Year of Fun: Part Two

Wow! I can hardly believe it’s the end of June already. Time flies when you’re having fun! Too much? Too corny? Nevertheless, the last six months have been a whirlwind but it has been very fun. You may remember my previous post regarding the “Year of Fun.” Since July is upon us, I have decided to give y’all an update on my goals as well as provide a list what I want to do during the last half of the year.

Past Goals:

Send people cards for their birthday. Done!

Read more books instead of magazines. I’m a regular Kindle reader now.

Find a volunteering gig that I find personally rewarding and fun.

Still looking unfortunately.

Take more walks. Yup!

Have people over for board game night. This has happened on an informal level. Basically, I invite people over for wine and I convince them to play Scategories with me.

Make new friends. Yes! And also looking to make more.

Take advantage of cultural opportunities in the city. Been there, done that!

Develop a new hobby. Absolutely- I have started playing tennis again and I have begun training for a half-marathon.

Try new recipes. Yes but there are some I wouldn’t make again.

Improve my collection of aprons. No more aprons at least until 2014.

New Goals:

Run a half-marathon.

Decorate my home for each holiday.

Attend a college football game.

Volunteer on a presidential campaign.

Join or start a book club.

Go apple or pumpkin picking in the autumn.

Create more traditions.

Successfully set up a couple.

Organize a scavenger hunt.

I hope you think of some fun goals of your own. I always think it’s a good idea to map out happy things to look forward to and adds more dimension to our lives. Really, who doesn’t want that though?

Glazed and Confused

When I was a kid, doughnuts were a special treat. As a transplanted Jew from Long Island, my father would journey out every Saturday morning before golf to pick up bagels for our family. This was our weekend ritual.  Every once in a while we got to have doughnuts but not just any doughnuts. We would get ours from Nicola’s, a long-standing Tampa bakery not far from my parent’s house. These doughnuts were, and still are heaven on earth.

Since leaving my beloved parents and Nicola’s behind, I have been on the hunt for a replacement bakery. And today, I found it. As I was parking my car by my office this morning, I stumbled upon Glazed and Infused. I had heard Glazed and Infused was opening another branch of their doughnut shop but I wasn’t sure where. Well, at Lake and Halstead this morning, I knew I was in the right place at the right time.

The shop was adorably decorated and the staff was cheerful and polite. I ordered just a Vanilla Bean doughnut, which set the tone for my day. It was light, fluffy, and delightfully sweet. In other words, it was perfect. With so many different types to try, I suppose I will have to become a regular.

In a fun coincidence, Glazed and Infused is located at 813 W. Fulton Market- 813 is the Tampa area code. How sweet it is!

Playing It Fast and Loose With Dinner

True story. While riding the elevator two nights ago as I was leaving my office- another woman asked me the following question, “Do you really make dinner every night at home?” This woman had been listening to a conversation between a colleague and I who were discussing what we were having for dinner that particular evening. The woman who questioned me stared at me like I had a third eye. Since I haven’t become a Cyclopes in the past week, I retorted back, “Of course I do, doesn’t everyone?” Apparently not.

Growing up my mother pretty much made dinner every single night and it was typically healthy- unless it was smothered chicken and biscuits night but that’s a different story for another time. For my mother, cooking is not just a hobby or her motherly duty but an art form. Both of my parents are excellent cooks and thoroughly enjoy cooking. An old family friend of ours still often jokes, “Suzanne never had a TV dinner until she came to my house.”

In recent years, I have surprisingly joined the family trend. Believe me, if you had told me 4 years ago that I would love cooking and make dinner every night in my condo in Chicago, I would have laughed in your face.

But as much as I enjoy cooking, I lack one main ingredient- time. I work a lot and often late so sometimes it’s difficult to eat fast and healthy food that isn’t take-out salads. Recently though, I discovered a gem from the Jewel that I could not help but share. I discovered pre-marinated fajita meat!

Before 

After

Half an hour later, I had this delicious creation. I paired my steak with black beans and Vigo yellow rice for a tasty and quick meal that even my parents would be proud of!

Weekend Update

Happy Sunday y’all! Thankfully, this past weekend was pretty low-key compared to the last few weeks. Since I needed a break, I didn’t over book myself.  I only did two big things! On Friday evening, I kicked off the weekend and June by attending First Fridays at the Museum of Contemporary Art. First Fridays encourages young philanthropy and features live music, appetizers, cocktails, and new art exhibitions on the first Friday night of every month all in the hopes to raise money for the museum. 

We briefly set down our g&t's to take this fridge-worthy photo!

The other big thing I did this weekend was run the United Run for the Zoo with one of my favorite pals this morning. I’m currently in the process of training for my second triathlon so running the 5k this morning was great way to not only support one of my favorite causes but get a work-out in. What made this run even more fun was the fact that so many people in the community came out for the race to support the Lincoln Park Zoo- families, kids, and even the elderly all ran. The Lincoln Park Zoo is open 365 days a year and is free to all every day of the year. Why not support such a wonderful city institution? Below is a snapshot of us right before the race started!

Have a great week!

An Attitude of Gratitude

I have always considered myself a very gracious and thankful person. For a long time, I even thought my name meant “gracious” in Hebrew. Upon Googling the meaning today while writing this post, I learned that my name means “Lilly” in French. Good enough- I’ll take it.

Despite this new information, I will still consider myself a gracious and thankful person. One of my favorite things to do to show my appreciation is to write thank you notes. As a child, my mother wouldn’t let me hang out with my friends until I wrote any thank- you notes that needed writing. After many tantrums, they always got done. But boy, am I glad I had all that practice. Now that I have a career in philanthropy, I write a lot cards and notes. I average about five a week on a good week. On a personal level, every time I get a thank-you note or a handwritten letter, my heart swells with happiness. To get something so intimate in the mail is so rare these days.

But for me, writing thank-you notes are a family affair. My father who also works in philanthropy spends a great deal of time writing notes and letters to donors, volunteers, families, and community partners.  My mother on the other hand, spends time writing notes to personal contacts. I can’t tell you how many times that I have found my mother on a weekend morning in her pajamas writing thank-you notes at our kitchen table. Hell, my cousin just sent my mother a handwritten letter last month. Trust me, we’re old school.

Nevertheless, what takes the cake for me is the use of personalized stationery. As a child, my loving and daughter-less aunt would buy me personalized stationery and post-its for Hanukah. To me, this was such a thoughtful and practical gift. After finally running out of supplies, I recently decided on and ordered monogrammed embossed stationery that fits perfectly into my lifestyle. I couldn’t be more pleased with my choice.

Now, I’m off to write thank-you notes for a charity function I hosted a few weeks ago. Maybe, if you’re lucky you’ll find a note in your mailbox!

The Wheels on the Bus

Every morning I saunter on to express bus with my monogrammed Tervis Tumbler of iced coffee. Since I now live in Chicago, I have traded my beloved “sorority row bus” for the crowded city bus. But let me tell you the patrons on the CTA are not as gracious as my lovely Panhellenic sisters from college.

With this said, I just about died of shock last week when a man offered me his seat on the bus one evening.  This happening is about as rare as spotting Haley’s Comet. But what really took the cake was what happened this morning.

This morning, I was gearing up to read “50 Shades of Grey” on my Nook this morning. As an aside, if you haven’t read “50 Shades of Grey” yet, I suggest you start immediately. As I was about to dive into my novel, an acquaintance of mine took a seat right next to me on the bus and began to chat my ear off. Let’s be honest, you can rarely shut me up but it’s a little too much for a Monday morning. For the rest of my commute, I learned everything about her participation in couple’s counseling to her office politics. Did I mention she works in my building? Whew!

This got me thinking even more about bus etiquette. Below are some of my favorite tips to be the most polite commuter possible:

• Don’t make personal calls on the morning commute. No one wants to hear you paying your credit card bill or refilling your birth control prescription.
•  Don’t sit too close. And don’t sit on anyone’s coat either.
• Always give your sit seat up to pregnant ladies, the disabled, and the elderly. Hell, you should always give up your seat to women with kids with them.
• Please don’t talk to loudly. No one wants to her your voice in the morning.
• Also, don’t air your dirty laundry on the bus. It’s in poor taste.
• Don’t file your nails or do your make-up on the bus. This is just gross.
• Be pleasant.
• Be courteous to the bus driver- they are responsible for your safety and well being on your journey.

Who know what or whom I will encounter on my journey to the office tomorrow. All I know is that I will be prepared with my book.

Summer of Fun

Every spring, I say the same thing to myself. What is it? I always remark, “This will be the summer of fun! I just love summer- it’s my favorite season. But let’s be honest, I say that about every time of year.

Every summer, I went to camp with my very childhood best friend. I was happier than a clam going to day camp and coming home in the evening to eat dinner with my parents and shower in my own bathroom. As I got older, I would eventually become a counselor at the same day camp where I taught canoeing. No sleep-a-way camp for me!

Now as an adult living in the city, summer no longer means day camp and vacation with my parents. It translates to outdoor patios, Summer Fridays, festivals, and long walks along the lake.

This spring, one of my closest friends and I joked about making a sharable Google calendar of fun things to do this summer. Our hope is to collaborate and share as many great ideas with each other as possible. There will be no room to be bored this summer. I plan on spending my summer by bbq-ing and exploring new neighborhoods. I also plan on having the best summer ever.

What do you plan to do this summer?