Little Old Lady From Pasadena

Last week, I made a 45 minute trek to Pasadena to check fabric. Yep, you read that correctly. It took me longer to get there and back than I actually spent in the store (10 minutes.) I went to Pasadena to see the fabric that some potential bridesmaid dresses were in. Silk Shantung or Satin? Oh man... the dilemma!? I'll figure that part out soon enough... now for the really cool part of the trip...

I figured that if I had come this far, I may as well stop at THE football landmark of all time. A landmark that I definitely hope to be at on New Years Day 2012, wearing black and gold, of course... THE ROSE BOWL! I have pictures of me, my brother and my dad all wearing Hawkeye gear and crammed into one chair watching the Hawks in many a Rose Bowl... Those pictures are very old though so hopefully we can get some new pictures involving the Rose Bowl and the Hawkeyes... Until then, feast your eyes on this and Let's Go HAWKS!

Versus- The Game, Round 2

This one will be short:


Most of you know that I allow several little things bother me. And I know that I am persnickety and I have a lot of rules and whatever. I am trying to relax but it is hard... just ask my friend Stephanie. She knows. But NOT scooping poop is not a little thing! And, it is in my top 3 pet-peeves of all time.

That being said:
LA: 0, Chicago: 0

Doesn't anyone, anywhere SCOOP their dog's poop!? Come on people? No one wins when you don't scoop your poop! Especially in the game of Versus! Total Score: Same.

Virgin Airlines Rocks

I don't need to go on and on about Virgin Airlines the way I did about Spirit because Virgin totally and completely rocks... allow me to explain:

We walk into LAX, the crappiest of crowded airports in my opinion, and into the Virgin Airlines Check-in area. We are greeted by friendly, upbeat but not too loud music and a white monitor and white acrylic desk. Everything is very modern, very Apple-like and most importantly in my book, VERY CLEAN. We get our little mini boarding passes printed which are square and have only the essential information on them, i.e., flight, name, city and seat. Very small, very efficient. Ooh... I love that word, efficient. Then we wait in the really awful security line at LAX. (Have I mentioned I dislike LAX and I think they could most certainly engineer a better way to get people in and out of there faster, yet?) Once we get to our gate it is clean and our plane is on time. We start boarding and when you walk into the plane it is like walking into the mind of Itunes. The lighting is low and purple-ish-blue, the music is hip but again, not too loud. The plane is clean and we find our seats swiftly. There is a TV on the back of every seat with a touch screen that allows you to pick what you want to watch and the coolest function of all. A MAP, a GPS enabled MAP (I love maps). Seriously. You can see where you are in the air, how fast you are going per hour and how many miles you have left. Genius. I can't stop looking at it... you would think this would make the flight last longer as if I were saying, "Are we there, yet.... are we there, yet.... how about now?" But nope. Not a chance. This made my flight go FASTER. I was obsessed with it and could not get enough. Pretty soon it was smooth landing into Seattle at 345 mph with 2 miles to go.

I won't bore you by repeating my story again because seriously the flight back was a repeat of the flight out there. It was just as on-time, awesome and fabulous with all the same wonderful sensory experiences. I loved having the knowledge that we were traveling at a ground speed equivalent to 545 mph and if I were you, I would fly Virgin airlines all the way out here to LA, immediately.

Catching Up

Who knew that moving would take so much physical effort and leave one so mentally drained? I learned something during this moving business, when you are physically worn out, you cannot be creative. So here are a few things I've been doing in the past few weeks for you to catch up on:

Disneyland: I had my first Disney experience (ever) last week. Wow was I impressed. I bet you didn't think I, of all people, was going to say that, did you? The attention this place pays to detail is unreal and they don't have to go that extra mile but they do. One of my companions, who was about 8, went to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. This is behind Sleeping Beauty's Castle and is the place where little girls can be a princess for a day. They offered to do my hair and make-up too but I forgot my princess dress at home. Fastpass is the best idea ever and my favorite rides were Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and Indiana Jones' Adventure. Now, I went to Disney with Mr. E's cousins and they happen to know almost everything about Disney which definitely helped my experience.

Unpacking the Pods: Our moving pods arrived on Monday of last week with all of our stuff in them. There were two and wow do we have a lot of stuff. So I spent two hours unloading the first pod, one. box. at. a. time. This is how it went: get box, walk into house, put box in respective room, walk out of house, get next box, repeat. I literally went in and out of the house 50 times. Mr. E helped me with the heavy stuff in the second pod. Suffice to say that my body had some aches. I went to Salvation Army at least 3 times before moving and I will be sending at least 5 more boxes their way after we are all done unpacking. Speaking of unpacking...I still cannot find my aprons...Or anything else, really.

Playing Softball: Let's be very clear about this softball league. It is for FUN and I am FUNNY to watch. I have a pink glove and I wear a running skirt to play softball. I am NOT good at softball and I don't care. I went 0 for 3, missed a grounder, got a nasty purple bruise on my wrist (OK, I admit it- it's kind of cool to show people) and somehow had the Ump calling me pee-pee girl because I asked to go to the restroom before the game started. I was nervous! And, I actually (gasp) had fun!

Went to Seattle: We went to Seattle this wknd for an event for Mr. E's work. We had a wonderful flight experience on Virgin (this will get its own post) both ways! Once we were there I got a (long-overdue) massage and took a nap. I know, not the best way to spend time in Seattle but having been there before a few times and nary a box in sight, well, I was tired. We also had a great dinner at the Four Seasons and participated in a talent show with about 5 minutes warning. I was Sandy and Mr. E was Danny... let's just leave it at, we didn't win. On Saturday, we took a ferry to Bainbridge Island and had the best Clam Chowdah ever! It was light, citrusy, buttery and full of flavor. We also took in the Seattle Sounders MLS game. Sunday was a lazy day of brunch and beautiful views from our friends' rooftop. Good weekend!

Grind: This week, back to the grind... job searching, wedding planning and unpacking. More details to come! And hopefully some pictures, too. I wish I could have captured that Kodak moment with Mickey and everything else I did last week, actually. I guess I learned two lessons last week; one, see above, and two, bring camera more often!

Versus- The Game

Now that I've been in LA for one full week, I'd like to play a little game I made up called Versus. The rules are, there ain't no rules... except my rules!

Here are my comparisons between LA and Chicago.

Weather- LA:1, Chicago: 0
What can I say, I'm a sucker for 70 and sunny every day!

Outdoor Activities- LA: 3, Chicago: 1
In LA, I can go to the beach, go on a hike and make my way to a mountain all in the same day. Chicago has the lakefront (which I still love).

Public Transportation- LA: -1, Chicago: 4
This is really going to hurt LA's score in the long run but because LA is so completely sucky in the public transportation realm, they deserve this huge point differential in my "Versus" game. LA gets a negative because it has a train system that no one takes. Anywhere. Because it doesn't go Anywhere. In Chicago you can take the Metra, a bus or the El. You can also easily go outside and get a taxi from Anywhere to Anywhere.

Drivers- LA: 0, Chicago: 1
Chicago drivers aren't that great. But LA drivers are worse. Muuuch worse.

Score so far:
LA: 3, Chicago: 6

This is my game so the scoring doesn't have to make sense to anyone else... Including Mr. E who is trying to make me change my scores. Stay tuned for round 2 sometime in the near future of Versus, "the Game Ms. D made up."