Hi, Internet. Sorry I've been away for awhile, but I'll try to get back to a more regular posting schedule.
Right after my last post we had some sad news and crappy times around the McCloskey household. It is what it is and I don't want to go into it on the World Wide Web right now, but we're working through it and looking toward the future.
Instead, let me catch you up on the good stuff we've been up to this summer......
1) We attended a couple of family weddings in TX and had a great time at both.
2) We saw The Rescue Me Comedy Tour with Denis Leary and were underwhelmed (with the exception of Adam Ferrara). Dear Denis, You will never replicate the awesomeness that is "Asshole", please stop trying to sing your standup.
3) We saw Rush in concert with friends at Summerfest in WI over 4th of July weekend. They rocked. We were drunk.
4) I played possibly the hardest round of mini golf ever during a corporate outing. What course doesn't included barriers so your ball doesn't roll down the hill and onto another green?!?! Needless to say, the scoring was less than legitimate.
5) I saw Counting Crows at Ravinia with a friend and was thoroughly confused. Since when did they get a rapper and about 15 extra musicians? And why was Adam Duritz singing backup on half of the songs?!?!? This was not the Counting Crows of my college years.
6) I began riding my bike to work a couple of weeks ago, which means I'm now one of those insanely annoying bikers that zooms by you at 15mph while yelling "ON YOUR LEFT!!!".
7) We celebrated several birthdays, engagements, and new babies with our wonderful group of friends.
What's up next....
1) The 1st Annual "Booze & Canooze" camping and canoe trip, organized by yours truly. I'm so excited and will be sure to tell you all about it when I get back and sober up.
2) We're heading to TN for our 2nd anniversary to watch Oregon - AKA The Best Team in All the Land - take on John's boys, the Univ. of Tennessee Volunteers. (Stay tuned for what I'm sure will be a rivalry & alcohol filled recap.)
3) DAVE MATTHEWS BAND AT WRIGLEY FIELD!!!! (Yes, this requires all caps.)
4) More birthdays, babies and celebrations with the people that continue to invite me to things for some inexplicable reason.
Thanks to everyone for the support over these last couple of months. Stay tuned for more regularly scheduled lunacy!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Italy Part 2 is coming.........eventually.
I know you're all waiting with baited breath for the next installment of my tales from Italy, but we've had a bit of a disruption here at I Am Lady J (dot) com. Its been a rough couple of weeks for us, but we're recuperating and I hope to be back to bemusing you with my wacky antics soon.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Tales from Italy - Part 1
My first story from vacation isn't technically about Italy at all. Its more about how totally airheaded* but also incredibly lucky I can be sometimes. I'm not joking, y'all. I have done some pretty stupid things over the years, but things have always worked out somehow.
Example #1 - I left my entire wallet in a bar in Little Italy in NYC the night before I was scheduled to fly home. Money, identification, credit cards. All of it lost. Luckily I noticed it was missing the same night and high-tailed it back to the bar where, even luckier still, a kindly stranger had found it on the ground and turned it into the bar completely intact.
Example #2 - I dropped my cell phone at Lollapalooza two years ago and noticed it was missing halfway through Kanye West's performance. After using John's cell to call my phone repeatedly for about 30 minutes, someone answered and was kind enough to meet me by the food booths and return it to me.
And that brings me to my most recent blunder......
We arrived at O'Hare for our flight and I handed my passport to the ticketing agent.
Her: "I'm not finding any reservation under 'Lane'."
Me: "No, the last name is McCloskey."
Her: "Well, your passport says 'Lane'."
Me: "............"
That's right, internet. I hadn't updated my passport since John and I got married almost 2 years ago. It hadn't even crossed my mind. How was I going to take a trip to and from Italy (with connecting flights in Frankfurt, Germany) with a passport that didn't match my ticket? As you can imagine, this was going to be a problem.
Her: "Do you have a copy of your marriage certificate?"
Me: "Oh sure. Let me just get out the framed copy I carry around with me everywhere."**
I tried calling the third-party ticketing service I had used to buy the tickets, but they said there was nothing they could do from their end. The airline could update my name on their flights, but that risked cancelling out my connecting flights with another airline in Germany. Finally, the ticketing agent was able to get approval from her superior for me to go through with the unmatching name. We'd just have to see what happened in Frankfurt for the connecting flight and when we tried to return to the U.S. ten days later.
And guess what happened, internet?!?! Nothing. It turned out to not be an issue at all. They didn't even check my passport on the connecting flight to Florence. And both times on the way back we simply showed the ticketing agent our passports, explained the situation, they decided we didn't look to terroristy***, handed us our tickets and sent us on our merry way.
*I don't think this is an actually a word, but its the best one I can think of.
**I did not actually say this to the very nice ticketing lady. Sarcasm never got anyone brownie points with a customer service rep.
***I know! Again with the made up words!
Example #1 - I left my entire wallet in a bar in Little Italy in NYC the night before I was scheduled to fly home. Money, identification, credit cards. All of it lost. Luckily I noticed it was missing the same night and high-tailed it back to the bar where, even luckier still, a kindly stranger had found it on the ground and turned it into the bar completely intact.
Example #2 - I dropped my cell phone at Lollapalooza two years ago and noticed it was missing halfway through Kanye West's performance. After using John's cell to call my phone repeatedly for about 30 minutes, someone answered and was kind enough to meet me by the food booths and return it to me.
And that brings me to my most recent blunder......
We arrived at O'Hare for our flight and I handed my passport to the ticketing agent.
Her: "I'm not finding any reservation under 'Lane'."
Me: "No, the last name is McCloskey."
Her: "Well, your passport says 'Lane'."
Me: "............"
That's right, internet. I hadn't updated my passport since John and I got married almost 2 years ago. It hadn't even crossed my mind. How was I going to take a trip to and from Italy (with connecting flights in Frankfurt, Germany) with a passport that didn't match my ticket? As you can imagine, this was going to be a problem.
Her: "Do you have a copy of your marriage certificate?"
Me: "Oh sure. Let me just get out the framed copy I carry around with me everywhere."**
I tried calling the third-party ticketing service I had used to buy the tickets, but they said there was nothing they could do from their end. The airline could update my name on their flights, but that risked cancelling out my connecting flights with another airline in Germany. Finally, the ticketing agent was able to get approval from her superior for me to go through with the unmatching name. We'd just have to see what happened in Frankfurt for the connecting flight and when we tried to return to the U.S. ten days later.
And guess what happened, internet?!?! Nothing. It turned out to not be an issue at all. They didn't even check my passport on the connecting flight to Florence. And both times on the way back we simply showed the ticketing agent our passports, explained the situation, they decided we didn't look to terroristy***, handed us our tickets and sent us on our merry way.
*I don't think this is an actually a word, but its the best one I can think of.
**I did not actually say this to the very nice ticketing lady. Sarcasm never got anyone brownie points with a customer service rep.
***I know! Again with the made up words!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Arrivederci!
In just 3 short days, John and I are headed 'over the pond' to beautiful Italy for vacation. This will be John's 3rd time visiting the country, but I'm an Italy neophyte.
I'm ridiculously excited and wholly unprepared all at the same time. There's still so much to do - find the power adapters, convert some $$ into €, finish studying the guide books, figure out how to pack my entire closet into one suitcase while still leaving room for the 50 lbs of wine, cheese and clothes I plan on returning with.
We'll be staying primarily in Florence, but are planning a few trips around Tuscany, for which I've rented a car that I believe was designed for a hobbit. I've never driven in a foreign country before (Canada doesn't count), so I'm a little nervous. Plus, like most cars in Europe, it has a manual transmission and I haven't driven a stick in years. Couple all this with the notoriously crazy driving of Italians and I'm pretty sure this could all end in some sort of international incident.
I'll be sure to take copius notes (I've already purchased a brand new moleskin notebook for the occasion) and will chronicle all our adventures here when we return. See you in June, internet! Buena fortuna!
I'm ridiculously excited and wholly unprepared all at the same time. There's still so much to do - find the power adapters, convert some $$ into €, finish studying the guide books, figure out how to pack my entire closet into one suitcase while still leaving room for the 50 lbs of wine, cheese and clothes I plan on returning with.
We'll be staying primarily in Florence, but are planning a few trips around Tuscany, for which I've rented a car that I believe was designed for a hobbit. I've never driven in a foreign country before (Canada doesn't count), so I'm a little nervous. Plus, like most cars in Europe, it has a manual transmission and I haven't driven a stick in years. Couple all this with the notoriously crazy driving of Italians and I'm pretty sure this could all end in some sort of international incident.
I'll be sure to take copius notes (I've already purchased a brand new moleskin notebook for the occasion) and will chronicle all our adventures here when we return. See you in June, internet! Buena fortuna!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Two Truths and A Lie
Last month my book club read the classic novel "Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger. I'd never actually read it as a teenager. It wasn't required in any of my English classes and I was too busy reading Stephen King and John Grisham to worry about the ramblings of a depressed, silver-spooned teen boy in the 1940's.
But the book isn't really the point of this post. This is about the game we were supposed to play at the meeting called 'Two Truths and A Lie". If you've ever been to summer camp or in a sorority, you've probably played this game before. The name pretty much sums it up. You tell 3 things about yourself. Two of them are true and one of them isn't. Then everyone else has to guess which one is the lie. We were supposed to focus on stories from our teen years, since Holden Caulfield was sixteen (I think?!?!) in the book.
I say we were "supposed to play" because we didn't actually end up doing it. All but two of us forgot and no one wanted to try to make things up on the spot. Instead, the two that had actually done their BC "homework" told their stories and we guessed which were lies (I picked the wrong one both times). Then we just spent the next half hour or so telling stories from our teen years. Stories of parties and boys and car accidents. And its funny that even though we all grew up in different towns with different friends and different families, the stories were all pretty similar.
So, since I didn't tell my two truths and a lie at book club, I decided I'd play it with you, internet! Here we go....
Story A - My junior year, my date ditched me in the middle of the Sadie Hawkins dance to go over to another girl's house. He even premeditatively left his car at the school earlier in the day so he'd have an easy getaway.
Story B - My junior year I broke the school track & field record for Triple Jump and went to the state championships.
Story C - I was a terrible swimmer and would fake illness or injury every time we had to swim in gym class.
So, internet, which is the lie?
But the book isn't really the point of this post. This is about the game we were supposed to play at the meeting called 'Two Truths and A Lie". If you've ever been to summer camp or in a sorority, you've probably played this game before. The name pretty much sums it up. You tell 3 things about yourself. Two of them are true and one of them isn't. Then everyone else has to guess which one is the lie. We were supposed to focus on stories from our teen years, since Holden Caulfield was sixteen (I think?!?!) in the book.
I say we were "supposed to play" because we didn't actually end up doing it. All but two of us forgot and no one wanted to try to make things up on the spot. Instead, the two that had actually done their BC "homework" told their stories and we guessed which were lies (I picked the wrong one both times). Then we just spent the next half hour or so telling stories from our teen years. Stories of parties and boys and car accidents. And its funny that even though we all grew up in different towns with different friends and different families, the stories were all pretty similar.
So, since I didn't tell my two truths and a lie at book club, I decided I'd play it with you, internet! Here we go....
Story A - My junior year, my date ditched me in the middle of the Sadie Hawkins dance to go over to another girl's house. He even premeditatively left his car at the school earlier in the day so he'd have an easy getaway.
Story B - My junior year I broke the school track & field record for Triple Jump and went to the state championships.
Story C - I was a terrible swimmer and would fake illness or injury every time we had to swim in gym class.
So, internet, which is the lie?
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Shameless Self-Promotion (But For a Good Cause)
From May 1-26th I'll be participating in a Read-a-thon for Open Books, a non-profit social venture that operates a bookstore, provides community programs and promotes literacy in Chicago and beyond!
You can support this wonderful organization (and me) in three ways - donate a flat amount on my fundraising page, pledge to donate an amount based on the # of pages I read in May, or sign up to participate yourself!
To pledge per page, leave your pledge amount in the Comments section. Once the read-a-thon is complete, I'll let you know the # of pages I read and the donation amount owed. For example, if you pledge 10 cents per page and I read 400 pages, you'll owe $40.
Many thanks for your support -- and don't forget to forward this to anyone who you think might want to donate too!
You can support this wonderful organization (and me) in three ways - donate a flat amount on my fundraising page, pledge to donate an amount based on the # of pages I read in May, or sign up to participate yourself!
To pledge per page, leave your pledge amount in the Comments section. Once the read-a-thon is complete, I'll let you know the # of pages I read and the donation amount owed. For example, if you pledge 10 cents per page and I read 400 pages, you'll owe $40.
Many thanks for your support -- and don't forget to forward this to anyone who you think might want to donate too!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
The Next Ace of Cakes? Okay, Probably Not.
As I mentioned earlier, I celebrated my birthday this weekend and I asked John to make me a birthday cake. It could be from a box and it could be any flavor he wanted. The only rule was that he had to buy, bake it and decorate it.
So off he went Saturday morning to the Jewel Osco to get his supplies. John hates going to the grocery store, so I fully expected a frantic call from him 20 minutes later mumbling about the 500 slightly different variations of chocolate cake mix they carry while he lay curled in a ball in the baking supplies isle.
But he was back about an hour later with the cake, frosting, decorative icing and candles. And the man did well, people! He got chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (possibly the best cake-frosting combination ever), green and yellow decorating icing (GO DUCKS!!) and enough novelty candles to burn down a small village. Actually, I'm not sure how I feel about that last one.
And here's the best part.......he bought the Reduced Sugar cake mix AND frosting! And if you don't know why this statement isn't even the slightest bit sarcastic, please refer to #5 here. Does he know me or what?!
It took everything in my being not to jump right into the kitchen with him and "help", but I think I showed incredible restraint. Instead I busied myself with taking pictures...
So off he went Saturday morning to the Jewel Osco to get his supplies. John hates going to the grocery store, so I fully expected a frantic call from him 20 minutes later mumbling about the 500 slightly different variations of chocolate cake mix they carry while he lay curled in a ball in the baking supplies isle.
But he was back about an hour later with the cake, frosting, decorative icing and candles. And the man did well, people! He got chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (possibly the best cake-frosting combination ever), green and yellow decorating icing (GO DUCKS!!) and enough novelty candles to burn down a small village. Actually, I'm not sure how I feel about that last one.
And here's the best part.......he bought the Reduced Sugar cake mix AND frosting! And if you don't know why this statement isn't even the slightest bit sarcastic, please refer to #5 here. Does he know me or what?!
It took everything in my being not to jump right into the kitchen with him and "help", but I think I showed incredible restraint. Instead I busied myself with taking pictures...
John was wary of the Kitchenaide at first, but was soon asking me if he could turn it up all the way to watch the batter fly out of the bowl.
Man, we keep a lot of junk on our countertops!
Can't you just smell the chocolate now?!?!?
Thumb print. Oops!
Frosting like a pro.
This is the point where I stopped watching because I wanted the finished product to be a surprise. And guys, look what it says!
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