First and foremost, I’m so used to taking quick trips within my home state that I’ve gotten too used to packing only basics. One thing I forgot: MY CAMERA. How does one go on a sightseeing adventure without a camera!? Thankfully smartphones are now equipped with pretty decent cameras, so the trip wasn’t ruined. I also bought a Kodak FunSaver, but ended up not using it. LOL memories!

Chicago is totally different when it’s not cold and snowy, and I enjoyed it even more than the first trip. We stayed at a super nice hotel, which always makes traveling that much better. Highlight of the hotel: morning coffee. They brought me a full coffee press! SWEET! On day one we just strolled around the Magnificent Mile. We also indulged in Giordano’s Chicago Pizza. I am not joking when I say that I’ve been craving more of this pizza since the last time I visited Chicago, and it sure didn’t disappoint!

Other highlights of the trip included the Taste of Chicago Food Festival and seeing various museums and the zoo. The Taste of Chicago was absolutely wonderful, and I am proud to say I stuffed my face. Everything was delicious. I don’t feel bad though, considering I walked at least 15 miles over the course of the weekend. Whew! We saw the Field Museum of Natural History, which I hadn’t gone into last trip. It’s really interesting. The museum spent $8.4 million on the purchase of “Sue“, the largest T-Rex ever discovered. I also got to see Buckingham Fountain in all its glory (it obviously wasn’t turned on over the winter), Navy Pier, and took a trip to the top of Willis Tower. Glad I got to see these the second time around!

Here’s some of the highlights in pictures:

Best pizza ever. Seriously.

LOVE this picture, for so many reasons. @ the Art Institute

Buckingham Fountain in the background at the super crowded Taste of Chicago

View of the skyline from Navy Pier

I stepped into the glass box 103 floors up at Willis Tower. TERRIFYING.

This is a real type of dinosaur. Who came up with this name?

It's really sad that we have to have these kinds of signs in American museums.

What visit to the zoo is complete without staring at penguins?

Of course there were also some amazing signs for me to photograph. Case in point:

This guy is my hero. He didn't want any money. He just wanted people to not be "dummies" and honor the correct day of the week.

Glad I don't live in a place that needs such signage

Gelato not good enough for you? How about some fried dough. Sounds healthy!

The fiance texted me at 3am for our passport information. Apparently things are cheaper in the middle of the night? Either way, we’re officially booked on a 10-night excursion to paradise.

I CAN’T WAIT!

*8 (yes eight!) weddings besides our own. All but one will be before ours
*2 college graduations
*1 Bat Mitzvah (my first one – I’m excited!)

We recently attended wedding #2 of the 8, and it was so much fun! The groom is actually one of J’s close friends, and he’ll be in our wedding later this year. They got engaged just a few months before we did, and it’s been awesome have a couple we’re so close to that we were able to share this experience with. We bounced a lot of ideas back and forth, and there’s definitely things that I plan to steal from their wedding and incorporate into mine. There’s also lessons I learned.

First and foremost, this wedding allowed us to go out of town, which is always fun. They had a nice outdoor ceremony, but it was surprisingly religious. They even had communion, which worked for them but isn’t gonna fly at mine. One thing I will make sure to note at my own wedding: If the officiant pronounces us “man and wife” I’m going to lose it. We are man and woman or husband and wife. Apples to apples lol. Also gotta remember to tell people to bring sweaters. It was chilly outside!

The reception was AWESOME. Open bars are my favorite, and the groom made sure there was enough alcohol for 7 drinks per person. Take into account a few pregnant ladies and a few non-drinkers, I’m sure we had room for 8+ each. It was crazy. Definitely learned something though: cocktail hour should be limited to less than 2.5 hours. People got wasted before dinner!

Some other things I will likely steal: buffet style dinner (though I had planned on this already) and taking dance lessons. They did a really nice waltz for their first dance. I also liked that they had a receiving line. I’m contemplating doing that at mine, but I have so many guests. While it does allow you to say hi to everyone, it also takes a considerable amount of time. The groom later said it totally screwed up their timeline. So now I’m back on the fence. Anyone have any input on that??

All in all, it was an amazing time. I love weddings, especially when it’s someone you know really well. Now onward for weddings 3-7 before mine. More fun, more idea stealing

My flight this weekend wasn’t so amusing. First and foremost, it was pouring rain when we left. Sure indicator of a bumpy flight. Our flight out of town had been bumpy – super bumpy – but I was still able to catch a nap. Like I said, turbulence just doesn’t bother me. I expected bumps on this flight, and I expected they would be big. We took off and sure enough, we got rattled around pretty well. I saw some dude’s coffee come flying up, but to me that’s not an indication of a problem. It really just means you shouldn’t have drinks out during takeoff. It was bumpier than normal, and there were points in time where my alert system was pinged. Not scared at this point. Just on alert. A few more (big) bumps, and I heard a few women scream. Seriously ladies? Yes we are being blown around more than “normal” but let’s not lose it.

The combination of my alerts being raised and plain curiosity led me to brush up on the bracing positions we might take, should things take a turn for the worse. Pretty standard/nothing new. Then like clockwork, the plane hit cruising altitude and smoothed out. See ladies? Nothing to fret about. The flight attendants had taken orders prior to takeoff, and I was immediately handed a Diet Coke. Sweeeeeeet. Something told me I should hurry with it, so I chugged about 3/4 of it. Good thing too, cuz as soon as I stopped drinking, our plane dropped.

one-one-thousand-two-one-thousand

We stopped free-falling, probably because we were now bouncing side to side. My drink flew out of my hand, I hit my head multiple times on the window, and I heard a repeated KABOOM! in the back galley. Drinks and food were flying around. I heard someone come on the loud speaker saying something to the effect of “if you’re in an aisle seat and have an empty one next to you, move into it so the flight attendants can take yours.” I saw a minor shuffling of people, and three flight attendants picked themselves up off the cabin floor and took economy seats. Oh, and they didn’t leave said seats until we landed. At another point there was an announcement that if you have anything on your lap (computer, book, purse), put it under your seat and do it right now. I later learned someone had been hit by a projectile laptop.

Things were moving in slow motion. The plane was like a Yatzhee! cup, and we were the dice inside. At this point EVERYONE on the plane was screaming (free falling will do that to you). I looked around. About half the people I could see were in that “brace” position I had just read about. I heard the lamaze-style breathing of the businessman next to me, then realized I was doing the same thing. It really was helpful, especially as you realize the plane seems to be wanting to do a barrel roll to the left, and I’m pretty sure commercial airliners aren’t meant for that kind of trick. Dear God, if this is the end of the road please make it come quickly.

Things eventually settled down and I realized I was shaking. Like Parkinson’s shaking. We hit a few more rough patches, but nothing quite like that. I finally stopped shaking once I was home in my PJs, wrapped in a blanket on my couch. How’s that for a rough flight?

Yesterday I would have been apprehensive to get on a plane. Today I’m ready to get back on the horse. Can’t let these things get you down, especially when flying is one of your main modes of transportation!

*Vendors: I think we’ve booked all of our vendors. Everything from venue to DJ to pictures, flowers and decorations is set. Of course I have a binder that is seriously full of contracts (Hi, I’m Monica from Friends lol). We really hit the ground running on this category, which is nice cuz now we can kind of just ease through the rest.

*The rest: We’ve been busy doing things like picking songs, looking into dance lessons, deciding on menu options, etc. This is really the FUN part! My dad also offered up his services. He’s retired so he’s been searching the internet for various things we “need” – starfish decorations, candles, a ketubah, etc. He’s been a big help!

*Bridal party attire: Half of my girls are outfitted. The other half will be soon. J is a groomsman in his Best Man’s upcoming wedding, so while we picked up his outfit for that affair, we started perusing attire for our own. Yeah…we selected basically everything. I’m just waiting on a swatch of the bridesmaid material to arrive so we can finalize vest colors. Yes, I realize we’re like 2-3 months early on this task, but it’s better to be early than late! I’ve also been chomping at the bit to pick out a dress for my flower girl, but given that she’s still growing (related: she’s turning FIVE in a couple of weeks!?!) I can’t commit to anything yet. Who knows if she’ll still be a 5T or up to a child’s small? I already know what I generally want though, I’ll just have to wait a couple of months to find it

*Registries: We have 3. They are all works in progress, but OMG they have been so much fun to put together! One of the registries is basically a website with wishes for our honeymoon. J has been doing a GREAT job of picking out fun activities for us and making entertaining captions for our guests. The other two are at stores, and each one has had some sort of registry event for us to attend. I have to say, if you’re gonna register somewhere, do it at one of these events. While setting up these registries, we were served a range of treats from mimosas to waffles, samples of coffee from various coffee and espresso machines, dinner foods, and on and on. Plus they have TONS of people on hand to answer any questions. It’s the best way to go!

*Honeymoon: Aka the best part! My one complaint though: WHY are plane tickets so expensive?? We’ve settled on a tropical island location and J has enough hotel points for us to stay affordably. We just have to get there. Now we are in the midst of playing plane ticket roulette. We have 2 options here: Buy tickets now at a whopping $1400ish each, or keep waiting for a “deal” to come around (we’ve been waiting 3 months already and the only thing that’s happened is that the every day fare has gone up about $50. The longer we wait, the more the fare will creep up). It’s kind of fun/exciting, but dude, I’m not down to get ripped off on a plane ticket right now. I think we should set a threshold price (aka find something for $1250 and pounce) and a threshold date (aka if we don’t have a “deal” by May 1, just buy whatever). What would you do?

*The wedding website: While I’m a true slacker on this blog, I actually do update the wedding site religiously. Like anytime there is a change lol. New block of hotel rooms? On it! We booked a shuttle to take guests around? Information is there! Maid of Honor changed jobs? Bio updated (at her request lol). If you’re privy to the URL, you should check it out

That’s really all I’ve got right now.

To put things in perspective, this happened on the day I did the “Caesar Shuffle”. We started at the Colosseum then headed to the Forum in the peak of the sun. Shade in ancient ruins is few and far between. Then we did Palentine Hill (ruins of the emperors homes). In case there was some question, it should be known that ruins are my favorite!!

inside the colosseum

no shade + 110 degrees. OMG

things i'm obsessed with: ruins and mosaics

some ruins at palatine hill

Being a day ahead of “schedule” we took a leisurely lunch at the top of the capitol building. After lunch we headed to the Catacombs of San Callisto. SO INTERESTING. a couple of former popes, some saints, and martyrs were buried there at one point, although the catacombs have since been looted and almost nothing remains. There’s about 20km of hallways of mass burials so MILLIONS of people were buried down in there. As an added bonus: it was so nice and cool in the catacombs and our tour guide was a priest from Australia. Sweet!

exit out of the catacombs of san callisto

We spent another day or two wandering the Crypts of the Capuchin Monks, the Pantheon, and some other miscellaneous sites and museums. Our final day in the city was meant to be spent taking full advantage of the spa at the hotel. However, this turned into “lets go to the hospital for pink eye then take a nap” day. I should mention that our hotel was on the outskirts of the city. There was not one English or Spanish speaker at the hospital. Somehow I managed to give them my name, tell them I had conjunctivitis, express my allergies, and gave a list of my current medications. Oh and the health care system in Italy ROCKS. I got in and out in an hour and the total bill (since im foreign) was €25. Seriously less than 40 bucks for a hospital visit including medicine is awesome.

the pantheon: under construction

the trevi fountain lights up nice at night!

but there are SO MANY PEOPLE there!

We spent out last night in Rome enjoying the night view from our balcony, then a man started yelling from over his balcony to down below. I initially assumed he was either crazy, drunk, or both. “Hello!! Hello!!” Then he started with “Can you send somebody up?” Um what? then he elaborated. “The door is closed” = dude locked himself out on the balcony. It was hilarious.

View from our room

Pool view at night

Borghese Gallery

Looking down onto the Piazza di Popolo

Spanish Steps

Trevi Fountain

You walk up this for about 10 min to get into the Vatican Museum

Inside the Dome of St. Peter

Pope John XXIII, apparently a said because he hasn't decayed...

Despite being sick, and it being well over 100 degrees, Italy was off to a great start!!

What have I been doing all this time? That’s a good question, cuz time has certainly flown by. Here’s the synopsis:

*I went to Italy. I’ll blog more about that later tonight, but I will tell you it was PHENOMENAL. We spent 6 days in Rome and did just about everything, including catching pink eye. Yep, medical issues follow me everywhere I go! We headed north for 4 days to Florence. Gorgeous city, and a lot cooler and less humid. It’s nice sightseeing in weather under 105 degrees. We also did a side trip to Pisa/Lucca and another to Cinque Terre on my birthday. BEST. BIRTHDAY. EVER. Finally, we headed down to Naples for 2 days. Naples is a dump, that’s for sure, but Pompeii was so worth it. Sorrento was glorious. More details on all of this to come!

*I quit 2 of my jobs. Hallelujah!! I increased my hours at the other one so I can still afford to pay my bills, and I took a different unpaid internship job. I’m now working in a school and am finally realizing my calling in life. Good thing it only took me 20-some-odd years to find it! It was a crazy month of transitioning, and at one point I was working 4 jobs for a week, but I made it through, sanity in tact. Whew!

*I’ve been planning my wedding. Duh!! For those of you who don’t know me well, I’m organized and plan ahead to the point that it’s pathological. Taking the idea from my friend (and bridesmaid!) Jess, I have started a wedding binder. My colors are eggplant, turquoise and silver, so the binder and its pages are those colors. I’ve been clipping things I like from magazines and putting them in their appropriate category. It’s fun – like scrapbooking! The binder is almost full though, fortunately with contracts! Yes, I am ahead of the game and have tons of vendors already selected, deposits paid.

*Last but not least I’ve been helping my extended family clean out my great aunt and uncle’s house and prepare it for sale. It’s kind of sad, but there’s so many of us doing it and we’re bonding over it. We found so many old pictures of relatives that lived and died before our time – it’s really neat! We also found a lot of … um… educational materials. Materials including, but not limited to, 30 years worth of Playboy magazine. The house is almost ready to go on the market.

I’ve been planning to buy a Kindle for a while now. It’s going to be my birthday present to myself. But I couldn’t justify buying it super far in advance, so I waited til last week (still a month early). Fortunately for me waiting was good; a new version of the Kindle came out. I decided to go with the new one because I might one day want the 3G, and because it has less glare. It’s the same price I was planning to pay anyway, so it’s fine.

TOO BAD THEY’RE SOLD OUT.

I ordered it and the expected ship date is no later than 9/4. Um, hi, that’s like 3 days before I return from my trip. That’s not helpful.

My fingers are crossed, but I’m trying not to get my hopes up. Maybe they’ll have more in stock before I go? I paid $19 more for overnight shipping. If it’s not ready within a few days of my trip I’ll just put it back to the slow/free method and shed a tear or two. And then steal my mom’s

1. Work: Same shit, different day. I’m still working 3 jobs. I still hate working 3 jobs. A major source of my blog neglect lately has come from one job in particular, wiping me out so I have NO energy to blog when I get home. I mean 4 grants + coordinating a scientific conference? I’m one person, and I work there 20 hours a week. Whew!

2. Marla: She hurts. I saw a neurologist and got an EMG and NCV on Friday. SO STRANGE. They put things on my foot then shocked me with a cattle-prod-thing. Get the results on Wednesday.

3. Italy: Um….I have done NOTHING Italy-related in a month. I’m starting to feel bad. But I have other things on my mind…..

4. Love Life: Well, I’m 7 years into my current relationship. We live together. AND WE’RE GETTING MARRIED!!!!!

J took me on a weekend adventure, and wouldn’t tell me anything. I had a feeling, but then again, I’ve been waiting for a while for this and thought maybe I’d have to keep waiting (boys are kinda dense). But then he took me to Sea World, where we did a behind the scenes penguin encounter. Apparently everyone else on the tour knew but me. I have tons of pics and a video of me/us petting penguins. Then we went into the back of the exhibit, and magic happened

Basically you can go right up to the barrier that separates the staff and the penguins, but you can’t go onto the snow (oh yeah, it’s about 20 degrees in here!). J and I walked up to this barrier, and as luck would have it, a penguin was intrigued and waddled right over to us. The little guy came all the way to the barrier and stuck his beak through it. SO AWESOME. I think I squealed in delight, and then said (to the penguin) “I love you!”. J thought I was talking to him, so he said, “I love you too, (pulled out a ring) will you marry me?”

And so we’re engaged. And we’re 100% ecstatic about it. I feel lucky to have found the love of my life, who is also my best friend, and to know I will spend the rest of my life with him. I mean, he proposed with penguins. This is clearly the guy for me! And that brings me to #5…

5. Wedding Planning: I’ve been engaged for 9 days, and I think I have a venue set. We’ve come up with our first two choices for dates (2011) and are waiting to hear back from the event coordinator. I went out to dinner with some of my friends 2 days after the proposal and they had made a bet as to how many spreadsheets I had already created (2). A week later, I have 5 total. Although the big day is over a year away, I’m not wasting a minute. Planning a wedding is kind of fun (remind me I said that if I start getting stressed 10 months from now). J is totally wonderful too. He is totally interested in this, at least so far, and while I’m the lead on the wedding planning, he’s taking the reins on the honeymoon.

So yeah. I’ve been a busy bee. I really don’t want my blog to turn into a wedding planning frenzy, so I’ll do my best to keep variety. I’ll also do my best to keep up, rather than go for weeks with no posts. And on that note, I’m going to bed. Good night world!