* Happy Halloween * & Let's Catch up!

Sorry blog peeps, it's been over a week since I've blogged. I know you were probably worried about me, I'm ok. I was actually busy getting my Halloween costume finished and it was going to be awesome. But sadly after all that hard work, my sister ended up being sick yesterday so I didn't go out.  Instead I sat my happy self at home in my PJ's and watched TV. I'm sorry she was sick but it makes me very sad that I put all that work into the costumes and didn't get to go anywhere... as always. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Friday at work was costume day. I actually won "Most Creative Costume" with my crazy cat lady get up. Complete with cats, pictures of cats, and talking about how awesome cats are. Here are some pictures from the other people who dressed up too. We had Darius Rucker, Thinkin' Arby's girl, and a few Merlottes waitresses and a Halloween edition of the Three Wolf Moon shirt. Epicness.

On Friday, we participated in the "Screaming Pumpkin Race" it was so much fun. We participated in the 10k Run (which we mostly walked, but hey 6.55 miles is 6.55 miles) needless to say I was a little sore. The course was set up through the historic Springdale Cemetery in Peoria, IL. We finished in just under 2 hours. (that's about an 18 minute mile if you were wondering) It was very neat. The cemetery was full of old Mausoleums and old stones everywhere. The course was pitch black except for glow sticks lining the path on one side. It was a grueling course too, for the people that say there are no hills in Illinois, go to this cemetery wand wog (run/jog) up one and get back to me. Needless to say I was a little sore yesterday. It was lots of fun and I hope to go back and do it again next year and try to actually run the whole thing. Google map the cemetery though and you'll see how absolutely HUGE it is. They also ran a Marathon and a Marathon Relay as well (that means 4 laps on the grueling course..eek!) There are pictures but my friend has them on her camera so I'll have to wait to get them from her, then I'll post them for ya.

Today is the official Trick-or-Treat day here in GC, so I may or may not be passing out candy. I may just repeat yesterday I haven't decided yet.

I am very excited for next weekend though and cannot wait! Friday is the annual Rodeo that me and my country gals attend AND after that one of our favorite local bands is going to be at our country bar, Double Awesome!! I can't wait for that. THEN on Saturday It's Sew My Style and myself are heading to Chi-town for a free financial seminar that we decided to attend on a spur of the moment impulse and Bill and Guiliana Rancic will be guest speakers. I'm proud of us for being spontaneous.

Thursday was Book Club night! This month we read "The Brief History of the Dead" by Kevin Brockmeier. It was an interesting book and I liked it alot until the end. The basic premise of the book is that when you die you go to 'The City' which is just another city like the one you came from except everyone there has died. You can remain in the city as long as someone on Earth remembers you. It's an interesting thought, you are only "alive" as long as you are remembered by the living. The book ends with you wanting more and asking a lot of questions. It was a little deep for us to figure out the exact meaning of what the author was going for. In other news apparently the new goal for The Page Turner if to find me the love of my life just look here. From all the conversations we had that night, this is what stuck. I don't know whether to be excited, nervous, or depressed lol. I'll let you know how that works out. Our November book (our 1 year anniversary!) is "Flowers for Algernon" by David Keyes. I read it before in High School, don't remember the details but know the general premise. For December, my pick is "A Single Man" by Christopher Isherwood.

I think that is all for now, see you didn't really miss that much in my absence. Don't worry I'll be back on it now. Happy Haunting!

Halloween Is Upon Us

Halloween is almost here, where the heck has this month gone?!

Would you believe that I have not been out on Halloween as an adult? Both sad and tragic I know. I was all ready set to go out with the girls last year but for the second time in a year I had a kidney stone and unfortunately had to miss the festivities last year. Very sad.

Next Friday I will be partaking in a 10K jog (more like walk) 'The Screaming Pumpkin Race' through a cemetery and the trail is lined only with glow sticks! It should be a pretty fun night out, and of course costumes are encouraged!

So all of the above mentioned, I'm on a mission to find/make a costume AND to get my booty out on Halloween. Luckily enough a friend who has a band will be playing on the 30th for a spooktakular show. There has been murmurs of possibly getting a few awesome people together and heading out to see him or at least out to a few bars. As an adult you don't get too many opportunities to get dressed up and hit the town, so that is precisely what I plan to at least try to do.

What are your Halloween plans and what are you dressing up as if you are?

Dream Board

While perusing the Internet at work today I came across Oprah.com and her infinite wisdom and inspiration sprung forth from the screen. I cam across her Dream Board, Envision your own life section. It's filled of ways to help you figure out your life's passion, purpose and anything you have possibly questioned about life's mystery.

But the thing that I thought was really cool was a Dream Board. Turns out it's not just an Oprah thing. There are lots of sites devoted to creating your own vision board, even places where you can create a digital one. I'm going to be working on a little more creative version and my own interpretation of the Dream Board, because, well that's how I roll. I like to make something my own. So I challege everyone to make their own Dream Board and send in a picture to [ northof10th.gmail.com ] along with a story if you'd like and I'll post them on the follow-up post. Ready to get started?

I know it's a little corny but it's something to try. Google "dream board" if you need some examples.Here's how (from Oprah's site)

How Superstitious?

I came across an article today about the Titanic. You know the ginourmous ship from the early 1900's known for it's glamorous design and "unsinkable" status and overall hugeness? Oh and that little thing that happened on the maiden voyage where it sank in the middle of the Atlantic ocean and 1500 people drowned?

Well now you can relive the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic thanks to the "Titanic Memorial Cruise" It's sold out a mere 18 months before the voyage to retrace the doomed maiden voyage of the Titanic.  It's a 12 day cruise through the Atlantic stopping in several European Ports, departing from the UK. Did I mention they will be at the exact spot the Titanic sank on exactly the 100th Anniversary of it's sinking. (um hello time/space continuum portal, that's just asking for trouble, I hope they don't get there at exactly 2:20am the exact time she sank too, AY YI YI!)

I don't consider myself to be a big superstitious person, people go on cruises all the time, and I don't think anything has sunk (without pirate help anyway) as of late so I'm sure it's completely safe. Something just seems a little off about the whole idea. I know it's a memorial but it seems a bit much?!

I am a huge Titanic fan (shout-out to Leo! <3) not just of the movie (I saw it like 4 times in theaters, yep one of those) but of the whole story. I'm kind of a closet history buff when it comes to stuff like that I guess. I would be all about going out there to investigate the wreckage with scientists (Oh! I can add that to my wish-I-had-this-job-instead-of-the-one-I-have list but I don't know how I feel about parading a whole boat ship of people over the site where the largest passenger steamship of it's time found it's demise. Just like I don't particularly want to fly over the scene of an air crash.

I don't know though as I'm reading the itinerary, it actually sounds pretty neat, historically of course and taking out the fact that it's exploiting the doom.

But I'd be just as excited to go to Branson, MO and visit the Titanic museum there! There you will navigate through twenty rooms holding 400 valuable museum artifacts and personal items, an exclusive photo collection and hands-on-activities, including touching an ice wall! Man now look what I did, I want to go to Branson!! It's a 7 hour drive, weekend trip?!

The questions I leave you with today are:
- How superstitious are you and what are you superstitious about?
- Would you take the "Memorial Cruise" and be there exactly 100 years later to one of the deadliest peace time maritime disasters?!
- Who's going to Branson with me?! lol (I know 'Page Turner' is going soon!)

Luck Be A Lady?

According to Merriam-Webster luck is..
1 a : a force that brings good fortune or adversity b : the events or circumstances that operate for or against an individual



2: favoring chance; also : success 
 
We are on a mission to find a serious game of Bingo. That's right you heard me right. Old ladies, luck charms, alcohol and b-i-n-g-o!
 
You know the old ladies get hard core about their lucky items, so while we search out the perfect game I need to get my collection of lucky items in order. What actually makes something lucky. It has to start as unlucky and get lucky right? I used to have a lucky Canadian quarter in middle school. then I lost it..lol. Nothing bad happened whiles I carried it so does that make it lucky?
 
So I need to get an arsenol of lucky items going so I can kick some old lady arse and win me some bingo. Interesting site I found regarding what makes something lucky. Stay tuned for my lucky items.
 
What are some of your lucky items?

Sometimes I feel Lame

It's true. Here I am 24 on a Friday night, I had plans, but decided I didn't want to deal with a crowd and my Pjs won the coin toss so I went home after work instead of a night out with some peeps from work. Sometimes I feel lame but them I'm like whatever, pj pants free dinner and tv who could resist that?

I've been trying to get out and take some more pictures and also decide where I want my life to go. So yeah the Flower shop isn't really a feasible idea and true I never studied plants or really had the dream of owning a shop (although it would be cool and I'd prolly be good at it) If only life were as easy as Futurama and they just told you what your job was (Hail Mary and pray for the good job). I'm still brainstorming possible career paths. But until I find my dream things (dream man/job/life/car/financials/etc/etc.) humor me and hop over to the photo blog and check out my spooky photo I took today (because I'm bored and I bought a fancy new camera so I make excuses to use it) Our current photo contest that ALL of you should enter is "Signs of Fall" Check it out!

To All you nay-sayers

I have bangs. Yep I did it.. what now?!

Please note if you are not lucky and cool enough to see me in person tomorrow you will need to kindly hold your patience for a proper picture to present my new look. The self-phone ones were horrid.

10 Things: First Frost Edition

I am a fan of the cooler weather, but it does make me a little bit sad because it'll be no more motorcycle and snow will soon be here but there are plenty of things to love about cooler weather here's 10!

- soup
- cozy blankets
- warm fires
- my fleece jacket
- scooby-doo slippers
- snuggly cats
- an extra 5 minutes under the covers in the morning
- my comfy pj pants
- leaves changing
- NO MOSQUITOS!!!

of course I could list 20 more reasons why colder weather sucks, but that would be counter-productive now wouldn't it!

Road Trip

Our original road trip plans were aborted after yesterday's morning rain. We had hoped to make it up to Starved Rock and check it out. Then we thought about postponing the Starved Rock trip until today, but again the weather really wasn't on our side aka cold and wind.

I have not yet upgraded my cold weather gear, because well I haven't really needed it. But today I wish I did have some chaps, that would have been really nice. Instead I had to improv which consisted of... long sleeve t-shirt, t-shirt, sweatshirt, and leather jacket. My track years paid off in the gift of long spandex which were worn under my jeans, thickest socks I own and boots. Full face helmet (which I always wear anyways, but especially useful on days like today), bandanna over my mouth and tucked in my sweatshirt (which ended up being a godsend anyway your neck can get very very cold) and my heaviest motorcycle gloves which will definitely need to be upgraded if I plan to adventure much more into the bone chilling cold. 1st annual Frozen Turkey ride anyone?! lol

So since we were too chickenbutt to brave the cold too much we decided a closer 50mi trip would be better suited for a cold day road trip. So we ventured off to Pontiac. There we checked out the Route 66 Museum which had lots donated items true to the Route 66 routes. Stories, pictures and memorabilia filled the cases. The building was also home to the local War Museum. It was one of the best collections and personal war stories I've seen for a small town. Everything there was donated and listed the person's name and story. Particularly interesting was all the uniforms with medals earned on display.

One story really stood out to me. A young man who stormed the beaches of Normandy was hit three times by a machine gun upon arrival, the third shot had ricocheted off his dogtags and St. Christopher medal (the dogtags with bullet hole were on display) as the young man lay wounded on the beach he was struck two more times by enemy sniper fire, one shot grazed his head. He was rescued and spent two years in the hospital and make a full recovery. The picture showed him when he came to visit the display as an old man. He lived to be 85 years old. It was an amazing story, I highly recommend checking it out.

We had a good time and a nice ride despite the cool weather. This was my longest trip thus far on the bike and I'm only getting started. Each time I venture farther and farther. Sadly it will soon be time to park it up for the winter, and dream of that first warm day to start the season all over again.

http://www.visitpontiac.org/