Weekend quote

My brother and his fiance Mollie are planning to get married next October.  As both battle serious cases of indecision on a regular basis, I can imagine that orchestrating an event of this nature would cause their heads to spin. I have faith in both of them that things will turn out marvelously, and am very much looking forward to the festivities.  But what worries me is the music selection.  Last night, upon talking about the man's traditional role in the planning of a wedding, my Mom noted that sometimes music selection is delegated to the groom.

I don't think that level of detail has been sorted out yet by either as they are more than a year out, but when asked about his feelings on the matter, Jeff said (with typical Jeff elegance, tastefulness, and unecessarily-elevated voice volume):

"If Mollie plans to include the (insert expletive) YMCA, then I insist on including that Miley (insert expletive) Cyrus song Party in the USA!"

Go Jeff!  My apologies in advance, but I might have to tastefully exit the room on both accounts :-)

I went, I ate, I conquered

Two weeks ago, I went to Chicago for a pretend summer vacation.  It was my last little escape to visit my friend Christine before starting my spectacular new job.  But it was short. I flew out Friday afternoon and flew home Sunday morning. 

Since starting at America's Promise Alliance, I have had no brain power to do anything post work other than therapy shop, eat and sleep.  It's ok. I've found simple-hood quite enjoyable. But, I feel like I'm so far behind in life since the new job began.  I haven't even been good at keeping up with my emailing.  Blog reading? Not so much.  I am far behind on my reading. I have no idea what's going on in my friends' lives and especially miss my daily updates on Gary and Elaine from Catalog Living.  The fact that no pictures load on my Google Reader at work is crippling my efforts to get back on track.  Its tragic, really.

At the very least, I wanted to take this opportunity to post some pictures from my Chitown trip.  I've uploaded all of my pictures to Picasa if you're not interested in the abridged version below.

The weather? Perfectly fantastic. Crisp, bold, blue skies.  The food? Expectedly comforting and satisfying.  The adventures? Quick and jam-packed. The experience?  Memorable! My camera?! Well you needn't ask. See for yourself below!

A beautiful stuffed pizza from Edwardo's.  This is the fifth deep dish pizza place I've tried in the city and it was delicious. We picked this up after an open-bar event that we attended in our work out clothes. It's OK. I'm not out trying to win friends or anything. What follows is a snippet of the activity in the cab ride home with Edwardo's in hand.

And then we devoured...only half of it. We had already eaten some free appetizers and cupcakes at the bar. It turned out to be a wise choice, since that left me a quality breakfast option the next two days. Nothing beats cold, deep dish pizza!

Our baby was stuffed with peppers, onions and mushrooms. MMmmmm. The next morning, after a cold piece of pizza, we headed to a remarkable brunch spot in Lincoln Park called Toast.  We had a Groupon for that place, so we felt no shame in ordering a variety of delicious items.

(This photo is a little fuzzy since I resized it a few times and did some other careless things. Judge me, not my camera!) After scouring the menu, we chose to feast on the following:

Ladies and gentlemen, the Pesto Scramble with spinach, bacon and Gruyere accompanied by spiced breakfast potatoes.

May I introduce you to the Nutella Crepe with crushed walnuts?  Yes...you're welcome.

And here we have two modest, but not unspoken Veggie Sausage patties.  Spicy and flavorful!

Last, but by no means least, the Stuffed French Toast Trio.  Where nutella stuffed brioche meets strawberry puree stuffed brioche and decides to do business with mascarpone stuffed brioche. Can you think of anything better? I can't! 

Upon taking our order, the waiter politely came back and cleared the other extraneous items from our table citing that there might be a logistical problem fitting all of the plates of food we ordered.  Then upon delivering the plates, he said "Here you go, and GOOD LUCK!"

Now, this was one of my shortest trips to the Windy City in nearly five years.  But for some reason, I feel like Christine and I accomplished just as much, if not more. Maybe it was the stronger sense of urgency that carried us to victory. I plan to post another entry that covers the remainder of the trip. And I hope to get my act together and not wait another few weeks to do so!

Moving On

Today is my last full day at my job. Instead of ranting about the terrible waiter that served my friends and I at Carmine's this afternoon, or complaining about the over-dressed salad, and pushy nature of the wait staff, I will instead pay homage to the four months I spent in Chinatown. I'll talk about Carmine's another time. Here's a list of what I will miss about my job, and what deserves to be shown the door.

I'll Miss You:

1. Great coworkers
2. Relaxed punctuality policies
3. My office with a view and a balcony
4. Chinatown
5. Teaism
6. Carmine's
7. FroZENYo
8. Quick and easy commute
9. Great Happy Hour options
10. Proximity to friends' offices
11. Friendly Chevy Chase Bank tellers
12. Free passes to Vida gym
13. Free weekly cardio instruction classes at the office gym
14. Free fresh fruit on Tuesdays and Thursdays
15. Short, 37.5 hour work week

Good Riddance:

1. Picketters and cowbells
2. Tourists blocking the sidewalks on 7th Street
3. Angry homeless man who ridicules pedestrians
4. Awkward interactions with the mail room
5. Slow and outdated computer
6. Morgue-like office temperatures
7. Herding cats
8. Taking meeting minutes

As you can see, the good times far outweighed the bad. I hope that my next venture will be just as good, if not better.

What's in store for me?

1. A great boss who is a friend and former coworker
2. Office proximity to one of my best college friends Sheri
3. Juice Joint
4. Burrito Man vendor cart
5. Naan and Beyond
6. Proximity to old coworkers' offices
7. Great job responsibilities
8. Awesome benefits
9. A regular paycheck
10. A career path at a commendable organization

I couldn't be happier!

Something Old, Something New

Something old? That would be me. I'm now 29 years old and a few days. Something new? A digital camera.

In addition to some much needed essentials (gas money!) given to me for my birthday this past weekend, I received a new Canon digital camera. Canon replaces the seven-year-old Kyocera I used to keep by my side. I'm excited about the new one because this means I can take many more, higher quality pictures to use in my blog and elsewhere. My old, defiant Kyocera had a terrible, awful, no good, very bad battery that lost its charge years ago. And even though the battery was replaced a few years back, that too soon died. Hence, taking pictures was a REAL bear. Kyocera's signature move of defiance included turning off, shrugging, and citing "low battery" after taking just one shot. SAD. Unreliable. I think the old thing just plain old stopped caring.

But even though I have a new toy to play with, I didn't take advantage of it yet. Over the weekend, I had so many opportunites to snap pictures and seize blogging material, but something deflated my motivation. I'm not sure what it was, but I didn't take a single picture or post a single blog. I am afraid to chalk it up to writer's block, because in less than a week I start my new job which primarily involves writing. Yes, WRITING! My reputation can't afford regular bouts of writer's block.

Either way, I am using this week as a mental vacation before the storm of a new job unleashes. My soon to be boss has been sending me material to review so that I can hit the ground running come September 13. Oh, I'll hit the ground all right. I just hope I can lasso my brain around in time to meet the challenges.

My last day at my current job is Friday, September 10. I plan to skip town that day around noon to fly to Chicago to visit one of my best friends, Christine, for a quick "vacation" before the real job starts. The weather is supposed to be beautiful, we have some new restaurants to check out, some deep-dish pizza to shove down our gullets, and some fantastic funky outfit shopping to do.

I can't wait to get away. This time, I can be extra camera happy without Kyocera being a wet blanket with its perpetually lame, "low battery" excuse. That's right, Kyocera! I'm leaving you home! And, maybe since I'm old now, I'll cart Canon around in a fashionable fanny pack. Either way, some good times are ahead for the both of us.

And then we came to the end...

This week marks the end of many things in the uproarious life of Hilary. My volleyball season ended in the highest form of victory that group of ballers has ever seen with a league championship, my job nears its close, my last remaining days of being 28 end Friday, and I've made the last cobbler of the season. THE very last cobbler until Spring rolls around.

And this time, there were no pictures taken and no recipes consulted. I made a Bosc pear and Granny Smith apple cobbler. I knew the measurements for the filling and crumbly topping by heart. I peeled, I cored, I sliced, I zested, I juiced. I sifted, I measured, I mixed, I crumbled. One last time.

And then I baked it and opened the oven three different times to check on my progress. This was, afterall, going to be the last time I had the opportunity to watch something bake for many months. Then I had to do the hardest thing I've had to do in quite some time. I had to let the cobbler sit, cool, and chill in the fridge...all without one taste.

I had decided a few weeks ago to bring in a cobbler for my coworkers to enjoy. And this morning, I carted this few pound puppy in to work unscathed. We just shared some of it for our breakfast and as expected, it hit the spot. After all my cobbling, the apple pear cobbler turned out the winner. And, luckily, pears seem to be in season through parts of the Fall, so if I happen to have a yearning, I will still be able to satisfy my hunger.

Here's the list of the cobblers I made this season in order of preference. It doesn't seem like too long a list, but I made several of them more than once. I hope I'm not forgetting any.

1. apple pear
2. yellow nectarine, white peach
3. peach blueberry
4. strawberry peach
5. strawberry rhubarb
6. plum blueberry
7. blackberry cake
8. white apricot, yellow peach
9. peach blackberry
10. cherry
11. apple blueberry peach
12. blueberry cake
13. raspberry, blueberry, strawberry

Goodbye, late twenties. Adieu summer volleyball. Peace out, job. And fare-thee-well, cobblers. Tear.