LOVE

"No, no, we are not satisfied...

and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters 

and righteousness like a mighty stream."

May we all continue to work on the content of our character, 

and never stop dreaming. 

  

Happy Birthday, Zippidy Do Da!

1,465 days, 

1,195 posts, 

and 68,637 (very kind) visitors later, 

today you are

Thank you for reminding me on a daily basis

to embrace, record, remember, and to share 

all of the awesomeness that life has to offer :)

Picture Perfect

My sister-in-law is not one for attention 

but since we all know that I am (hahaha), 

I like to live vicariously through her fabulousness :)

Case.in.point!

Nope, my mom actually did not buy this for me 

as a "hint, hint, wink, wink"

She got it for me becaaaaauuse...

Kendra & Stephen are "famous" ;)

     

LOVE

  

HAIL! Yessss ;)

  

New Year's Resolution [Slash Realization]

SnOw Pretty

I'm certain my sentiment will quickly fade,

but there really is something special about 
waking up to the first snowfall of the season :)

 
{insert snow shovel here}
  

HAAAAPPPY NEW YEAR FRIENDS :)

Sorry I've been a little MIA lately...

The Z-Do-Da is back up and runnin' for the New Year!

Hope you had a WONDERFUL holiday :) 

      

My Christmas Break Motto

    

Ever Fortunate

Not gonna lie, 
I had a serious moral hangover for about a week after the 
"1st Annual Hall-iday Festivus" party that I hosted for all of my Sandbox co-workers.
  
Not so surprising with our crew, 
things got a "touch" loud and not just one, but 
both my above-and-below neighbors called-in noise complaints. 
{insert guilty face here}

So admittedly, 
my heart felt very full today after receiving this note 
my landlord left under my door: 

Goes without saying, I'll be working on my "be good to thy neighbor" skills in the New Year :S
     

Do you see what I see?

Maybe you're not looking hard enough...

For reals!

I gotta Cookie Monster Lava Lamp 

in our "adult" family White Elephant Exchange. 

  

LOVE 

Thank you, Dana :)

     

HAPPY HALL-IDAYS

A very Merry Christmas, indeed :)

  

Blessed

Without question, this December has been the busiest month of my life (to date) on a personal and professional level. 

  

I am blessed with work and more so, 

with an incredible amount of 

family and friends close by. 

However, I'm afraid that the combination of the two has brought the notion of "work hard, play hard" to a whole new height. 

So it was really nice to take a breather, 
head to my parents house,
and go to church to take a moment 
to give thanks for all the above. 

I just feel really badly for the woman who had to offer me a Kleenex when I totally burst into tears during "Joy to the World" at the end of the service...

Between the lack of sleep and thinking about how this is our first Christmas without Grandma Stella, I just kinda lost my shit :( 
   

But it sure felt good to cry it out. With all of our lives being as busy as they are, it's important to take time to remember the real reason for the season :)
   

Lincoln Park Zoo Lights

Not-So-Secret Confession:

My love for Zoo Lights goes beyond words

Confession...

And it's even better when you go with the fam

and put red wine in your coffee cups ;)

  

  

Candy Land

Was so fun to take a break from work, 

to do a lil' manual labor ;)

Sandbox meets Gingerbread Houses...

I was SOOO happy that mine was a winner :)

 

  YAHOOOOOOO!

  

"Extreme Makeover: HO-HO-HOME! Edition"

  

Elf consumerism...

Elf at work...

And what came after :)

Will be such a bummer to take this all down :(

  

Home Sweet Home

Not gonna lie, 

after traveling all last week for work,

I've never been happier walking through O'Hare 

as I was this afternoon :) 

Sooo nice to be back in my own place

and to decorate for the Hall-idays.

Many pix to follow tomorrow...

ELF AT WORK!

   

LOVE

     

          

Why?

Last night I had the honor to be a guest speaker 

at a Medill graduate journalism class 

to talk about recent "Insights, Discoveries & Developments" 

within the social media market research 

and tech-start-up environments. 

{insert deep breath here}

All was going really well, 

the class seemed super into the presentation, 

peeps were asking great questions, 

and out of absolutely no where, 

I burped!

Like, the loud kind. 

Completely totally unexpected.

Surprised the shit out of me, kind. 

And I couldn't stop laughing.

The class must have been like,
"Who is this crass woman?!?!"

But thankfully they all laughed too,

so I was able to make a joke of it and move on. 

But I still can't believe it happened. 

I never burp!! 

So whhhyyyy did one sneak up on me like that 

in front of all those crazy smart people?!?

Note to self: 

Do not chug a Diet Coke to help caffeinate prior to presenting. You are an idiot for thinking this would "enhance" performance.  Next time, oh wait, there likely will not be a "next time"... Hahahaha
Oi!