On July 4, 2007, at the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, Joey Chestnut ate 66 hot dogs to Takeru Kobayashi's 63. It was a historic feat: no one had ever out-eaten 6-time champion Kobayashi in hot dogs and some speculated that no one ever would....
It was in bar in Sevilla, Spain, many years ago now, when a fellow backpacker asked me what I liked most about traveling. I paused for a moment before saying, "When you're home and wake up the first thing you think is, 'what do I...
Where is this year going? Seriously. How is it already July? I kept saying all winter, "this summer I'm going to...
Step 1: Don't Sign Up for an Eating Contest The first step to not preparing to compete in an eating contest is to not sign up to compete in an eating contest. I suppose you can apply this logic to most anything you might (not) want...
It's festival season in Chicago. At least, it is in theory. In reality the weekends have been cold or rainy or both, and every Chicagoan is waiting for consistent sun and consistent warmth. Not warm one day, cold the next. Not sunny all morning with...
I still have trouble with balance. Even more so now that I'm home. I have work, my blog, the gym, an apartment to keep clean and to furnish. I have a million other things I want to be doing, a million other things I should...
I live in Chicago. I think that's official. I've been here for seven months. I have a job. I have an apartment. I have furniture in said apartment. I think that means I really, truly, live here. It's something I'm totally fine with until those times...
I can't do everything. That's something hard for a control-freak like myself to admit, but it's true. I. can't. do. everything. Now, I'm the kind of girl who wants to do everything, who tries to do everything, who wants to do it all herself, even if...
I've been home for six months. Six months in Chicago. I haven't even taken a vacation in that time. No flights, no weekend getaways, nothing. It's hard to believe, really. Sometimes it feels like I came home ages ago. Sometimes it feels like just yesterday. And,...
If you've watched as many home decorating/real estate/DIY shows as I have you've surely come across an episode where a homeowner encounters a pink bathroom. And you can probably guess what's coming next. The homeowner opens the door, eyes widen, eyebrows raise, and the side of...