Don't Be Scared. I've Done This Before. Show Me Your Teeth.

I hope you all had a great holiday weekend. Mine was really good. I didn't plan it to start out all that wonderfully, though. I unthinkingly scheduled a dentist appointment the Friday afternoon that was my last day before a four day weekend. I didn't think about what day that was, I was just happy that I got an appointment so late in the day, and then later when they asked me to confirm my appointment, I figured I should just keep it, or I would start pushing back my dentists further and further, until I didn't go at all.

I hate the dentist. I don't like people sticking their hands in my mouth, I don't like people putting me in pain, and I especially don't like PAYING someone to put me in pain. When I was younger and didn't have insurance, I went seven years once without going to the dentist. Of course, the older I get, the more I wish I had taken better care of my teeth.

This check-up wasn't so bad, however. Both the dentist and the hygienist commented about how clean my mouth was. If you've ever met me and know how much I swear, you are probably just as surprised about that as I was.

When I go to appointments now, I want to do that thing that people do when reading fortune cookies. You know, "You are a strong person with many charms...In bed". But instead of saying "in bed", I, in my head think "for someone in their fifties". So, when the hygienist told me that my teeth were a great color...(for someone in their fifties, I thought). Or my gums were so healthy and pink...(for someone in their fifties, I added).

I guess the whole gist of this post is that my holidays started with a dentist appointment that didn't go too badly...For someone in their fifties.

Feliz Navidad! Prospero An~o y felicidad.

Today is my last day to work before my four day holiday weekend. Woo hoo!

I'm excited to just get to stay in town and relax. I'm planning on cleaning, riding bikes, running, lifting weights, cooking up a bunch of food, and hanging out with my family. I can't wait.

I will try to keep writing more over the weekend, but we'll see. If I don't get a chance to write, I want to wish all of you a happy holiday, whatever holiday you celebrate and if you don't celebrate a holiday this time of year, I hope you have a lovely weekend and that you celebrate yourself.

You Have to Sleep Late When You Can, And All Your Bad Days Will End

Okay. I'm going to try and keep this short, but you know me...

We have been traveling so much the last couple of weeks and it's been great, but it also meant I had no time to write. I'm going to try and change that these next couple of weeks.

A few weeks ago we went to Chicago and the week after that we went to Louisville. It's all fun and games, but it's also hectic.

We went to Chicago that weekend so John could do a race he's been itching to do for the last five years.

We got an AirBnb in Wrigleyville that was run by a management company. It was a cute place in the basement of the building.

I looked up a bunch of different places to eat and drink and play and one of the students in our office suggested we go see the German Christmas market by Daly Center.

We got to Chicago and went out for lunch at this nautical themed place and they just happened to have a bouncy house in the form of a snow globe. Pretty funny.

Since it was supposed to rain later in the day, we decided to check out the outdoor Christmas market first. The place was packed. I always forget how many people live in big cities, and experiencing those crowds always makes me glad I live in a smaller college town.

It was fun, though. There were cool things to check out and we even got fancy hot chocolate.

The other thing I forget about big cities? Parking prices. We parked in a ramp for 45 minutes and it cost us $33. WHAT?!

After the market, we went to the Shed Aquarium. The last time I had been there was when I took Coadster when she was a little girl and the fact that it was dark a lot in the aquarium made her keep saying, "It's too 'cary. It's too 'cary."

This time neither John or I were afraid of the dark. Although, the moray eel that came right at me was a little disconcerting...

Anyway, John and I spent about three hours at the aquarium it was so fun. The coral reef aquarium is mesmerizing. If you haven't been for a while, you should definitely go again.

We finally made it to our AirBnb in Wrigleyville. It was a basement apartment, but it was really cute. We found a nice Mexican restaurant to have dinner and the rest of our evening was great.

We went to bed around 9:30, since we had to get up early for John's race. It was such a wonderful day and we were having such a nice time until...You guessed it, things went to shit for a little while.

At 1:30 am, the people staying in the airbnb above us presumably came home from the bars and started partying. If it was possible for us to get a contact high from what was wafting through the ceiling, we would have been as high as kites. They were so loud most of the night, but at one point, we think someone was getting kicked out of the party, because he kept yelling, "Eff you! EFFFFF YOOOOUUUU!" outside our door. It was so pleasant...Or not.

THEN in the morning when John went out to the garage that we paid $30 to use, and the door was locked so he couldn't get in to get to our car and our stuff or our bikes. Originally, we were told not to lock the garage door because they didn't have a key. Which I thought was weird. How can you own a management company in Chicago and not afford a key? So, John tried to contact the people, and then tried again a half hour later and then contacted the AirBnb site (who were very prompt with their response, but they couldn't reach the management company either). John was supposed to race at 9:30 and they FINALLY responded to John at 10:15 and told him where the key was hidden outside. Really?! The whole reason we came to Chicago was so John could do that race.We wouldn't have even paid for a place to stay in Chicago if we had known he wouldn't be able to make his race. Of course, the management company was unapologetic.

We loaded up our car and went to watch a bit of the race anyway. It was a cool course right on the beach. So, we wandered around a bit. It was a nice, warm day for Chicago in December.

I hate to see all of this trash at the beach. I felt like shedding a tear like that Italian actor who played the Native American in those PSA commercials in the 1970's. Sigh.

When we were done checking out the race, we headed over to an Apple store to see if we could get my phone working. I figured with all the other crap we had to deal with, we might as well lay some more on. In for a penny, in for a pound, I guess.

We got there and they told us it would be an hour before anyone could see us. John suggested we get lunch at a woodfired pizza place across the street. They even had salad flights there. Delicious.

We went back to the Apple store when our hour was up and they said they'd send the phone downstairs and that would take another hour, so we wandered around the Dick's Sporting Goods store for about 20 minutes, which was about as long as I last in a store and then we found a cute little tavern and had a beer and watched the Bears game. When in Rome.

We went back to the Apple store and said they were going to try one more time to fix it before they gave me a new phone. Another half hour later, they conceded that it was a hardware issue and finally gave me a new phone.

At one point during all of this Sunday debacle day, I was thinking how lucky I was that John wasn't the kind of person to get all pissy or mean when things went awry and we got thwarted in the things we wanted to do. I have married and dated some bad control freaks in my time, and I am so glad that John isn't one. Just as I was thinking that, John said, "Thank you for being so laid back about all of this stuff. It's so nice that you go with things so easily and don't make everything even worse by acting like all this was the end of the world." Synchronicity.

So, as far as I was concerned, the weekend was great for the most part and nothing is ever completely perfect, and if it was, would we all take everything for granted? It was really too bad that John couldn't do his race, but we had a lovely weekend beside that, and it was too bad that I was having such problems with my new phone and it took so long to deal with, but we did get it fixed in the long run.

Here's to appreciating the good things!