the Kirkwood Turkey Burger.

Just a heads up, Kirkwood has one of the best Turkey Burgers in the city. The secret? Don't get the Chipotle sauce on it. It's a hot after taste that beer will only aggravate. I was reminded of this lovely sensation when at dinner with the girls last night. Liz, Christie, Suz, Allie & Bushman and me met up after work. Pykosz and I were dying at the table because the thing was so fricking spicy!

http://www.kirkwoodbar.com/

Joben.

If you haven't seen "I love you man" you have to go see it. I love those types of movies that are pretty much comedy chick flicks that look more manly from the previews, then your boyfriend can take you to watch them on a date, and treat you to popcorn & chocolate raisins while you watch a movie about weddings. Not saying that happened to me on Wednesday night this past week, or anything...but just in case you are considering seeing it, I highly recommend.

Books about Meth.

I recently completed "Beautiful Boy" written by David Sheff. His son, Nic, battled a Meth addiction (among other drugs as well), and both the son and father live to tell their tales. Aside from the struggle of watching his son fall deeper and deeper into his addiction, David also battles the decisions he has made in his life as a parent and a role model for all his children, including Nic, and how those could have contributed to this addition.

Now onto "Tweak," written by Nic Sheff himself. I'm looking forward to it and I highly recommend it.

stocks and blondes.

I've always wanted to go to this crappy bar at the Washington & Wells stop in the loop. Gotta love when trashy people (some with their baby children there) are hanging out at a bar which advertises fish sandwiches for lunch to-go out of their greasy kitchen. MMMMMmm. Also, another perk? $15.00 buckets. I bought one, so did one of the girls I was with. I will probably not go back, but it was fun to say that I have been there after months of passing by!

Elliot Juarez from Chase Bank.

What a great feeling. Asking the bank a question regarding how to pay your credit card off online, when you suddenly find a random Mexican man apparently has a Social Security number identical to yours. Um excuse me? Before I know it, there will be a man selling tamales near the highway named Michelle Goldstein.
.....luckily, after checking back in with the bank in my building twice on Friday, I found out it was a typo in their computer system. Yeah don't let it happen again.

p.s. does anyone else find the credit card payment system online to be extremely confusing? I do.....hahha.

Wear Your Crescent and Pearls on High.

Ahhhhhh the flip flop. Nothing like a bunch of girls screaming and doing hand movements pretending to rush. So what if we are 24-25 years old now. Why would that matter? We still go for the 97.84 return rate like we had Junior year. Once a sorority girl, always a sorority girl. Enjoy the video. Disregard my pigtails. I look horrible in my jazz pants & wife beater.

ShotSki.

Imagine, 4 people taking a shot at the same time. What could be better? We were in Colorado from March 15-20th and the boys decided this would be a good idea to build one of these. Instead of locking the shot glasses into the ski, they decided a magnet would work better, so the glasses could be removed and therefore cleaned. Although a good initial thought, the shot-taking process required two hands: one on the ski and the other holding the shot glass so it didn't fall and hit you in the face. Here is a photo of us taking this. Fantastic. Butterscotch & Bailey's shots. Nothing in the world is better after skiing.

The Homeless Trixie Look.

Size 11 (i think) Men's Pumas.
No socks.
Sweatpants.
No hat (yellow hood).
Plastic bag (holding all clothes left at boyfriend Doug's place).
Snowstorm.

Add these things up. What do you get? Mish is not happy at 10:3am on a Sunday morning when finally stepping on the CTA 22 Bus at Wellington and Clark, because she was unable to find the luxury Honda owned by the boyfriend to drive herself home...(hey I won't criticize, as Ferris Buller would say "I don't even have a piece of shit so I have to envy yours" in a conversation with Cameron Fry). My shoes (or shall I say Doug's gym shoes that I was sporting as an alternative to the red patent leather pumps that I wore last night) almost slid off as I walked onto the bus. Luckily, as I turned the corner onto Clark, the bus was just pulling up, so I didn't have to wait , but could practically see because the snow was blowing in my face. Looking into the mirror upon my return to Lincoln and Armitage, it was clear that I had a very unique look going on: smeared mascara, wet hair, yellow hood, damp draw-string pants, stamp on right hand from Grand Central, and plastic bag with hoodies pouring out. Sweet. Surprisingly, I didn't run into any previous guys I had hooked up with. What a shock! Those things usually happen to me.

Bag Pipes

Last night when we were sitting at Pepper Canister (our new favorite place), we saw bag pipes and men in kilts standing on the street outside the bar. Before Kate and Lindsay could say "what is going on out there" I lept out of my seat to invite the players inside. Upon running down that awkward ramp outside the bar, I hear "are you ROBYN!?" (the bartender they are supposed to have coordinated with, in order to come in and play music for charity). No, I am not Robyn, but please come in and play, I said. As I walked in, I was screaming "turn off the music!!" It was awesome. I think we all bought 6 raffle tickets to support a young child that has a brain tumor (which is what they were fund raising for). Here is a picture of us enjoying the moment (after ordering way too much food and gorging on another 4 cupcakes).

Peapod Does the Job.

I love Peapod. What a great idea. Anyone who has known me for the past weeks since my friend Lindsay got me hooked on this, you very well know that I am now BFF with this company. I think it has something (small) to do with the fact that eating is one of my hobbies, and also, because I love when people send me things in the mail.

Love for Mail Packages + Love to Eat = Peapod is my life.

My favorite thing on this site right now: "Chicago's Best" section. It lets you tap into all these sweet Chicago restaurants like Ba Ba Reeba, Carson's Ribs, Wildfire, etc., and most importantly, Walker Brothers! I can actually order the Apple Pancake that I grew up eating in Wilmette, delivered straight to my door step in Lincoln Park! The layers of dough are amazing.

http://www.peapod.com/

Now Put Your Hands Up

Just thought it might be interesting to add that I just participated in a very refreshing Beyonce "Single Ladies" dance-off in my friends' cube at work. Love people like that who understand my spastic-ness. It just makes the days so much more fun.

Michelle Goldstein from France

Well congratulations to me, I now have a new friend from France born in 1949. Her name is Michelle Goldstein. She wrote her passions in French on her page: "J'ai 2 passions: les animaux: mon blog: Michelle, l'amie des animaux." I happen to speak French, and can clarify that her hobbies are "animals and her blog" (her blog name translates to"Michelle: I like Animals"). Not sure what's going on with the title of her blog. It's like me saying "Michelle: You Like Peanut Butter and are 24". What a great name. I approve. I'm contemplating if I should post in French on her wall, but think that might be creepy. I'll keep you posted if I remain friends with her. I already saw a few more "Goldstein's" on her friends list so I'm a bit skeptical.

"Can you tell me why a strange chubby woman from France has friended me on Facebook--her name is Michelle Goldstein?" I've never asked my roommate that before, that's for sure.

Hobbies

Being in my mid-twenties, I often wonder what my hobbies are, since it's not as clear cut as "after school cross country" or "orchestra" (I was "Best Orchestra Member 1995-1996". I'll get into how cool my childhood was later including all super awesome nerdy-ness like my velvet shoulder pad bat mitzvah dress with matching hair and braces...). I think my hobbies would include: eating, peanut butter (i think this should be separate from eating because I also dressed up as a Peanut Butter JIF jar in college, so this product has extended itself to more directions than just consuming it), being social (roll your eyes if you'd like, but I do consider myself hyper social--an example was this past Saturday, I ended up going to two birthday parties in one night with two different groups of friends--I think a packed social calendar is what makes life interesting), dancing (jazz, spastic bar dancing, pretending I know how to break dance, 80's dancing, African dancing from "Coming to America"), quoting movies (more of a disorder, since I often think things are true because they are in movies), watching hockey, baseball & football (my favorite sports, of course, other than NASCAR--for those of you who know me, you know I'm completely bluffing since I think it's the trashiest sport I've ever seen in my life, but I do understand when my boyfriend takes the RV down to the Indy 500 to have a sausage fest so I won't insult that), collecting necklaces (I will have about 2.3 million necklaces by the time I die), working out (I know this sounds ridiculous but I really do enjoy a good workout--it clears my head, and most importantly allows me to EAT more! yay!), and last but not least, creating t-shirts (Strange Cargo is my second home. I fricking love that place. My favorite shirts are "Jews do it for 8 nights," which was created for a holiday barcrawl, the 12 bars of Christmas, "O'Goldstein " and "Screw me I'm Jewish" which were both created for 2007 and 2008 St. Patrick's day celebrations).

Being 5'3" is Fun.

I just fell over the cuff of my pants in the hallway at work into a cube, and realized my pants are too long. Thanks to the Gap for that incident. For someone who has been dancing for 15 years, I constantly amaze myself with coordination.

Phyll Lamie

Phyll Lamie, as in Chlorophyll. This poem is for you.

Your green pigment shone day and night.
Until the Realtor messed everything up.....and forgot to close the door....
That just was NOT alright!

Momma Lamie gave you love,
so this wasn't her fault
even Mish gave you a big hug,
(We are such mature, caring adults).

I know you will be happy wherever you go.
You wouldn't want to be in Chicago right now, it's full of snow!

Love,
Mish

Shout Out to Nice CTA Bus Drivers

Just wanted to thank the driver on the South-bound 11 CTA Bus who picked me up illegally in the middle of the intersection this morning, and didn't laugh at me when I tripped onto the bus and dropped my iPod (Earl Goldstein, Jr.). It's so nice when I sprint for 3 blocks holding (what felt like) 42 bags and it pays off! Thanks man!

Some.e.Cards T-Shirts

http://www.bustedtees.com/someecards

I'm currently deciding which shirt to buy the boyfriend for his Easter basket (no I don't celebrate easter, I just look for any excuse to give pretty gifts). I'm thinking it might be the t-shirt of the attached image. Isn't that sweet? Seems like a perfect addition.

How to Define a Trixie.

I never actually realized how true this is until I looked up the definition on Wikipedia. Eh, I would not say all these things are true, but I have highlighted the key words which just make me laugh (especially given the blog that I wrote this morning professing my love of Kate Spade).

p.s. I live in Lincoln Park and work in Marketing (used to work in Advertising--so I must get extra credit).

A Trixie is a generally derogatory slang term referring to a young urban white woman, typically single and in her late 20s or early 30s. The term originated during the 1990s in Chicago, Illinois. The term was further popularized by a satirical website dedicated to the Lincoln Park Trixie Society, a fictional social club based in Chicago's upscale Lincoln Park neighborhood.
Trixies are typically depicted as "social climbing, marriage-minded, money-hungry young ladies that seem to flock to the upwardly-mobile neighborhood of Lincoln Park."[1] Another description calls them "the women with Kate Spade bags for every day of the week; the ex-sorority girls still lusting after big, dumb jocks; the women who go to law school to find husbands."[2]
As such, "Trixies" are not unique to Chicago but representative of a stereotyped subculture in contemporary America. According to National Geographic, this stereotype describes a "blond, late-twenties woman with a ponytail who works in PR or Marketing, drives a black Jetta, gets manicures and no-foam skim lattes."[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trixie_(slang)

Kate Spade. Trolley Bar Crawls.April 13, 2009

1. Kate Spade

I am in love with Kate. And hey, I'm only a trixie, so it's really not my fault. I'll blame this one on New Trier High School for making this happen. It's only natural to want a Kate Spade messenger bag when you are 14. I seriously think this is the best thing that has ever happened to a clutch. How could you not love this? If it wasn't 200 dollars too much, I'd probably buy this.

2. Trolley Bar Crawls

Seriously, the greatest thing in the world. I went on a trolley bar crawl (or met up with the group for some of it) on Saturday and felt like I was in college again. My roomie can attest to the fact that we definitely both felt as though we had woken up at the Gamma Phi Beta house on Sunday morning when we both realized we didn't remember coming home, didn't remember how we got home, and I started cracking up when I realized that I had a Best Buy gift card in my purse (given to me in exchange for purchasing a shot for someone? Seems like a pretty cool trade for me). Now, per the request of my friend who apparently gave me this treat, I am able to purchase the remaining sequels to Mighty Ducks (I will forever be Julie the Cat from Bangor Maine).

3. April 13th, 2009 @ 1:20 p.m.

This is the best day of the year, each year. The official start of Cubs season. I say Loupa, you say Nella. I've said it before, but as a true cubs fan (not typical for a Trixie to actually pay attention at games--but don't worry, I do. I would rather spend all my money to visit Wrigley on a tri-weekly basis than do just about anything else in the world), this is the Cubs' year. I still remember the final game of last season: the photo I took from the XRT seats with one of my best friends from college is now on my desk-top. It consists of hundreds of fans holding "w" signs, as we had a f-ing awesome close to the regular season prior to the post-season crapola that occurred shortly after. It seems as though there was speculation that Soriano would bat later in the order (like 5th or 6th) but then Piniella confirmed that he would be batting first. Hopefully Miles and Bradley will help shake things up for the hitting roster for 2009. I have good feelings about this, and think Piniella rocks. Geez, if people doubt him, just think of how insane Dusty was, thank god those days are over. I've got to get a great outfit for 70's night. I think we should...do a trolley bar crawl before....I should ask for that day off of work I think.

Union Station & Kate Winslet.

1. Union Station
Union Station is the most confusing place I've ever been to in my life. I swear. I know I sound extra blonde right now, but I had to ask about 34.5 different people which hallway to go down to buy a ticket, go to the Metra tracks (not Amtrack) and above all I had to call my friend to ask where the station was. I'm an idiot, I know, but I just wanted to shout out to anyone who has experience a situation similar to mine.

2. Kate Winslet
I just finished being a total chick and sobbing while watching her acceptance speech on the Oscars for Best Actress. I am consistently impressed with her work, professionalism, and intelligence with which she executes her movie roles. The tear jerker (by the way, I get this gene from my mom--the two of us would cry at a good Hallmark commercial) was when the camera zoomed in to her father--a red-faced, gap-toothed man sitting in the back of the auditorium with a brimmed hat on chuckling.