I love...imagination.

I am writing this from a secret island, while Ryan Gosling gathers firewood for our sunset dinner.

J/K...I'm not really on a secret island and Ryan Gosling isn't gathering firewood for me (as far as I know), but I can imagine that it's true.

I am a big fan of the imagination. I guess it started when I was little.
There were the empty boxes that became cars or houses.
When my parents mopped the kitchen floor and put all the furniture in the living room I'd be ready with blankets to create my own fort.
My friends and I would cook amazing "dinners" from dirt, grass and water, while using frisbees as our plates.
Or we'd lay in the grass watching the clouds pass by, pointing out the shapes and animal forms we saw in them.
Now I write short stories about animal towns and crazy squirrels or adorable miniature ponies.
I have a box full of greeting cards that I thought of and created.
And I'm always up for using my hairbrush as a microphone while I dance around singing whatever song is on the radio.


Maybe my love for the imagination is the reason I love Shel Silverstein, or maybe my love for Shel Silverstein is the reason I love the imagination. He created wildly ridiculous, touching, never before thought of stories that didn't follow along with any norm I'd known. He put the stories down on paper and now his imagination lives on with every turn of his books' pages.

Luckily, people of all ages are still using their imagination on a daily basis. Do you know about Caine's Arcade? A little boy named Caine used old cardboard boxes to build a whole bunch of arcade games. He imagined it, created it, and then - well, watch the short film about it. Warning: my eyes got a bit watery during this one. As a person who rarely cries at movies, I had to ask myself what about this ten minute film got to me? The answer: watching this little boy talk about his arcade. The happiness that comes out of him when he talks about it, I couldn't help but be excited and root for him and his imagination from the start.

What about you? What do you imagine? The thing about your imagination is that it's all yours. No one else can imagine what you can imagine. I don't care how old you are, the imagination is always in style. Whether you're using it to create your future or you just want to daydream away a sunny afternoon, it's ready to go. Use it to be silly, creative, outrageous, hopeful - whatever you need. Shake up your head, clean out the corners of your brain, and throw it all together to see what you can come up with.

Before I head back to my secret island, let me leave you with this quote from Albert Einstein: “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."

So go forth to imagine the heck out of your imagination and find out where it can take you, you wonderful imaginator you!

I love...thunderstorms & donuts.

There was a thunderstorm early this morning, which made it one of those mornings that you just want to stay in bed, cuddled up under the covers, listening to the thunder and rain. That is probably why I slept through my alarm clock and woke up 20 minutes before I was supposed to be at work. The thunderstorm must have inspired me though, because I was fast as lightning in getting ready.

Coffee - brewing.
Hair - up.
Contacts - in.
Teeth - brushed.
Clothes - on.
Make-up - applied.

Breakfast - well, there was no time for breakfast. Upon a quick inventory of my cupboard and food items that could be easily transported, I decided to throw a rice cake in my bag. Then I grabbed my coffee, double checked that I was fully clothed, and ran out the door. On my quick drive into work I kept looking at my bag and that rice cake taunted me at every glance: "You're still going to be hungry after you eat me!"

I finally made it to my office and walked down the hall saying good morning to my co-workers. Then one of them stopped me and said the sweetest words I'd heard so far today: "Jason brought donuts." Boom. Breakfast was served.

Sure, donuts were one of the key factors in my freshman fif-idon'twanttotalkaboutit-teen after I found a little donut station in my dorm's cafeteria and started eating them on a regular basis. But since then I've learned a valuable donut lesson: Donuts in moderation...sweet, sweet moderation.

So I had one...and a half. Okay, one and two halves.

Now I'd like to thank the thunderstorm for making me so late that I couldn't eat breakfast at home and instead could have surprise donuts at work.

I'd also like to apologize to the rice cake, which will now be spending the rest of the day in my bag.

I love...mysteries.

Did you know that some of life's greatest mysteries have been solved over weekends of wine, art, and food? Don't research this statement, just trust me that it's true*. I spent this past weekend with my friends Rachel and Jackie, who I've known since college, and we enjoyed wine, art, and food while contemplating our own weekend mysteries. We didn't necessarily solve each mystery so much as I "Jenny-solved" them, which means I made up my own answers to the following:


The Mystery of the Missing Wrap
Saturday we went to lunch at Flannery's on East 4th and I announced I would be ordering the BBQ chicken wrap. However as Jackie looked over the menu she broke the bad news that there were no wraps. I double checked and then asked the server. She confirmed they did not sell wraps and she didn't think they ever had. Just as my friends were about to file me away under "crazy" I knew that I had one more chance to solve this missing wrap mystery, so I texted my friend Lindsay, who is a Flannery's pro. She responded immediately and confirmed that they had indeed sold wraps, four different kinds in fact. But still there were no wraps to be had that day, so my mind completely frazzled I reverted back to my high school self and got the chicken fingers...with BBQ sauce. It was discovered during our lunch that our server was somewhat new to Flannery's - ah ha! That's why she wasn't aware of their lack of wraps.
Mystery Jenny-solved.

The Mystery of the Collar

After lunch we moved on to the Art Museum to see the Rembrandt exhibit. The pieces were amazing. While looking them over we pondered the purpose of the large white collars worn in some of them. Rachel suggested the collar represented a high status. I suggested it was to keep food from falling on the person's clothes. Then I decided that we were both correct and perhaps the higher your status the more important it was to keep food off your clothes...hence, the large collars.
Mystery Jenny-solved.

The Mystery of the Red Feather
As we ventured around to other parts of the museum, we ended up behind an older gentleman on the escalator. He was wearing a baseball cap that had a large red feather stuck out of the back. I couldn't take my eyes off of it. Why was it there? Did he know it was there? We crossed paths with him several times. He walked around slowly and would stand and look at some of the artwork for awhile. My mind started wandering about that random baseball cap feather! This is why you should stay tuned for my future short story "The Old Man & the Red Feather".
Mystery (soon to be) Jenny-solved.

The Mystery of the Mattress vs the Banana
After the museum we stopped in Little Italy for a glass of wine at La Dolce Vita and cannoli at Corbo's Bakery. Then we drove back to Rachel's house. Along the way Rachel pointed out a store where she'd bought her mattress. We started talking about how long a mattress is good for and whether that timing changes if you put the mattress in storage or sleep on it for the entire length of time. I said it probably only counted when you actually used the mattress and it wasn't like there was an expiration date on it. I used the opposite example of a banana, saying that a banana would go bad in a certain amount of time whether you used it or not. But by saying the phrase "use the banana" the whole topic of our conversation changed from whether you're able to use a banana vs. eat a banana, and it went down hill from there. So no mattress mystery was ever solved.

Mystery (almost) Jenny-solved.

The Mystery of the Woman Sprinting through the Aquarium
Sunday we had breakfast, got ourselves together and went to the Cleveland Aquarium. There were lots of cute fishies to see, the sharks were teethy (ah!), and I realized I might be slightly claustrophobic as I kept to a quick sprint when going through the enclosed tunnel tank thing.
Mystery (unfortunately) Jenny-solved.





Hope you were able to solve some weekend mysteries of your own! If you need any help let me know, perhaps I can Jenny-solve them for you.

*statement may not be true.

I love...Valentine's Day.

It's time I tell you all something.

You may not want to hear it.
You may think it's ridiculous.
But I have to be honest.
Here it goes...
I love Valentine's Day!
Yep. I do.

Some people love to hate the day, but I love to love it.



Most of my friends know this fact, all too well. The question is: where did my love for the holiday come from?

Perhaps it started in elementary school after years of decorating those brown paperbags in anticipation of the tiny valentines that classmates would (*hopefully*) fill them with.

Or it could have happened as a result of watching this episode of The Simpsons.

Maybe it began in high school when there was the excitement of whether or not I'd get a carnation from my crush of the year, or my crush of the week.

Then there was college, when I would drive my roomies a bit insane over the day. One year I had three outfit changes throughout the day - from the red outfit I wore to class, to the red outfit I wore around the apartment after class, and finally to the red outfit I wore out to dinner.

After college there was the year I had friends over to my apartment, we ate pizza (yum!), made prank phone calls (to single guys that we knew), and played pin the hose on the fireman. Last year I went out to dinner with friends, handed out heart-shaped slinkies and magnets with images of men wearing nothing but oven mitts.

I guess there's always been something about the day - to me, at least. It's not neccessarily the hearts, or the candy, or the flowers, or the men wearing nothing but oven mitts. But it's the possibility of all of that and more. I've always seen it as a day where anything can happen. You may get an unexpected flower, a cute card, a kind word, a sweet kiss, or...if you're out with me...a heart-shaped slinky.

So now it's Valentine's Day 2012 and who knows what the day will bring. So far my day includes my "love" necklace (like the one in this pic), oversleeping (i'll take that as a valentine from my ex, the snooze button) and a bit of February snow.

If you're still reading this and haven't gotten sick from my pro-Valentine's Day report, then let me wrap it up by wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day of your own!

Come on. It's a holiday, people! Show the day some love and who knows what it will show you back...

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...)