Pseudo Single

Big catch up update:
I can almost mark one month on the Calendar since Joey left for school. Which surprisingly has flown by! He is pretty busy in his classes, but he is liking them pretty well I think. He worked in a team for the first couple weeks and now he will be in more regular classes. While he has been grinding out case studies and other business schooly things I have been busy. busy. busy. My life has basically consisted of house sitting, packing and deep cleaning my old apartment, moving into my new apartment, girls nights, my cat, working at j.crew, and volunteering at the museum.The house that I am "sitting" is AMAZING. It requires its own post. Here are some pics of my life lately...

Move out: Joey's "man cave" after I spent a WHOLE DAY cleaning this thing out. He is really good at accumulating things. Our apartment is so bare. It's so sad I have loved this place, and our landlords are super sad too. We are their favorite tennants...I'm their favorite tennant ;)

 Move in: I am slowly but surely getting things moved into my new apartment. It is kinda hard moving much with a mini, but I just take a car load a day and call it good. It is actually nice not having it be one crazy moving day like most students in Madison. Since my landlords are just the most amazing people ever they are letting me have my apartment until the end of the month. Unlike the rest of campus where August 15th (also known as hippie christmas) is the day where everyone moves. The city is filled with U-hauls, foreigners who don't know how to navigate through downtown Madison, scared freshman, and lots and lots of junk on the curb. -hence hippie christmas. I'll show you my little apartment when it is all settled into. By little I am not exaggerating...not sure how I am going to fit a bed in there...I'll worry about that later. My mom and lil bro Johnny come to town tomorrow (sooooo excited!) and we are going to get me a little futon or something to squeeze into my closet. I mean bedroom.

Girls night: Full Moon 5k with the j.crew girls. I did surprisingly well considering I have not been running much lately. Made me so excited that I registered for a 10k this October. Running is good!

Cat: Ethel and I snuggle a lot. I feel bad because I am not living at my apartment for a couple weeks so she gets lonely. I try to make up for it by rubbing her belly extra and give her all sorts of lovins.

Work: j.crew is a really hard place to be at right now. They have their new fall collection in and it is pure torture to control myself to not just max out my credit card five times over buying everything in the store. Need to find more monies...I considered selling my eggs because you can get paid really if you go to a good school, but its a little too invasive for just wanting to buy some clothes. Guess that's why it is good mommy is coming to town tomorrow huh mom???

Volunteer: I Volunteer at the Chazen's (UW's art musuem) print and drawing studies room a couple of hours a week. It is great getting the experience of working in a museum, handling art, and working with some of the most fun people ever. If  I can get a job just like this place when I graduate I will be set for life. 

Cat: I took Ethel to the vet for some vaccination updates, and she was classified level 4 (out of 5) in the overweight category. I have a chubby kitty! She doesn't like to exercise and she hates toys. Oh boy does she love to eat though! I have a cat that mooches more than a dog. Not even exaggerating. Sometimes she has moments of wanting to attack things so I let her have it so she can get that cardio  going. Work it Ethel!

House Sitting: Preview of the house I am house sitting. Just wait til you see the inside.

House Sitting: This is Roxy. She's a big hound dog that barks loud, and has a heart of gold.

Girls Night: Bronte and I went out on the town...

...60's style.

Volunteer: I love the prints in the print room. We have thousands! I need to get an exact number because it is pretty amazing how many we have. Lots of cool Japanese prints that I LOVE. My mom is going to get a tour of the print room tomorrow. I'm going to show her some of my favorite German expressionism stuff and maybe sneak in a little Shunga print just to add a shock factor to the tour ;)... Google it if you dare.

Girls Night:Bronte introduced me to one of the best movies ever. I am recommending to all you ladies out there to watch A Room with a View. It is also a book so read it too. The movie stays true to the book according to Bronte. The story is adorable, and they cast the most beautiful men...British men... Your welcome.

Cat: We are basically two best friends that anyone could ever have.

Girls Night: well technically boys were here too, but it was mostly the gigi girls. Cherie the owner of the Madison Gigi's turned 50 last week! We all went out for pizza to celebrate. She hates cake (but loves cupcakes?...) so we had cherry pie from Hubbard Ave Diner (best pies eva) for dessert. I love Cherie so much! She is so sweet, and is really funny after a couple martinis and whatever was in that shot was the waiter gave her for her birthday.

Girls Night: Went out to eat with my friend Julie to the Irish pub called Brocach. It was super duper delish. I tried bangers and mash for the first time which surprisingly I loved! I normally wouldn't order something like this because I don't like processed meats, especially sausage. However I decided to be a true midwesterner and enjoy some pre heart disease for dinner lol. I am glad I did, one of the best things I have ever tasted.

Keeping myself super busy is making time away from Joey fly. It still sucks majorly not having someone...a human (thanks roxy) to sleep next to. Or when little funny things happen or other random things pop up that I can't just share with him right away. I miss cooking him dinner (even if its a frozen pizza most of the time lol) and watching our favorite shows together. I want to go to the movies so bad, but don't want to go with out him. As much fun as I have at girls nights with my favorite ladies, I miss my Joey, my best friend. I will keep living it up being Pseudo Single though and have the best final semester of college ever.

girls night heyyyyyyy

gotta glam it up for the ladies night

 After hiking, grocery shopping, and lunching on Saturday I got home to get ready for the much awaited girls night. Kiersten, Mikell, Jade and I have been a besties group since 7th grade...mikell ever since I lived in my neighborhood. We did EVERYTHING together, and thankfully have stayed super close throughout the years even with me deciding to move halfway across the country. We had dinner at my beloved Hires big H, shopped and acted a fool at the new City Creek Mall, and turned into thirteen year old girls giggling at Kiersten's house until 1 in the morning. I love getting my fix of hanging out with my best friends, and it always makes it hard to go back home knowing I can't hang out with them every weekend :( So come visit me guys! geez I have visited you how many times now? I see who is pulling the weight in this relationship.

mmm that's my root beer float in the foreground

silly jade got a blt,

but I got my cheeseburger. ah.

we tried on clothes that were slightly inappropriate for us married ladies

scandalous!

jessica fail. I seriously couldn't stop laughing that whole night.

 Mikell met up with us a little bit late, so we went back to forever 21 to let her shop a bit there...we got a little bored.

We stopped by Tiffany's and Nordie's..gosh I miss that store. Has anyone else noticed that they laid out city creek from not so swanky of stores on one end, and the really swanky stuff way down on the other end after crossing the street? Don't want the bourgeois intermingling with the peasants now.

 This is when we got really silly. Trying out partner yoga...or pretending we knew what we were doing. Such a fun night gals! I always laugh hardest when I am with you! Love you!

a not so average easter

Hope everyone had a lovely Easter! This year went a bit differently than it usually goes, but it was still nice. I got up early to study for a big test that I had today (blahhhhhh). Joey got sick this weekend, so I was nice and let him sleep. I went to church, and left early so I could get back to studying. Isn't this an amazing Easter so far? Well after I came home I got some breakfast going for the two of us. I made some resurrection rolls (yummy delish!)

they taste like cinnamon rolls but not as sweet :)

and our favorite Whole Foods black forest bacon. We swear by it. I don't know if it is only in the midwest you can get it or all Whole Foods has them, but it is seriously the best thing you will put in your mouth.

I know you can just hear it sizzle. When you cook it until it is super crunchy it just melts in your mouth!

After Breakfast Joey suprised us with easter baskets! So proud of him I didn't even have to ask for one haha. I got a cake pop kit, some cadberry creme eggs, and pink easter socks (which I gave myself lol). Joey even got a basket for Gertie and Ethel to share! Gertie got some bones and a toy, and Ethel got some Fancy Feast haha...Ethel likes to eat.

I got joey a very maritime outfit, but I failed on his pant size so I have to return it. I will make him model it though when I get the right size. Don't judge that I still don't know my husbands pant size! I also filled his 5gallon plastic storage box  Easter basket with peeps, lil debbie oatmeal cream pies and starburst sour jelly beans. Very successful in our loot from the Easter bunny.

I spent the rest of the afternoon attempting to be studying before I met up with my friend Colleen. She was my first friend that I made in Madison, and was definitely the one I am closest to. Even though she is ten years older than me we totally clicked. She is so fun and we always have a good time together. We met working at Gigi's, and I remember the day she started that I wanted to be friends with her.  She unfortunately is moving to Georgia, and this was our last day to be able to hang out before she flew down south. Her husband is already down there so she was spending Easter all alone. We made plans to have dinner since she had to show her house until the late afternoon. Instead of your typical Easter brunch we had an Easter dinner at the Avenue Bar

....just the two of us since Joey still wasn't feeling well. We both had pot roast with mashed potatoes, stuffing, and a whole lot of gravy! Talk about a wonderful Easter dinner!

blondies

We took our last picture together, and weirdly enough I didn't cry! It still doesn't feel like she is moving away. Maybe I have become numb to separations living away from friends and family, or I am just in denial. Who knows. Well I need to get back to the grind of homework. Slacking over spring break has not done me any favors. Time to read about mucous plugs!

My Kind of Town Chicago Is

One of the best parts of living in the Midwest is living within driving distance to Chicago. Chicago is an incredible city that I fall more in love with every time I go. My friend Caci has a relative that lives in an amazing condo in the city so we went down for the weekend.

You can't get to Chicago with out paying about $10 in tolls which sucks but you also can't get to Chicago without passing IKEA...which is always a treat. Caci had never been so we trekked around ikea for a couple hours with her baby Charlotte. Isn't she adorable?!

I don't know how it happened, but we didn't buy anything! I was as shocked as you guys are. Caci has a lot of self control when it comes to frugality, but I was there too and didn't even buy meatballs or a cute mason jar?!

I was super close to getting a few picture frames for my postcards from the MFAH but resisted. Joey and I need to get rid of things not buy new stuff. He is off to school in August, and I am moving into a much smaller/cheaper living space. Just gotta keep reminding myself that I can get whatever I want when we finally "settle down". Hello all matching dishes!

After IKEA we were starving. As much as I wanted the Lingonberry sauce and meatballs from ikea's cafe, I was pretty sure that anything we got in downtown Chicago was going to be a tinsy bit better....just a tinsy bit ;)

We got to the condo which was adorable. Nancy (Caci's dad's cousin...but we'll just say Caci's aunt) has a great decorator. I scored by having the whole basement to myself which I was not expecting to have when staying with someone who lives in the city! We freshened up and walked to a new pizza joint that Nancy said was pretty popular in her hood. -warning- there was A LOT of unhealthy eating. consider this blog post as an ad for Lipitor lol. We stuffed our faces with delicious pizza and garlic monkey bread that will send you to heaven... and the couch with sweat pants.

Thankfully we did a lot of walking to work off that pizza. We got on a bus to take us to the heart of downtown so I could see "the bean". It was so cool and freezing outside. I want to go back to take a million picks with a better camera than an ipod touch, and in some daylight too....and some summer warmth. Millennium park was awesome, so many cool things all in one place.

I love how the skyline is all lit up in these pictures. Obviously the touch doesn't do it justice Curses not remembering my real camera ever.

I love the feeling of being surrounded by skyscrapers. I could totally get used to living in a huge city.

The "fountains" have random people's faces on them, and in the summer it is a fun place for kids to play around in their swim suits. There is a spout at the mouth and water comes out of it. In this pic though I was able to capture a group of Asian tourists flashing the peace sign. I think I can call my life complete now.

The sides of the fountain towers change color which made some fun pictures.
We went walking around some more while Nancy gave us the tour. We ran into this building which name I don't remember, but it is super old and famous I guess. The interesting thing about it is that the whole thing is turning into a Target! It is sad that such a beautiful building is becoming a big corporate facility, but still I would flip out if this was my Target! They aren't changing anything on the facade since it is a historical building, so I am pretty sure that this is going to be the coolest target ever.

We checked out some other touristy spots like the Macy's-which was ginormous, Chicago Theater, Marilyn Monroe statue, the river/ trump tower etcWe ended up heading back to the condo after our travels around town, and ordering delivery. Did you know you can order delivery from hundreds of restaurants on one website in Chicago? Amazing.The next morning was wonderful. I woke up when my body felt like it. I can't remember the last time that happened. Such a luxury those days were. You know you have become an adult when "sleeping in" is 8:00 am. Nancy had a "race" thing where she climbed all 95(?) floors of the John Hancock building. After she got back from that we bundled up and walked to the Bleeding Heart Bakery for brunch. OMG this place is A. effing delicious and B. effing soo bad for a girl with a sweet tooth.
I decided to go big since it isn't everyday that we go here. I got their doughnut sandwich. Don't judge! It was a small sized portion lol. Basically it was like a mc griddle but in between a doughnut. Disgustingly delicious right? I felt amazing after eating it. Not. But hey its part of the experience, and I will not be ashamed lol. After getting some goodies from their pastry window to take home to joey we headed back to the condo to get ready to go back home.

Chicago trip well done. Next time let's just find a really good salad joint ;)