31st Bday

31 Was. Epic. 

I can't even begin to tell you how much fun it was. Of course I was running late (as usual) to my own party, but eventually I got to 9 Muses in Greek Town, where I found countless friends ready to party the night away. The evening starting out pretty calm and quickly became a shit show (it may have been the 31 shots I had consumed!) 

As you can see I started to get carried away and throw every napkin with in a 3 mile radius into the air, which quickly ended up in a mess on the floor. At some point we must have ran out of napkins, because I have a fuzzy video of me throwing 4,000 straws at Peter LOL.

After Muses we decided to go to Underground, but the problem was we had wayyy too many guys with us, so I knew we were never going to get in. That's when the brilliant idea of heading to Boss Bar came to me. (Now I don't know if you've ever gone to Boss Bar, but it is the hole in the wall of River North and open till 4 AM.) 

Of course we started drinking more and taking more shots... everyone was a mess (I was so hammered I even forgot to take pictures!). At one point I was sitting on a bar stool giggling, when Gina walked over. Her coat was on the back of my chair. Instead of asking me to move she started to pull at the coat. That's when I looked over and saw Gina go down like a ton of bricks. It was amazing and I could not stop laughing. Suddenly there were 15 guys trying to help her up, but for some reason shit was getting tricky. 

After that Priya, Gina, and I realized we were done for the night and that it was time to go home... thank God!

Love them for making life so special...

Bestie Bday Party

I love celebrations, especially when it includes the people closest to me. One of my closest friends (and bosses) had an awesome 39th birthday party with just the girls that started at Fig and Olive and ended at Underground...

Haha I can't even handle how fun this group is... I don't think I'll ever get tired of this lifestyle!

#Hashtag

#notupinhere #cantstopwontstop #sorryimnotsorry #myfriendsarecoolerthanyourfriends

Pumpkin Carving Contest

This week the R&D Gum team was split into teams and given a pumpkin for a pumpkin carving contest. Being slightly (ahem) competitive, I knew we had to win. First thing I did was go on Pinterest. After a brief meeting my team and I decided to make a cookie monster pumpkin. It was so easy... cut out the mouth, paint it blue, cover it with a shiny clear coat, and add styrofoam balls.

Tada! (haha doesn't it look like his eyes are my boobs?!)

Buffy

I want to make a difference in the world. Once day I want to look back on my life and know that I did all I could to make the world a better place. It's easy to go through day-to-day life wrapped up in your own bubble - thinking about how things affect you and only you, crying oh poor me. When you stop and take things into perspective though, you realize how good most of really do have it. Anyway, I digress...

As you know I've been fostering dogs on and off. I got a call that some tiny tots needed a place to stay for the week, until they could be transferred to their rescue group in Minnesota. I thought, how bad could a week be? WELLLLL it was a mess - these poor things all had kennel cough! I don't know if you've ever experienced kennel cough before, but it's non-stop excessive coughing. Did I mention that it's excessive and non-stop?!

On day 1 I took in the 2 small chihuahuas. They were taken from a hoarders house who had something crazy like 15 dogs and 25 cats. The pictures of house were CRAZY! On day 2 I found out, that they had left a little gremlin behind... they wanted to know if I would be able to take him too? Being the mush that I am I said yes. I was told that these little guys didn't have names, so it would be my responsibility to find perfect names for all 3.

I chose the obvious name for the guy on the left... Gremlin. He looks small in this picture, but trust me he's a solid 25 lbs. The 5 lb guy on the right I named Bob. I thought a big name for a small dog was the perfect name.

Then there was the little girl, Bob's sister and BFF. She was a bit fussy. She didn't really like me at first, but we grew on each other. Actually she really wasn't a fan of most people. You could tell she just wanted to do her own thing and not be bothered by others. Before I knew it, she wouldn't leave my arms. It was then that I knew I had to name her after my favorite person in my building... Buffy. Let's just say I saw a lot of similar personality traits between them. Buffy the person, unlike the dog, was a well seasoned woman. She had done so much with her life and was extremely interesting. I wasn't sure if I should tell Buffy that I had named my newest foster after her, she might be offended, but I thought imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so I told her. Guess what, she LOVED it! <3

Bye Bye Stratus, Hello Benzo

After my car accident, my Uncle Tony gave me a Dodge Stratus. It's been a bit of a love hate relationship... as in we both hated each other ;) 3 weeks ago, The Strati, finally decided to kill itself (busted transmission).

In the meantime, I was taking public transportation, but on Monday I finally decided to bite the bullet and buy a car. I went to the dealership to look at CTS, but ended up settling on an E350. First I had to see how I looked in the car... HaHa

After much debate I decided I was ready to start the car buying process. I told my salesman Anthony to move over so I could input all my information into the computer.

And eventually I decided to sign my life away...

 ... and it was official, I bought my first car!

HELLO GORGEOUS! 

PS I named her Benny... Bah bah bah Benny and the Jets!

Sweet Home Chicago

I've been living in Chicago for over 2 years now and I absolutely love it. Moving was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I'm so thankful and blessed that I get to see this view every day...

I love you Chicago!

Introducing Foster #3 : Mr. Al

I got a call the other day about a possible foster, Mr. Al. He was dropped off at the shelter with his eye hanging out of its socket. Yes, you read that correctly. The owners of the dog said they couldn't afford to take him to the vet. Thankfully one of the vets on hand at Animal Care and Control performed emergency surgery and added a skin graft on this little pups eye. Due to the severity of his injury, it was imperative that he was put into a home so as to avoid infection. 

Of course I couldn't say no to this adorable little guy. He was named Mr. Al, based off of Al Pacino's movie Scarface. He's such a little ham! Like Daisy, he's super affectionate and also follows me EVERYWHERE i go. He may look sad (because of his eye), but he's such a happy dog. I've noticed a little separation anxiety, when I leave the house. This seems to be a normal behavior of dogs that come out of the shelter... but can you blame them?! 

After a couple of days I was notified that someone was interested in taking Mr. Al. It was like a dagger to my heart. I was already head over heels for him. How could this all be happening so quickly? After my 2nd foster, I was told that it would start getting easier. Well someone lied to me!

When the car came to pick him up, I stood on the corner sobbing. I didn't want him to go. This definitely wasn't getting any easier.

A couple weeks later, I received these awesome photos. Mr. Al's eye looks so much better!!

Isn't he the sweetest little rescue you've ever seen?!