The sun will come out, tomorrow....

Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow -  There'll be sun!

So won't you come out tomorrow?  and drink beers with me in the sunny beer garden of Happy Village for a good cause?

Ok, the truth is, i can't promise you sun (although it looks hopeful!)  but i can promise you $3 cans of New Belgium with 100% of the proceeds going to the Huntington's Disease Society of America.  And a ping pong tournament.  With awesome prizes.  So lets multi-task - drinking in beers, drinking in sun, and promoting a very worthy cause!  Even if you think me and my cause are stupid, its $3 New Belgium cans.  You can come and drink and tell me how lame I am.  It's totally cool with me. 

So BE THERE!!!

Tomorrow (Thursday) June 27th 6-9 at Happy Village in Chicago's Ukranian Village neighborhood.  (1059 N. Wolcott.  (near Damen and Division, or the Division blue line stop) 

Tell your friends!  Tell your enemies! For one night only, don't drink responsibly because you are drinking for a cure!

***ok, drink somewhat responsibly.  There has to be a happy medium.

Little House on the Prairie (path)

Our move to the suburbs is complete (for the most part) Things are still in a complete state of chaos, and I stupidly refused to take time off work, so the unpacking/settling in/attempt at normal living is moving at a glacial pace.  I haven’t run yet, I just don’t have the energy.  I have been up super late every night, and I can tell you, this girl does not do well on 4 hours of sleep a night. 

I would love to say that the move when great and was way easier than expected, but of course, it took  us like two hours just to get the couch out of our old place, and we damaged an entire wall and the couch in the process.  I have been spending just as much time in the city as when I lived there, because I am now cleaning and doing wall repair after work.  But, as much as I just want to complain, the second I put this pup in her brand new yard, I realized that no matter how bad it was, it was worth it.

After running around for 10 minutes, she ran into our brand new kitchen and power puked everywhere from excitement.

Yesterday was day two for our new suburban life.  I got caught in a terrible storm on the way home, and skipped roller derby to watch the hawks game in the safety of my house.  Only when I got there, the power was out.  I can tell you right now, city folk do not know what to do during a power outage.  I think in my 10 years in Chicago, I have never gone more than 40 minutes without power.  So, we clung to our two battery operated decorative pillar candles from Pottery Barn, and drank all the beer.  (it’s the first to go bad, right?)  It was hard times, let me tell you.  Poor Waffles is used to having her food microwaved, and all I could do was hold it over a candle.  It was lukewarm at best. #FWDP (First World Dog Problems)  I also found out that our stove doesn’t work when the power was out, so we were forced to forage for food.  I found some wild strawberries in the yard – Oregon Trail style.  I also found some Queso Fiesta goldfish crackers I purchased recently at Target (Sara Style)

Luckily, the power returned with about 9 minutes left in the 3^rd period of the Hawks game. 

We got to watch our Hawks win, only I didn’t know what to do.  Last time, I was in the city, so we had run into the streets for some street drinking.  The suburbs were much quieter.  There were still fireworks however, so we blared Chelsea Dagger, as I danced in the yard with my beer.  You can take the girl out of the City, but she will just get drunk and do the same things in the suburbs anyway.  And probably violate public noise ordinances in the process. 

What REALLY goes on at Ragnar.

As a disclaimer, I had the best time at Ragnar.  My teammates all wrote blog posts that you can check out here that describe what it’s like to actually run Ragnar, their take on it, etc. 

 Kelly the Culinarian
Running Kellometers
Get to Goal
See Mommy Race  

Mag Mile Runner

I couldn’t have asked for a better team - each and every one of them was a delight!  The weather was great, our drivers were OFF THE HOOK amazing, and even our “theme” was super fun – who doesn’t love to run around with an American flag shouting “USA! USA!”  And don’t even get me started on our fantastic sponsors.  We were all dressed to the nine’s, and I am pretty sure we were equipped to handle anything because of their generosity.  You guys rock!

So, in short, there is lots of running and camaraderie and what not, but here is what REALLY happens when 9 ladies squeeze into a van, stop being nice, and start getting real.  (I’m just kidding.  Everyone was super nice!

1.       No matter what pre-portioned food you pack for yourself, someone will inevitably bring something way better, and everyone will pounce.  Hunger makes people crazy.  So if you are going to be that awesome person that makes pasta salad, be ready for a pack of wolves hungry runner ladies to descend on you like it’s feeding time in the Serengeti.  (are there wolves in the Serengeti?  I don’t know.  It just sounded way more exotic than central Wisconsin.)  Thanks for the pasta salad, Suzanne.  Sorry we ate it all.

2.       As the event starts out, you will discretely find a rest room to change in.  Especially if one of your teammates husbands is driving.   But by the end, you will be ass naked, rolling around in the back of a van.  In broad daylight.  Because you have lost any sense of shame or modesty at this point.  If vans had ceiling fans, there would be undies hanging from them.  It’s like burning man, only your stuck in a van, and most likely not on drugs.  And we might have smelled better than burning man (which says a lot, as about half-way through this thing, our driver said we smelled like a bunch of sweaty babies, whatever that means.)

bra's on the ceiling!

3.       You will yell at boyscouts when they tell you it will take 30 minutes to make a veggie burger.  Don’t judge, you weren’t there*.  But in all honestly, they are pre-cooked and just need to be re-heated! Life lesson!  

Stolen from Kelly, because i ate mine too fast.

*it wasn’t me who yelled at the kids, I know you all figured it was though.

4.       You will see majestic sunrises….

5.       But you will also learn what a poop mountain is.  Thanks, Maggie.  I am still having nightmares.  If you don't know what it is, enjoy that.  Because you can never get that innocence back.

6.       You’re going to take a Ke$ha shower.  Whether that means wiping yourself down with baby wipes, or covering yourself with glitter and fake tattoos, either way, its going to happen at Ragnar.  (What IS the actual definition of a Ke$ha shower?  Help me out, Urban Dictionary!)

Those are stink lines, not sun-rays

7.       You will take two work calls WHILE running your first leg.  Then you will scream at your boss about how you are running an ultra marathon relay race, and can't deal with client demands while in motion.  Oh wait, that was just me??

8.       Obviously, you will need to wear sunglasses and a reflective vest at the same time.

9.       You will fly into a two hour rage until somebody finds you coffee and pancakes.

Liquid calm.

10.   And lastly, you will return home to find all the beer has been drank in your absence, and replaced with swill.  DAMN YOU JORDAN!!!

 So go run Ragnar.  You can eat twizzlers for breakfast, and no one will judge you for it.

Back in the saddle again.

Like a moth to the flame, I’m back.

Things have been fairly hectic, and I haven’t had the time to keep up with everyone’s blogs, which made me feel like a bad friend/blogger/human being.  Plus, rather than write short, crappy blog posts, I would rather just wait until things simmer down and I have the time to write quality blog posts again.

Turns out, that will never happen.  (also turns out I never had quality posts in the first place – touché!)

I am now half way through my “6 months of stupid” as Bobbi calls it.  That means I have been at my new job for 3 months, and it is still a huge challenge to try and master so many new, engineering-heavy things.  I have strategically started to make alliances by keeping Hershey’s kisses on my desk, and it seems to be working.  Straight to the top, this one!

Matt also started a new job a few weeks ago!  I have been trying to help out as much as I can with the pup and general chores to take some of the burden off of him, but either way, it’s a lot of change for us.  Good change, but change all the less.  The main issue with Matt’s job is that the commute is horrendous.  Which leads to the next big change.

Matt and I are leaving Chicago.  I didn’t even want to type it, because that just makes it real.  Although we are moving next weekend, so it’s already pretty freaking real.  I have lived in Chicago for the past 10 years, and the thought of leaving makes me really sad.  But, I also always knew that Matt does not love Chicago the way I do.  The traffic, the crime, the noise, has always bothered him, and he has put up with it for me.  So now, I will be experiencing all that the west suburbs has to offer for him.   (Spoiler: it’s Olive Gardens.  Lots of em.)  So, as I begrudgingly swap the Lakefront Path for the Prairie Path, I am basically looking for people still in the city to not forget me, because basically I am only 20 miles away, and honestly, I can run that far if need be.

Most importantly, what does Waffles think about all this?

“Hey guys.  Waffles here!  So you might have heard I’m moving, and the truth is, I am pretty psyched.   I will now have my very own fenced yard to poop in, and there is a tree to lure squirrels.  Stupid squirrels.  Mom has been moping around talking about how much she will miss everything, but I don’t get it.  Every week she would whine about parking tickets and rush hour traffic.  Sure I will miss my city friends, but I am pretty cute and make friends easily.  Plus, mom and dad are getting me a year pass to the Dupage county off-leash dog park system!  There are also lots of nature trails, which I love to run on.  I hear the food is not the same, but to be quite honest, I ate a stick of body glide last week, so my tastes are questionable at best.  And, just to make sure I can visit Chicago anytime I want, I am learning how to drive.  Mom says I am already better than half the drivers in Chicago!”

So, stay tuned for the adventures of Suburban Foxxx!