I got your ten things right here...

My pal Cyndi has passed on a little blog fun to me.  I'm sorry it took me a few days to get around to playing along, but moving back to STL officially and doing some getting settled has had me a little busy.

Cyndi passed onto me the Honest Scrap "award" and I was touched to see that it means the following:
"is bestowed upon a fellow blogger whose blog content or design is, in the giver's opinion, brilliant. This award is about bloggers who post from their heart, oftentimes put their heart on display as they write from the depths of their soul."

I certainly hope that this is an honest and safe place to talk - I've certainly needed it as an outlet when I feel like there is no one who really wants to hear me blabber on about how confused I am or what kind of mess I feel I've made of things.  The rules of this "award" state that I link back to who sent it to me {Cyndi}, brag about it a bit, and then share ten honest things about myself...

1. I love McDonald's McGriddles.  Love them.  The combination of bacon, egg, cheese and pancakes is delicious.  I know the perils of McDonalds and gross foods like this so I only indulge on the occasional road trip - but I love them.
2. I had to work really hard to like coffee.  I was not raised with coffee drinking parents, but my favorite grandparents drank it and their house always smelled like coffee.  I really wanted to become a coffee drinker, but don't really like the taste of it.  I've worked hard, and it's an acquired taste, but I can get through a cup of honest to god coffee - not the mocha, milk laden stuff that I started off with.  On the flip side, I was raised with beer drinking parents, and I can't drink more than 1/3 of a beer without being disgusted by the idea of taking another sip.  
3. I was once knocked out by  kid throwing a frozen orange on the playground.  I was in 7th grade, the orange had rolled outside of the lunchroom, the kid was just trying to see how far he could throw it- I was not the target, but he had lousy aim and the thing exploded against the side of my head.  Ahh, honesty and embarassing stories - a double bonus for you, my reader. 
4. I do not like it when people use the phrase "Think outside the box".  I think it's diluted and quite frankly I think we often don't use the tools in front of us - we don't need new tools, we need better carpenters.
5. I joined Weight Watchers yesterday.  I clearly need a push in the right direction to lose the sad weight I've put on.  It sounds kind of lame and old lady-ish, but I know when to ask for help.  Wish me luck.
6. I am bad at math.  I could work out a logic problem or word problem better than I can do simple restaurant math.
7. I'm addicted to buying makeup, but not really wearing it.  I love to go to Sephora, Target, Walgreens and browse makeup and pick up new stuff, but I don't ever do much with it.  
8. I don't wear colored nail polish.  I think it makes my fingers look short and fat and like they don't belong on my hands.  Weird.
9. I don't sleep very well.  It's getting a little better, but it's been like this since the last year of college.  I just dread the idea of going to bed.  The day I finally asked a doctor for help and got a Lunesta prescription was one of the happiest days of my life. 
   
10. I love disco music.  It may be my favorite genre.  It's just so spunky.  

There you have it.  Ten things you may or may not have known about me.   Now...back to unpacking...

Lessons Learned

I'm finally getting around to the Grey's Anatomy season premiere, and Meredith's opening reflected something I think about a lot lately - the five stages of grief.  I've hit angry and I really looking forward to moving out of that phase.  Instead of doing some more "woe is me, my life is a mess and I'm turning 30" whining, I thought I'd talk about things I've learned through this.

• I have learned there is a brand of tortilla chips sold at the grocery store a block from my apartment in Chicago that are the best bagged chips I've ever had.  They don't even sell them at all the local grocery stores - just Treasure Island.  They're called (and this is funny) Donkey Chips and there's a big picture of a donkey on the bag.  I tried to google them for a link or picture and couldn't even find one to show you, but trust me, if you ever run across Donkey brand Tortilla chips - get them and enjoy!
• I've learned I love Starbucks Iced Green tea.  I'm not a Starbucks regular.  I do enjoy a soy latte when I feel like having coffee, but that's about it.  I had their iced green tea once and got hooked.  I really like it and since there is, as the joke goes, a Starbucks on every corner, I enjoy a couple of them each week.  
• I've learned a valuable lesson about expectations and pedestals.  Everything I held in the highest regard seems to have fallen: great love, mythical lifestyles in exciting cities, loyalty, my own dazzling personality.  I'm not whining and I'm not complaining, this really was a lesson that I have to believe will be very valuable.  I am a girl with a fairytale complex.  I have high expectations of myself and others and learning to temper those with a healthy dose of reality will only help me.  
• I learned Dr. Seuss was correct when he wrote in Oh, The Places You'll Go, "All alone! Whether you like it or not, alone is something you'll be quite a lot."  I remembered that I like me pretty much so I don't mind too much that I have all this time to myself.  And I learned you can't wait until you have someone ready to see the movie, or go to dinner, or talk about the book you're reading - you have to just do it.  And if you need to talk about it - start a blog where some super fun peeps will start joining in the conversation. 
  
• In addition to that, I learned what friends will indeed be there when it is the blackest of nights.  I believe those nights are coming less and less and for those of you who got me through some of them - and you know who you are - I just wouldn't have made it out without you. 
• (Back to more fun stuff) I learned what cupcake in Chicago is the absolute best (Swirlz).  
• I really have loved living by the water and will look forward to that again someday.  The lakefront jogging path is wonderful and always provided great scenery for a long walk with a lake on one side and a beautiful city on another.
• While St. Louis sometimes struggles with an inferiority complex about our fine city, Chicagoans sometimes struggle from a superiority complex.  Good for you - you are a great city - other cities can have something to offer and you can all co-exist peaceably - I promise.  
• I have learned to embrace comfortable shoes.  

As I wrap up my time in Chicago, it's important that I don't see it all as a complete waste, even though I did fail every objective I had coming here.  It's been said you regret the things in life that you don't do more than the ones you did and failed.  I can say I know some things with much more certainty for having taken these risks, even though nothing went as planned.  And it's going to be for the best, because my happy place has become the St. Louis apartment over the coffee shop that always smells like toast.  A few people told me that Chicago is where I was coming to heal, I actually think lots more hurt came my way during this time.  All for the best.  And now I get to go home, and see what happens next.  I can with 100% honesty say I have no idea....

Ode to Graham Elliot

I was first introduced to Graham Eliot when he was on Top Chef Masters a few months ago.  He's young and creative and so much fun and is doing really interesting things with food.  I knew I wanted to visit his restaurant before my time in Chicago was over.  So when my friend Brad offered to take me there as a birthday present, I did not hesitate to say yes. 

His restaurant is fun and inviting, is fine dining without the stuffiness.  The food, service, presentation and ambiance were all out of this world, in a laid back environment.  It was an excellent dining experience.

The food is all very creative and each dish had unique elements.  I started with a Caesar Salad that said it was served with a Twinkie crouton.  ??  Turns out it is a soft, warm, buttery bread they've injected with an herbed cream cheese mixture.  The corn bisque was served with a garlic marshmallow that melted into the soup.  The steak tartare was one of the best I've ever had and the sauce it was served with was plate licking good.  I really wanted to lick that plate...

I had a perfectly cooked halibut for dinner with a sweet tomato jam on top of the filet.  Brad had some duck served with a forbidden rice.  I do not know why it's called that.  I do know that it was tasty.

Throughout dinner everyone was knowledgable, friendly, accommodating and polite.  At one point I asked our waiter if Chef Elliot was at the restaurant tonight, and he said he had just left.  About ten minutes later, Chef Graham Elliot comes through the dining room to talk to another table and I practically fall out of my seat.  I swear, Brad Pitt could walk through a room, and all I'd think is about how I wasted hours of my life watching his very slow movies like Legends of the Fall, Meet Joe Black and freakin' Benjamin Button, but Chef Elliot comes through and I am practically jumping up and down.  A waiter in the section next to us sees how I light up at seeing him and when the Chef is done with that table, this waiter tells him that I would like to meet him.  That is awesome service.  I was going to be very happy just seeing him, but now I've got an introduction and we chat a bit, I gush a ton, and he is so cool he takes his picture with us.  Celebrity Chef - they're not kidding around with that title.

So, enjoy some food pictures, none of them very good because they were all taken with my iphone (I thought it was more subtle than my digital camera - and I was trying to be a little cool.)

This is modern cooking at it's finest. Two thumbs way up.  Graham Elliot Restaurant. 

Steak tartare with the amazing sauce!

The Caesar salad with the warm, buttery twinkie crouton

Corn bisque with garlic marshmallow!

 

Halibut with tomato jam and braised fennel

 

Dessert was this chocolate mousse cake and yogurt ice cream.  Yum!

 

Yup....

I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!

Moving on up

Moving weekend!!  Stuff is loaded from Chicago apartment tomorrow morning, truck is driven to St. Louis tomorrow afternoon.  Things are unloaded into St. Louis apartment Sunday morning.  Sunday morning will also be my first visit to the apartment I hope to call home for the next two years.  Can't wait and looking forward to a post on Sunday that says - "I LOVE IT!!!!" 

Have a great weekend everyone. 

Yikes! Bikes!

I do believe that we can all make small changes that have a big impact on the earth. There are things we may not even miss - the reusable grocery bags, CFL light bulbs, recycling bins next to the trash can, visiting thrift stores for old furniture that just needs some TLC, etc... Taking a bike out instead of a car is another. In Chicago, I've been spoiled as this is a VERY walkable and public transportation friendly city. The only time I get in my car is generally to go back to St. Louis. Speaking of, St. Louis is not as walkable or public transportation friendly. Many things aren't too far, but they are also not terribly close. Recently I learned that I could bike up to 20 miles without too much effort and that it was easy exercise. I saw this bike and think it may be a great answer to running car-less errands in St. Louis. The grocery store or Target are well within biking range and I'd have that handy bike trunk!

Anyway, I saw this and wanted to share. I don't have this bike yet, but I have a chance to win it on the website (click on the link to enter yourself). You may think your lifestyle couldn't work with a bike - and maybe you can't replace every trip you make with a car - but you may be able to replace a few.

Renegade Craft/Art Fair

Last weekend was the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago. Craft fair sounds like something in a church hall with lots of ladies who crochet things - this was an art fair. Paintings and jewelery and clothing and room decor and stationery and more. It was a lovely day, a lovely event and full of lovely, lovely things.

Trying to be good I limited myself to one item that I saw and it really fit my Bohemian/patchwork living room idea that is slowly forming.

Here is a picture of the throw pillow I picked up. Funny story: When I saw it, it was upside down, but I didn't realize that. So, I saw a pillow that had some fun blue scrolls on it. Loved it. Thought it would mix and match with other pillows well. When I got it home, I realized that it was actually covered in blue octopi (plural of octopus?). That makes me love it even more because now it makes me laugh when I look at it.

This is the pillow upside down, as I originally saw it.

Aaaaand right side up - see the many octopus(es)?

The highlight of the visit was really meeting Jesse Oleson though. She is the creative mind behind Cuppie and Cakespy and all of her art makes me smile every time I see it. I have a t-shirt that shows cupcakes and donuts and ice cream on a subway platform and little Cuppie in front of the St. Louis Arch. I adore it all and was so excited to meet her. And here I am, meeting her:

Jesse Oleson and I!

Cyndi, I failed at not gushing. Sorry. =)