shaking things up.

Hey there chickens!

Welcome, for the middle of the week is here.

And it’s cold.

At least over in Chicago.

This week has, thus far, been a productive, healthy, good feeling kind of week, and for that, I am thankful.

I’ve hit up hot yoga twice already (my only gripe: not hot enough. Who knew I’d ever say that?), hung out in headstand for awhile, left work on time 1 out of 2 days, had a supplemental steroid shot (man, modern medicine is fantastic) for my RA aches, and also, finally tried a green smoothie.

Which is something I’ve been meaning to do.

And no, I don’t mean of the Shamrock variety.

Although those are also delicious.

After scanning Pinterest and the internet at large for the right combination of fruit and kale, I finally just asked my pal KJ for the information, which she gladly gave up.

This morning, I mustered the courage to give it a shot (what if it tastes like leaves? what does pulverized kale taste like anyway?) and threw everything into a blender.

And by “everything,” I mean the following:

• 1/2 cup of fat free greek yogurt (it’s what I had- any greek yogurt will do, and the real stuff is particularly delicious, and will likely do you no harm)
• 1/2 banana
• several kale leaves (I started with about six big leaves. I’m going to try more tomorrow)
• about a cup of frozen fruit (today I had strawberries)
• about 6 oz. of orange juice

 

Sorry about the mess. I was in a little bit of a weekday frenzy.

Anyway, all you really do is pulse it all together. It took me about a minute, and then I was left with this, which yields one pint glass (yes, I’m drinking super food smoothies out of beer glasses) and a little bit extra.

 

I know, it’s really green.

But I promise, it tastes like oranges and strawberries, and not raw kale leaves.

And look at the bang for your buck. Kale! Fruit! Greek Yogurt!

It’s basically a multivitamin chickens, except it will keep you full until lunch.

Namaste, chickadees. Enjoy this one.

 

it don’t snow here, it stays pretty green

We made it past Monday, my friends.

Which to me always seems like reason enough to start the celebration.

Poor Monday has such a bad rap.

Also, in the middle of a bustling, let’s-fit-five-days-into-four week, I’m pausing for just one lovely second to grab lunch with my pal and follow blogger, AB.

AB blogs over here and even though we technically met virtually, she’s actually practically my neighbor in real life.

She’s a dedicated runner, a fantastic baker, and also, just freaking funny.

All my friends are funny, thank God.

We’re headed over to Protein Bar, which is my favorite new lunch spot/chain downtown.

I like an option that by menu alone keeps me from ordering fries and forces delicious quinoa upon me.

I admit, chickadees, that my lunch spots are far superior off the avenue- it’s making it particularly hard to avoid ditching the brown bag.

But it is making it easy to saying yes to meet up with all my favorite people at noon, so I’m going to count it as a win.

And with that, I’m off for an early appointment and a day full of meetings.

Enjoy this one, chickens- we’re headed straight for the weekend, I can feel it in my bones.

short week to a good time.

Morning, chickadees.

Waking up this morning, it seemed crazy that it could already be Monday morning again, but then, here we are.

I spent most of the weekend finally kicking a cold that I’ve been hanging onto since Thanksgiving, and then also, celebrating birthdays and watching football and cooking things and leading a semi-normal, less crowded life.

And now I’m ready for another over-scheduled, slightly-hectic week in which I have several exciting lunch dates, too many meetings, and one day less than usual.

Because when I hit Friday this week, my pal JD and I are taking off to New York City for the weekend, with no particular plan in place.

Which is, I think, the best way to arrive in the big city during the holiday season.

My family and I used to head there every Christmas to watch the Rockettes, see the tree, and just generally walk around enjoying the lights, but it’s been years now, as my cousin Lillian reminded me this summer.

We were looking at a picture of us all at Rockefeller Center, and I pointed out all the 10+ years ago photos to Lily.

“Where am I?” she asked, deadly serious.

I chuckled, and explained to her that she wasn’t born yet.

“Well I wish I had been there. Someone should have invited me,” she scolded me.

I admit, it would have been more fun if she was there.

In any case, I’m looking forward to the East Coast during Christmas, and so with that in mind, I’ll be keeping my eye on the prize this week.

Enjoy the sunshine if you’ve got it, chickens (because we certainly do not here).

 

baby, you’re sweeter than the birdsong.

Hey chickens.

I know it’s a little late for a post this night, but my house is finally cleaned, and my Christmas lights are on, and I can’t not recognize this day’s importance.

For this, my pals, is my godson’s first birthday.

 

He wore a crown, because really, everyone deserves a crown on their first birthday.

While I can barely believe it has been one whole year since Tobin made his arrival, it seems that time passes by more quickly than I remember (Mom, you were right on that one), and he’s walking, almost talking, and is of course the smartest one-year old I’ve ever come across (advanced, I like to say.)

On the flip side, it’s hard to even remember what it was like before Tobes got here.

 

I can’t believe he was ever that little of a baby, which I’m sure I’ll say every year until he’s a teenager like his brother and sister, and then finally I’ll just give up and be thankful he still talks to me.

 

Tobin has hands down been one of the best Christmas gifts I’ve ever been lucky enough to receive.

So happy birthday baby- we’re so lucky to have you!

snap to it.

Morning, chickadees!

And just like that, we’re nearly at the edge of another week.

Which means it’s almost mid-December.

And Christmas.

Where does the time go, pals?

I don’t know either.

Last night, I literally spent the entirety of the evening holed up on my couch, watching things that would make me laugh, before depositing myself into bed at just after ten and getting a solid eight hours of sleep.

Sometimes, after a long stretch, it’s best to just give yourself up to the exhaustion.

I’m feeling much more like a normal human this morning, thank you very much.

Other things I noticed last night, during my long couch stay:

I am obsessed with Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark. The man is constantly helping unload trucks of supplies, helping people find phone numbers of agencies, and also, tweeting.

I love a man who tweets, it turns out.

It doesn’t hurt that he’s good looking too.

For his next move, he’s trying to expose the difficulty of living off of food stamps, by actually living off of the SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program) allotment, which is $30 a week.

He’s only on day two, but he’s already raised significant awareness about the difficulty that some of our more impoverished Americans are facing every day.

Some people cry “publicity stunt,” and others note that the program assumes some other supplemental income to go toward food, but the fact that lots of people are talking about it is really enough for me to count it a success.

Food deserts (large, usually urban, areas where there’s no real access to fresh produce) and poor nutrition due to lack of resources is an important issue in the United States, and it encourages me that someone’s trying to bring some real life attention to it.

What do you guys think? How far would $30 go in your fridge? I’m interested to follow what’s going on with Mr. Booker while fielding some other perspectives.

breaking customs

Oh hi there, chickens!

Somehow, it’s already the middle of the week.

Please don’t ask me how that happened.

Yesterday, I found myself traipsing through five airports, and finally managed to get into my bed at around midnight or so, about 19 hours after leaving my house Tuesday morning.

So I guess that’s how that happened.

My meeting, which was the purpose of my mini-trip, went well, and all of my flights were on time, so really, what more could I ask for?

The low point of the trip actually came on my departure flight from the Ottowa airport, where I appeared to be the only person in Ottowa attempting to make her way back into the United States.

Which you would think would make things easier.

However, the line corrals at customs seemed to have no actual opening for an entrance, and so after looking around frustratingly for a way into the door, I finally ducked under a rope and headed in the door.

Where a displeased looking man asked me what was I doing, exactly?

Are you crew? He said, eyeing me suspiciously.

I assure you, chickadees, I am nowhere near official looking enough to be mistaken for someone who belongs in any sort of control of an airplane.

I explained that no, I was not crew, but I couldn’t figure out how to get in there, and I was very sorry.

He looked at me again.

So you just crawled under the barricade then.

I had assumed that was the only obviously conclusion, and yes, it sounded ridiculous, but I just nodded and mumbled an apology.

You really shouldn’t have done that, he said sternly. That line is for crew only.

I had caught onto that by this point, and apologized again, headed back through the door, and then finally found a legitimate door into customs through the (non-occupied) maze of a line.

When I entered the door, the very same man waved me over to the still empty customs window.

Where I kid you not, chicks, he gave me another lecture about my behavior.

I just don’t understand why you would do that.

Little does he know I don’t understand half of the things that I do on a daily basis.

I made one more attempt to explain myself, noting that there was no one to follow and the security employees hadn’t really been much help, since they’d just watched me perform a customs infraction.

He raised his eyebrows for the entirety of the passport stamping.

Luckily, he let me through, and now, two flights later, I’m back on my home turf.

Where I intend on staying for awhile.

Enjoy this one, chickens!

rocky mountain fever.

Morning chickens, from the mountains!

The past couple of days have been excessively fun, and we’ve enjoyed a pub crawl, delicious food, karaoke to our favorite 90s band (hello, Third Eye Blind), and a trip to Laramie, Wyoming.

It turns out Laramie, Wyoming (population: 30,000), includes a wild, wild west-ish downtown, a railroad crossing, and a cool western shop where I was able to get myself a cowboy boot ornament.

I could have gone for some actual cowboy boots, but it didn’t seem a practical purchase.

 

It was hard to say no to all these beautiful specimens.

Wyoming turned out to be a kind of weird place, but man, was the mountain drive home a beautiful site to see.

As were the delicious pie and cinnamon bun options we ran into on our way home to Colorado.

It’s been too fun for words, and I’ll be sad to head home later today, so for now, I’ll just show you how it’s been going.

 

As you can see, we’ve been enjoying our gracious hosts and their western home greatly. This morning, JW and I are headed out for an easy mountain hike with some beautiful scenery before heading back to Chicago and getting a good night’s sleep after our fun-filled trip.

Next up, I head to Ottawa for one day only for a work trip, before finally landing back at home, where I’ll be for, oh, approximately a week and a half.

It’s best to keep it moving, chickadees- there’s lots to see around this place.

coming round the mountain

Good morning, chickadees.

I’m writing to you from the lovely Fort Collins, CO, where JW and I are hanging out with our pals LB & NB for a long weekend.

I would like you to know that I love Fort Collins, even though I’ve only been here for a few hours.

Last night, we strolled downtown, drinking delicious beer and eating burgers, looking at the elaborate Christmas lights and hearing all about our friends’ recent change in scenery.

Basically I just kept pointing out how beautiful I thought everything was, like a crazy person.

But really, the lights were so festive, I just couldn’t help it.

This morning, we’re lounging around, looking out the window of Lara’s home where I can see actual mountains (mountains, chickens, are basically my favorite), and planning the rest of our day.

The sun is shining, the weather’s rumored to be lovely, and we pretty much have the best hosts on the planet.

As in, they’ve scheduled us a beer drinking pub crawl of sorts, which we plan on starting in the early afternoon.

And so, my friends, I’m off to begin a day in my new host city. Hope there’s sunshine where you are, chicks.

Enjoy your Saturday morning!

 

making moves and smiling about it.

Chickens, I am so very glad that we have almost reached the end of this very long, very exhausting week.

Last night, my pals and I headed out post work to celebrate the next stage in my dear friend AB’s career.

I’m so excited for her. AB is among the people I count myself lucky to have met as a coworker and ended up “real friends” with, as we exclaimed to each other yesterday.

The best thing about my job so far, chickadees, is all the friends that have come my way because of it.

Talk about a fringe benefit.

In any case, while I will miss AB’s smiling face on my walks around the office, I’m too happy for her to be sad about anything.

And I’m sticking to it.

*****

In other news, I’m ready to make my move to CO tonight, with a suitcase full of who-knows-what, since JW and I didn’t wind up packing until early this morning.

I might have been slightly slow moving due to my night out.

LB, hope you don’t mind if I packed only neon shirts and yoga pants.

We can still go out in public, right?

Enjoy your weekend, chickadees, you deserve it.

basking in the glow of tomorrow.

Hey there chickens!

I hope everyone’s having a good start to their day.

We’re almost to the weekend already!

I’ve got a great trip to Colorado ahead of me, scheduled so I can visit one of my best pals, LB, now that she’s relocated to the mountains.

Before that, she was hanging out in Philly for a year.

And before that, she was across the pond in Berlin for awhile.

She sets up a lot of vacation destinations for me.

In any case, JW and I are heading there for three days to enjoy some fresh air, to see some nature, and most importantly, to drink beer with LB and her very funny husband NB.

Until then though, I’m fighting back that first cold of the season by downing Vitamin C, and trying to sweat it out through various physical activities.

One of which was a kettlebell class last night.

Halfway through some kind of bone crushing squat, Gene, my beloved Russian instructor, looked at me in surprise, and said, “Nikki, congratulations!”, gesturing at my wedding rings.

Which I never wear to class, because I fear smashing them with a bell.

I explained that I had actually been married for over a year, and he furrowed his brow and exclaimed that he’d had no idea.

Looks like I’m not doing enough personal sharing in between swings, chickens.

And with that knowledge under my belt, I’m off to take down some more Vitamin C and hit the public transit.

Enjoy the sunshine if you’ve got it, chicks!