Anyway, so one of Rihanna’s new songs out now is called “We Fell in Love in aHopeless Place” and I just love it. It’s got a good beat. But as I was listening to it the other morning while getting ready for work, I thought “what exactly qualifies as a hopeless place?”

So I decided to list all the hopeless places I could think of to fall in love.

• Crack house
• Denny’s
• Bomb shelter
• The Superdome after Katrina
• POW camp
• Crashing plane
• Jail
• War time
• Republican National Convention
• Antarctica
• Sinking ship
• Mars
• Bathroom stall
• Rehab
• Homeless shelter
• Deserted island
• Port-a-potty

Now it’s your turn! Add to the list!

When I moved back to Illinois in 2005, I made a promise to myself that I would live in the city. I didn’t care where I ended up working or where I had to commute to, I was going to have a city apartment in Chicago proper.

And I love it. I love the neighborhood I’m in. I love the public transit options. I love that I can walk to most anything. (I also love that I have an assigned parking space so I can drive to anything I want to as well. Don’t forget I am the Queen of Lazy.)

Tonight as I was walking home from the train after work, I was thinking to myself that I really needed to email my friends and make some plans for this upcoming weekend. Nothing extravagant, just something more than grocery shopping to force me out of the house and out of my pajamas.

As I made a mental note to send an email tomorrow, I was walking past a restaurant on Lincoln. I looked in the windows and saw my friend Melissa’s boyfriend Matt who was having dinner with Melissa. I went in to say hello and they invited me to join them. It was totally impromptu and I loved it. We had some wine, dinner, lots of laughs and it was a great time.

When I think about moving away from a big city, these are the things that I don’t think I can give up. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s so worth it.

So what about you, are you a country or a city mouse?

So, people inside the computer box, did you all have a nice holiday season? Were Santa and/or the Hanukkah armadillo good to you? Did you have a grand old time ringing in 2012?

I had a very lovely Christmas. This year I went over to my brother’s house and spent Christmas Eve with them. So I got to wake up at the buttcrack of dawn on Christmas morning to see all the presents that Santa done brought! Actually, I was lucky enough to have been woken up twice by Noah, once at midnight and once at 3 AM, with his excitement over ALL! THE! PRESENTS!

Let me tell you, even though it was early, it was really nice to wake up on Christmas morning with people that were not the cats. Not that I ever minded waking up alone and sleeping in, but it kind of took any magicalness out of Christmas. Spending it with family, especially kiddos, was really nice. I think I have a new tradition!

We then celebrated with the rest of the family and I got my Soda Stream that I asked for. And let me tell you, it is AMAZING! I love it so much! The first full day I had it, I drank three liters of water. Which is 1) a lot and 2) a lot for me, especially when that water is not flavored with Kool-Aid, which was the previous way you could get me to drink that much water. Either that or with barley and hops.

(I wasn’t intending to have this be a recap post. But I’ve got nothing else to talk about, apparently.)

I have spent most of my time off around these holidays in pajamas and watching TV. I’m almost done with Six Feet Under (10 more episodes!) and while I wait for those DVDs in the mail, I am usually watching 100s of episodes of Intervention. I’m really excited that new shows are coming back on regular television. I mean, I’m starting to prefer one rehab facility over another, making a note of it in my mind in case I ever go to rehab.

This is where I should talk all about resolutions, but let’s be honest, I never keep them. This year I’m taking the KISS method and keeping it simple. Nothing has to start Jan. 1, especially since we didn’t go back to work until the third. But here are a few things I would like to accomplish this year. Most are really better habits.

• Start washing my face every night
• Don’t hit the snooze button 11 times every morning
• On that note, get up at a consistent time and get back to my old work schedule
• Lose weight
• Eat better
• Start working out
• Run a race (5k, 8k, whatever, something)
• Post more on my blog

And that’s about it. To date, I have accomplished none of these things. But tomorrow is a new day, right?

How about you, friends? Any resolutions?

Let’s face it, it’s much easier running errands during the week when the rest of the world is at work or school. This is especially true during this time of year. I needed to make a MAJOR Target run and you cannot pay me enough money to go into a Target store on a weekend between Black Friday and Christmas. That’s like walking directly into the depths of hell.

I came down with a cold early Monday morning too, so these two days have really helped me to rest and take care of it so it goes away soon. It moved from a scratchy, sore throat to now mostly some congestion and a runny nose. I’m hoping this afternoon’s three hour nap kicked this cold to the curb.

I still need to get my flu shot. Can you get it if you have a cold? I think I might get it after work on Friday so I have the weekend to rest in case I come down with anything else. I’ve only ever gotten sick from the flu shot once, but you never know.

I really disconnect from the internet when I’m off. This is fine on weekends when most everyone else does the same thing. I mean, I’ll be on Twitter all day even when I’m not at work, but I rarely check email or Facebook and I don’t read any blogs. I am so out of the loop.

I am apparently just writing random thoughts as they come into my head and making them a post. See, I figured I should write something, this being the last day of November. And even though I failed NaBloPoMo, I still wrote a lot this month and figured I should write the first day of the month and the last, at the very least.

In all honesty, I’m waiting for my Megavideo account to reset so that I can keep watching Six Feet Under. Have you all seen this show? Of course you have. Its 10 years old. IT IS AWESOME! I’m really, really enjoying it. I’m still having a hard time with gay Dexter, but he’s growing on me. I have to stop thinking of him as a serial killer. Hard to do when he’s a FUNERAL DIRECTOR. It’s almost the same! Anyway, this show is awesome, and if you haven’t watched it, you should. Trust me on this.

(My Netflix DVD was broken and wouldn’t play (probably since it is 10 years old) and since I’m impatient and have cleared out most of my DVR, I needed to watch the episodes online rightthissecond. I seriously couldn’t imagine waiting 2 days for the replacement DVD.)

And now I’m off to see if I can keep watching.

I’m not sure when it happened. I mean, I grew up recycling, for the most part. We always separated trash and recycling, for as long as I can remember. I am thankful I had a mom who made us do it, or otherwise I probably never would have.

But my adult years have taken this to a new level. I recycle. I conserve. I take public transit. I use natural cleansers. I worry about my carbon footprint. I am green!

I came to this realization while my sister was living with me. See, for a 22 year old, she is not green. I realized this when I noticed many things in the trash that were recyclable. So I would then go through the trash and pull out anything that was recyclable. (Oh, yes. Yes I did.) (I mean, the girl uses more toilet paper than I’ve ever seen! That’s a lot of empty cardboard rolls!)

I had no shame in picking out empty rolls of toilet paper or empty plastic bottles of the trash and putting them in the recycling bin. My trash and recyclables are all in the same place anyway, so it isn’t like it’s more effort.

And then on Monday I went to the grocery store after work. And I didn’t have any of my reusable grocery bags in the car. I figured it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to use plastic this one time. It won’t kill the Earth. I re-use those bags to empty the catbox.

But as I approached the check out, I was overcome with this guilt about using plastic. It irritated me! Especially since I know that there were plenty of bags in my house!

So what did I do? I bought 2 new reusable bags at the checkout. And that was enough for my groceries, to show you just how little I bought.

I began to think of other things:

I use one of these at work and it hurts every time I have to buy a bottle of water. (I used to get hives when I went to visit Ali in Atlanta and there were so many bottles and they didn’t recycle!)

This is my lunch bag. Before I bought this, it was a reusable grocery bag.

I used to bring my lunch in Tupperware containers instead of plastic baggies.

Now I have reusable plastic baggies that I use for lunch.

I’ve tried to switch to mostly natural cleansers.

I feel like such a grown up! I know for a fact, 23 year old me did not care this much about conserving the planet. She just drank beer from the bottle and only worried about where the next beer was coming from, not how she was going to recycle said bottle. (In all honesty, I still probably think this way when I’m drinking.)

Do you notice any of these kinds of things that you do now that your younger self wouldn’t even think twice about?

Because that is not a woman, right? That is a young boy. RIGHT?

I had to rewind it a few times and I still and not entirely convinced that it is a woman.

And that just makes it even creepier. Like is he going to go all Misery on that kid? And take him to a cabin and make him drink his own pee?

WHY WOULD THIS MAKE ME WANT TO BUY DIAMONDS, ZALES? This makes me want to buy MACE.

#creepy

I also have things to say about the Penn State thing. Things about the culture of sports, especially football. But I’m afraid of writing about it for fear of looking like an asshole. Because as horrible and disgusting as this all is, I’m not really surprised. But I want to give myself time to logically write a post about that because I have lots of thoughts.

So instead, I’ll show you photos of how I spent part of my day. Hanging out with the Chicago Bulls mascot, Benny the Bull, as he handed out free rides on the train. AND! I even got to meet Benny outside his costume, even if he didn’t blow his own cover and talked about himself in the third person.

Happy Friday!

See, this morning, I had to get into work earlier to work an event. I had to be downtown, butt in seat, coffee and breakfast in hand, at Union Station, no later than 7:30 AM. And in case you didn’t know, 7:30 AM is really fucking EARLY.

We don’t change the clocks until this coming weekend. Which means that when I got up at 5:30 and then left the house to walk the streets of my hood to the bus stop at 6:30, it was pitch black. Oh! And when I got off the train downtown and walked into Starbucks it was also still dark.

Is it just me, or does it feel like we should have changed clocks like three weeks ago? I don’t know why it feels like this. On most days I’m surprised it is already November and I wonder where the time went. On top of that, we’ve had an actual fall this year and have had pretty decent weather overall. Shit, it’s going to be in the mid-60s this weekend. In November. IN CHICAGO! We didn’t even get a lick of snow that the East Coast got last weekend!

(Oh how Mother Nature is going to smite me for those sentences.)

I’m sure part of this feeling about the time change is because I get up earlier now than I used to at my old job. And since I started new job at the end of March when the weather is making another turn, but this time for the warmer and sunnier, I’ve never done this commute to work at this time of day at this time of year.

At my last job, I got up at 8, left at 8:30 and was in at 9. I slept until 8! On weekdays! How awesome is that? Well, not awesome when you hated the job you had as much as I did.

But now! I like my job! I still get in at 9, but since it takes longer to get in, I’m up before 7. Well, most days. The days I don’t have to wash my hair I push the snooze a few more times. But even for the last month the sun hasn’t been rising until after 7 AM. And that is just unacceptable.

Yes, yes, I’m aware that in a month it will be dark when I get up and dark when I get home. And that SUCKS. I do hate leaving the office when it is dark. But I’m still looking forward to the time change because it really does feel like my internal clock is all messed up.

In sunshiney news, I found out that I’ll be moving to a different floor at work in two weeks. And with that move, I’m getting a cube along the wall. The wall of WINDOWS. So while it will be dark in the morning and night, and we’ll have a lot of dreary days coming up in winter, I get to come in every day and look outside at the Chicago skyline.

And that’s definitely worth getting up in the dark for.

And this ends the stream of consciousness portion of this week’s NaBloPoMo posts.

But the good part is that it kick starts your creativity, which is exactly what I need when it comes to this here site. I need to start writing more and posting here more. So while there will be many posts that are utter crap, be thankful I’m getting it out of my system and hopefully then they’ll be few and far between.

Plus, I know it takes 21 days to make a habit. So I’m hoping that 30 days straight means I will get back in the habit of writing in the evenings, as opposed to stuffing my face full of cheese and ice cream. (I can hear my pants breathing a sigh of relief already.)

Do you have anything you’d like to see me write about? Of course, Bacon will be back in the mix. As will my cats. And I’m going to try showing some old photos of myself, if I remember to get them from my mother.

Until then, don’t forget to enter my Shutterfly giveaway for free photo cards! It ends this weekend, so don’t delay.

One day down, 29 to go…

I just have literally run out of ideas. I am not longer able to come up with ideas for posts.

Next month is November. And it’s that whole NaBloPoMo, which is National Blog Posting Month. I’m going to force myself to do it. Because I miss writing. And I think all the TV I watch and booze I drink INSTEAD of writing is killing off the small number of brain cells I currently have left. I’m one Real Housewives episode away from drooling.

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I’m still writing over at Food Lush and Draft Day Suit. In fact, this week on Food Lush I talked about grilling my cats not once, but twice! I’m sure I’m the only one who found it hilarious. I hope no one reports me to the authorities.

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My niece Skyler turned six on Wednesday. SIX! I cannot believe it! She’s in Kindergarten and loving it and is such a big girl! She asked for a password-protected diary for her birthday (and of course I got it). I mean, what on earth do you have to divulge when you’re six???

All I know is it will drive her brother Noah NUTS knowing he can’t get in it. He will find a way, I’m sure.

Oh, siblings.

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Speaking of siblings, Noah and Skyler now act like normal brothers and sisters, in that they bicker and fight and generally don’t always love the other one. Typical stuff.

It drives my brother CRAZY to see his son pick on his sister. It’s effing hilarious because my brother was the same damn way. He still is! If he can find a way to pick on me, he will! He’s 37 years old!

I just love pointing this out to him as well.

I hope Skyler and Noah will be as close as my brother and I are, though, when they are older.

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Since Skyler is six, it means my blog is about to turn five. Five years old! I’m afraid to go back and read any of the earlier stuff because I’m sure it was just crap. I shouldn’t have wasted all the good material back then.

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Twitter has ruined me. I can’t even write one whole post about one topic. It gets too boring after a few sentences. I have gotten way too used to sharing everything in my life in 140 characters or less. I actually hate it when I go over the limit and have to change an “and” to a “&” or use one less exclamation point.

This is actually very surprising because I’m really a wordy motherfucker. I am unable to stop talking, ever, in person. Even more surprising is I’m a pretty good listener. It’s the remembering part of listening that I have more trouble with. See note above re: reality TV and booze.

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And here is where I write something witty and smart to end this post on a good note.

Whoops. Too late.