A little bit of success, a little bit of failure

Well, I've done better.

I made 6 resolutions at the end of 2010 and only fully met one of them. Here's how it went down:

2011 Resolution #1
Be a better friend by keeping in touch with people, not just following them on Facebook or Twitter. 

I deleted my Facebook account in June (and I regret nothing!). I do still follow people on Twitter and consider that a social interaction but I could definitely step it up. While I didn't do something social every single week, I'm pretty proud of social calendar this year. Collin and I have become closer with a few more friends (good!) and unfortunately grown apart from a few old friends (sad!), we made a fun pilgrimage to Brooklyn and we've also enjoyed many meals with friends. We are still on an austerity plan to pay off new house debts but we still have some social wiggle room in the budget for fun.

2011 Resolution #2
Stay on top of sending birthday cards. I always make this resolution and stop sending cards by March. I like getting cards so I should start sending cards.

Abysmal failure. Since I deleted my Facebook account, I have no idea when anyone's birthday is coming. This year, I'm going to enter birthdays in my iPhone calendar and set an alarm to go off 2 days in advance. I carry stamps in my wallet and blank cards in my purse so when the alarm goes off, I write, address, stamp and BOOM. Cards in the mail. My friends deserve cards. I can do this.

2011 Resolution #3
Participate in a triathlon this spring.

FAIL. However, I did run my 4th marathon so that counts for something, right?

2011 Resolution #4

Family resolution: Walk the dogs together at least 3 times a week. 




FAIL. Sorry doggies, we will work on it again this year.



2011 Resolution #5
Blog more! Is once a week too lofty a goal? I can do it.

Yes, it is too lofty a goal. I have backlogged ideas for the blog but haven't posted (or written) them yet. Stay tuned for our 2011 vacations and kitchen remodel.

2011 Resolution #6 
Save money and buy a place this year.

SUCCESS! I will post some transformation pictures in 2012. We are big fans of completing 90% of a project and then moving on to the next one. Pictures to come.

2012 Resolutions: repeat 2011 #1 - 5. Add to the list:

6. Pay off our remodeling/house bills. We used a few 0% interest for 12-18 month offers when we bought our kitchen appliances, some new furniture and the other necessary* housing accoutrement. We've been dutifully paying them off and will be done in April, May and June. Once those are paid, we will have more money for saving, fun and travel.

7. Use our passports at least once in 2012. I'm thinking a spring trip to the Dominican Republic for an early 30th birthday vacation for me but haven't exactly run that passed Collin yet. I'm sure he'll be into it. There will probably still be snow on the ground in Chicago until May.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!



*NOT necessary. But we didn't know that at the time.

Chicago Marathon 2011

I had two goals going into my fourth Chicago Marathon:

My name on the 2011 wall.

1. Don't die. (Sadly, I'm not being facetious.)

2. Come in under 5 hours.

This is not actually how I felt on 10-10-10.

The 2010 marathon weather was bad. Really bad. By noon, the temperature reached 90 degrees F on October 10. It was bad for spectators and worse for runners. In all my training runs and previous marathons, I had been lucky enough to never experience dehydration or heat stroke. The 10-10-10 marathon ended that streak. I knew I was in bad shape because at the end of the race I grabbed a finish line photographer and said, "Take my picture because I'm never fucking doing this again." The picture was so bad, I didn't even buy it from the official site. (You can see for yourself here. Use my last name and look up "Chicago Marathon 2010 for the fug pics.) Once we got home, I was burning up, nauseous and had a racing pulse hours after the race.

Collin didn't understand why I signed up again, especially after I specifically told him, "Don't ever let me do that again. I don't care what I say next year, remind me of this moment." My own words couldn't stop me from signing up again. Luckily, 2011 was one million times better. It wasn't as hot and I carried a water bottle the entire race.  I even purposely littered on the the campus of the employer who laid me off in 2008 (yeah, take THAT!).

Uh oh, someone's looking sexy.

This year, another improvement over 2010 was that I ran with Jorie (I was supposed to run with her in 2010 but due to the fact that I'm late for everything, all the time, we did not find each other at the start line. Totally my bad.) and that made it better. She picked out our sweet skull and crossbones headbands at the Marathon Expo.

Jorie and Shamra, Mile 13.

You can see a disposable camera in my left hand in the above picture. We carried that during the race and the developed pictures are waiting for me at Walgreens. I don't get paid until Friday so that is the day they will get picked up.

My #1 fan.

 Clearly, I'm still alive so I met Goal #1. Jorie and I completed the race together, we saw our friends and families along the route and hopefully took some pictures where we are at least in the shot together.

An excerpt from my final results email:

Congratulations from Bank of America on finishing the 2011 Bank of America Chicago Marathon! Your recorded finish time was 4:59:45 and you placed 23482 out of 35,628 finishers.

BOOM! Goal #2 met!

It pays to be a stone cold beeyotch.

Fun news: we found a great house! It was built in 1916 and is in Evanston. It's small but functional. The seller bought it in foreclosure and flipped it. There are still a few chances for this house to fall through but we feel pretty good about it (knock on wood).

Our inspector told us the roof needed to be torn off and replaced and at first the seller resisted. The conversation (through our agents) went something like this: (NOT VERBATIM).

US: The roof is fucked and you need to unfuck it.

SELLER: Fuck you.

US: Fine, bye.

SELLER: WAIT, ok. I'll fix it.

US: Cool, let us know when it's done and we'll send our inspector back to check it out.

SELLER: There, I fixed it.

OUR INSPECTOR: That shit is still fucked. It will cost $5,000 to fix it.

US: No thanks. We are walking away.

SELLER: FINE. Someone else will buy this house, that roof is fine!

SELLER'S AGENT: Dude, that shit is fucked and you have to fix it.

SELLER: (Temper tantrum). Offer them $2,000 for a roof credit, even though the roof is fine.

SELLER'S AGENT: The seller is very stubborn. He would like to offer a $2,000 roof credit.

OUR AGENT: He wants to offer you a $2,000 roof credit.

US: Tell him we said FUCK YOU. If offers a real credit, then we can talk.

OUR AGENT, to SELLER'S AGENT: They said, 'fuck you.' No deal.

(Radio silence for 3 days)

OUR AGENT: The seller is offering a $5,000 roof credit.

US: SQUEEE! #WINNING! We are the champions of house buying!

- Aaaaaaand, scene. -

So, that's not exactly how it went down but it's close. I was a stone cold bitch about that roof credit and was ready to walk away from the house. We were lucky in this case - the house is being sold by a house-flipper who presumably has some wiggle room with his wallet. If this was being sold by a person who needed to unload the house, we may not have been so lucky.

Again, I hate to tempt fate and have this deal fall through but I wanted to share our fun news. Hopefully I'll get to showcase our new decorating skillz on the blog. If not, maybe you'll get to read another profanity-laced post about how the deal fell through. Either way, you benefit!

Let's here it for New York

"It's a town you come to for a short time." - Ernest Hemingway on NYC

Unfortunately, my fellow Chicago suburbanite (Ernie was born in Oak Park, IL - not far from my hometown of LaGrange), it was too short of a time for me. I surprised Sarah (the one with the glasses) for her birthday in NYC last weekend and had an awesome time. On thing I learned: I can no longer hang. 1am/2am is my old lady limit. And by limit I mean falling asleep while standing up.

I swear to the gods, one drink and my face gets this red.

We spent the first day on tour with KFo (the one on the left) and avoiding Sarah so we could surprise her. To be fair, the surprise was sort of lame. I walked into the restaurant and she was more confused than surprised. Oh well, it was fun. Leslie (cool as a cucumber in the background) generously hosted us for the weekend.

Union Square

It was a lovely day in NYC, about 10 degrees warmer than it was in Chicago, so we spent a lot of time outside.

Hipster Collin and the Empire State Building.

On Saturday morning, I took a long run over the Brooklyn Bridge. I'm running my 4th Chicago Marathon in October so I couldn't miss the chance to log some miles. The Bridge running path is exactly the same as the Chicago lakefront experience: completely beautiful but annoyingly crowded and the most dangerous for people who actually follow the rules. I won't lie: there were a few tourists I wanted to see get hit by a bicyclist.

Self-shot in Brooklyn. So pretty.

We met up with everyone that afternoon for some day drinking. We died and went to:

The weekend was absolutely full of #winning #duh.

You should listen to what I listen to

As someone who spends an upsetting amount of time in my car, I listen to a lot of public radio.

Typical Friday afternoon commute.

I'm usually in my car so long that I'm listening when they rerun the featured news stories. Even a devoted news junkie like myself doesn't need to hear the repeats. I can also honestly say that I have no patience for seeking out good music. I work out to pop and upbeat music at the gym but don't really listen to music outside the gym. Collin occasionally succeeds in sneaking some quality music onto my iPod but for the most part, it's Ke$ha and Katy Perry.

I like a few different podcasts and want to endorse them in case you're in a similar music-free zone.

SLATE
If you read Slate you may have heard about their podcasts. I like the Slate Culture Gabfest featuring Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens and Julia Turner. It's pretty straightforward: they pick three or four culturally relevant topics, riff on them for 10 minutes each then move on. The topics range from their reactions to the Justin Bieber movie to the Rothko exhibitions. Occasionally, the recommendations are very NYC-centric but I still really like listening to smart people talk about culture.

I also like the Slate Political Gabfest featuring John Dickerson, David Plotz, and Emily Bazelon. Fair warning: they're pretty liberal like me. They are funny and smart and they have some fresh takes on political topics as writers that have been in the field for decades.

Mike and Tom Eat Snakes (MATES)
I follow Michael Ian Black on Twitter and he was promoting his podcast with Tom Cavanagh. As a fan of witty banter, I really like the MATES podcast. All they do is eat snacks and chat. It's funny and it's free from the iTunes store. Check it out of you're in the car for a long ride and don't mind swears.

If you have any recommendations for me, let me know!

Valentine's Week

I might be the world's luckiest lady. On Monday night, Collin made a DELICIOUS dinner and dessert for me. It pays to find a partner who went to cooking school.

Potato perogies, vegetarian sausage, asparagus,
red onions and white wine for dinner.

Raspberry shortcake with ice cream for dessert.

Next: Bring on the gifts!

Smittens.

Smittens are amazing and necessary for you and the hand-holding partner of your choice. Jam your hands into the big heart-shaped contraption and they are perfect for those cold romantic walks through Chicago.

But wait, there's more! That Thursday night, Collin bought us tickets for Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!

The magic of radio might lead you to believe
the stage was elaborate and huge. It was not.

If you stay after the show, hosts Peter Sagal and Carl Kasell will stick around for pictures and autographs. You could even accidentally creep them out by saying you've seen them jogging on the lakefront path. (Not that I would do that.)

Me with Peter Sagal, not being accidentally creepy at all.

Fun Fact: Sometimes nervousness gets the best of me and I say weird things. I'm not sure exactly what I said but it was along the lines of, "I've been watching you." Sagal, if you're reading this, I didn't mean it and I'm not a crazy stalker. Sometimes I see you on the Lakefront Path because we are both runners. I did not seek you out. We just have a similar running schedule. I'm not a weirdo and you don't have to be worried.

Support PP, NPR and PBS!

For a blog that usually features pictures of my dogs and weather-related commentary, the following entry is a call to action to support Planned Parenthood and Public Broadcasting. If you're not into that kind of thing, it's ok to skip this post. No worries, I'll post puppy pictures next time.

For the record, we support a woman's right to choose!

Congress, please don't take away my alphabet soup!

I'm a pretty crunchy Liberal (vegetarian/non-profit employee/recycling enforcer) so it's probably no surprise that Planned Parenthood is near and dear to my heart. Their services are beyond amazing - when I was unemployed and insurance-less for 18 months, PP was the only place I went for health care AND they provide low-income women with free or low-cost birth control. If a woman in the low-income bracket gets pregnant unexpectedly, her chances of escaping poverty plummet and the odds of her going on welfare skyrocket.

Research from the Guttmacher Institute demonstrates that every one dollar used for family planning services (this includes HPV tests, HIV tests, access to birth control for low-income women, etc.), saves the federal government four dollars down the road. For all of the House Republicans repeating the "fiscal responsibility" talking point, this future cost should be taken into account. Simply put, it is more expensive to support women on welfare than to support free family planning services.

You've probably read or at least heard about the legalized abortion/crime reduction theory. This is a short summary of the paper and you can find a full .pdf copy online.

I understand (I don't agree but I understand) the Conservatives' distaste for funding PP but it is important to put the numbers into perspective. The percentage of abortion services varies by state but generally is below 5% of their services. That means more than 95% of their services are trying to prevent abortions and helping women to have healthier babies when they are financially ready to start a family. While I don't want to get too deep into that argument, research demonstrates that taking away low-cost contraceptives, sex education and STD-testing doesn't make people abstinent, it just encourages them have unprotected, riskier sex and results in a higher percentage of unwanted pregnancies. Want a peek at the future if PP is eliminated? Watch Teen Mom on MTV.*

Luckily for women like me, there aren't enough votes for this measure to pass the Senate. But we can't sit back and watch it fail. Call your Congressperson and Senators.

Find your member of Congress here.
Find your Senator here. Illinois' are Dick Durbin (D) and Mark Kirk (R).

Now they're voting to cut funding for Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio? They must be trying to piss off the Liberals. Clearly, they didn't watch Downton Abbey.** This isn't the first time Congress has debated this issue and it won't be the last. Just to be on the safe side, you can donate to NPR or Public Broadcasting as a show of support.***

Here's my point:
If, in 15 years, you don't want to get mugged in a parking lot by a kid who grew up poor and didn't watch Sesame Street you should contact your representatives and demand they drop this silly, un-passable anti-family planning charade and focus on job-creation, green energy and improving the economy.

*If Season 2 of Teen Mom were required viewing, PP funding would be up 300% with unanimous support from both parties, I guarantee it.

** Downton Abbey is amazing and if you haven't seen it, you must watch it before all PBS stations are obliterated and Fox News is the only network allowed.

***Members are both organizations' largest single source of support, BTW.


(Yes, I watch both Teen Mom and Masterpiece Theater.)