small things...

Month 2 “Life List” Wrap up!

February is not always an easy month to get through around these parts.  Having a “life list” totally made the difference.

Here is the recap:

# 39 – Learn how to hula hoop – COMPLETE 

I still need some work on my technique and my endurance (i.e. the hoop still drops of my bod pretty quick), but I consider this skill learned, dude.

# 20 – Read 40 books – 34 books to go

I finished 4 books this month:

The Dangerous Animals Club – Stephen Tobolowsky

A memoir from an actor whose been in every movie you’ve ever seen.

The Middlesteins – Jami Attenberg

A story about the the things that can break up a family (in Skokie!)

Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me? -  Mindy Kaling

You know Mindy.  and she is funny. Especially about her childhood.  Thing that made me laugh the most was someone else’s eulogy for her. what does that say about me…or Mindy?

Audiobooks

The Graveminder – Melissa Marr

This was so bad. Just so bad, but also there were zombies and love and secret other world, which meant that that, of course, I listened to every word.

#17 – Visit my Grandparents. Learn something new about them.  COMPLETE

This was, of course, the highlight of the  month.  I don’t think John and Betty read blogs, or even know I have a blog, or even know what a blog is, or even would want to know why-anyone-would-write-a-blog.  But I hope they would and that they do, feel the love.

#7 – Have 4 seasonal Dinner Parties – Winter dinner party complete, 3 seasons to go

When a blogger has a dinner party, but she doesn’t document the entire thing in photos –did it even happen?  A question for the ages.  So I hope you’ll believe that it did.  One of my oldest friends Liz came in to town to visit her family and I hosted a little dinner in her honor.  How about a menu, then will you believe me? jeez:

• Toasted bread topped with Ina’s roasted tomatoes
• Chicken stuffed with spinach and ricotta
• Thyme Roasted Sweet potatoes
• Arugula Salad with Garlic vinaigrette
• Salted Caramel and Belgian Chocolate ice cream

 

On tap for March…

Chicken carcass handling and cooking! (ewww)

A trip to somewhere I’ve never been!

Learn how to swim with my face in the water!

 

A Trip to Rock Island

#17 – Visit my Grandparents. Learn Something new about them Complete!

This past weekend I traveled with my sister and nephew to Rock Island, IL to visit our grandparents.  My Grandpa was turning 96 years old on Friday (though he said all day he thought he was only 86).  My Grandma said those 10 years must have blown by too quickly for him. 

::My Grandpa and me on his 90th birthday

We had a quick visit which included some time hanging out with my Uncle Jim, Aunt Kim and cousin Julie at my grandparents apartment before heading to our hotel where a bunch of this happened:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My grandparents (John and Betty)  are amazing.  Each turning 96 this year, they still live on their own (with lots of visits, rides and checking in on from my Uncle Jim and his family), they still swim 3 days a week, take the bus and keep tabs on their enormous family.  Still we’re aware that each visit with them is a gift.  So I was determined to learn something new about them during this visit.  Here is what they told us:

• My Grandpa (John) got slapped by his teacher on his very first day of school for arriving late.  He lived 1/2 block from school
• My Grandma saw my grandpa for the first time across the hall at school when they were 15.  She thought he looked pretty good
• In their day people didn’t date so seriously when they were that young.  They might of liked each other best, but they both dated lots of other people

::Total dreamboats

• Still my grandma was pissed when my grandpa dropped her off at home first after a party when he still had 3 girls in the car (grandpa said she lived the furthest – it only made sense!)
• He used to visit her in Moline and race down 7th street to catch the last streetcar home at night
• Sometimes he’d sneak on the back when he didn’t have money to pay the fare. He never got busted
• When my grandpa moved to DC to attend Catholic Univ., My grandma dated, oh about 7 other boys
• His father died soon after and my grandpa came home to run the family business when his older brother Barney called to say he wasn’t interested in Insurance
• My grandpa only has 8 hours left to complete his Bachelor’s degree.  I tried to get him to think about going back – there’s still time!
• They got engaged soon after

I forgot to ask her how she broke the news to her 7 other boyfriends, but she did mention that everyone knew they liked each other best.

John & Betty Forever!  They’ve been married for 72 years (73 later this year)

I love them.

xo

Erin

#39–Learn how to Hula Hoop

#39  - Learn how to Hula Hoop complete!

I’m fairly certain that as a kid I knew how to hula hoop.  I don’t have any distinct memories of actually hula hooping, but still.  All kids can hula hoop, right?  Between, what I’m now sure were my golden hooping years and today I somehow lost the ability to keep aloft a spinning hoop around my waist.

Now, I’m a curvy girl.  I’ve got hips! I’ve got a butt!  Both of which seem perfectly designed for making sure a hula hoop never hits the ground.  But no. Sadly, in the last few years every time I’ve tried to hula hoop it’s quickly fallen to the ground like I had the hips of an eleven year-old boy. 

The bigger question might be: how, as a grown-ass woman, do I keep getting into situations where there is a hula hoop and pressure to succeed at said hooping?  I don’t know the answer to that.  What I do know is that I wanted to figure out what I couldn’t figure out and then spin a hoop around my waist.

Enter my old friend Susan.  A friend I’ve known since elementary school.  I’ve had sleepovers at her house, I finally admitted that I didn’t believe in santa claus to my parents in her living room.  At Susan’s I once encouraged her to go outside to show me how fast she could run down the street all so I could sneak an oreo (something that never graced the shelves at my house).  I quickly learned one cannot sneak an oreo as oreo’s get completely stuck all over teeth as soon as you try to chew them up.  She caught me, I think I still tried to deny it.  Sorry, Susan!

Anyhoo – Susan knows how to hula hoop.  She also knows how to make hula hoops.  And she offered to show me the way.  So this past Saturday night we gathered in my building’s party room to learn how to hula hoop.  Apparently, it’s not like learning to dance.  It’s more like learning how to snow board – when your body finally feels what it feels like to do it right you’ll stop faceplanting on the mountain.  Sure, you want to place your feet in a certain kind of way and move your hips in a certain kind of way and it should work.  However, time and time again I would spin the hoop around my waist and it would quickly fall to the ground.  I tried barely moving my hips like my lovely friends seemed to be doing – and the hula hoop fell.  Mostly, I ended up moving my hips wildly around in a desperate attempt to keep it going.  Every time the hoop went around more then a few times my friends all cheered!  And I just did it over and over and over and over again.  I have the bruises to prove it.  Seriously.  My side is completely bruised from hula hooping.

But, finally, I got it.  I spun the hoop one more time and something clicked.  I looked at my friend Wynn, who I swear had been hooping non-stop since she’d walked in, and said, “Ah. This is how it feels to hula hoop.”

I’m still figuring it out, trying to keep recreating the muscle memory. And endurance.  you need endurance to hula hoop!  And also, I need to toughen up my sides.  the bruises smart.

Month 1 update on The List

This was a month of ‘getting started’ and planning ahead.  I quickly realized why none of my resolutions have been very successful in the past.  I want immediate gratification.  I want a complete life overhaul the moment the idea pops into my head.  And when that doesn’t happen…resolution fail.

But…BUT…this little list is proving to be a keeper.  While I can’t cross anything off my list yet (wait until later today – crossing off will happen – more on that later…squee!) I’m on my way.

Here is the roundup for Month 1 (boringly similar to the last post I made but now an OFFICIAL Roundup):

Tasks completed:

#3 Eat or Drink 10 things I’ve never tried before. 2 Down, 8 to go.

1. A Scotch egg, The Gage, Chicago, IL

2. A venison burger, The Gage, Chicago, IL

*Honorable Mention: A Beermosa.  Somebody else’s drink and I just had a sip.  tasty!

#6 Hike 40 miles of trails in Illinois. 2.5 miles down; 37.5 to go!

1. .5 miles North Park Nature Center

2. 2 miles, Fort Sheridan trails ( a write up on this soon)

#9 Lose 25% of body weight. 1% down. it ain’t nothing.

#20 Read 40 Books.  2 books complete, 38 to go (2 more nearly complete)

1. The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach
2. The Age of Miracles, Karen Thompson Walker

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On tap for February….

Hula hooping!

A visit to my Grandparents!

A seasonal dinner party!

A cooking class AND chicken carcass fear-facing!

Stay tuned or  better yet JOIN IN.  Check out the list here and let me know what you’re up for!