Chicago

The State of Good

May 15, 2012

Things lately have been good. Not crazy or over the top, not sad and depressing, just good. Good I’ve found is a little bit boring and doesn’t leave much to blog about. Pretty weather, enjoyable weekends, interesting books, work being the right amount of busy…. there isn’t much more to say than that. When things are good I tend to stare at the white page a little longer, thinking of things to say, and often just exiting out before I write any words.

After all, no one really wants to read about good.

Of course when you are good you are able to laugh at smaller things, things that you consider retelling and then you realize, no, not really all that funny, just funny at the time, in the moment. My greatest source of amusement these days are my suggested items from Amazon. I recently placed an order for a sailing knife (for B) and an infant car seat (as a baby gift) and I’m pretty sure the algorithm has me pegged as a “psycho baby-stealing murderer” if the suggestions are any indication. Hunting equipment and baby bottles? BUT OF COURSE.

I’ve been trying to get back into being more active as of late, dusting off my bike and pulling out my yoga mat. I finally gave into the siren song of Lululemon, investing in a pair of Wunder Under Crops and a Race Tech top and I’m obsessed. Now all I can think about is getting more Lululemon, next on my list is a pair of Groove pants. Fascinating, I know. I also hit up the Shops at Target (insert eye roll now) (mutter under your breath about Missoni for Target) like every other woman in America who loves Target. My favorite items were from The Webster (snagged a tunic) and Privet House (some candles).

In my final roundup of “things that are good” I’ve contined enjoying good books at a rapid rate of speed. The Art of Racing in the Rain got 3 stars from me, the Lost Wife got 4. Next up is “The Discovery of Witches” which I have high hopes for. After that…well, who knows.

All in all, things are good, if not a little boring. But sometimes…sometimes boring is great.

Concrete Jungle

May 11, 2012

By Daisy

Since the end of March my travel schedule has included Tampa, Baltimore, Detroit, Sacramento, Las Vegas and New York City. Many of these trips were for work which meant they included drivers and car services (yay!) and meetings and early alarm clocks (not as yay.) I love going to New York, even for a short period of time, because we get to stay in the Meatpacking District which is a part of the city I rarely make it to when I visit for fun. The Meatpacking District has lots of ~~overpriced~~ trendy hotels and this time I stayed at the Dream Hotel. I wasn’t sure what to expect; NYC hotel rooms are notoriously tiny and Meatpacking District hotels all have nightclubs hidden away in them so the trick is to get the room that doesn’t pulsate with the beat of the music at 2 am.

I did not find this magical room this time around. Suddenly the high end white noise machine in my room made a lot of sense.

The room reminded me a little bit of a pod or a space shuttle. Everything was sleek and modern and very, very small. It had fancy buttons in lieu of light switches which required deciphering of the image to figure out how to dim the lights or turn them on or off. I never did figure it out and instead resorted to random mashing of buttons. It didn’t have a digital alarm clock either, which made it hard to tell the time in the middle of the night without my glasses on.

The bathroom was fully tiled in penny tile. It would have been very echo-y had it not been the size of my coat closet.

What you can’t tell from that photo is that the shower curtain was made of mesh. As in metal. This seems highly counterintuitive but I tried not to think about it because it was too mind boggling.

The best part about the room (with porthole windows that I’m pretty sure I had to pay extra for, haaaaaa, man they thing weird things are cool in NYC) was the view.

Spot on, Dream Hotel, spot on.

Speaking of views, when we flew into New York, we flew over the lower tip of the island. I spotted the new World Trade Center One and then I suddenly looked straight down, and could easily see the two reflecting pools that make up the memorial to the Twin Towers. It took my breath away from 15,000 feet, these serene holes that broke up the topography of sky scrapers and glass. We landed a few minutes later, and as we taxied we rolled past Donald Trump’s plane, and apropo of nothing I had to laugh. It was jarring, being snapped out of my thoughts about the World Trade Center attacks by a black plane with the word “Trump” arrogantly painted across the fuselage, but there it was. I suppose there might be some symbolism there, or commentary on our society today, but I’m too tired to figure out what it is.

My travel extravaganza is winding down and all I have left is my Memorial Day weeekend trip to Boca Raton before I enjoy Chicago for a long, long time.

Brown Bag Lunch

April 19, 2012

By Daisy

I don’t write about work much, if ever, here on my blog. A variety of factors play into that but generally speaking, I want to know that if a coworker ever stumbled across these pages and read through my archives looking for juicy details about themselves or anyone else in the office, they’d find a whole lot of nothing. Nothing bad, nothing good. No favorites or complaints or eye rolls, even if deep down we all have things at work that annoy us or cause us to complain over dinner. This “lack of work talk” is just a rule I came up with a long time ago, even if some of my favorite blogs dish regularly about work and coworkers and clients and craziness. My own personal line in the sand if you will. Some people don’t share their faces or their kids names or their home address, and I don’t share much about work.

However, in breaking with the tradition, I’ll tell you that work has been going well. Moving, shaking, meeting and lawyering at its finest. And while I still have a (horrendous) commute, I’m pretty happy with what I’m doing and that can really make all the difference. That and telecommuting three days a week. Working in your pajamas is a real morale booster if I do say so myself.

However, on one of my days in the office next week I have a very important lunch to attend. Namely, I was invited to dine with our CEO who is in town for something (much more important & unrelated) and I gleefully hit the “accept” button when that Microsoft Office invitation came through my email. Lunch with the CEO, don’t mind if I do.

Then I read the fine print and realized that this lunch was not going to be tastefully catered by the nearby deli or Italian joint, and rather was brown bag.

As in lets all take out what we packed and eat it in front of each other. Now would be a good time to admit that my lunch normally consists of a small glass container of last night’s leftovers, a string cheese and a little kid squeeze applesauce. I don’t have to be delicate when I admit that that is not the kind of lunch you eat in front of the executive officers. That and sometimes leftovers while delicious, have a smell to them. (A smell of awesome). And I’m a firm believer that my entree for this particular lunch should be odor free.

Other general rules I’ve set in place: nothing weird, nothing messy, nothing too crunchy, nothing slurp-able, nothing I can get in my teeth and nothing I have to heat up.

By my estimation this leaves granola bars & bottled water.

Of course my so called friends have had some suggestions:

Isn’t he a peach?

And I thought what I was going to wear was going to be the most of my worries.

(After significant thought I’ve decided to pack a turkey sandwich on wheat, no mayo, grapes and a yogurt.)

What would you pack to eat with your top boss? And no, caviar and champagne is probably not acceptable unless your boss is PDiddy and in that case, pass the flutes & pop the cork.

Jaded

April 16, 2012

By Daisy

There are times that I’m full of myself and feeling worldly and I decide I have seen it all. The Eiffel Tower, people catching pigeons on the side of the expressway, New York City, the Great Barrier Reef, a drunk person getting kicked off a plane. Yup, I figure, not much else to see in this world. This is when the universe decides to teach me a lesson and open my life up to new and ~~interesting~~ crazy ass shit. In the past month alone I’ve experienced:

A plane flight to Baltimore complete with five “ladies of the night” who were traveling together.
A line to buy lottery tickets that was 35 minutes long…and that I voluntarily waited in
My office hiring The Geese Police to bring border collies out to our offices to chase the geese out of the parking lot OH MY GOD THIS IS REAL PEOPLE
The mayhem that occurs at Trader Joes on a Sunday at 5 pm when someone drops an entire gallon of milk in the checkout area and it explodes
My parents purchased two beehives (for real) and are apparrently become honey farmers
This dog collar. It is happening. No judging.

Your turn: what insane, crazy or absurd things have you seen. Somehow I doubt anyone can beat the Geese Police.