• Confessions,  Family Fun,  Tough Questions

    The Mystery of the Denim Shorts

    Alternate title: Designer Label Averse, Apparently. The scene: my bedroom. Jim, home for the first time since August, has handed me a pair of Calvin Klein denim shorts and questions to whom they belong. “You, I thought…” I replied. “They aren’t yours?” “No,” he said. “They aren’t my size and anyway, I don’t wear Calvin Klein anything.” “Oh, maybe they belong to Dylan,” I said. Sidenote: Dylan, who currently lives here full time, is so well-known for his love of wearing denim shorts that his college/fraternity nickname was “Jorts”. Jim strolled into Dylan’s room and put the shorts on his bed. About an hour later, I was back in my…

  • Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Favorite Things,  Fun in Chicago,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    Superstitions Be Gone: Cubs Win the 2016 World Series!

    Chicago is a very happy city today. I am a very happy person today. I am nearly too exhausted to write about this but I’m going to give it a shot: bear with me. I was up until 2am and slept in a most terrible manner for the duration before my eyes sprung open again at 6:45am. I suspect it was because internally I sensed that “Good Morning America” was coming on and I didn’t want to miss the World Series recap, which I enjoyed immensely. Let me back up. Chicago Cubs. Cleveland Indians. What a World Series: a real nail biter. Game 7, though? I literally thought I was…

  • Best Thing Ever,  Childhood Memories,  Fun in Chicago

    World Series 2016: Go Cubs Go!

    My very favorite baseball team is the Chicago Cubs. Actually, my very favorite team in any sport is the Chicago Cubs. When you’re from Chicago, it’s kind of a rule that you have to pick a baseball team, because we have two. You HAVE to choose. The Cubs or The White Sox North Side or South Side Red, White, and Blue or Black, White, and Silver Wrigley Field or Comiskey Park (It’s not technically Comiskey anymore but go with it.) The thing is, I don’t actually remember picking the Cubs; I only know that I’ve loved them for as long as I can remember. One example of how fiercely I…

  • Confessions,  Pretty Pictures

    When Pinterest Was Heavy

    I’m working diligently on cleaning out the cabinets above my kitchen desk. Yes, again. They’re the bane of my existence, truly. I even met my friend Natasha at IKEA on Sunday so she could help me pick out some containers that will help me wrangle all the things (and keep them wrangled). Creating a system that works for the long term is hard. My first step was basically pulling everything out and tossing it onto the desk and the kitchen island haphazardly. That was also probably my first mistake because it might take me a week to slog through the piles, but I digress. In the middle of all that…

  • Confessions,  Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?

    The Cross

    This story actually began in 1999 when I was working at a local health club. I was friendly with the general manager–well, we all were–and whenever I met him in his office he would open his dorm-sized refrigerator and offer me a can of flavored carbonated water. I hadn’t heard of La Croix before I met him and always politely refused the offer because it just didn’t sound very good to me. He drank it like it was going out of style. I mean, he had a refrigerator in his office for the sole purpose of keeping his La Croix cold. One day, after many days of sticking to my…