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25 February 2010

Amelie-inspired silliness

By: Jessica B.
Tagged: Movies, Random, travel

I’m feeling a little silly today, a definite sign that it’s been a long week :) So I’m indulging my silliness with a little inspiration from one of my favorite movies, Amelie.

I love this movie. It makes me fall in love with Audrey Tatou and want to move to Paris stat.

I could only hope I would meet a cute Parisian boy like Nino (but would prefer he didn’t work in a porn store.) If you saw the movie, you know who I’m talking about.

I could gush about this movie for hours but one of my favorite parts of the movie is when she steals her father’s garden gnome and has it travel worldwide, mailing her father photos from various landmarks. Again, if you saw the movie, you know what I’m talking about.

So this weekend while I was in Houston, I got a little slap happy at the end of each day and took the horse toy that the Four Seasons gave me and took a few Amelie-inspired photos around my hotel room.

Take a look:

Sitting in bed, snacking on Texas Chewie Pecan Pralines (she had a long day and didn’t give up sweets for Lent)

Reading USA Today’s Life section (she loves her entertainment news)

Left her alone for too long and she found the mini-bar key. That’s gonna cost me. Such a boozer

My personal favorite: Updating Twitter. She’s so social media savvy!

Yeah, I got a little zany but come on, she’s updating Twitter and hitting the mini bar. How cute is that??

I never was a big stuffed animal person, but I think I’ll keep her around. But introducing her to Bubbles could be tough. She is very territorial.

Pretty sure I sound crazy now, I should go :)

Does anyone have big plans for the weekend? Or what was your favorite stuffed animal growing up as a kid?

Movie review update: Yes, I’m back to movie reviews today and I finally got to see A Single Man, Tom Ford’s directorial debut, check it out!

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22 February 2010

Babies on a plane

By: Jessica B.
Tagged: travel

During my flight back to Houston, I was treated to a 2.5 hour flight with a screaming toddler sitting right behind me. And along with the wails and screams and cries, I received repeated kicks to my back.

Seriously, it was the best flight ever!

Contrary to popular belief, I don’t hate babies. They’re adorable. They’re entertained by giggles, tickles and peek-a-boos. And that fresh baby smell? Priceless. And lately, I’ve been a baby whisperer. Just sayin.

But even if you love kids (in small doses), I have never been on a flight where people don’t pale or hold their breath when a baby boards. Because you know, when a baby boards, there is a 50/50 chance that baby will start to cry. And you are praying that open seat next to or around you will not be filled by said child because loud cries in a confined space for several hours makes you want to kill yourself.

And this baby on my flight was a screamer. Goodness. She did not sleep at all during the flight and when she did calm down for 2 seconds, another baby (who must have snuck on the flight) started up.

When the plane landed in Chicago, people in the back of the plane got up and RAN to the front to be the first ones off. In 30 years of flying, I have never seen that happen, and I couldn’t blame them. I had a splitting headache and couldn’t get to sleep, making me super fussy.

But I get it, kids cry and sometimes they just need to cry it out, so there is no easy fix outside of tiring them out before the flight.

I need to look into buying those Bose noise canceling headphones though because this would have been the perfect test to that claim.

As soon as I got home, I took my birth control and remembered why the “No Way Baby” sign is at my desk.

Has this happened to you on a flight? How have you been able to survive that flight?

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21 February 2010

Weekend recap: Houston!

By: Jessica B.
Tagged: Friends, travel, work

Houston, we have  a problem.

I’m back from a business trip and Chicago is supposed to get 7+ inches of snow over the next 24 hours.

Kill.me.now. Let’s hope that’s not a reality.

This weekend I went to the Lone Star state (first time!) for the Mom 2.0 conference where I got to see Katelin, meet Allison in person and make a new Twitter friend, Brittney.

And we did manage of spend some time together in the hotel bar, where we got a little rowdy talking about Dawson’s Creek, Twilight and pop culture. I may have also reenacted the birth scene in Breaking Dawn on my Blackberry cover too. And we may have been the loudest people there and screaming and hitting the table (in excitement) near Dooce and people on a date. That’s how we roll. And then we only got one photo together over the course of three days. FAIL.

But I did take a lot of random pictures because it was my first time staying in a Four Seasons hotel and ZOMG I would give my left tit to stay in another one. I cannot even begin to tell you how amazing it was. And it made me realize I might be grizzled, jaded city person.

Why?

Because the hotel service was amazing. I cannot gush about this enough. Staff always asked if I needed help, if I was having a good time, if I enjoyed my meals, pronounced my last name correctly, had turndown service, always smiled and delivered things to my room in the most timely manner I’ve ever seen. Even when my event had some bumps, people were there to help. I told everyone I ran into at the hotel how nice it was and how blown away I was by the service. The kitchen staff even brought food out to my booth for me and my co-workers to eat because we usually ate last or not at all. I mean, seriously?

So the jaded part comes in response to this over-attentiveness. The first day when people asked if I needed help, I said, yes or no, by day three, I was like, “why? what’s your game?”

How sad is that? People are trying to be nice and I’m thinking they’re doing it insincerely. I’m ashamed of myself and my city-attitude.

I’m going to be uploading my oodles of photos to my Flickr page over the next few days but for tonight, I leave you with a picture of me and my co-workers with the Chipmunks. Yes, you heard me correctly. And no, it’s not  coincidence I’m standing near Alvin :)

How was everyone else’s weekend? What is your favorite Chipmunk? Or what is the nicest hotel you’ve ever stayed in?

Review blog update: Gasp, I updated my review and it’s not a movie review this time! Check out my review of CoverGirl’s Lash Blast mascara.

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30 December 2009

Peace out 2009 and hello 2010

By: Jessica B.
Tagged: BlogHer, Chicago, Friends, Random, Wisconsin, celebrity, family, travel, work

So tomorrow is New Years Eve, which means I’m taking a look back at 2009 and looking ahead to 2010 by making a list of resolutions.

Or as I like to call them “things I try to achieve when I’m not lazy.”

But before I go out tomorrow night, drink loads of champagne, possibly force a guy to make out with me and spend the first day of 2010 hungover on my couch, I want to highlight a few 2009 highlights (in no particular order):

All in all, 2009 was a pretty good year, lots going on but a lot of positive things too. So as I continuously try to become a better person, let’s look at how I plan to do that starting Friday. Oh and this is separate from the yearly pledge to lose more weight.

2010 resolutions:

  • Sign up for dance classes (real ones at a real dance studio)
  • Run a 5k (and start the Couch to 5k program)
  • Be a better friend and daughter
  • Start a knitting project (other than a scarf) and FINISH it
  • Make one new recipe a month
  • Be more active in blogging communities in addition to my blog

Well that’s my 2009 wrap up and 2010 sneak peek for now. I hope 2010 will be as exciting and good to me as well as for all of you. I think 2010 could be the year of me!

I’ll be back this weekend with more but in the meantime, I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year! My New Years Day plans involve my couch, a pizza and lots of water and Naked Juice. Let’s party.

What was your 2009 highlight (blog or otherwise) or what’s your big 2010 resolution?

New movie review is up! You can read my full review of the musical Nine, get those jazz hands ready!

What I’m wearing: Sunday, I put up a picture of me wearing the below outfit over the holidays and then I didn’t share what stores I got everything from! I’m sorry! Details on my comfortable, “trendy” look are below.

Outfit breakout:

Shirt: Old Navy

Long vest: Banana Republic

Leggings: Hue, purchased at Nordstrom

Necklace: Banana Republic outlet

Boots: Banana Republic

Bracelets: Old Navy (black jet beaded ones) and David Yurman

As many of you know, I’m a huge Gap/Banana/Old Navy fan. Minus the Yurman bracelets, the most expensive item from this ensemble was the boots, which were $100 on super-end-of-season sale. Everything else individually was $40 or below.

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01 September 2009

Winning the lottery, no whammies!

By: Jessica B.
Tagged: Fashion, Random, family, gym, shopping, travel, work

Sometimes I love to daydream that I quit my job to run off to Europe and live a luxurious, adventurous life, but I always realize that this dream is contingent on one thing: that I win the lottery.

Problem with that part is that I’m not really a regular “lottery player” or gambler. I have no idea how to play slots (shocking but true) and don’t buy weekly lottery tickets.

But I will walk to a gas station and buy a lottery ticket when there is a huge jackpot because, why not? Sure, my odds of being struck by lightening are better than winning, but it’s fun. The Mega Millions jackpot was $330 million or something so Friday night I went to a gas station and bought three tickets.

And while I didn’t win (and have been at work all week), I always let myself daydream a little bit about what would happen if I did win. It was a hot topic one day at lunch too.

So here is what I would do with $330 million (or whatever I get after taxes):

  • Buy my parents house and give them a lump sum of money to cover property taxes for the next 20 years
  • Let my dad retire and say “f*ck it” to his job
  • Buy myself a SWEET condo (lots of room to walk around naked)
  • Work freelance and go back to school for my MBA
  • Donate a lot of my clothes and replace them with beautiful things from JCrew, Anthropologie and Nordstrom
  • Two words: Chanel quilted
  • Donate money to local charities
  • Volunteer more
  • Stalk Oprah.com to get tickets to a taping (since I won’t have to work)
  • Get a car, or two (and a parking spot)
  • Send my parents to Europe (and get some nice non-addictive, Michael Jackson sleeping pills for dad to help him not go crazy on that flight)
  • Travel (hi five-star hotels around the world) and take my closest friends on a nice trip
  • Buy a real pony (not that I don’t love my birthday ones, but you know, get a real, live one to love forever)
  • Get a dog (and pay someone to train him, kidding?)
  • Have fresh cut flowers in my house weekly (I LOVE fresh flowers)
  • Go to LA and stalk John Kraskinski (kidding?)
  • Get a personal trainer and get my fat a** back in shape
  • Hire a cleaning lady (I’ll be honest, I’m lazy and hate scrubbing floors)

As you can see, some are more realistic than others. And it seems I’ve put more thought into this than I imagined :)

What would you do if you won the lottery? Feel free to shoot for the stars (and get creative too!)

Edit: I also meant to add about getting a condo that I’ll have room for Alexa to come live in my “room of awesome” :) FORGIVE ME Alexa!

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