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...)

I love...Christmas.

You've probably been thinking: "What did Jenny do for Christmas this year?!"
Well, relax, I'll tell you.

The long holiday weekend started early, with me being sick. Thursday I woke up not felling well. I'll spare you all the details, but I spent some quality time with my bathroom that morning. I then proceeded to sleep...all day. Not exactly sure what was wrong, but I didn't get my appetite back until Saturday evening, so I have decided to call it a "Christmas Diet"!

After a long Thursday nap I was feeling well enough on Friday to venture out and finish my Christmas shopping. I visited Room Service in Ohio City, the new shops on East 4th Street and Big Fun in Lakewood. Then I stopped by the grocery store to pick up ingredients for a dip I wanted to take to a Christmas party that evening. The recipe included cream cheese and pepper jelly relish all mixed together in one bowl of yumminess. However, I blanked on the ratio of relish to cream cheese, so once I mixed it together it came out bright pink. And I mean pink as in Pepto-Bismol pink. Or as in kinda scary looking to eat with a cracker pink. I was running late, so decided to still take the dip and hope for the best. The party was a great time. It was a gathering of the Hunt Club Pool Rats - a group I managed to sneak my way into during college when I met my good friend Rachel (aka: Moose). She brought me around enough that the Hunt Club friends she grew up with couldn't get rid of me. I should also note that one of the Pool Rats, Ryan, managed to earn 1,000 From Chalk With Love bonus points by mentioning my blog a gazillion times throughout the night.

I then spent Saturday-Monday in Columbus where my sister Susan and her family live. The rest of my family met up there for the weekend, too. We laughed. We ate. We rationed Great Lakes Christmas Ales. My dad made some repairs to my slowly dying car. My 2-year old niece taught me that the word "mine" can be used to answer just about any question. And I was given the new nickname of "butter pockets" (I can't remember exactly why, but it was funny).

For Christmas I got several great items, including a crockpot and pink leopard print mixing bowls that I'm sure I'll eventually use while wearing my apron. I got Tina Fey's book "Bossypants", which I've heard a lot of good things about and can't wait to dig into. I also got Shel Silverstein's newly released book "Every Thing On It", and as I've previously stated - I love Shel Silverstein - so this was especially exciting.

All in all, it was a great weekend (minus the opening Thursday sick-nap scene). I hope you all had a great holiday weekend, too!

Now that the Christmas weekend is over it's time to focus on planning a 2012 NYE celebration for this weekend! I know I'll be with some good friends downtown, but need to pick the place(s), the props (like last year's drink hangers), and the outfit.

Are you ready, 2012?

I love...pizza.

This week I got an email, but it wasn't just any email.
It was an email about pizza, but it wasn't just any email about pizza.
It was an email letting me know that I had won a gift card to Little Caesars!
You see, over the weekend I stumbled upon a contest on Metromix.com where you had to write about your favorite pizza topping and then every week they would choose a winner. It was as though they were asking me to spell my name. So I entered and several days later I received my pizza email.

If you know me, then you know that receiving that email was an exciting moment, because: I.love.pizza.

The dough. The sauce. The cheese. How can you not love it? It's great fresh & hot or leftover & cold. Dress it up or keep it plain. The options are endless.

It's pretty difficult for me to turn a slice down, which is why several years back I went on an accidental pizza crawl in Cleveland. I believe it was a Saturday during college football season, so some friends and I had ventured out early in the afternoon. Around lunchtime I opted for a slice of pizza from Panini's. Then around dinnertime some friends and I got a pizza at a little shop on West 6th Street. Then around bedtime I had a pizza nightcap at Guy's Pizza on Coventry Road. It was a delicious day (and in my memory it was a "no calories" Saturday).

Now I live in Tremont, where Edison's (a pub with a pizza kitchen that is open late into the night) is just a quick walk from my apartment. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but I know it's a delicious thing.

So I am eagerly awaiting my pizza gift card and planning my next pizza purchase. If you're wondering what I listed as my favorite pizza topping: banana peppers! I explained that just when you think pizza can't get any better - BAM - it's banana pepper-tastic.

Is there more that I can say about pizza? Sure, but it's best that I stop now, because all this pizza talk only makes me want to eat this blog post.

I love...the snooze button.

You know the saying: "The early bird gets the worm"?

Well, the thing is, I've never been a fan of worms.

I have a long-standing relationship with my snooze button. I can find it in the dark, with my eyes closed, during an indoor snow storm full of snooze button-defending unicorns* (*if snooze button-defending unicorns existed). I'll hit that button so many times that eventually it gives up on me and turns itself off.


Five more minutes of sleep? Yes, please. Five more minutes of laying here with my eyes closed thinking about how I should just get out of bed already? Yes, please.

As much as I love that little button, I'm starting to wonder if our relationship has gone too far? Perhaps bordering on 'unhealthy'? For the past couple weeks I've been willing myself to get up early (or even just 'on time') and work out. But every morning that alarm has gone off and -BAM- I can't get enough of that snooze button. The first week it was purely BEEP, snooze, BEEP, snooze, BEEP. The second week my mind was on board with the plan so I didn't actually fall back to sleep after hitting snooze, but my body still wasn't playing along. So though I was awake, I didn't actually step out of bed right away.

Now, here I am, typing it out. Maybe this will help - I'm breaking up with my snooze button. It's not you, Snooze, it's me, seriously. Maybe we can meet up again on a Saturday or after a random nap. Until then we'll always have our happy memories of 6:52 a.m. ...and 6:57 a.m. ...and 7:02 a.m.

Oh, I should also note that this doesn't mean I'm going to be going after any worms, the early birds can still have those. I'm cool with being the early Jenny who gets the coffee and oatmeal.

I love...random short story Sunday.

What is "random short story Sunday"? It's a Sunday where I post one of the short stories that I've written.
When is "random short story Sunday"? It's today...right now! Random, huh? So grab your Snuggie, make some hot chocolate and curl up with this story about a porcupine & balloon animals.
Enjoy!

The Poptastic Poppy-Pop-Pop
by: jenny chalk

Once upon a time there was a puffy, purple porcupine named Poppy-pop-pop. Poppy-pop-pop was just about the happiest porcupine there ever was. He was happy when he fell asleep and happy when he woke up. He was happy when he stubbed his toe and happy when he got a cold. He was even happy when someone stole the wheels off his car - "Eh, I should do more walking anyways," he'd say.

There was only one thing in the whole world that made Poppy-pop-pop angry, and that was...balloon animals.

Poppy-pop-pop's balloon animal hatred started when he was very young. For his 5th birthday party his parents ordered a clown to come and entertain the kids. The clown had a big red nose and crazy blue hair, he smelled of alcohol and couldn't say Poppy-pop-pop's name without hiccuping. All the porcu-kids loved him! The clown danced around in the backyard, occasionally falling over and making everyone laugh. After he'd been there a while, he pulled out a huge bag of balloons. All the porcu-kids gathered around him and he began to blow up the balloons and twist them into tiny animals...well, at first he only made snakes, which were the easiest to do as there was nothing to do except blow up the balloon. But after Poppy-pop-pop's parents had a stern talk with the clown and gave him an extra twenty bucks he began to get more inventive. One porcu-kid got a pony. Another got a giraffe. Then another got a bumble-bee. The party was a hit! Then it was Poppy-pop-pop's turn, he asked for a teddy bear. The clown twisted and turned the balloon and created the most adorable balloon teddy bear anyone had ever seen. Poppy-pop-pop was soo happy!

That night Poppy-pop-pop carefully placed that cute, little teddy bear next to him in his bed. He wrote an entry in his journal titled "Me & My Balloon Bear...Forever". Then he fell asleep. Unfortunately in the middle of the night Poppy-pop-pop rolled onto his left side and popped that cute little balloon bear. He burst into tears. The next day he buried the little balloon pieces in his backyard and vowed to never, ever love another balloon animal. The mere thought of another balloon animal made his quills boil. When he was old enough he did some research and moved to a town with no clowns or balloon animals. Since then he'd been only happy.

One Sunday, years later, Poppy-pop-pop was walking home from his jazzercise class when he noticed a sign on one of the lamp posts that read: "First Annual Balloon Animal Parade! Starts today at 11:34 a.m."

Poppy-pop-pop looked at his watch, it was 11:33! He began running towards his house, if only he could get inside then he could close his blinds and watch reruns of Saved By The Bell until the parade was finished. But it was too late and he was too tired from jazzercise, he ran right into the path of the balloon animal parade. There were porcupines everywhere holding balloon dogs, balloon elephants, balloon ponies. Poppy-pop-pop's quills began to raise up. He imagined himself spinning in circles and popping all of the balloon animals in his path just to get them out of his sight.

Just as Poppy-pop-pop was about to lose it, a small little porcupine walked up to him from the crowd, smiling and holding out an adorable little teddy bear balloon. Poppy-pop-pop was suddenly flooded with memories of that teddy bear balloon animal from his 5th birthday. He asked himself why he'd been holding this hatred for all other balloon animals - they were still adorable. He told himself he should give them another chance. So he reached out and accepted that adorable little ballon bear from the little porcupine. He smiled, and gently held it out in front of him as he looked it over.

Then he karate popped that adorable little balloon bear. He was too old for toys, what would he do with it?

Poppy-pop-pop skipped home, made some chocolate chip cookies, took a bubble bath and fell asleep...happy. He didn't hate balloon animals anymore! He was officially the happiest porcupine there ever was.

The End