teatime 2009

Today's challenge prompt - my favorite tea!
My dad was recently told by his doctor to start drinking tea and walking. He struck a deal with me - I will drink the tea and do the walking FOR him and he will reap the benefits vicariously. I don't mind a bit - I love tea! It started, funnily enough, when I was in high school, and took a trip to London with the drama department*. On the plane, I decided to do the thing right, and drink a cup of tea when the beverage trolley came around. I do drink coffee, but I am instantly comforted by a nice hot cup of tea and since my stomach is annoyed by coffee, I've switched to tea. I'm not right in the morning until I've had my tea. When I make it on my own here at the office, I like Tazo's Awake Tea. But since I work about a block from Argo Tea, I will sometimes, when I need a treat (like today!) pop over there and get an Earl Grey Vanilla Creme Tea Latte. Earl Grey tea (which I actually don't like on its own), vanilla, and steamed milk. I am drinking one now!

(Hot tea and a good book - is there anything better?

Unfortunately, I'm at work, so will not be reading until lunch!)

* Best.Trip.Ever. It was my first time away from home and out of the country, our chaperones buggered off to go drinking and so we were left to our own devices, despite promises made to our parents!! One of my classmates snuck out of our crazy hotel and took himself to see Buckles in Sunset Boulevard. I remember a particularly happy solo excursion as I wandered Piccadilly Circus - alone - shopping and puttering around. I wasn't worried at all, I felt perfectly safe. Plus, I knew how to get back to the hotel so who cared??

joy in a little round box...

Best packaging2009
Thought I’d forgotten about this, eh? Well, okay, I did. But I am putting forth an entry today – on my favorite packaging of 2009. I’m in the office, working to a deadline, of course, and a friend/colleague/consultant writes to me – what can I do? Bring chocolate? To which I responded, yes, please! Joking, but not. Who can say no to chocolate? Not I! And, in an act of true heroics, she came to the office bearing NOT bags of Hershey kisses (for which I would have been grateful!) but gorgeous boxes of Vosges chocolate.

The one I chose came in a darling little round purple box – like a mini hat box, with a little purple ribbon. See above. I consumed the candy and saved the box. I have jewelry in it now…

music09

What's rocking my world these days, you ask? There's been lots of stuff - in 2009 I've been listening to Lily Allen, Lady Gaga, the Spring Awakening cast album, U2's No Line on the Horizon, Taylor Swift, Patti LuPone, The Beatles Love, Renee Fleming and probably more that I'm not even recalling now. I have my ipod with me always, it's my best friend on my daily commute - and now it's an extra sassy purple 5th generation one, pulsing with my favorite tunes!!! What's been on constant play lately though have been the Glee cast albums. Oh how I love that show and these albums! I love Matthew Morrison singing Kanye West's "Gold Digger" and duetting with Kristin Chenoweth on "Alone" (LOVE THAT ONE!) I love Lea Michele's voice singing anything. After a crappy day at work, nothing was better than to put on pjs and watch our friends in "New Directions" compete in sectionals - against all odds and stolen set lists, pulling two new songs out of their hats in an hour. Awesome. My inner choir nerd has been awakened. Not that she's ever been far. Glee, my life really would suck without you.

Challenge 2009 Art Isn't Easy...

Today's task: describe something that really made you grow this year. That made you go to your edge and then some. What made it the best challenge of the year for you?

Based on this week I might say it's getting my hands on workable winter gear. I have lived in this danged city MY.WHOLE.LIFE and I still don't have a decent pair of winter boots. The Merrells I bought have these zippers that worked their way undone while I was walking to and from work. I would stop to zip them up and then I'd feel one of them coming loose again. FAIL, Merrell. FAIL.

No, okay, seriously. Wet feet and trying to walk to work without toppling headfirst into major intersections are not (surprisingly?) my greatest challenge this year.

I guess I would have to say that my job has really made me grow this year. We're a small department, and everyone has to hold their own. I feel like I've grown a lot and learned lots of new things, and I keep getting more responsibilities so I'm gonna keep growing! Pushed to the edge and then some? Oh, definitely. When one writes institutional grants for funding, there is the constant pressure of deadlines and making sure everything is just so. Managing these relationships so that people want to KEEP giving us funding. Finding NEW sources of funding and learning, first hand what everyone is talking about in terms of these "tough economic times" - major corporations losing money = no money (or less money) to give non-profits like mine. Stock market issues effect (or affect?) the portfolios of individuals AND foundations and so they have less money to give as well. It's gotta come from somewhere, right??

I love my job (usually) but it's been a challenge because after all... "Having just a vision's no solution, everything depends on execution... the art of making art, is putting it together."

2009 moment of peace

If I was really cool, right here I could tell you how I achieve Zen by the art of meditation (on a noodle?) and extremely difficult yoga poses, drinking green tea and playing finger chimes. But I'm not cool like that. My most peaceful moments are those when I am completely relaxed, maybe reading a book while lying on my bed, with a warm kitty curled up by my side.

blog find of 09

Since I forgot to post yesterday, you get 2 of these for the price of one (good deal, yes?) so... I am a creature of habit, and I frequent the same blogs/websites on a daily basis. When a new one is introduced, I simply add it to the rotation. But something that is totally addictive that I just really started doing this year, is Facebook. I love reading updates from people I went to grade school with, for example, and keeping track of other friends that I don't get to see very often. So there you go. Not very exciting, but that's my "find" of the year. I wonder how long peope will stay interested in recording their movements so closely online, but as long as people want to do it, I will read and update my status too.

2009 Best Night Out - Love & A Rocket Ship...

The best night out in 2009 was undoubtedly the U2 360 concert at Soldier Field. There are several outings I have had with my girls, Heidi & Jane, that qualify as Life's Most Perfect Moments - I would count Edwin's concert at Navy Pier, any of our rock boat trips, and, well, this evening (which is why - DUH - it qualifies as the Best Night Out of 2009.)

On a gorgeous day, that was more summerlike than fall, we spent time at MSI, had dinner at Leona's and then... it was time to see THE BAND. Nobody else reduces me to a quivering jelly pile of fan girl like Bono, the Edge, Larry and Adam. As soon as we paid our $45 bucks for parking (!!!!) we were in - with thousands & thousands of our closest friends, who were tailgating in the parking lot, listening to U2 on their radios. Ah yes, girls, we're in the right place!

The evening was pure magic...Standing on our feet the whole time, singing along at the top of our lungs with everyone else...one of the best moments was when Bono asked the crowd to hold up their collective cell phones (because yes, we all had them, and yes, we all had them ON, to take photos, to leave a voicemail message for ourselves at work, etc etc etc) so he could see us all, like tiny stars in the blackness of the night... our own little constellation, he called us...

The giant crazy stage with its huge screens so that the band was constantly visible no matter where you were sitting. Larger than life, in every possible way.

Magnificent, indeed.

best book - 2009

Today's task:
December 4 Book. What book - fiction or non - touched you? Where were you when you read it? Have you bought and given away multiple copies?

Well, I don't know the Secret (but I have come close to discovering Victoria's Secret - ba dum bum!), what color my parachute is or even who moved my cheese. The book that moved me was A Lion Called Christian the true story of two Aussie blokes and their adopted pet... lion. They eventually set him free in Africa and when they visited him later on, he greeted them joyously. The reunion has been set to "I Will Always Love You" sung by Whitney Houston and posted on youtube. It's making me cry just sitting here typing about it. There is a kids book version of the story, which I spotted in Target last weekend and I was all a-blither just paging through it (I may or may not be receiving said kids picture book as a Christmas present).

What is it about this story? I loved reading about the bond forged between these guys and this lion, how they bought him from Harrods (of all places) and cared for him in the basement of an furniture shop in London. Then they had to teach him how to BE a lion when they brought him to Africa.

come for the food, stay for the...

Still playing catch up on the 2009 challenge - here's yesterday's prompt: Restaurant Moment Share the best restaurant experience you had this year. Who was there? What made it amazing? What taste stands out in your mind?

I would probably have to say Baker's Square wins this. We usually end up there after our usual dining decision making process which goes something like this:

What do you want for dinner?
I dunno. Food.... And it's (Heidi/Kristen/Jane/whoever)'s choice night!!

This goes on for quite a while, usually. Someone will put forth some suggestions and we will narrow them down OR sometimes we let fate decide. More often than not? Baker's Square. Obviously, this wins the category not because the food is so completely amazing (it's not. But the pie is!) but because it's our hangout. We've had some completely outrageous/hillarious conversations there.

And hey - Wednesday? Is free pie night.

the best of 2009...

Ooh, goody, I love a challenge! And I'm already behind, so let's start with:

Best trip of 2009:
Well, that's a no-brainer -

Yeah! Vegas, baby! Aside from the fact that it was pretty much the ONLY trip I took in 2009, it was, anyway, the best trip. It is CRAZY there - anything you want, you can get, any time you want it. Even for a traveler on her own who wasn't playing, there was much to do and see and look at. What a heady experience (or is that the oxygen they pump in?)! I saw my first Cirque show & Patti & walk up margarita stands & swim up bars & tacky souvenirs & lots of rhinestones & yards upon yards of 'yikes-my-retinas-are-burning-ugly-ass-carpet.'