Lizzard's "Ladies Weekend" :)

Liz thought if she called her bachelorette a "ladies wknd at the lake" that we would somehow "forget" to bring the falic funnies ...
but have no fear, that did not happen. Teehee!
I did however promise that only G-rated digital evidence would be shared, so I gotta keep it clean ;)

For real though, it was so much fun to spend the weekend celebrating the fact that one very lucky man will be marrying one of the most kind, funny, beautiful, smart women on the planet :)

I have known "Lizzard" for literally my entire life. Our parents have been besties since before we were born and I'm ever so thankful for the lifetime of memories we've shared thus far :)

It was a blast to meet all of her girlfriends and lounge at the beach.

And although showers tend to get a bad wrap, it was ever apparent that everyone had an absolutely awesome time :)

But the highlight for me,
(aside from seeing Liz so glowingly happy!)
was to be able to spend time with my sister
as well as the Kearney & Gundrum girls.

Jamie & Stacey Hall / Margaret & Liz Kearney / Maggie & Cody Gundrum

Growing up, our older sisters never wanted to play with us, but I will say, they most definitely did a great job of taking care of us :)

So it was such a blast to all hang, and drink, and laugh about how our age differences actually used to matter; and how special it is now to be at each other's bridal events and to welcome the first baby of the group in just 6 weeks!! Hoooray for Maggie & Joe!

So many great memories from the past,

but I'm even more excited for the ones yet to come :)

CONGRATS LIZ & CHRIS!!

Can't wait to celebrate your big day in October!

HUGE fan of the Silly Band :)

I don't care if it's a teen craze,
I'm totally on board!

I just wish I'd personally invented SillyBandz

but such is life ;)

Social "Me"dia ;)

Last week I had the pleasure to speak briefly at the ARF AM5
(Advertising Research Federation on Audience Measurement 5.0)
to paint the picture of just how big Social Media has become.

It was an absolute honor to introduce Annie Pettit, the Chief Research Officer of Conversition, a marketing research firm that listens to consumers by applying scientific research principles to the collection and analysis of online social data.

Annie is the mastermind behind a new online monitoring tool that is sure to be a great success. My many kudos to her hard work, intelligence, and incredible thinking!

Here is a snippet of the intro -- I'm working to get her speech up
so you can view Annie's awesomeness :)
Stay tuned!

Blog Break

Sorry to be MIA but the second work is over I've been out the door to catch what's left of the sunny sun sun and to hang with friends :) I'll most definitely be back with a'vengeance next week. In the meantime, HAPPY FRIDAY, have a wonderful weekend and GOOO USA!!!!

"Pigeons Perching"

Alyssa sent me this pic last night

of our new neighbors across the street ...

This Summer is starting exactly as I planned ;)

Hahahaha

Happy Summer Solstice!

This is the first Summer I've actually had two feet on the ground in NYC :) With that, I made a list of a gazillion things I want to do + places to try before Labor Day aaaand so far, SO GREAT!

Here are some of my most favorites to date:

World Cup games at Donnybrook :)

Softball games on the Uptown fields (Go MA!)

The SeaStreak Ferry to Sandy Hook beach

The Boat Basin Cafe

Corn on the cob at Cafe Habana

Margaritas at Los Feliz

Tacos at Mercadito

Yumminess galore at The Spotted Pig

Brunch at Jane

B Bar & Grill

Frozen bevs and pretzel dogs at the Rusty Knot

Live music at Prohibition :)

Now stop reading,

log outta work stuffs,

go get outside, aaaand

enjoy your Summer!

Happy Father's Day, Papo!

I love you very very very much!

~Impy :)

HAPPY FRIDAY FRIENDS!

It's GO time! Woooohooooooo, USA!!

The Independent Handbag Designer Awards :)

Wow!

Super proud/impressed/star-struck friend = Me

Last night I had the honor to attend the IHD Awards

presented by InStyle and Directed by Melissa Hall :)

Never have I ever taken a photo on a red carpet,

or seen so many beautiful handbags!

What an incredible event to celebrate the hard work

and incredible talent of these young emerging designers.

Not gonna lie, when Tim Gunn presented

I kinda eeeked a little but refrained from shouting,

"Dessiiiiiiiigners, make it work!"

Congratulations on such an awesome event, Cuz :)

You're a ROCKSTAR in every sense of the word and I look forward to continue to watch, support, and cheer on your great success in the years to follow!

Oh, the irony!

PS BTW ... Thanks, Kevin Costner!

Can't say I saw that one coming,

but MAJOR kudos

Neat :)

One of my besties is an absolutely incredible Event Planner so we had the pleasure to watch the USA/England match on Saturday in the Meat Packing District at her Nike event.

When having such a good time I forget how much hard work
goes into making it happen. I'll be sure to post pix as soon as the link is up! Thanks again, Katelyn :)

GO USA!!! Wooohoooooo

Woopsy daisy ;)

50 Things I Can't Relate To

• Accounting, finance, mortgages ...
• Having 2.2 children
• 13 year olds
• Braces
• B&T
• BP
• Bad tippers
• Born-again anything’s …
• Bridezillas
• Cat calling
• Cat lovers (Sorry, Codes ;)
• Chicks with dicks and dudes with boobs
• Body glitter
• Beggers
• Choosers
• Close talkers
• Chronic halitosis
• Douche-bags
• Close talking d-bags with bad breath
• Drunk drivers
• Glenn Beck
• Homophobes
• Racists, fascists, extremists (... “ists” of like kind)
• Know it alls
• Writing/composing/reading/understanding music notes
• Menopause
• Metrosexuals
• Moms who push beauty pageants
• Nipple piercings
• Ohio State fans
• Ohio State fans with nipple rings
• Picture posers
• Paparazzi
• Peeps who throw the peace sign
• People who actually enjoy running marathons
• People who block subway doors
• People who buy expensive pens. Why?
• Peeps of age who don't drink (but have never been to AA and aren't currently preggers)
• Peeps who say, "Oh! I think I left the oven on" (Clearly, I don’t cook and cannot relate to this statement)
• People who don't find Angelina Jolie highly attractive
• People who don't like celebrating their birthdays
• (Ditto for holidays)
• Pervs and pedophiles
• Pipe smokers
• Rachel Ray
• Royalty
• Smelly cab drivers
• Those who don't like seafood and aren't allergic
• (Better yet, those who order steak well done)
• Vegans
• Virgins (of age)
• Virgin daiquiris

My Goodness, My Guinness! Tears :)

Off to Beantown!

Got a last minute "green light - go!" from work that I'll be attending the annual Market Research Conference so I'm out the door to catch the train to beautiful Beantown :)

Since I won't have much time to post, check out this awesome site my seeeester, Jamie introduced me to:
Stumble Upon

Click away and start stumblin' ...
it's seriously like the most fun you'll ever have sober ;)

HAPPY WEEK,
ENJOY THE WEATHER
& GO HAWKS BABY!!

Because I'm a Huge Dork...

I get totally psyched when my monthly subscription
of Entrepreneur magazine arrives in the mail.

Where as many girls grew up dreaming about wedding bells and babies, I have always admittedly wanted to start my own company. More or less to become as successful as humanly possible, so I can give it all away :)

To further confess my nerdyness, I absolutely love reading about what others are up to, learning from the ins-and-outs of how it was achieved, and then thinking up my own ideas...
I have loads of file folders labeled with each business concept - filled with scratch paper concoctions and print outs of anything I see fitting for the matter.

"Someday!", I think to myself

(insert deep breath here ;)

And every time I stumble upon a quirky message from a company, I always save it to my "Cool Culture" folder ...
This week alone I added two from Twitter,

as I fully adore their communications platform:

So here's a major kudos
to this month's brilliant companies :)

Cheers to all the hard work put forth, to the giant risks they believed in taking, and to all the creativity involved in building a success. It's admirable, inspiring, and straight up awesome ...
May we all be so lucky!
  

Family Reunion 2010 :)

Quote of the Day

Me: Hey Grams, you wanna have lunch together tomorrow before we leave for the family reunion?

Grandma Stella: We'll see

Me: Meeaaning, you're too busy to squeeze me in?

Grandma Stella: No, I just don't know if I'll even be here tomorrow. At my age, every day is like a surprise party. I wake up in the morning and think, "Oh! Still here!"

Me: No words

Things I Probably Shouldn't Find Funny ...

Yet I admittedly find to be absolutely ha!sterical :)

Comics by Bottled City

Weekend Highlights :)

I came home for the long weekend because I promised my mom I would do so, in order to spend time with just my family. To many this may seem like a relaxing idea, however, the word "relaxing" has never exactly been synonymous with the Hall household ;)

But I must say, I was oh-so pleasantly surprised with the outcome! Although busy at all times, it was an absolute ball :) It's obviously never all sunshine and rainbows when it comes to family (believe you me!), but I'm incredibly thankful for good times like these.
I just can't decided what my favorite moment was though ...

Possibly when my 92 year old Grandma provided us with
play-by-play commentary during the Blackhawks game
(it's truly ah!mazing ... the woman is still sharp as a tack!)
or when my mom asked us, "How do you Twitter?"
After which we all made up elaborate falsities
to further and fully confuse her on the concept ;) Ha!
And I genuinely loved spending time with "The Bridge Group",
and watching commemorative War movies on Memorial Day,
and eating out of a completely stocked refrigerator
(yes, this is a rarity for me).

But I think my favorite part was our maiden voyage
on Stephen & Kendra's new boat!

I had to pinch myself when this drifted by,

but felt like one helluva lucky wanna-be-pirate
to be in such great company as it sailed on past :)