Essentials

Over the weekend I was looking through my small 600 sq foot apartment and found that I had a lot of additional stuff taking up the small amount of space in the area my landlord calls the closet. I have a lot of pieces that I haven't worn in at least 12 months and I think once you hit that 12 month marker, it is safe to say you are never going to wear it again. However, I do believe that there are probably ten or twelve items that are timeless, and should never leave your closet unless you are replacing them with a similar one or upgrading the version.

1. Classic blazer or jacket

2. Classic white shirt

3. Black heels

4. Neutral colored trench coat

5. A basic black dress

6. Black pants

7. Solid wash jeans

8. Cashmere sweater

9. A set of pearls

10. Three solid colored purses (clutch, medium handbag, large tote)

Shopping Is My Cardio

I woke up this morning with every intent to go to the gym and work out before I started running errands and studying for exams. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way going to the gym was put on the back burner. It is now 10pm and I have yet to find time to get to the gym. I did however find time to run to the bank, get a pedicure, buy a new pair of jeans, a fall blazer and even run to Target. I don't know why I can't motivate myself to get out of my apartment and walk two blocks to the treadmill at least once a day? Once I get to the gym I'm fine and somewhat enjoy myself, but actually getting into my yoga pants and putting on my running shoes always seems to just be too much work.

Somehow I can always convince myself though that taking a shower, putting on make-up, trying to do something with my terrible haircut and running all over town for four hours is a lot easier and more beneficial!!??? I can't explain it to myself or anyone else, so I have decided to stop trying.







I am sick of feeling bad about not making it to the gym, so I have decided not to worry about that anymore and continue to shop for my exercise. And that is that.

Tour Operator Debacle

I would like to share the following letter I received by messenger today from one of my notoriously old and cranky tour operators in the Chicago area. To bring you up to speed our office phones were down this morning from the hours of 10am to 11am. I spoke with this man at 11:02am and got him his tickets with in 30 minutes. For some reason he still felt the need to send one of his bus drivers over to give me this letter from his typewriter 4 hours later - even after hearing that the phone outage was completely out of my control.




I know its hard to read but my favorite line is "Your telephone has been "off" the hook for approx. 30-45mins.".......I swear Friday's are a breeding ground for problem clients at work.

To make up for the craziness of this day I am going to sit down with my boyfriend Joe (who from this point forward I will refer to simply as J) and have a bottle of wine and make him sit through Sex and the City.

Public Transit

I left my apartment this morning for work at 7:45 - running 15 minutes late as usual and of course there is a crowd of at least 10 people waiting at my stop. After waiting 5 minutes or so the bus pulls up and is clearly in a hurry. The driver is yelling at everyone to move to the back of the bus and hurry up with our fare cards so he can close the doors. Generally speaking I would have been extremely irritated with histone that early in the morning, but I was already late and I didn't feel like having another discussion about the terrible traffic on Lake Shore Drive with my boss.

We made it a mile or so down the road when a man with a bike tries to get onto the bus with standing room only. The driver told him to put his bike on the rack out in front of the bus and hurry up and take a seat. After what felt like at least ten minutes watching this guy struggle to figure out the bike rack, the bus driver begins to beep his horn at the man. Now if you don't already have a mental picture of what is going on: there is a man standing IN FRONT OF THE BUS (maybe a foot from the driver) struggling to put his bike on the rack and the driver is just beeping his horn at the man. The driver doesn't get out of his seat to show him how to put the bike on or even think to gesture to the man to show him the correct way of positioning the bike - no this driver decides that the best way to make the man do it faster is to beep in his face with a crowded bus of irritated passengers looking on.

To make the matter worse when the man finally figures out how to get the bike properly secured he gets onto the bus and finds that he does not have enough money to take the trip downtown. At that point I couldn't take it any longer and was so close to giving the man $20 just to get him out of my life and into a cab. Thankfully the bus driver was so fed up himself, he told him to go take a seat and not to worry about it this time.

I don't know if it's the transit system in Illinois or maybe just my dumb luck, but it seems inevitable that each week I somehow end up on a bus or train that ends in some type of disaster.