A return?

I'm thinking about reviving this little blog of mine. But, I have one question before I do that.

Will anyone care?

I think it might be good for me to have some sort of outlet. Somewhere to vent a bit. Somewhere to get perspective from other people. If this comes back, it will be a bit different. More of a focus on life as a single, female, young professional trying to navigate life and decide what she wants.

But, what's the point if no one reads it?

Birthday Present

My parents drove down tonight to celebrate my birthday and brought a couple of gifts along. I think my favorite is my new headboard that they found at the flea market. It was probably once an old garden gate but you hang it on the wall and it instantly transforms my bed. I love it!

10 Days...

There are only 10 days left in my 20's!!! This crazy thought hit me this morning while at church. I've been thinking and talking about my 30th for a long time now but it always felt a little far away. It's not so much far away anymore. Awhile ago I made a decision that 30 was going to be a good year for me. It's not the end of the world and I'm certainly not going to be 'old'. Despite that determination that it's going to be a good year for me I still struggle with all the thoughts of things that I haven't done yet. Too many times I have said 'I'm going to be 30 and I've never done (fill in the blank)'. It's a really easy trap to fall into. Especially when people who are several years younger are doing those things that I wish that I had done. I have to keep reminding myself that I can still do those things! It's ok that they haven't happened in the time that I thought they should.

So, what I'm trying to do is to spend time thinking of all the things that I DO have in my life and all the things that I HAVE done. When I really think about it, the list is a pretty good one.

My random weekend

This weekend I

• Hung out with co-workers Friday night
• Had a lot of good laughs
• Walked through Wrigleyville on a Friday night (remind me not to do that too often)
• Ate macaroni and cheese pizza at about 1:30am
• Stayed in my sweats all day on Saturday
• Did some much needed cleaning around the apartment
• Decided that I needed to get out of the house at some point during the day
• Invited myself to a birthday party for someone I don't know
• Hung out with co-workers again
• Went to a preppy bar/club downtown
• Left said preppy bar/club and went to a biker bar to meet some other friends
• Went to church Sunday morning
• Had brunch with friends
• Watched some basketball
• Took a much needed nap

It was all a bit random. But, so much fun!

I live in Chicago, therefore I am Irish

St. Patrick's Day is possibly one of the largest holidays in the city of Chicago. The celebrating starts the weekend before the big day and often continues for another week after. The river is dyed a brighter green that usual and everyone is Irish for at least one day. So, to celebrate my temporary heritage, this year I decided to try my hand at some Irish Soda Bread. As has become my norm, when trying out something new, I usually look to see if Ina Garten has a recipe for it (you really can't go wrong!) and she sure did! I'm pretty sure that this recipe will not be relegated to only the month of March anymore. This version was tasty (the orange zest really helps) and was super simple. The only problem that I had was that any raisins that were poking out of the dough burned in the oven and did not taste good at all. But, those were easy enough to pick off.

I am thankful for good friends

I have great friends. I have great friends who live all over the world. But, tonight I'm thankful for good friends who live in this city.
Earlier I was driving up to my friend's house for a girls' night dinner. It was the first time I had driven my car all week but that's not unusual. However, the way my car was acting was unusual. It was shuddering when I was at a stop, the engine light was blinking and then was fine and it felt like my car wasn't getting much power. I made it to my friend's house and parked the car safely but decided not to drive it home tonight. I didn't want to be driving around forever finding parking and have something go wrong and the car die in the middle of the street. I wanted to be able to just drive my car straight to a shop and get it checked out.
I was joking with some of the girls that I was going to bribe their husbands to take a look at my car and see if they could figure anything out. My friend S said that her husband probably would simply because he usually borrows my car on Tuesdays for some meetings so he has a vested interest in the health and well being of my car. I joked that unless he was willing to take it into the shop for me tomorrow, I wouldn't have time to take it in until Tues and he would have to find another way to get to work.
Guess what. He's going to take a look at my car in the morning and then take it into the shop for me. I explained what it was doing and he thinks it just needs a tune up and some new spark plugs and it should be good to go. For one thing, I'm glad to hear that it doesn't sound major (although I know that could change in an instant). But, mostly, I am just extremely thankful for friends who pitch in to help take care of me. I know nothing about cars. I know you have to put gas in them to keep them running. I know you have to get the oil changed when the little sticker on the windshield tells you to do it. And, that's about it.
A large city can feel very scary and lonely when you are on your own. Tonight was a good reminder that I'm not alone at all.

Worth every hour

I don't feel like I've done a ton worth talking about so far in 2010. I'm working on changing that for the rest of the year so I'll keep you posted. One of the things that I have tried to do more is try new recipes. Desserts are always my favorite but I've been trying to test out new main dishes too. It's nice to treat myself to something tasty a couple of nights a week and really nice to have the leftovers for lunch the following days.
One day at lunch someone said something about French Onion Soup and I was reminded of how much I like it as well. So, I decided it was time to make some. I figured if I was going to do it, I was going to do it right and I used the great Julia Child's recipe (at least mostly). The whole process took me about 3 hours but it was totally worth it. It's not three hours of standing over the stove so don't let it scare you.
The onions smell amazing as they caramelize and the soup has an amazing rich flavor. Since I knew that I wasn't going to eat the whole pot in one night, I opted to make homemade croutons to float in the soup instead of putting the bread and cheese under the broiler each time. Then I just sprinkled grated swiss cheese on top.
It's the perfect meal for a cold winter night.