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February 3, 2004
February 3, 2004:
Winter has officially come to the Chicago area! As I sit in my office typing this, I am looking out the window at falling snow that seems never-ending. It is actually very beautiful, but the thought of the commute home tonight takes away a bit of that beauty! But, I know, we choose to live here, so no complaining! When all is said and done, Chicago (and the ‘burbs’) is a great place to live and truly, this is not a BAD winter, by Chicago standards, we’re just getting more snow than we have the past few years so it SEEMS bad by comparison! Enough about the weather, though.
January:
Since I last wrote, we actually had a fairly sane January – relatively speaking. Mac traveled maybe 50% of the time, as opposed to the usual 75%+ - so it was nice to have him home a little more. We actually spent two entire weekends of the month at home, which is a bit of a record for us. We were able to really get some work done around the house, including making more space in the garage and finally getting the office organized. Gee, since we’ve only been in the house since the end of June, what was I concerned about? (wink)
VEGAS BABY!:
The last weekend in January, we headed to Vegas. Mac and I are big Vegas fans – he likes to play blackjack and I like to lay by the pool! This was the first time we took Jake with us – taking after his parents, he also loved Vegas. We left on a Friday morning, very early. We were up at 4:00am to leave for the airport by 5:00am – yikes! Jake was really a trooper about the early hour, which I was thankful for. After making it through security and finding our gate, we had a little time to spare before boarding. I have to say, traveling w/ a munchkin and being allowed to pre-board is very nice, especially when you’re flying the ‘seat-yourself’ Southwest Airlines. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Southwest – they’re almost always on time and everyone is incredibly friendly – it’s just the ‘open seating’ thing that can be a hassle on a full flight (I know, the answer there is to arrive early to be in the ‘A’ boarding group, but I digress).
So, after boarding the plane settling Jake in his window seat and waiting for everyone else to board – we sat, and sat, and sat some more b/c the runway was backed up and they had to take extra time to de-ice all the planes. I’m all for safety and I would have sat there all day if it meant that we’d have a safe takeoff – but I was amazed at all of the people around us who were very loudly complaining. We took off shortly thereafter and as soon as it was allowed we pulled out my laptop for Jake to watch a DVD. We found out the hard way that apparently the company-issue laptop that I have doesn’t have a very good battery – in 45 minutes or so, it was dead (is this normal? I know playing DVDs is a drain on batteries, but I didn’t think it was that bad). So, for the remainder of the flight (almost another 3 hours) we colored, read books and looked out the window – Jake was great on the flight – I was a proud mommy. Of course, Mac, getting the aisle, while I was in the middle, got to read books and magazines the entire flight, but I have no resentment (smile)…
We arrived in Vegas, collected our bags and headed off to the Luxor – Jake was very excited to stay in a ‘real pyramid’! We spent the rest of Friday walking all over the place. We grabbed a quick lunch at the deli at New York New York, then visited the M&M store where we were able to mix our own bags of multi-colored M&Ms – I’m not sure who enjoyed this more, me or Jake. For dinner Friday we ate at China Grill in Mandalay Bay. It was delicious – the first time Mac and I ate at China Grill was in South Beach on our honeymoon – then on a past trip to Vegas, we discovered that there was one there too – so now we try to eat there each trip.
One of the reasons for our trip to Vegas was to watch/cheer for some of our friends who were doing the Vegas marathon on Sunday. Our friends Eric and Colleen were running, so they didn’t want to do a lot of walking, nor did they want to stay up late. They called us and asked if they could take Jake to Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay, then have him spend the night with them in their room there (at Mandalay Bay). Colleen and Eric are some of our closest friends and they are among the few people outside of our family that we would actually trust to take care of Jake overnight. Jake also adores them – Colleen is a first grade teacher, so as you can imagine, her patience is endless and she’s great with kids. We took them up on their offer and packed Jake some PJs and took him to meet them. He was so excited it was very cute. They all headed off to Shark Reef and Mac and I headed to the nightclub ‘Rain’ at the Palms hotel/casino.
Back in the day, Mac and I were quite fond of hitting nightclubs and staying until the wee hours of the morning. Now I know that I can’t do that anymore! It was a ton of fun going out w/ my husband for a ‘night on the town’ – but by 2:00am, I was beat and my feet were sore from my pointy-toed, high heels! Wow, did I feel old! It was a great night and I thoroughly enjoyed my red bull and vodka drinks, but I also know that I couldn’t do that very often anymore!
Saturday we started the day early by taking breakfast to Jake, Colleen and Eric – after eating in their room, we left them to prepare for the marathon the next day. We spent the day with Jake at the Adventuredome at Circus Circus – amazing place – Jake had a blast going on all the rides and playing the games. Then we worked our way back down the Strip to see the pirate show at Treasure Island (or TI as they call it now) - the new pirate show is very ‘showy’ – as in almost reminiscent of a short musical. It is a very well done show, but I honestly think I liked the old version better. Apparently, they are trying to make TI appeal to a younger, ‘hipper’ crowd. They’ve done away with all of the kid-friendly activities there – I see their point, if you’re entertaining your kids, you’re not gambling.
Saturday night was a quick dinner at La Salsa in our hotel – yummy quesadillas and chips & guacamole! Then we played in the arcade with Jake until he was ready to drop from exhaustion, then we headed up to our room. Jake and I watched a movie while Mac went to hit the blackjack tables for awhile.
Sunday we got up and headed to watch Colleen and Eric finish the marathon – they had a very bad headwind for a good part of the race – kudos to them for the great races that they both had in spite of terrible conditions.
Later Sunday we visited some of the other casinos and saw some of the other ‘must-sees’ – like the fountains at the Bellagio, the white tigers at the Mirage and the lions at MGM. Jake really enjoyed taking it all in. Sunday night we had pizza in our room and called it an early night, although I think Mac went back to the blackjack tables for a bit.
Monday we slept in and then packed our bags – we had a mid-afternoon flight home and we were watching the snowstorms move into Chicago on the Weather Channel. Yikes! We got to the airport and were waiting at our gate when they announced that although we’d be taking off on time, they were making no guarantees of on-time arrival due to storms in Chicago. Jake looked at me and said ‘mommy, I hope we get to land in Chicago this time’ (if you read my entry about our trip to NYC, we were diverted to a different airport, over a 100 miles away, and since the airport was closed and we were essentially stranded, we ended up renting a car and driving home in the middle of the night) – I couldn’t have agreed with him more!
The flight home was interesting – Mac had a very intoxicated woman across the aisle from him – she was swearing and throwing things (she finished a mini-bottle of alcohol that she apparently brought on herself and just tossed it in the aisle) – the flight attendants could not get her to settle down – Jake kept asking why the ‘lady across from Daddy was acting crazy?’ – Try explaining that one to a five-year old. As we were descending in to Midway, all seemed fine – down, down, down then at the last minute the pilot pulled us back up – I thought – here we go again…But then he came on and said that they had tried to bring us in too close to the plane in front of us – so we just had to circle back around and we could land – nothing major – yippee!
So, that, in a nutshell was Jake’s first trip to Vegas. I don’t know that we’ll take him back anytime soon – he enjoyed the trip and got to see all the sights – but really, there is only so much you can do to entertain a munchkin in ‘Sin City’ – I’m glad we took him once though – it was a fun (and inexpensive) family getaway.
Painting the house:
We’ve decided that it is time to cover up some of our white walls. At this point, I have general ideas about what color family I want where. There are paint swatches taped up on most of the walls in the house and I’m slowly coming to some conclusions – but I’m finding this to be more difficult than I expected – any suggestions on making the process easier? We’d like to keep it bright, somewhat neutral, yet we’re not opposed to splashes of color either. Jake is adamant that he wants his bathroom to be orange – and I think I’m going to give in on that one – why not? It’s his bathroom – and it’s a small space – we may have to compromise by only doing one or two walls. Beyond that, we’re thinking an olive green in the foyer, some type of faux finish using taupes in the family room, sagey green in our bathroom and either a taupe or silver/blue in our bedroom. Decisions, decisions…
Friends getting married:
To the best of my knowledge, none of my friends read this site, so I feel like I can share this without potentially hurting feelings – a couple years back, Mac and I introduced one of our ‘triathlon’ friends to one of my friends from college. Amy had moved to San Diego, lived there for 6 months, hated it and moved back to Chicago. She was just re-connecting with old friends and I wasn’t getting out all that much. Our triathlon club was having a party to watch the showing of Ironman Hawaii and I invited Amy. First she didn’t want to come because she (in her own words) ‘isn’t the athletic type’ – I convinced her that it would be fun and all we were going to do was eat and watch TV. Long story short, she met our friend Paul, they started dating, and now they’re getting married. Happy ending, right? Except for a few minor details…she has totally taken control of all areas of his life. He is not allowed to see any of his old friends/training partners – he is only allowed to train at home or with her in attendance (she will literally sit and watch him work out for a couple hours, rather than let him go alone). My husband and several other friends are participating in Ironman Wisconsin this fall (the same race I did last year), Paul included. He signed up for the race (you have to sign up basically a year in advance) without Amy’s express permission and she was essentially ready to break off their engagement over it. So now, the rule is, ‘he can do the race, but he can’t spend time away from me to train for it’…
This may seem like I’m making a mountain out of a molehill, but the thing is, she’s not nice to him. I logically tell myself that they are both intelligent adults, and he knows what he is getting into…but it is still difficult for Mac and I to see – because our once ‘happy go lucky’ friend, is a totally different person – it doesn’t help that it is a friend of mine who is the cause…
Well, I was just invited to her bachelorette party. Someone offered to ‘host’ it at her home (at least the dinner portion), yet she sent out e-mail invitations stating that we’d all have to bring an appetizer, main dish, side dish and dessert to share and that it is completely BYOB – she’s providing nothing. Now, I don’t have a problem contributing AT ALL – in fact anytime we’re invited to someone’s house, my first questions is: what can I bring? – but I wonder why she’s bothering at all? I would much rather make a reservation at a fun restaurant and all have dinner there. I don’t know the woman hosting, so I probably shouldn’t make assumptions but…the other kicker in the e-mail was that Amy has asked that we make sure to have a male stripper for her – WHAT? Now, I’m not a prude, but first of all, I find male strippers to be disgusting, but even more – should she be demanding this?
OK…thanks to all of you who are still with me – I really don’t mean to be harsh about this whole situation – something with it just isn’t sitting right with me…should I just calm down?
February:
So that brings me up-to-date…This month and next promise to be crazy, as through the end of March either Mac is traveling for business without Jake and I, or Jake and I are traveling with him every weekend except one (and that is the weekend of the above-mentioned bachelorette party!). As I always say – being busy is what keeps life interesting…
Hope all is well with everyone out there!
Kristi
Mom to Jake
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