a finalist!


See me there. They had us go on the, um, place where the horses walk before they race... and this woman from Chicago NBC announced the finalists on the big screen and everyone snapped our photo. Ms. Amy is my personal photographer. I'm the green blob in a cute hat! All the ladies were HOT in great hats! After we waved and looked pretty, the winner was announced and soon, the pretty NBC lady escorted us all back to the Governor's Suite for free drinks..... Photographer Amy really enjoyed that! Amy's hat designer is Nine West... My Mom knows all about this hat!

Isn't Amy so pretty!?














And this is my friend Loretta, a couture hat designer, she's so talented and fun! That hat she's donning is her own creation, it's gorgeous!


All and all it was just another lovely day at the races!