Summer Friday!

So it's that time of year again... Labor Day is just a week away, kids are going back to school, summer's winding down. Except I feel like summer just started...

Not only did Chicago just get the memo that summer is supposed to be warm - temps are finally rising to the high 80's! - we spent most of the summer traveling. I traveled eight out of ten weekends. That left one weekend to enjoy Chicago when Colleen came to visit, and one to do my laundry. And now here we are, facing the end of summer.... but I'm not ready!

It's supposed to be gorgeous this weekend, and I can't wait. I'm fidgeting in my office chair like a little kid on the last day of school. I just want to break free! Let me into the sunshine! (But only with SPF 50. At least.)

Tomorrow we're going to go to brunch and then do a walking tour/scavenger hunt that I bought from Groupon. It's called Stray Boots (though I keep calling it Shady Boots like I'm NeNe) and it's a tour via an app on your iPhone. I'm super excited to give it a try, and if nothing else at least we'll get a nice long walk around Chicago. I plan on soaking up every last minute of summer that I can get... and I've only got 4 hours and 45 minutes until I can start :)

Feeling Inspired

It was a long weekend. We drove Thursday night and all day Friday to Long Island, spent Saturday at the Kenny Chesney concert, and drove back to Chicago all day Sunday. We drove because it was cheaper than flying, but somewhere around Ohio, I had that a-ha moment you have when you realize you're in the middle of something that was just a really dumb idea, but it's too late to go back. So we continued down I-80. 

We hit very little traffic on Sunday, and were home by 6 p.m. Still, spending 28 out of 72 hours in a car put me over the edge, and I was beyond crabby. Like, way beyond. So I got home, quickly unpacked, showered, got into my PJ's and put on the Teen Choice Awards. 

Not only am I not sorry for watching them, I'm so glad I did. Ashton Kutcher was honored with some lifetime achievement award (what he called the old-guy award) and gave this really awesome speech that immediately took me out of my funk. Now, I would not call myself a fan of Ashton's (I'm pretty indifferent to him) but this really bumped him up a notch in my book. 

I don't know if he's been inspired by playing Steve Jobs, or if he's much smarter than he looks under his goofball persona, but his speech really struck a cord for me and made me feel motivated to not only do better, but be better. Really, it was just what I needed. 

If you missed it, you can click here to watch. It may or may not have as much as an impact on you as it did on me, but if it doesn't, I hope you find something to inspire and motivate you this week. After all, it is Monday, and we can all use a little motivation to be the best we can be. 

Happy Monday!

It's My Friday & I'll Blog If I Want To

It's my Friday today! thanks to some PTO time that had to be used up I'll be off tomorrow. I love a short week! (It's also Drew Lachey's birthday, just in case you weren't aware. My true first love <3 )

Anyway, back to reality. It's my Friday and I'm super excited. We're seeing Eric Church AGAIN this weekend, when he opens for Kenny Chesney. They are two of my favorites, and they're in concert together. I'm super excited to head to a country music concert, because I haven't been to one all summer (minus Eric Church's hour set last weekend). 

Because this summer is going by so fast (and in Chicago it was barely warm at all, feeling like chilly spring rolled right into to fall) I'm glad to spending the last couple weeks doing very summer-specific activities. Country music concerts, baseball games, brunching outside. It's going to be GLORIOUS. 

I hope you all have a fun weekend and are able to get your last few weeks of summer activities in while you can. It won't be long until we have to say the dreaded f-word... FALL! 

P.S. I love fall, it's actually my favorite season, but I get fall-related anxiety at the end of the summer thinking of how long it is until next summer. And yes, that's a condition I totally made up.

Word Vomit

I have so many (non-important) things swirling around my mind that I'm finding it difficult to blog. Staying on topic in a cohesive, easy to read format is becoming increasingly difficult. So, I've decided just to word vomit all my thoughts into bullet points and you can take them or leave them.

• Made it through my three hours at Lollapalooza. The people were weird. I ate a cheeseburger and loved it (which is weird, because I usually don't eat pattied meat, let alone like it).
• Eric Church was unbelievable and rocked my face off. I'm so glad I'm seeing him again on Saturday, this time at a country music concert with seats. 
• Sean and I are seeing the Yankees at WhiteSox tomorrow night. I really hope Mo pitches. This may be my last chance to ever see him, which makes me sad. I don't care about seeing A-Rod at all, so I'll be mad if he plays and Mo doesn't.
• Speaking of Sean, he complained I didn't mention him in my last blog, so there you go babe. Now stop whining. 
• I got on the scale this morning and I've officially lost 15 pounds. I feel like I don't look any different, and that's annoying, so I ate two mozzarella sticks at lunch. I'm aware if I just work out I probably will look different, so you don't have to remind me.
• Our fantasy football draft is in three weeks and I'm totally unprepared  I probably shouldn't say that on my blog, but I doubt the boys read my blog anyways. 
• I need to make my fall TV schedule. Maybe I'll do that tonight.
• Dinner. Ugh. I've barely cooked all summer. At some point, half an avocado just became an acceptable meal. I wonder how long I can continue the charade before Sean wants a real meal. I'm going to guess about another three hours until I get home. Guess I'm going to Google some recipes. 

Hope you all have a little more focus than I do today. And if you're together enough to already have your dinner recipe picked out, please send it over. Love you, mean it :)

Livin' Part of Life

I'm going to Lollapalooza tomorrow, against my better judgement. I know myself. I know myself well enough to know I hate crowds, I hate drugs (which often many people at music festivals are on), and I hate being hot for prolonged periods of time. So really, Lollapalooza shouldn't be my weekend destination. 

However, I love Eric Church. Love him. Love him more than I can put into words in a short novel, let alone this short blog post. And he's playing at Lollapalooza. 

So on this lovely Friday afternoon, I'm asking you, all my wonderful friends and followers, to say a little prayer for me tomorrow.

First, that I don't have a total freak out among the crowd of 160,000 people. 

Second, that Eric Church sings "Livin' Part of Life" - my absolute favorite song. I've been tweeting him daily for weeks about it. (At time of blog post, he's not yet responded. I'm praying that in the middle of his set he says "Who is KBeanie83 on Twitter that's been requesting this song for 6 weeks?" and pulls me up on stage. Don't kill my dreams.)

Finally, that perhaps this experience that I'm feeling very torn about (so excited to see Eric! so not excited about the rest!) turns out to be an experience that broadens my horizons, and helps me realize just because I don't think I like something, I should at least try it. Life is about experiences, and I do feel some of the most interesting people have had the most life experience. 

Your thoughts are appreciated. I hope that whatever you do this weekend puts a smile on your face - even if you thought it might not have.