My time in Chicago was pretty amazing. I had a great time with family and friends and Phil and I had a lovely first Christmas and New Years as Newly Weds.
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| Oh Christmas Tree. |
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| So festive. |
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| Family Selfie |
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| Female tiny human #2 in a bag |
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| Tiny male human all up in my face |
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| My fav present from the hubby which is making this blog writing a little more pleasant |
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| Cat's fav present from Uncle Rev Kev |
Phil took the time off between Christmas and New Years so we had plenty of quality time including a day at the museum with the tiny humans, an impromptu bar crawl through Pilsen ending in an equally impromptu tread mill work out at 3am, and celebrating New Years Eve properly for the first time (one of us has always been sick).
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| "Let's go to the gym...I really like to go to the gym after the bar" |
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| Look at me touching female tiny human. I even changed her diaper. |
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| Museum Selfie |
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| NYE Selfie |
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| Phil looking longingly at his childhood rave days. |
The time in Chitown was short but luckily I was able to see a few of my dear friends, including the lovely Stephy Sue and Miss Mary (who is now also officially my PepsiCo colleague! WooHoo! Margarita Tuesdays are reborn!) and our darling groom lady, Val.
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Going away dinner at Pizen with Val
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The 18 hours of airtime in Economy wasn't bad at all. I did get upgraded for like the first time ever to first class, go figure, for the 1 hour flight to Atlanta. Um, thanks Delta? Tease me and than shove me in to a little box for 16 hours. Like I said though it was no big deal.... a few movies, my specially requested vegan meals, two HUGE glasses of wine, a couple of Tylenol PM and my fuzzy owl mask and I was on the ground in Joburg before I knew it. Quick Movie reviews: He Named Me Madala: Great; Mistress America: Amusing; Martian: Okay; Intern: Amusing. Although nothing I'd really watch if I wasn't trapped in a metal cage.
I arrived on Tuesday night and was back in the office on Wednesday. The short week flew by. I threw myself back into work... so much to do in less than 4 months. Good news for the start of the year... 2 of the reviews I commissioned were accepted for publication. Woot!
I don't really do resolutions because I'm happy, so do'in me must be working out just fine... but I am trying to keep to some sort of work out schedule, esp. since I don't really have much else going on these days. I'm proud to report that I stuck with it this week and did some sort of work out every day since I've been back. This includes my first run outside since the disastrous almost face plant. I intentionally went a different route and encountered more hills than I've ever run on in my life. My ass is going to be amazing if I can keep this up.
In addition to the run, my Saturday consisted of some me time with my recently rediscover music library. Lots of impromptu solo spontaneous dance parties in my kitchen. iTunes is my hot tub time machine... each song that I haven't heard in years and years taking me back to a person or a place or an emotional space...and if I'm not ready to go back there yet, its just a click and on to the next place.
Today was a little more productive. Checked out
Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens which were pretty awesome... some great trails and sights including a water fall and some new critter friends. The creepy poisonous grasshopper below is the
Dictyophorus spumans, in case you were wondering. And no, I didn't touch it, thankfully. I hope to find to make it back...there seemed to be a few more challenging hikes that we didn't get to today. I could have stayed and hiked around all day.
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| Foaming grasshopper |
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| Waterfall |
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| Video of waterfall that may or may not work |
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| ducks! |
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| Orange bird, Im too lazy to link too |
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| Lone butterfly left after the hail storm |
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| Turtle! I knew you weren't a statue!! |
After the park, I picked up some vodka and limes, made myself a double Moscow Mule in a water bottle and just hung out by the pool. A perfect afternoon and I'm not even really a pool person. Better than the cold I've been hearing about in Chitown.... sorry I had to go there.
I'll just leave you with this in case you missed it on the Facebooks:
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