Kristabella: Full of Snark Since 1977

Posted By Kristabella on November 7, 2014

They are doing some major streetscape work on a street that I walk on to get to the train every day. It is the very stupidest thing the City has ever done. It made a really busy east-west street two lanes instead of four. And all of it was done for a wider sidewalk with some bricks and some new trees.

Couple that with the fact that it is near a major train station and they just built a grocery store, gym and tons of apartments, and this seem even stupider.

But then each day it just gets more bizarre. First it was when they tore up the concrete that they had just put down a few days prior (I wonder why the City is so broke??). Now it is that they are adding some street furniture that I’m not really sure is supposed to be furniture.

Up and down the street, at very random intervals, are these blue chairs. Which, that’s a nice addition, especially since there is a bus route on this street.

But, none of these chairs are by a bus stop. And on top of that, they don’t even all face the same way.

Exhibit A:

These lovely chairs point directly into the front windows of a realty group. That’s got to be weird to be sitting in the conference room and have people sitting, staring at you from the street. Is it, some sort of weird social experiment? Performance art?

Exhibit B:

Are these there for those random times you need to have a discussion AROUND A TREE? Is it some kind of art? Are we being punked?

I need someone to explain why my tax dollars went to this!

 

Category: A Dash of the Crazy, A Day in the Life of Me, Chi-town, Land of Random, NaBloPoMo | Comments Off on Are They Meant For……Sitting?
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Posted By Kristabella on November 6, 2014

So I actually posted this on my old site, here, last night. I was out drinking with a friend to watch the Browns/Bengals game at a giant Browns Backer bar. But I wanted to keep up my end of this blogging thing, so I posted hastily from my phone.

What I didn’t realize is that the WordPress app is for WordPress.com blogs, not self-hosted ones, like this one.

So I’m moving that post over here and changing the time to yesterday. Because it’s my blog and I can do what I want!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m out with my friend that is a Browns fan and they won!

So I’m throwing back to yesterday. To my workout bag. Left on my desk.

Category: A Day in the Life of Me, Gotta Have Friends, Hooch Hilarity, NaBloPoMo | 1 Comment »
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Posted By Kristabella on November 5, 2014

I have been really lazy lately. Actually, since August 31. Because on that day, I ran a half marathon. (I know! Who am I? You’ve missed so much!)

Anyway, I did that and since then, I have run a grand total of two times. Once in September and once about a week and a half ago. And this Sunday I signed up to run a 15k, which is 9.3 miles, which is a lot of miles, and well, lazy is no longer an option anymore.

On top of that, I’m still eating like I’m training for a 1/2, so basically all my clothes don’t fit.

I have every intention of working out or running every morning. But then every morning the alarm goes off and it is still dark out and I am still lazy and I fall back asleep. Last night I decided that I’d bring my stuff with me and go to the gym on the way home. Because I walk past it on my way home EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT.

This morning, I went to work, extra bag in tow, full of workout gear, and I was going to do it! As with almost every time I tell myself I’m going to workout after work, I lost my motivation about halfway through the day. But then, as I was getting ready to leave, debating in my head whether I should go, I yelled at myself to suck it up and go! You can listen to Serial, I said to myself! You’re right, I answered back to myself.

(This all took place while I was going pee before I left for the day. I accomplish a lot in there.)

I got back to my desk and put on my coat and mentally amped myself up for working out! As I was packing up to leave, my big boss came over to talk about something and I got sidetracked. And then I realized I was about to miss my train, so I hurried and got my stuff together and power walked to the train station. It wasn’t until I sat down in my seat on the train that I realized that my bag with my workout clothes? WAS SITTING ON MY DESK.

UGH! I’m so mad at myself! I even leave the damn thing out, right in front of me, so I don’t forget! It took me a lot of convincing to actually get up the motivation to go! And then, after all that, left the fucking thing on my desk! UGH.

So Sunday’s race should be fun. At least it should be chilly, so maybe I’ll be fine because I’ll just run the whole thing to keep warm.

#facepalm

Category: A Dash of the Crazy, A Day in the Life of Me, NaBloPoMo, Rants & Rants, Up In The Gym, Working On My Fitness | 3 Comments »
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Posted By Kristabella on November 4, 2014

I have been super productive tonight. I marinated and made my chicken for my dinner this week. I did three loads of laundry. I cleaned the litter box. I took out the trash. I voted.

What I didn’t do was come up with something to write about. So I decided to look in my drafts folder and see if there was anything interesting in there. Oddly, I have 14 drafts in there. Most of them are a title and nothing else, probably reminding myself to write about a certain thing. That clearly worked well since most of them are at least 4 years old.

This one is from 2008. I have no idea where these questions came from, but they were here and, gum dammit, I’m gonna answer them.

1. What did you do 10 years ago

I turned 37 this year in September. This was a really hard age for me. I feel old. Know what makes me feel old? Thinking about 10 years ago and it was 2004! To me, 10 years ago should be the 90s and I should have been in college or high school. Ten years ago should not have been my sixth NFL football season with the 49ers. That’s what I did 10 years ago. I was Publications Manager for the San Francisco 49ers. I HATED my job and my life. I had started going to therapy and taking anti-depressants because I finally realized I was depressed. I was just a few short months away from losing my job (yay!) and moving back home to Chicago to live with my brother and sister-in-law and a three year old Noah.

Huh. Wow. 10 years ago was kind of a big time in my life.

2. Five items on my to-do list today

Vote, do laundry, make chicken for dinner for the week, clean the litter box, WRITE A BLOG POST.

3. Snacks I enjoy

So ever since I started eating low-carb/Paleo-ish, I don’t snack a lot. If I really eat veggies and protein for my meals, I’m usually good and satisfied until the next meal. On the rare occasion that I do need a snack, I usually choose almonds. I’m also really loving this popcorn and can eat way too much of it in one sitting. Cheese is also good, too. Or hummus. Guacamole and chips. If calories don’t matter, then I would choose either Cheetos, Starburst or some kind of gummi fruit snack

4. What would I do if I were a billionaire?

Well, I’d be really boring and pay off all my debt. HOORAY! Then I would sell my house and move to Canada. I’d use most of the money to help out my friends and family, since once I move to Canada, she’s letting me live in her basement. Oh, and give to charity.

5. Places I would live

Well, the previous question seemed to answer that:

• Toronto, Canada
• Charleston, SC
• San Diego, CA
• Nashville, TN
• Portland, OR or another part of the Pacific Northwest

How about you? Where would you live? What were you doing 10 years ago? Did you vote today?

Category: A Day in the Life of Me, All Things Blogging, Land of Random, NaBloPoMo | 4 Comments »
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Posted By Kristabella on November 3, 2014

I recently switched to taking Metra to and from work. That’s our commuter rail system that goes all the way to the burbs, Indiana and even Wisconsin! I only go two stops and it is so much faster than taking the other form of public transit.

Metra is PACKED during rush hour, especially in the last two cars. That’s because I swear 90% of the train gets off at my stop, and that door is closest to the only set of stairs. So it is not weird to have people standing in the aisles and in the doorways. I try to get there with enough time to get me a seat. Because even though it is only two stops, I’m still a lazy motherfucker.

Today I took the 6 PM train and my friend happened to be taking the same train home. We actually boarded at almost the same time and took seats next to each other across the aisle. I was nice and chose to sit next to the dude who was trying to take up the space of two people in the seat, even though it was already packed and you don’t get your own seat at rush hour! At least not until after the second or third stop.

So I wedged my large ass into the seat next to his large ass. And then my friend asked me a question and we proceeded to chit chat while we waited for the train to leave. This wasn’t a quiet car; we weren’t doing anything that most of the people around us were doing.

Mid-conversation with my friend, this dude interrupts me and says “excuse me, but I just saw my wife up there, would you mind switching with her?” And since I am really a nice person, besides wanting Nik Wallenda to fall off the wire, I begrudgingly gave up my seat. The douche guy was like “come on, it’s my wife” and so I acquiesced.

I should have know something was up when the “wife” was in no hurry to sit next to him. She even was like “it’s OK, I can stay here.” But being the stupidly nice person that I am, I insisted I take her seat. I mean, it’s just two stops to my stop, I could talk to my friend any time.

Then my friend started texting me about said couple.

The douchebag didn’t even talk to his “wife”! After making me move, mid-conversation!

My friend didn’t say anything when we got off, but we both gave him a dirty look. And talked about him in not-hushed voices. Something along the lines of:

Her: I totally don’t think they are married. They are just friends.

Me: I don’t think she even LIKES him.

Public transit, man.

Category: A Day in the Life of Me, Gotta Have Friends, NaBloPoMo, Rants & Rants, Transit Tales | 3 Comments »
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