I love...aprons.

I'm not much of a cook. At my old apartment, it was a friend who discovered my oven was broken when she tried to prepare some food before a party.

However, I do enjoy wearing an apron. Especially after my friend Colleen bought me this adorable one with cupcake designs on it for my birthday a few years back (she also happens to be the same friend who discovered my broken oven - wonder if she was trying to tell me something?).

Sometimes I wear it when I'm washing dishes. Or when I'm cutting up vegetables. Or when I'm warming up leftovers in the microwave. Or when I'm making macaroni and cheese. Or when I'm dancing around my kitchen trying to decide what to eat.

It makes me feel fancy...and chef-y, which makes me want to try cooking and baking more often.

I wore it the last time my parents came in for an Easter visit. I was baking some of those easy cookies where they're already sliced and ready, you just have to put them on a tray and pop them in the oven. I had already put the cookies in the oven when my parents arrived, so I greeted them in my fancy apron and we caught up a bit. I kept checking on the cookies, but they always seemed like they needed just a few more minutes, so I left them a few more and a few more and then, well, I burned those "easy" cookies. My dad told me not to worry. He said they just tasted like burnt popcorn.

As far as my cooking skills go, hopefully practice will make perfect.
But until then, if I'm going to burn things, at least I'm doing it in a fancy apron.

I love...the "!"

Ah, the exclamation point!

It's a shout of excitement wrapped up in an upside down "i".
It's the hot sauce of an email, or the fireworks of a text message.
Where's the party? It's at the end of this sentence...!

I'm aware that I may tend to overuse the exclamation point (if that's even possible), but I want people to know when I'm happy or excited about something. And I'm happy or excited about a lot of things. Sometimes I try to monitor and/or decrease my exclamation point usage, but it's difficult to decide when to keep it and when to lose it.
Just look at the difference an exclamation point makes in the responses to the following question:
Q: "Want to meet for dinner at 7?"
A1: "Okay." <read: "Fine, that's not the time I would have picked, but whatever.">
OR
A2: "Okay!" <read: "I'll be there, can't wait!">

There's a lot of emotion in that little exclamation point. If you're full of emotion, too, then I say go ahead and use that exclamation point until you wear the "!" off of the button on your keyboard.

Happy Wednesday. I mean, Happy Wednesday!

I love...vacation.

I spent last week on vacation, hence my lack of new posts.

I was in Hilton Head, SC with my family and some family friends for most of the week, then we drove to my parent's house in Hickory, NC and then drove to Nashville, TN for my cousin's wedding. It was a great vacation!

Since I didn't post anything new throughout the week, please accept these vacay tidbits to make up for it:

Airplanes
On an airplane I prefer the window seat. You can watch as the ground beneath you gets smaller and smaller and then finally you're up in the clouds. For that time on the plane you're in limbo from where you just left and where you're about to go - and you can look out to the clouds and dream of what's to come. On my flight out to Hilton Head we happened to be up in the clouds as the sun was setting. The sky was pink and it looked like we were flying through clouds of cotton candy. After we landed I got my bags and walked out of the airport with a stomach full of airplane peanuts and a head full of cotton candy dreams.

Beach
My Beach List:
Beach chair - check
Beach towel - check
Beach book - check
Beach beers - checkity-check-check 

A Good Book
I like to have a good book to read on vacation. This particular vacation I headed to the airport with some old books to read, but wanted to find a new one at the last minute. I stopped in the airport bookstore and went in search of one particular book. Unfortunately they didn't have it in the store, but the person helping me suggested another book I might like - "God Never Blinks" by Regina Brett. I skimmed it, bought it and I didn't like it...I loved it. It's a book about 50 life lessons that Regina Brett has learned so far and had posted in her column in The Plain Dealer. The first lesson had me tearing up by the pool and a later lesson had me laughing on the beach. If you haven't already read it - I highly recommend it. It was just what I needed on this vacay.

Mean Girls in White Dresses
One afternoon I was heading up from the pool to get ready for dinner. As I approached the elevators in the parking garage of our building I noticed two little blond girls in white sundresses standing outside the elevator doors. They were holding one of the elevators open and smiled at me as they said, "You can get on this one!" I smiled back as I stepped on the elevator, "Well, thank you!" - what sweet little girls. I went to press the button for my floor and that's when I saw it, someone had pressed all of the floor buttons. Those little girls in white! I quickly stuck my arm out to stop the doors from closing and jumped out just in time to see the girls turn the corner with their arms around each other - giggling. I waited a moment and then pushed the button for a new elevator. While I waited, the two little girls came back around the corner (ready for their next victim, I'm sure) and they looked stunned when they saw me standing there. "Hello, girls," I said with a smile.

Nice Girls in White Dresses
On Saturday my cousin Stephanie married her husband Allen in Nashville. It was a lovely ceremony, my cousin looked beautiful (I could go on and on about her dress) and they threw an amazing reception with lots of personal touches, delicious food, dancing and sparklers. It was a great day - congratulations, Stephanie & Allen!

New Friends
My family arrived in Nashville on Friday evening. We ate a quick dinner in the hotel restaurant and then my sister Lisa and I decided to grab a drink at the hotel bar. That's where we met Gary Plummer, a former pro basketball player. He bought us a drink, we chatted (he, of course, brought up LeBron), then he convinced us to go out in downtown Nashville with him. We cabbed it to the bars together, waited in line together, got a drink together and then...Lisa and I lost track of our new BFF. However, we woke up with some lil' headaches to remember him by the next morning. 

Coming Home
I do enjoy a vacation. It's nice to take a break, go somewhere else and spend time with family and friends. But there's something about driving down the highway, seeing the Cleveland skyline and knowing I'm almost home. On Sunday, I went from the airport to my friend's house in Parma to pick up my car. She caught me up on what I missed while I was gone. Then I headed home. As I got closer I saw the Cleveland skyline and decided to take a detour to drive through downtown and get reacquainted with my city. Then I headed back to Tremont to see if my apartment had melted in the Cleveland heat while I was gone. It hadn't. It was there waiting for me to come home.

That night I fell asleep with memories of a great vacation and some cotton candy dreams still lingering in my head.

I love...J/K.

When people started saying J/K (instead of "just kidding") a while back, I would say it as an "I can't believe people are saying this instead of just using the actual words"-type of joke. However, once I started, I couldn't stop.

Since then I've been J/K-ing all over the place. At parties, at work, at restaurants (one waiter was very confused on what my real order was by the end of our conversation). During my last birthday party I managed to J/K my sisters through the many stages of "J/K":
Stage 1: That's funny
Stage 2: Now it's annoying
Stage 3: Now it's funny how annoying that is

Maybe it's time for me to move on past all the J/K-ing? Maybe it's time I get serious? No more jokes, no more abbreviations...

...J/K, J/K!

I love...my gray high heels.

I have this pair of really cute, round toe, gray high heels. I could walk around the city in them for hours without any pain. I love them and I wear them...a lot.

Unfortunately, my love is starting to take it's toll on them. Today I noticed that they don't stand up very straight anymore when they're placed on the floor. I can hear the heels squeaking when I walk. And if you look closely you might think that I let an animal chew on the heels as there are tiny marks all over them.

But still, I love them.

I know there's the chance that one day I'll be in an accidental re-creation of this Mentos commercial, but I can't stop wearing them quite yet. So until that day, whenever I wear those heels I will walk carefully and I will carry an emergency pack of Mentos with me wherever I go.

I love...early morning car-aoke.

Here is a scene from "Jenny Chalk: July 12, 2011":

It's not even 8:30 in the morning yet, I'm sitting in traffic, not moving, though the clock seems to be moving twice as fast as the rest of the world. I'm remembering that wonderful time from two hours earlier when I was laying in bed, still sleeping. Then I flip the radio channel and hear this:

...and suddenly I'm wide awake!

Pick on me if you like, but I've been an Aerosmith fan for a long time and though Steven Tyler is on his own with this song I'm still a fan of that voice.

So there I am, fresh off the highway, windows down, waiting for the car in front of me to realize the light is green, but it doesn't matter because I'm holding an imaginary microphone, shaking my hair and singing at the top of my lungs!

Yes, this morning I was lovin' me some karaoke in the car (or some car-aoke)!

Hopefully the guy sitting in the car next to me was loving it, too.

(Note: I would have posted this about twenty minutes earlier, but I couldn't stop re-playing this song.)

I love...magic money pants.

Okay, as far as I know there's no such thing as magic money pants, but if there was then I would love them.

Instead I'll settle for a close second: ...finding forgotten money in a pair of pants, which is what happened to me today. I was wearing a pair of jeans, reached into the back pocket and found a $10 bill! This discovery added a little extra happy to my day. It was like I made money just for putting on pants!




In fact, I'm going to suggest that you go into your closet and put some money in a random pair of your pants right now...your future self will love it!

I love...Shel Silverstein.

If I could have a dinner party with any three celebrities, living or dead, the first one I'd call is Shel Silverstein*.

There is so much to love about him, where to begin?

I'll start with "The Giving Tree", which is still one of my favorite books. In elementary school I was in a play where we acted that story out and I was the tree! (I should note that my parents don't recall this play, which either means I didn't tell them about it at the time or it was a dream, but either way...I was the tree!) If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. And of course there are his many other books, like "Where the Sidewalk Ends" and "A Light in the Attic", just to name a few.

As if his books alone aren't a good enough reason to love him, here is some "did you know" info about ol' Shel:

• He wrote songs, including "The Cover of the Rolling Stone" (which was featured in one of my favorite movies: "Almost Famous").
• He drew cartoons for Playboy magazine.
• He and I were both born on September 25th.

Shel Silverstein was a big inspiration for me as I grew up and got into writing. He didn't fit into one mold. He wrote for both children and adults. He wrote things that didn't always make sense, but that you couldn't forget. He made it okay to let your imagination completely take over.

Today I have some of his books placed around my apartment - available to be read at any moment. And hanging above my desk is one of his poems that reads:
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child.
Listen to the don'ts.
Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossible the won'ts.
Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me...
Anthing can happen, child.
Anything can be."

I love it, and I'm listening to you, Shel!

(*Note: If you're wondering...the second celebrity invited to my dinner party would be Prince and the third celebrity is TBD.)

I love...the letter "U".

I have always been a fan of the song "You've Really Got a Hold On Me". Originally done by The Miracles, there have been several covers of the song since and earlier today I was listening to this cover by She & Him:

But I can never hear the song without remembering the first time I heard it...on Sesame Street. Not familiar with that episode? Watch as Smokey Robinson sings the song and meets a very persistent letter "U":

I loved that skit as a kid! And even now I still find it pretty entertaining, well, now I find it entertaining with a dash of creepy when the U won't leave him alone, but in the end they seem to be friends...so the U can't be that bad.

I love...long weekends.

As I set my alarm to wake up for work tomorrow, I'm thinking about Friday and how it seems like forever ago. Having an extra day off of work makes the weekend even better and with the holiday there were plenty of activities to fill up the extra time. Here are some of my weekend highlights:

Friday
I made my second visit to the newly opened Market Garden Brewery on West 25th Street (which should actually have it's own "I love..." post from me, because I love it there). The place was packed and the beer was delicious. Eventually we made our way down the street to the Garage Bar patio and then visited ABC Tavern for a game of pool to end the night. As far as Ohio City goes, the USA Today article is true.

Saturday
I went to an all-day cookout in Tremont. We ate some good food, played cornhole, drew pictures with chalk on the sidewalk, gave beer to a wedding party taking pictures in the park across the street and cheered every time a passing car honked in response to the "Honk for the USA" sign in the front yard. The night ended with us getting caught in a thunderstorm - so, wet and tired, I made it home in time to catch the end of a Saturday Night Live rerun.

Sunday
I went for a run and then quickly negated the exercise by getting Taco Bell with a friend. We ate while watching episodes of Parks & Recreation. It was a funny & delicious afternoon - it was funlicious. That night I had dinner at another friend's house and headed back out in Tremont to celebrate a 30th birthday.

Monday
And finally, there was today! I spent the day at a cookout/pool party, which was actually a cookout/"one person got in the pool while the rest of us sat in a circle around the pool" party. Then a few of us went downtown to watch some fireworks from a friend's apartment. Unfortunately, a building blocked most of our view, but the fireworks sounded great.

I hope you all had a safe, happy and looong 4th of July weekend!
Now I'm going to bed. Good night, weekend.