Goodbye Chicago!

Last week I said my final goodbyes to Chicago. Well I hope not final goodbyes. I loved Chicago and I hope to visit again soon.

Anyway.

Last week was my final week on P&G/IDP and now I am happy and enjoying some much needed R&R at home with E.

P&G was such a great opportunity to grow my career as well as get the opportunity to work on a such an awesome project. Olay & Pantene are brands that everyone recognizes and I played a big role on their web sites. I can’t believe that I have been in Chicago for almost a year. Time has flown by so quickly and now that it’s all over, I have to say I am going to miss not working in Chicago. Not only because Chicago was a great city, but my co-workers on the project made my time away from Seattle FANTASTIC.

So here’s to you Chicago

Goodbye:

Springhill Marriott,

Renaissance Marriott,

Courtyard Marriott (and you too Igor),

Mother Hubbards (thank you for many drunken nights and sports games)

Boss Bar,

O’Callaghans

Hopleaf (I loved the mac n cheese),

Goose Island Brewery (as much as I love your bourbon beer, it knocks me out)

English

Giordano’s (I’m so glad I had my last deep dish)

Gino’s East

Portillo’s

Hot Doug’s (so sorry I didn’t get to see you)

Millennium Park (I love how beautiful of a park you are)

Soldier Field (thanks for my very first NFL game! It was an experience)

Oprah!

Blommer Chocolate Factory (how fantastic is it to have a chocolate factory in downtown, it always smells like chocolate outside)

Lake shore drive – (the views are definitely in competition with Seattle)

7th on State (how I loved your noodles and your turkey burgers)

Xoco and Frontera Grill (thank you Rick Bayless for the delicious food)

Harry Caray and your quirky restaurant

The Bergoff (I will never be eating there again)

The Chicago River (how I loved seeing you through the seasons, the best was in the winter when you were completely frozen)

The L (if only public transportation was as wonderful in Seattle)

7-Eleven – thanks for being open late at night

Au bon – my morning coffee

Corner Bakery – one of my many favorite sandwich places

Hannah’s Bretzel – more sandwich love

Starbucks – Javier thanks for being such an awesome barista

Eno – God I love this wine bar

Bombay Wraps – Indian Food + Wraps = Fantastically delicious

Purple Pig

United Red Carpet Club

and Last and probably least, Chicago O’Hare International Airport. Many many hours wasted there

100,000 miles

I haven’t blogged in a long time. Longer than I’ve ever gone since I started this blog. So many things have happened since I last blogged:

Eric visited Texas with me, the first time since he was in high school:

We took Rachel on a tour of UW:

Eric made a 2nd trip to Texas and my sister graduated from college (again)

I went to Hawaii with Eric’s family

AND I turned 26!!

You would think that any of those events would have led to a lengthy blog post, but no. Today I am blogging about a big accomplishment; this week I flew my 100,000th mile for the year.

I am both thrilled and disappointed at this amazing feat. Yes I have missed out on many events with my friends.family.boyfriend, but I have gotten to experience many things that I know not many people will ever get to experience in their lifetime.

The best way to describe my life of travel is that I lead a double life. Monday – Thursday I am on auto-pilot for the most part. Wake up at 3:45 a.m. on Monday, have Armani take me to the airport (my car service guy), get myself through security and sit in the Red Carpet Club, eat breakfast, and wait until my plane boards. Having elite status means going first class which is a very nice perk, but I spend the entire Monday morning flight sleeping. I sleep the entire 4 hours. I’m not sure how I do it, but amazingly enough my body shuts down once I board the flight, and then wakes up right as we start our descent. Once I’m in Chicago my day is basically half over as it is noon before I get to work. I work laterish then drag my bags to my regular hotel, retrieve my bag of toiletries (which I store at the hotel over the weekend), grab dinner/hit the gym and then crash around 10.

Tuesdays and Wednesdays are pretty basic. I wake up, maybe go to the gym. Grab oatmeal from the hotel (I eat it every morning) and work a normal day. On Wednesdays I try to have some work/life balance and I will go out to dinner with some of my co-workers.

Thursdays are fly home days. I leave work at 1:30, arrive at the airport, back through security, and then again to the Red Carpet Club. I don’t eat lunch on Thursdays so I can get in more work so at Red Carpet I normally eat carrots and ranch dressing and maybe a few yogurt covered raisins. If my flight is delayed (which they have been lately), I will enjoy a glass or two of wine. If my flight continues to be delayed I’ll get a sandwich and probably another glass of wine as at this point I could have been at the airport for 4 or more hours. Once on the plane I may doze off and I try to catch up on my weekly shows that I’ve downloaded on my iPhone. Sometimes I watch the movie if it’s good, but since they only change the movies at most every 2 weeks I’ve normally already seen it. Back in Seattle, Armani picks me up and Eric waits for me to come home so we can have dinner together. Then I try my best to stay awake until 10.

Then I’m home for 3 whole days. This is when my other life starts. For my 3 days home I’m a total home body. I love getting coffee with Eric in the mornings, snuggling on the couch watching a movie, and maybe having people over for dinner. Lots of people don’t understand why I don’t want to visit them on the weekends or if I don’t have any interest in staying out late. Quite simply, I’m tired. The last thing i want to do is spend my weekend doing something stressful or tiring. I just want to do what I want to do and I want to do it on my own time. On both of my trips to Texas I spent the weekends sleeping on futons and that was not my definition of “relaxing”. Even though I love my family, it’s too much for me to live out of a suitcase for 2 weeks straight. I like the downtime of coming home for the weekend and unpacking and pretending that I don’t have to hop on a plane again on Monday.

I’m not complaining necessarily, it’s just that my life has changed drastically in the last year. My traveling has afforded both me and Eric many luxuries. Free plane tickets, first class upgrades, free hotel rooms, hotel room upgrades, no wait in the security lines, airport lounge access, many free drinks. This 100,000 mile marker comes with even more benefits and I can’t wait to cash them in. Will we go to South America? Europe? Australia? Who knows. All I know is it will be free. Even though I’ve missed out on a lot this year, I know that it will be well worth it when I can spend a few weeks traveling and not have to worry about cost. Not many people can do that.

Officially a Westside Resident

Today I changed my address for all of my mailings which means… I’m officially a westside resident. It’s funny how if you would have asked me 2 years ago if I would move to the westside and my answer would be a huge NO. But here I am.

Part of this move to the westside is due to E living on the westside and me moving in with him.

We’re living in Queen Anne and I love it.

Here’s to many new adventures.

Proof I’m still Heather

I received this compliment today from someone who used to know me really well, but now is just someone who follows my life on facebook (much like I do most of my old friends).

you are amazing. your facebook is like a picture of success. just that you are seemingly able to be everything you wanted to be that you talked about. Out door adventures and such, hiking, biking, running

It totally made my day.

The other thing it did was to prove to me that I am in fact still the same person I’ve always been. Or at least the person I always wanted to be.

Over the past few years I’ve made many major changes in my life and people have often told me that I’ve changed and that I’m not the person I used to be. They tell me that I’m not the Heather they used to know, that somehow I’ve morphed in to someone else. Some people have even questioned the people I’ve chosen to be with and spend my time with and accuse them of manipulating me to be someone I’m not.

But here is someone that I knew very well for 4-5 years. Junior high through freshman year in college I talked to this person every single day. And to them, I’m the person I always talked about being. It’s no surprise to them that I am the way I am.

And it felt great to hear that.

Bandera Mountain

Pacific Northwest, how I have fallen in love with you. I must admit, this hasn’t always been the case because sure there are days when living in the northwest is … well.. shitty. But those days seem to be wiped from memory once you experience a good day in the Northwest.

March 6th just happened to be one of those amazing northwest days. This year we have been having an abnormally warm winter. Most of our days have been full of sun and mild temperatures. This has allowed for me and Eric to go hiking all through the winter.

This past weekend Eric and I drove out to Bandera Mountain. I have to admit, I didn’t know anything about this mountain and just chose it at random. The last time I chose a mountain I didn’t know very much about, both Eric and I were not in good moods for most of the hike. But I still decided to recommend the hike and we headed out.

The first portion was VERY BORING. Pretty flat, Not a lot of elevation gain. And I was wondering when we would be gaining the 3000 feet we were supposed to be gaining.

Finally we started seeing snow, proof that we were getting higher up. After a small field of snow we hit some rocks. At the rocks it was a scramble up. Lots of climbing on our hands and knees to get to the top. Really awesome.

Then we hit our first great view.

Yep.

Can’t beat that.

Why would anyone not love it here?

Then it was time for the up hill. At this point it was just a “make your own path” sort of hike and up we went.

The views were awesome from all sides.

After we got to the top, we spent a few minutes taking it all in before we descended.

After we got done, we spent most of the drive home talking about what a fantastic hike it was. It was by far my favorite.

Snowtubing

One of my goals this year was to be a better big to Rachel. I haven’t really done a good job of that this year, but no sense in giving up on that goal yet.

I had set up time with Rachel to go with Big Brothers Big Sisters to go snowtubing. Days before they canceled due to lack of snow. I don’t know if everyone is aware but Seattle has gotten NO SNOW this year. Absolutely zero. I thought I lived “up north”, isn’t snow what happens in the winter?

Anyway. I still wanted to go snowtubing and BBBS alternate event was flag football which I didn’t want to do. I knew there was snowtubing at Snoqualmie Summit and I had just been there a few weeks previous and I knew it wasn’t too far away.

Bright and early Saturday morning I picked up Rachel and we headed out to Snoqualmie.

For around $30 I was able to get two-2 hour passes for the tubing hill. Not bad.

Rachel loved the snowtubing, with the exception of having to drag her tube up the hill, which I made her do. I eventually gave in and let her ride the “lift” up.

I made a deal with her that every other run, she would have to carry her tube. I need to encourage lots of activity.

After about an hour and a half Rachel was done with the tubing and was tired.

My love for Foursquare

There’s a new social networking site out there called foursquare, have you heard of it?

I’ve been using it since last summer, and at first I dismissed it as another annoying social networking service. Who cared where I was checking in and why did it matter that I was mayor of the Walgreens?

Now that I’ve been traveling, it’s proved to be not only entertaining, but a great way for me to see the city.

When foursquare was first created, it was meant for more of the bar scene. You could get badges for staying out late or checking in with 3 members of the opposite sex. I wasn’t really all that successful at getting the badges so after I became mayor of a few places it wasn’t all that exciting.

Then foursquare came out with more badges like douchebag or college or babysitter (for checking in at places tagged as playground). These are things that I could easily get and it made foursquare more of a game.

Then I discovered that foursquare has teamed with Bravo and there were badges for checking in at locations that were “favorites” of their reality show members. I looked in Seattle and unfortunately there were none. Luckily, I am a citizen of 2 cities at the moment and Chicago, being the 3rd largest city had plenty of places to check in. One just happened to be a favorite restaurant of mine close to my hotel owned by Top Chef Masters chef, Rick Bayless.  I checked in and got a Bravo Newbie badge. I didn’t think much else of it after that.

A few weeks later I received an email from Bravo and foursquare. They notified me that I was one of the first 10 people to get a Bravo badge and they wanted to reward me. They asked me for my address and I thought it must be some sort of scam. After a few days of deciding if it was legitimate or not I decided to go ahead and send them my address anyway. It wasn’t like they were asking me for my bank account so they could deposit money from a foreign bank in it.

I received a response from Valerie at Bravo and she let me know that I would be receiving a package from them in a few days. I was expecting probably a cheesy bravo t-shirt or maybe a sticker. Nothing fancy.

When I got home from Chicago that week and checked my mail, I had a giant box. Not really sure what could be in this box.

I opened it up and I got all sorts of goodies!

• A beach towel
• A beach bag
• An umbrella
• A water bottle AND
• A Top Chef cookbook!

(Reggie wouldn’t let me take a picture without him in it)

Bravo announced on their twitter account that I was one of their winners! I felt like such an internet celebrity.

Recently, the city of Chicago has teamed with foursquare to create their own Chicago themed badges. What luck! I just so happen to be in Chicago so I will be diligently working toward getting them completed before my time here ends.

Also foursquare teamed with Zagat for a foodie badge which I am also in the process of working on.

Skiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing

It’s February and I can finally cross off one of my New Years Resolutions. Skiing. I’m so glad that I finally faced my fear. Eric was a huge help in crossing off this to do. He planned every thing out, I just had to show up.

Eric had his own skis so we arrived at the Summit at Snoqualmie, got my skis, boots, and poles and then Eric arranged for a private lesson.

The private lesson is exactly what I needed.

My instructor was very helpful and we ended up starting on the hill. We skied down a few greens and I practiced my turning. First the pizza wedge and then the parallel turn.

Then, she said I was ready for the blues. Scary. My first attempt at the blue I fell a lot. I think it was more out of fear than anything, the skiing part is still not coming naturally to me.

After our lesson was over I met Eric for some lunch. Eric was hitting some of the harder runs and he even went on a black. I still need some more practice.

After lunch I went back on the greens again and I was feeling much more comfortable.

I definitely want to go back and take another lesson before the season is over so I can finally go on blues like everyone else.

Mt. St. Helen’s Hike

Part of being in the northwest is all of the beautiful mountains. Certainly Mt. St. Helen’s sounds scary due to the fact that it exploded in my life time and completely wiped out the surrounding area, however, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to hike it.

This hike Eric and I went with more experienced hikers. Friday night we drove to the very rustic cabin and woke up bright and early with our packs and snow shoes in tow.

I have never show shoed before, but it was a blast. It also made hiking in the snow EASY!

Not far in to the trail, we were already getting picturesque views.

Once we got further up the mountain, hiking became much more difficult due to the snow not being packed. Every step my shoes sunk down a foot.

It reached a point where we practically had to crawl because we couldn’t get a strong footing.

As we got higher and higher up, the fog became thicker and thicker and made the visibility virtually zero. We couldn’t even see the rest of our group who was below us, even though we could hear them.

It reached a point where I didn’t feel safe any more and as a group we decided to turn around at 6500 feet with 2 miles remaining on the hike.

Heading down proved to be just as difficult. We couldn’t decide between using our snow shoes or hiking in our boots.

Once we got down to a lower altitude we stopped for some peanut butter sandwiches and beef jerky. Eric tested out his ice ax to “climb” the side of a small cliff.

As with all hikes we were very thankful to be done.

Back at the car I changed in to some clean clothes and Eric chopped ice for the beer.

All in all it was still a good hike and I hope to return soon to reach the top!

Mac n’ Cheese Party

Have you met my roommate? She loves Mac n Cheese. Mac n Cheese in all forms. She loves it. She loves making it. She loves eating it. She loves talking about it.

Really what’s not to love about it. It’s cheese + noodles = delicious.

She came up with the fantastic idea of having a mac n cheese party. Brilliant.

Everyone makes mac n cheese differently and no we’re not talking about the blue box version.

I decided I was going to make spicy mac n cheese. I had been reading a lot of Homesick Texan and I get the feeling that if she were to make mac n cheese, she would make a good spicy mac.

To start I needed a good noodle. Not just elbow macaroni, but something interesting. Cavatappi. Perfect. I found 2 boxes at my local QFC.

Next I needed some good cheese. Of course pepper jack to add some kick, but then throw in some Gruyere and then naturally some cheddar.

To mix with the cheese I added some sour cream, ground mustard, cayenne pepper and some half-n-half. Mix it all up and bake it.

After it’s been baking then top it off with some bread crumbs and perfect.

I ended up baking both boxes of Cavatappi which may have been a bit too much.

The best part about the mac n cheese party is everyone made a different kind. And it was all delicious.

There was also a girl who made dessert mac n cheese! It was tasty!

All in all I was stuffed, but it was fantastic.