Hodgepodge

So...It's Friday and I'm in the Windy City. The first time I came to Chicago I was totally enamored. The downtown is amazing and bustling with excitement and energy. It REMINDS me so much of New York City. In honor of the Windy City I'm going to write my favorite things about Chi-town.
1. Real Downtown - not like other places with sprawling suburbs and tiny city centers.
2. Amazing Lake
3. Wonderful Food - I would love to go to The Taste of Chicago.
4. Tons of exciting activities.
5. Cupcakes - I've never been to any places but I've seen tons on Kelly Purkey's blog. I would love to tour the cupcake shops in the area.

So the things that I DON'T like about Chicago can be summed up in one statement: it's so freaking cold here it actually makes me wonder if hell is cold rather than warm. Forget the traffic - who the heck cares when the wind blows you over? We went to a bar last night and my lips were cold. I lived in a cold place my whole childhood and I can't remember a time my lips were frozen. It sucks. I could never live here! I'm not sure Brad Pitt or Taye Diggs could get me to move here - not even for the sound of tiny feet. Not happening.

On the reading front - I have about 5 things going right now which means I'm not making progress on anything except this. The book is hysterical and developed from this blog.I've never been big on memoirs. However, since I read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert I've been a lot more interested. I've read a few since June. I also just got finished reading Snippets - see above. It's a tiny book with hysterical scrapbooking essays. It has a reasonable price and it was pretty great - very quick read. If you're interested in learning more about the author, Lain Ehmann, check out her blog here. I highly recommend these humorous tales that honestly gave me a happy feeling about all my crafty spending!

In other news, spending several days with people you don't really know is not well-suited to my introverted personality. I absolutely despise small talk. If I'm going to put in all that effort I want it to be about something real. However, I'm way to shy for real talk with a new person. It helps when you're around super nice people - which I am. It makes life much easier. But still, I'm a solitary person - perfectly happy and content alone. I've been that way for a long time - just ask my Mom and Dad. It's been good getting out of my comfort zone but I long for home and my diva kitty.

I'm going to round out this post with an announcement. I will not be taking my blog public. I've had a lot of time to think about this over the past couple of days. I also talked about blogging with my current roommate in Chicago. I'm afraid of letting my personal life out there for others to see - especially with what I do for a living. So this blog will be private for the foreseeable future. I would be more willing to take it public if it was just about crafting. But I like talking about my days and giving my somewhat watered-down opinions about things - remember this blog has no adult language and I definitely do. Sorry Mom and Dad. If you know someone that might want to check out the blog - let me know their address and I will add him/her to my reading list. I hope everyone had a happy Friday. Until then...Happy Crafting, Reading, & Relaxing!

BTW: I need a laptop to blog on the road! Oh right - I'm on the road twice a year - nevermind.