Beaches, Boys and....Blackberry?

So, as we all know, Chicago is freezing 9 months out of the year - so Aly and I decided to dip out and head out to Florida to enjoy the three b's: beaches, boys, and...blackberry? So many fun activities, who could say no.

Ok Blackberry - I know - you were probably expecting me to say booze, but that's so 2008 spring break haha. Aly had a Blackberry World conference at the Marriott World Center and I couldn't turn down 90 degree sun, so I booked a flight and joined her to work pool side.

The first day we stayed at The Marriott Springhills Suites. Sarah checked us in - she is probably the peppiest person I've ever met, even at like 6 in the morning. She even drew us a map to show us how to get to our room and called the second we got there to check in on us - definitely going to be my future wedding planner. After settling in we went on a mission to find dinner. We spent the night staring at a neon lit Golden Corral (it was across the street, and I'm assuming pretty classy with a limo parked outside and all) while sitting in a tiki lounge (Bahama Breeze) being serenaded by Bob Marley's twin while sipping on drink after drink. We toasted to our first night in, as well as our recent promotions. Somehow celebrating turned into making my wedding plans (a. i'm not even close to finding the right guy b. wedding plans are definitely better done sober) which included Bob Marley serenading us with Shaggy's Angel while I have my first dance with my future hubby (yeah, poor guy). So we headed back to our rooms to get a good night sleep to wake up in the morning and lounge poolside the rest of the day. At around four we checked into Marriott World Center and took a black town car to Seaworld to ride some roller coasters, admire the flamingos and head to dinner at a luau (do not discount Hawaiian traditions in Orlando - it was quite the experience).

The next day Aly had meetings all day for the conference, so I laid poolside and worked. She had a "party" until around 10 that night so I took my laptop to the lobby bar for a solo dinner and made friends with the bartender, who btw also lived in Chicago for awhile. So I'm not here to judge on techie guys (we were at a techie conference so they were EVERYWHERE) - but one did tell me I was "very dynamic." I don't know how to take that...but that was just the start of it. I did make a few techie friends, but then I turned around and right next to me was this cute, younger (comparatively), tan guy with board shorts, this glow around him and wind blowing through his hair (ok, so that's obviously exaggerated - no wind and no glow). He said hello and we instantly hit it off - I know, me with a techie? ha. Aly came back and talked to some people and Orlando boy took my BBM messenger information (how approps). Aly and I headed up to our room and Orlando boy and I started texting each other. We decided to go for a midnight stroll under the stars. We walked around the waterfalls then made our way to the golf course. We watched the stars - there might have been a stolen kiss or two, then headed back to our respectful hotel rooms. The next day I worked poolside again and Orlando boy came and said hi between meetings. After "work" we met up at the lobby bar for a few drinks and went out for a midnight dip in the pool. These rondevouzs happened every night for the extent of our stay and made for a great Orlando fling (that will stay in Orlando - this girl doesn't do long distance).

So now that I'm done drooling over Orlando Boy, it's time to tell you about Aly and my escapade in Celebration, FL. Celebration, FL is about a 15 minute drive from Orlando. We took a town car (Marriott's version of a taxi - unmarked black cars with no meters. However, don't be fooled - we're positive they make up fare prices). So apparently Celebration is a town that Disney built. It feels like the movie set right off of Stepford Wives. Everything is beautiful and perfect and you'd think that nothing could go wrong here. It's actually kind of eerie. Aly and I had dinner at Celebration Tavern and then got some ice cream. Then we called for our town car, but unfortunately she decided not to answer her phone. We were stranded. There was not a single taxi around and the lady at the Ice Cream parlor said the only way we could call for one was from the nearby hotel. Fortunately we had our trusty Blackberrys and found our confirmation email and called Marriott World for a car. After 30 minutes of walking around, we finally got picked up and made our way home. I'm not going to lie, the whole experience was like the beginning of a scary movie where people down the street suddenly turn into zombies and the heroines are trapped and have to fight for their lives. Aly still thought it was a perfect town, but I'm convinced it has secrets covered up behind closed doors and life there is full of twenty year olds married to fifty year old men and having little babies, with enough controversy to make it on daytime television. Aly was in denial for awhile, but her dreams were shattered when we found out that as perfect as Celebration might be, there was one murder a few years ago and one homeless guy who used to live there (scary right, and we call ourselves Chicagoans ha).

But yeah, long story short (ok that really wasn't that short - but I never asked you to read this!) we had an AMAZING time in Orlando, and now I can't wait for summer in Chicago to remind me why I don't just move to Florida. Till next time.

Cheers to 2011

Hi world,

Can you believe Aly and I have been in Chicago for a year now? I guess it's true - time flies when you're having fun. Since it's the beginning of a new year, I figured I'd quickly rehash the events of 2010.

In 2010 I went through three jobs - two in PR, spending time on fun clients and celebrities like Lauren Conrad and her Milk Mustache campaign (right) , Kelly Ripa and her magic Electrolux touch, and of course, great food groups like Chef Boyardee, Slim Jim and Manwich. My third job, which I hope to stay at for a long time is at Groupon, which I mentioned in my previous post. It looks promising, they trusted me enough to transition me to City Planner for six cities! Aly and Gloria were also promoted to Account Executives and Sheila moved on from brainstorming for Axe to another fun client. Besides big girl jobs, 2010 brought laughter and tears, boy drama to parties and Lollapalooza to weddings. Valentines day was spent with Sheila sipping on fishbowls and meeting navy boys, while the summer was spent at North Ave beach flirting with pretty boys and tossing footballs with Chicago Rush football players. Summer weekends were also spent at neighborhood festivals with live bands and delicious food. I feel like the girls from Sex and the City, minus their fabulous clothes I can't afford (although I do dream about Jimmy Choo's and Manolo Blahniks).

Anyway - Here's to a great 2011. And here's to the ambitious first two days, some of it spent as a professional apartment hunter:

So after a full year in our lovely Lakeview apartment we decided that it might potentially be time for apartment hunting again. After considering the cultured Bucktown and homey Lincoln Park neighborhoods, our hearts stopped and jaws dropped at what we would like to call the wonderland, also known as the South Loop. Envision, if you will, high rises with doormen and soaking tubs. Aly's nickname for us would be the "South Loop snobs," which is totally ironic to our typical low key, down to earth selves. After this decision, or should I say commitment to apartment hunt, I made sure to recruit a few strong men to help us move, bribing them with booze (they have no idea how much these couches and my queen size bed weigh, ha) and enlisted the same old Scott from the previous December to be our professional Realtor/professional apartment hunting leader. Jan 2nd was spent, Starbucks in hand, looking at five different apartments. We did find a liking in two, however let me tell you about the nightmares we did look at first. One apartment was designed with the industrial look in mind, which is cool until you realize that the walls don't quite reach the ceiling leaving very little privacy - although it did say "such a big miracle for a little girl" on the wall - it almost had us sold. Another apartment had just as much privacy - one of the bedrooms didn't even have a door, and to top it off the in-unit laundry was located inside the bedroom next to the closet. My first thought was "morning Aly, don't mind me, just need to toss in my whites." Those two were nixed. The ones that we did like include one on S. Federal and one on Dearborn. The one on South Federal is quite large for Chicago standards and leaves me with a winding hall in my bedroom with two closets leading to the private bathroom. It also has a giant kitchen for Aly to listen to country in while she makes me dinner (I now associate country with food, which I can't decide if it's a good thing b/c of my strong dislike for the music genre). The Dearborn apartment has floor to wall ceilings on the 18th floor - great way to face my fear of heights and a billiards room to make anyone playing pool on ESPN jealous (ok not quite, theirs is probably nicer, but then again my drunken pool skills aren't career worthy).

So after this ambitious apartment hunting day, we decided to give Scott some time off as we headed to a bar to watch the Packers and Eagles games. Our empty stomachs were fed with delicious nachos as we were entertained by the Packers win (I just can't bring myself to be a Bears fan). I'm pretty sure we were the two most hated people at the bar cheering for the other team (well Aly more than me, b/c my team is still the Eagles). After the games we headed home where Aly decided to go back out for Sunday Funday and I relaxed the night away in front of the TV fighting my writer's block in order to document my adventures of 2010. 2011 continues tomorrow when Al and I head back to work and then draft up a pros and cons list of the two apartments we looked at, as well as our current home. At the top of the Lakeview pro list is Horizon Cafe, which is seriously going to be a tough one to replace. I do think they deliver - or maybe that's my hopes getting the best of me....we'll see. Cheers to the year 2011, may it be a good one.