I love...-ish.

Hey, blog-friends! Never fear, I'm still here! It hasn't really been that long since my last post - right? It's only been like a weekish...?

See what I did there? I totally "-ish"ed that blog situation. For those who are paying attention, it's actually been about three weeks since my last post (oops!). But by adding the -ish to my initial guess of a week, I am not totally wrong.

The -ish gives you some wiggle room in what you say. And who doesn't like some room in which to wiggle?

There are lots of situations in which -ish can be used. For example:
"I'll pick you up at 6ish." (Showing up at 5:55 won't be early and 6:05 won't be late.)
"Bob is tallish." (Wearing high heels may or may not leave you towering over Bob.)
"Her shirt was blueish." (Her shirt may have been blue, or purple.)

Or I can use some examples from my past weekend:
Friday night I was pretty tired from the week, so after meeting friends for dinner I made my way home and fell asleep early. I then slept in until about 10ish on Saturday morning. (It was actually 11.)
Saturday night I went to a friend's house. She was hosting a girls' night where we had dinner, talked nonstop and drank a bunch of Skinnygirl Margaritas. The margaritas were yummy, but I only had about twoish. (Okay, I pretty much helped polish off a bottle.)

So yes it's been a bit since my last post, but now as my weekend draws to a close I'm back with this post. I hope that you all had great weekends, and in this case I do mean "great" - no -ish about it.

(I'd like to add that -ish not only gives you wiggle room, but it's  just fun to say. Try -ishing up Dr. Seuss: Oneish fish, twoish fish, reddish fish, blueish fish.)

I love...random short story Sunday (#2).

Happy Sunday!

You may recall my first "random short story Sunday" post from about a month ago. Well today, randomly, I've decided to post another one of my stories. So gather your family, your pets and your plants and enjoy this classic tale of a miniature pony named Toodaloo.


The Story of Toodaloo and His Mysterious Lack of Ladies
by: jenny chalk

Once upon a time there was a miniature pony named Toodaloo. He was beige with white spots, had a well-kept mane and dressed in the finest saddles. He was really one of the cutest miniature ponies in his town.

Toodaloo loved wearing ponchos, vaccuming, and eating tater tots with ketchup (sometimes all at the same time, sometimes seperately) - qualities that every miniature lady-pony looked for in a mate.

Unfortunately for Toodaloo none of the miniature lady-ponies seemed interested in him. They would always come up and introduce themselves to him, but before he could say much they'd trot away. He had no idea what he was doing wrong. So he decided to ask for help from the town monkey, Yeknom.

"Tell me what the problem is!" shouted Yeknom.

"None of the ladies seem to like me," replied Toodaloo.

"One of the ladies tried to bite you?!" shouted Yeknom, who had lost most of his hearing after attending too many rock concerts.

"No. They don't like me!" shouted Toodaloo.

After a few more attempts at shouting and then several games of charades, Yeknom finally caught on to Toodaloo's problem. Yeknom said he would get to the bottom of it.

Several days later Yeknom returned to Toodaloo.

"Well," said Yeknom, "it seems that the ladies think you're a very polite jerk."

"What does that mean?!" asked Toodaloo.

"According to the ladies I spoke with," Yeknom began as he pulled a banana out of his man purse, "they try to talk to you and you politely and sweetly say goodbye to them."

"But that's not true, I don't say goodbye to them. I hardly get to say anything before they turn and trot away."

"Maybe we should go over your approach with the ladies, perhaps there's something you don't realize you're doing wrong."

"Okay, worth a try," sighed Toodaloo.

Yeknom walked up to Toodaloo, "Hi, I'm Yeknom. What's your name?"

"Toodaloo!" Toodaloo said with a smile.

"Waaaiit a minute..." they both stopped.

From then on, Toodaloo pronounced his name differently (Tuda-luh) and he had no more problems with the miniature lady-ponies. He also began a new Wednesday night ritual of playing charades with Yeknom.

The End

I love...2012.

Happy New Year! I hope you had a great weekend as we said goodbye to 2011 and hello to 2012.

I had a pretty busy NYE weekend in the CLE, here's what happened:

Friday: I went to happy hour at Happy Dog for some...happiness. My friends Carrie & Dave, who moved to Michigan several months back, were in town for the weekend and gathered a bunch of us there. I enjoyed a hotdog with egg, pepperjack cheese, cucumbers, & house ketchup - yum. Eventually some of us walked across the street to a Holla Days party that friends were throwing at the new Spice Kitchen + Bar. The place was packed and I got to catch up with several people I hadn't talked to in awhile - holla! A few of us made our way back to Tremont, stopped in a couple bars and ended the night with...Edison's pizza (surprise!).

Saturday: Carrie had crashed on my couch for the night, then in the morning I gave her some NYE dress options and we had a mini fashion show. Once that was done, we picked up my friend Cami and drove over to the Coventry area to see friends in town from Chicago. We grabbed lunch at Melt - sure there was a wait, but the grilled cheeses were delish. Then it was back home to get ready for NYE! I had a new shiny dress, a blazer with a big flower pinned on it, some stickers and drink hangers for the night, and this song playing as I finished getting ready (aww, Zooey & JGL!):

Once I was ready (and stopped replaying this song), I went to my friends' apartment downtown and we all made our way to D'vine Wine Bar for dinner. We started out with some fancy drinks and a ton of appetizers. From there we proceeded to have a "No Covers" bar crawl where we bounced around to places that weren't having packaged NYE deals, which included Nauti Mermaid, Map Room, Little Bar and Flannery's.

Sunday: Hello, 2012! After waking up at my friends' apartment and being sad that our NYE celebration was over I declared that I would start texting my friend Lindsay "Happy New Day!" every day. I got myself together and went to Cami's house for a brunch with our Chicago friends. I also saw my second fashion show of the weekend when Cami had her dog Zukey model his puffy winter coat. We all separated for a bit before meeting up again downtown at Map Room for the Brown's game. Later on we went back to Tremont for Sunday karaoke at Flying Monkey. Apparently most of Cleveland had the same plan, because the bar was packed and the karaoke wait was long. Eventually I sang "Addicted to Love" and headed home with Carrie and Dave who were staying at my apartment for the night.

Monday: After Carrie & Dave left I texted Lindsay "Happy New Day!" and met some friends at Southside for Bloody Marys. We recapped the weekend and started making plans for parties in 2012. Later on I went to a friend's house to watch The Bachelor season premiere. As usual, the show served up a lot of drama, tears, crazy ladies and valuable life lessons.

Now several days into 2012 I'm excited to see what the year will bring. May your own 2012 be full of happy!

(*I should also note that my friends and I started pondering 2012 mottos [like the famous 2010 motto: "Be like Jenny in 2010-y"; and the not so famous: "Name your drink giraffe 'Kevin' in 2011"]. Some possibilities: "Rearrange your shelves in 2012"; "Don't date elves in 2012"; "Be yourself in 2012"; "Don't smell in 2012"; "Be like Jenny in 2012-y". Lots of good options, but I've decided to wait a few more days until selecting one to live by for the year. Feel free to throw in a vote or a suggestion...)