left in the dark

i hate thunderstorms. i especially hate thunderstorms when they knock out the power

last night, well about 4pm, a terrible storm with hurricane-like winds struck, ripping trees from the ground, flinging shingles around the neighborhood and leaving me, and others, in the dark.

i had big plans for the night, all of which required electricity. instead, i sat on my front porch with a glass of wine and read by moonlight. it turned out to be a very relaxing and calm night. much better than i had originally planned. i'm going to have to do it again. soon.

Happy Monday

Happy Monday! I had an absolutely wonderful weekend, I hope you did too.

One of my best friends from middles school is getting married in less than a month so we threw her a sweet, simple bridal shower on Saturday. There was a lot a lot of preparation and some nerves that it wouldn’t turn out as well as planned, but it did. And she was so happy throughout. Plus, it’s always good to catch up with old friends. Speaking of which, I got quite a few emails and texts from friends I haven’t seen in a while. {The perfect way to make me smile. I’ll have to try to keep in touch with them better from now on, but that always seems like a goal of mine.}

{image via romantic.posterous}

Letters from abroad

I’ve been writing to my best friend in Rwanda for a while now, but I finally got a letter back. When I saw the ragged, duct-taped letter in my mailbox with stamps of iguanas, straw-hut villages and dancing men, an enormous smile crossed my face and, I’m slightly embarrassed to say, a giggle escaped my lips. I’ve gotten emails and Facebook messages from Jessi, but there’s something special about a hand-written letter. She posted the letter about a month ago, so I’m sure much has happened in both our lives during the postal journey, but I’m glad to get the letter nonetheless.

Today I’m heading to the coffee shop and plan to write one long note than I’m sure will make her giggle too… about a month from now.

{image via pibburns}

chicago celebrations

today chicago celebrates. thousands of blackhawks faithful will line wacker dr. to cheer for their stanley cup champions. there will be cheering, screaming, chanting and probably a few tears.

boy, do i wish i could be there. unfortunately, i will be at work, probably checking the chicagoist and chicago tribune for updates and photos. this season has been absolutely incredible. from the start, it was clear we {yes, we} had a shot at the cup with the amazing talent of jonathan toews, patrick sharp, patrick kane, dustin byfuglien, marian hossa {jury's finally in on the ex-wing: he's ok in my book}, kris versteeg and the ridiculous defensive pair of brent seabrook and duncan keith. i'm forgetting to name so many other amazing players. i mean, c'mon, the hawks had 6 olympians and 4 of them were medalists.

point is, they're a young team and they play with amazing heart. you have to respect and admire that.

game 6 ended in probably the most anti-climatic stanley cup win {kane slipped the puck in, but no one seemed to know for sure except him}. it was sort of "yeah, we won! did we win? what... yeah, we won!" i don't care how it happened, it happened. for the first time since 1961.

this season, and more importantly, this stanley cup playoffs run has severly damaged my nerves. the games were so good, so close, so incredibly exciting that i may invest in a defibrillator for next season. but, boy do those deserve the cup. good job blackhawks and happy celebrating, chicago!

also, adam burish, it's good to see a badger with the cup!

{image via chicagoblackhawks}

little notes

dear blackhawks.

i love you. after a fantastic season, you did it, you brought the stanley cup back to chicago. thanks for a season full of thrills and chills. love, your devoted fan.

dear janine.

i'm so glad you moved to chicago. it's such an amazing, charming city, you'll love it. and it'll love you. have fun.

dear mish and bobby.

welcome to a life of love and enchantment. congratulations to you both.

dear marissa.

thank you for such wonderful book suggestions. i just started reading mountains beyond mountains by tracy kidder and it is absolutely amazing.

dear mom and dad.

happy anniversary. one more year of love, laughs and crossword puzzles. congrats and love you both dearly.

{image via weheartit}

things that made my week

warm, sunny days & cool, crisp evenings

my little sister graduating high school

running into old friends

tomato linguini with roasted red pepper sauce

emails from africa

blackhawks wins

watching kites fly on the lake front

maya angelou

reading on the train

bouquets of colorful daisies

cannoli and coffee

a new book at the coffee shop

{image via weheartit}

graduation ceremony

my little sister's graduation ceremony on saturday went well. the speeches were touching and funny, the decorations were beautiful, the music was amazing, the students were thrilled and the field house was hot. overall, it was amazing and i'm incredibly proud of my little sis. {and all of her friends who also graduated}

{she's singing bridge over troubled waters by simon & garfunkel. it's a tradition at our school for the past dozen or so years.}

happy graduation

my little sister isn't so little anymore. i knew this day would come but it always seemed so far away that i never really expected it to arrive. this saturday, my little sister, cecilia claire, graduated from high school. i'm so proud of her. i know she's been busting her but at school lately and i'm glad she'll finally have time to relax and appreciate all of her hard work.

i wanted to do something really cool for her to celebrate this moment but i could only come up with some pretty cheesy "oh, the places you'll go" moments. but that's exactly what i'm feeling now, so i'm going to go with it. i'll be the one tearing up in the bleachers as my little sister crosses the stage and accepts her diploma.

congratulations ceci!

little felt creatures

my mom's artistic. my sister's artistic. it seemed to skip me though. anything, absolutely anything involving artistic creativity and ability, my big sister is good at. a couple months ago, she started needle felting. she's already taught classes at a local art shop and has made a bunch of cute little creatures. {like these} she includes such intricate detail as eye lashes and i can't seem to make the stuff form a ball.

maggie made me an orange, purple and red duckie creature as a thank you for moving her to new york. i absolutely adore him. {what a sweet gesture too, so much more meaningful than a gift card.} she's also made creatures for her nieces' birthdays and others. i think she should also open an etsy shop but i have no idea where she would start with that. i think there are a lot of people who would want to have such an adorable animal around.

i heard she's finishing up natural disasters and moving on to a sloth next. i'm excited to see what other creatures she comes up with.

{all photos by mags}

26.6 miles in 85 degree heat

Sunday morning in Madison, Wisc. was sweltering. Temperatures hit almost 90 degrees with a dew point over 65 and a blazing sun. It. Was. Hot.

So what did we do? Well, seven friends ran the half marathon, two ran the full and one biked about one and a half marathons delivering water to the runners. I can't believe that they actually made it. At one point officials flagged the race as dangerous- they stopped official timing about 4 hours in and, while the water and medical stations remained open, they encouraged runners to stop. {At this point I was sitting under a tree with my friend's 4-month-old, sipping an iced latte and trying to stay cool. Poor little girl.}

My friends who ran the half marathon all finished around the hour two mark; one finished as early as about 1.5 hours. Out of the two marathoners, one rocked it and finished in about 3 hours and 40 minutes, but heat got to the other one a bit more. By mile nine, she said she couldn't breather and had stomach pains. {Many runners faced the same heat exhaustion.} I am very proud to say that, despite the terrible running conditions, she did finish the race in about 5 hours and 40 minutes. This is about 2 hours longer than her previous year in which starting temperatures were about 20 degrees cooler.

I love how much the community got behind the runners. Even if they didn't know any. Their support was incredible and some signs they made were hilarious. My favorites: "That's not sweat, that's your fat cells crying" and "You're no longer a runner, you 're a marathoner." There were also people with a stand at mile 4 handing out beer or bloody marys to runners. {Only in Madison, Wisconsin could you find this. Actually, only in Wisc. would you see people accept their offer.}

My running friends had a few great moments during the race. At mile 10, Lindsey to Sam: "Samantha, I'm not a runner." I guess this earned her a few odd looks from those around. {I bet she wouldn't have said that if it wasn't quite as hot.} Also Lindsey, "Oh my god, I see a hill and I am NOT happy about it." There was no hill. Apparently this was during her delusional phase. Funny.

Surprisingly, even after their intense runs, we all went to Brat Fest and enjoyed a few brats and Capital brews.

Congrats to Alyssa, Betty, Samantha, Lindsey, Gretchen, Lori, Heather, Savannah and Betsy!