Not So Economical After All

Two weekends ago as Mike was pounding nails into our remodeled back door I stepped out for a little home remodeling of my own. I headed to our local Bed Bath & Beyond to use a gift card I'd received. Adjacent to the store was a TJ Maxx, so of course I had to take a quick peak there as well.

My quick peak sent me to the dressing room with 11 items in hand, mostly shirts. While browsing the rack, I realized I was sorely lacking in summer work shirts. I allowed myself to purchase five of the shirts I'd tried on knowing these five shirts would add more than enough to my summer working closet.

Over the past two weeks, I've worn all of my new shirts with the exception of one. Tonight I mustered up the energy to throw a couple loads of laundry into the wash, mainly because my clothing options for tomorrow included a formal suit, workout clothes or a strapless evening dress. As I pulled my load out of the washer, I held up one of my new shirts. It was about half the size it should be. I pulled out another. It's now a half shirt. Offfffffffffff course.

I honestly do love buying clothes from TJMaxx. I'm a bargain hunter and enjoy spending about half what I normally would on my clothes. I get a sick satisfaction knowing that a $60 shirt I would have passed by I can now purchase at for a measly $15. Basically, I'm cheap... err, frugal. That $15 shirt though, isn't really cheap if I wear it one time and then ruin it in the washing machine.

You see, the downside to a TJ Maxx purchase is that their shirts are not always properly labeled. The two shirts I just ruined didn't even have tags displaying their fabric. Apparently, I am not fabric savvy.

I was planning to take some clothes to goodwill this Saturday. I'm adding my two new, clean shirts to the pile. Some little girl is going to have two very nice, business casual summer tops.

Verdict

We got the word. I work for really good attorneys, and our judge didn't need a trial to determine the other side had no merits for their argument. In short, no trial. My life will resume as regularly scheduled.

I must have been incredibly exhausted at the mere thought of trial because I went home last night, made dinner and then decided I was going to rest my eyes for about five minutes. That five minutes turned into three hours, and I eventually gave into the slumber and went to bed. Essentially, I went to bed at 7:30 p.m. So if this is my life resuming as regularly scheduled, bring on the satin sheets and comfy pajamas!

The Calm Before the Storm

This weekend was either the start of something good or it was the end of my social life as I know it. I just won't know which until Tuesday.

Tuesday is the day that I find out if I'm going on trial or not. Our judge hasn't quite made up his mind yet. If this case goes, then I'm booked solid in terms of weekend and evening engagements until mid-June. If this case doesn't go to trial then I get to keep my social life and hopefully have more weekends like this past one.

Chicago didn't have great weather this weekend. If the old adage of April showers bring May flowers is true then May will be in full bloom. I can't complain though because when I needed the weather to come through it did, starting with Saturday morning.

This was the second time I tried to meet some friends in the park for photos. Last time we were met with hail. This time we had windy, overcast skies, which were actually perfect. The good conditions gave me a chance to experiment and get down and dirty in the grass. Here are four of my favorites shots from the 200+ that I took.

I have to thank my friends Carly and Bun because they really could not have been better. I truly had so much fun. And I might possibly have some more of these shoots coming my way. I attended Carly's baby shower today. As part of my present, I gave her a CD with a slide show of all the images set to music. They played it for everyone and the two pregnant ladies at the shower both wanted to know if this is something I might do for them.

The other event I attended this weekend was the Ravenswood Run 5K. And dare I say it, I think I had fum. What? What's that you say, Amy? You enjoyed running this morning? Why yes, I believe I actually did. It's possibly because the weather held up and there was no rain. Although that wouldn't have mattered. Given I bailed on my last race due to inclimate weather, I wasn't missing this one - rain, sleet, snow, hail, excessive heat, tornadoes... I was going to run. Imagine how happy I was to wake up to mid-40s temps and no precipitation. The race was great in another way too. It was local. Instead of hailing a cab or taking public transit, I got my bike out of storage and rode a few blocks south.

You may remember my goal for this race was under 33 minutes. And my finish time was...

33:01.

Seriously. Thirty-three minutes and one second. Two seconds away from my goal. That's all. Two measly seconds. I ended really strong and flew over the finish line. If only I had known how close I was I would have started sprinting about 10 feet sooner. If that isn't motivation to get a Forerunner, I don't know what is.

I take comfort in the fact that my pace was 10:38 min/mile. I don't remember how I've done in previous 5Ks, but I'm pretty sure that's a personal record for me. And really my sub-33 minute goal was based on running 11 min/miles. I forgot to factor in the 0.1 mile in the 5k(3.1 mi.) race so I was still on target. All in all, I'm pretty pumped even though I finished two seconds slower than I wanted.

In a very large, all inclusive nutshell that was my weekend. Come back and Tuesday to see whether or not I'll continue with such jammed packed weekends/posts or if from then until June I'll have regular updates of how many hours I'm working each day.

California Dreaming

Mike has often said in my company that he finds it humorous how I've been to places as far as China but never somewhere relatively local like California. Mike thinks it's a little backwards to see the world before you see your own country. As a man who was born in California and proceeded to live in five different states by the time he graduated High School, he's gotten around this U.S. of A. And that isn't even counting summers. I can't keep track of all the places he's lived when summer residences are factored in. I often express my frustration that I can't make fun of where Mike's from because he's not from anywhere. Sure he was born in California, but he didn't stay long.

I travel, but my 20's have been focused on seeing different countries, not states. While I have flown over the Pacific, I've never actually set foot in it. Barring that fact, I have seen what I consider a fair share of the continental U.S. I've eaten lobster in Maine, rafted in West Virgina, looked out over Pike's Peak in Colorado, swam in cold Lake Superior, hiked in Arizona and met Mickey in Florida - twice. I feel pretty well traveled. Unless you compare me to Mike.

I hate it when Mike's right, and conversely love proving him wrong. There's just something so fun about saying "nuh uhhh." Trust me, I know. I see it in Mike's eyes every time he says it to me. It brings each of us great joy being able to tell the other person they're wrong. It is one of our inalienable rights as co-habitators and partners in giving one another shit. (We always hug it out.) Today I took a step towards saying, "In your face, Mike!" I bought tickets to California.

This trip has been in the planning stages for months. When I saw round trip tickets on Orbitz for less than $300 I decided today was the day to git 'er done. I booked our flight.

The downside to buying tickets today is that we have to wait months to use them. Due to work and weddings, we're not going until late summer/early fall. We fly into LA in late August and out of San Francisco in early September. For that week plus, we'll see family and friends in LA, take time driving up the coast and then see more family in San Francisco. At some point though, probably on our drive, we'll stop and dip our feet in the Pacific. And when that happens I'll turn to Mike, smile and say "Suck it! I'm in California! What do you got to say now!?!"