2012 Recap & Hopes for 2013

I realize it's been a while since I wrote (I apologize). This year has been PRE-TTY cray-cray.

There's been lots of fun with great friends through festivals, bbq's, trips and lots of sports.

March 2012: BF & I hosted a killer St. Patrick's Day party, which almost resulted in a noise violation, Darby O'Gill on loop, a keg of green beer, biscuits & gravy, and awesome memories:

Sometime in Spring? My good friend Sarah S. came to visit for some fun:

 We went to Tipsy Paint, a BYOB painting studio I found via LivingSocial. We got to enjoy our J&J Wines and get our creativity on! If you're ever in the area, the owners are very welcoming, and it's even better when you bring hors d'oeurves!

I'm so excited, she's coming in this weekend again and we're going to go see The Book of Mormon! 

Ok, Ok, I realize this may be taking things a bit far, and recapping a whole year in one post might be someone crazy (actually moving backwards...).

So here's the cliff notes: 

May: 

• Kentucky Derby/Cinco De Mayo Shenanigans in Old Town
• Avengers Movie Preview

June:

• Wells Street Art Festival & Karaoke Party
• Visit to Richmond to Sarah & Jimmy!
• Chicago Summer Fest
• L.A.T.E Ride

July:

• BF's Birthday Boat outing
• Jen's baby's Baptism
• Kicked off 3rd year of Happy Hour Flag Football
• Sarah S. Comes to visit
• Lisa's Baby Shower
•  Pirogi Fest/ Big Ten 10k

•   Oh yea... did I mention Adam Levine came to work?

•   Sister's 21st Birthday

 August:

•  Mom & Dad came to visit
• Kenzie & Tim's Wedding

•  Air & Water Show
• Movies in the Park: Wizard of Oz in Oz Park

•  BF does his 2nd Chicago Triathlon

September:

•  Myrtle Beach with the Family

• Visit Richmond
• WWE Smack Down with Work 

 October:

•  JLKD 5k & Fun Run
• Purdue Homecoming

•  Ladies Luncheon at the Swan House
• GREG & LJ'S WEDDING  (LJ Please let Greg know I mentioned y'all, otherwise I may never hear the end of it... ;) XOXO LOVE Y'ALL! )

November:

•  Caught up with Aunt Julia
• JLKD Book fair
• (More) Tipsy Painting (I SWEAR THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!)
• Oh and then Matt Forte came to work...

 December:

• Lots of Christmas Parties
• Lots of Presents
• Great Friends & Family memories (I promised BF I wouldn't go into detail... but trust me when I say it's a book in and of itself).

 NOW!

That's a lot more than I remember. Sorry I don't have pictures for everything. I realized this year, with not blogging, I didn't force myself to have pictures from everything, which makes me feel like I missed out. It's another reason I wanted to start again.

My Hopes, Wishes, and Goals for this year:

Keep in touch with more friends.

Token-work-out-more resolution (and eat 'healthier'... maybe)

Discover more opportunities and expose myself to new things.

I hope that by blogging, I can meet new and wonderful people, find exciting products and places, and be a better, kinder, stronger person.

How YOU can help:

1. Introduce yourself!
2. Recommend things/places you think I should check out and feature
3. Tips on how you think I can better myself and this blog

I love getting to know my readers and providing something you enjoy as much as I enjoy writing it. I hope to hear from you soon, and cheers to a great new year!

XoXo, the Prep

Weekend Recap - BF's Birthday

This past weekend was BF's birthday. In celebration, I had gotten us tickets to do a L.A.T.E Ride sponsored by the Chicago Parks departments. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

BF came out to visit me on Friday evening. We had decided to break in my new bike and ride around Schaumburg a bit. After a bit of a rocky start, we road to Whole Foods where we shopped for some fresh goodies for dinner. BF's best friend DJ was supposed to come out and ride with us, but wasn't able to make it. He made it to go out in the area though. We ended up at a chill bar in Elgin (not my favorite neck of the woods, but we survived).

My friend MS spent the night and we all got up early and had Chocolate chip Pancakes! DJ had a baseball game in Wheaton and had to hit the road, and BF and I had thought we were meeting his parents for lunch in the city.... wires got crossed though and those plans got pushed back. 

BF and I decided to got to Dick's Sporting Goods (I feel I need to spell that out so as not to accidentally lead anyone to anything in-gentile) to get me a helmet for the ride. Afterward we popped over to the theater to see Horrible Bosses. I thought it was amusing but not split your side hysterical... BF thought otherwise.

Afterward we made our way into the city for a lazy afternoon resting up for our big ride, complete with Thai take-out and movie fest.

My friend Mel was having a fundraiser at a bar in Wrigleyville for Alz Stars, and BF and I wanted to support her! (Alzheimer's is a cause near and dear to BF's heart as he's had 3 grandparents effected by the awful disease). We road our bikes there (a seemingly bad idea in my opinion... but we won't go there) and enjoyed an adult beverage or two with friends:

Yes, riding your bike to a bar constitutes extra glistening and non-bar attire...

Afterward, BF and I road back to his apartment to grab the rest of our stuff and DJ to make our way down to Buckingham fountain. Did I mention this was a 1 AM ride? Well, it was ...

BF and I at the start... ready to RIDE!

DJ and BF, they are so excited to bike through the city.

The ride literally took us all over the city through Chinatown, Humble park, Wrigleyville and ended along the lake shore.

It was such a neat way to see the city, and it was so much easier to ride when the cops were shutting down the streets for us. We were lucky, and no one in our riding party got hurt, although we did see two seemingly non-serious injuries and a couple blown tires.

 We ended the whole thing watching the sun rise from Buckingham fountain.

It was all pretty neat!

I spent most of Sunday sleeping... and icing my soar body. I'm still recovering. That night BF's parents came in to take us to dinner. We went to a very famous Italian restaurant in Little Italy: Tufano's. We had some amazing cuisine (from which I now feel like I gained a million lbs...) but it was great food with great people.

And that my friends, was my weekend... I'm pooped. BF was worried with all my sleeping yesterday I wouldn't be able to sleep last night, but Tylenol PM said otherwise (and I feel like I could sleep some more too!).

What'd you do this weekend? How'd you cope with the God-Awful heat that we've been dealing with?