2011 - One of the Best. Years. Yet.

I can't believe 2011 is already coming to an end. Although the onset of New Year's is typically defined by the setting of New Year's resolutions, I haven't yet cemented my New Year's goals just yet... sure, my New Year's goals are in their solid formulation/cementing stages, but that post will be coming at a more appropriate time (i.e. closer to New Year's Eve/Day itself) because, quite frankly...

I can't get over 2011. It was ONE OF THE BEST YEARS YET!! I would say that 2011 was right on up there with the years 1996, 2001 and 2006. That's right- I have favorite years... don't judge (unless that ship has already sailed).

I could go into the details about each of my favorite years, but, quite frankly, laziness is getting the better of me. Instead, I'm simply going to provide a synopsis. A synopsis, if you will, of why 2011 was simply one of my favorite years ever. (So far.)

5. I finally travelled abroad a bit more! With the completion of paying off my graduate student loans (there is no greater sense of accomplishment... well, slight exagg but whatever), I finally got to experience complete and total debt-freedom. So... off to gorgeous Iceland and that place which shall remain nameless (for legal reasons) I went!

4. The year started off on just about the most perfect foot possible, when I landed my first television gig (of the year, that is) thanks to Mother Nature... and Weather Channelman Jim Cantore. I think I was the ONLY Chicago resident who was THRILLED with the onslaught of that blizzard to end all blizzards...

3. I made some really just gosh darn great new friends. Sure, I can befriend like a brick wall if I really have to (what can I say? I have that gift for gab, really...). But this year really made me realize just how much I. Love. Chicago. Sure, the city is great. But it's the people that really make this city feel so much more like a home than any of the other cities I've lived in. Sigh. Virtual hug and all that.

2. I realized just how powerful the Internet can be... so powerful, in fact, that I've taken the opportunity to sub-bullet this point:

2a. I was introduced to Twitter... God, it is only the Best. Thing. Ever. Not only was I retweeted by the Today show (as if the Royal Wedding wasn't a glorious highlight of 2011 in and of itself, who knew that my tweet about it would actually be RETWEETED TO 1.1M followers?!?!?), I was also retweeted by Katie Couric?!!?!?!? lskdjflkds! Oh, the DREAMS!! (Clearly, I dream big.)

2b. I joined CNN's iReport team! Not only did I join the team, but it only took me two reports before my second iReport was vetted and approved by CNN... and received 20,000+ hits in the course of three days!!! Having my iReport be like the fourth story down on the CNN US News page that first day it "went viral" was simply icing on that cake, baby!!!!

1. I was invited to the final, final taping of The Oprah Winfrey show - fulfilling a lifelong dream to see Oprah in person AND see a taping of her show in Harpo studio! This was honestly the PEAK of my year... I still can't believe it happened. While I have no idea why her staff chose me to be one of the exclusive few to be in her audience, I am eternally, eternally grateful. All I have to say is that this experience 100% cemented my belief in good karmic forces and the fact that Someone really is watching out for me...

So there you have it! 2011- a year in review, if you will. 2012 sure does have some big shoes to fill...

Holiday Spirit, I Missed You So...

This weekend was THE definition of the holiday season, if ever there was one. It couldn't have come at a better time, considering I haven't been getting into the Christiemas spirit as much as would be typical for any given year. I'm not sure why... I mean, I'm following the standard protocol... you know, listening to Christiemas music, watching Christiemas movies, talking up Christiemas for all the world to hear...

Anyway! All better now! This weekend was just what I needed to kick my butt into holiday gear. First up? A holiday party. But not just any holiday party, folks... this holiday party was hosted by the one, the only...

PURVI MODY!!! (Weeeeee!!!! First blog post shout-out, by name!!!!! Congratulations!!! This is exactly what the holiday season is ABOUT!!!)

Purvi is one of those people that is simply MADE to host parties. She has a gorgeous apartment (complete with gorgeous views) and, quite frankly, her love for the holidays is actually quite comparable to mine. When she'd described her apartment's holiday decorations (complete with a tree and a Christiemas VILLAGE?!?!?), I KNEW I was not going to be disappointed by her holiday party. I'd been counting down the days since I got the invite (yes, it's been a full two weeks. But whatever.).

As soon as I arrived, I was in heaven. Any party that holds a Christiemas tree filled with cupcakes galore is MY KINDA PARTAY!


Clearly, the cupcake tree was quite the hot commodity of this holiday party. Of course, there were plenty of other delicious treats to be had throughout the night...


But of course, believe it or not, there was more to the party than the delectable treats (so I tend to lose focus pretty easily- sue me). I think the BEST thing about this holiday party was the widely varying groups of people that Purvi brought together... despite everyone's completely different personalities and backgrounds, the party was a huge hit! New friends were being made right and LEFT!



Sure, the open bar might've had something to do with it, but you know what? Whatever gets people in that holiday SPIRIT. In short, the evening totally emblemized what the holiday season was all about, in my opinion.

So, you would think Saturday night would have been plenty to satiate my holiday palate. But no, no, no. That was just the start. Sunday turned into a full day of holiday festivities as WELL!

First up, brunch. My favorite meal of the day... sigh. A few of us decided to try this new place in the South Loop called "Waffles". As soon as I entered this place, I was sold.


Please note the ginormous Christiemas tree hovering in the left corner of the shot... strategic, if you will. :) Waffles is a fairly new restaurant in the South Loop... while I always get super excited about new brunch spots, I have to say Waffles was just... okay. I mean, I'd go there again if needed, but it's definitely not a place that I would be seeking out on a regular basis.

Oh well. Brunch is brunch and you can't go wrong when you have good friends all around, right? Right.

After brunch, Urmi, Joyce and I ended up walking all the way up Michigan Avenue, with a slight pit stop filled with holiday merriment...


Gah!!! Sooooo cozyyyyy!!! I love, love, LOVE people watching at an ice rink! So many different kinds of people, so many different skating styles... good times.

After the brief pit stop, we kept on heading north up Michigan, and finally just ended up holing up at Grand Lux Cafe to warm up with some cozy beverages because, quite frankly, we were COLD.


Heaven. Pure heaven.

After loitering in Grand Lux for a solid couple of hours (it's amazing how some good old-fashioned gossiping can make the time magically FLY BY!), Urmi ended up meeting another friend to go shopping while Joyce and I headed to another friend's place for, of all things, a tree trimming party!!!!!

It was the first one I'd ever been to, so I didn't really know what to expect. Honestly, I figured it was just going to be a couple of hours, where people just hung around a tree, stuck a couple of ornaments on, and moved along their merry way.

Umm... I was so very wrong. This party was LE-GIT. First off, the tree that Vidhya had gotten was HUGE...


No wonder she needed a whole party to decorate this thing! But first things first...


Check out that SPREAD! If you think that holiday spread was going to go very long without being dug into, you are sadly mistaken. That dish that's totally front and center? No photographic mistake, my friends. Who knew beet dip could be so tasty and delicious? I swear, this stuff is like CRACK... and now totally one of my new favorite foods. Ever.

Anyway! After a fair amount of time just standing around chit-chatting and eating, we got right to work...



The final product?


Voila!! Holiday magic!!!!! lakdsjflkasjdflkajsdflkj! Come on, you have to admit- just LOOKING at that tree is enough to put any ol' Scrooge in the holiday spirit, RIGHT?! Right.

Sigh. As I was cabbing back to my place, mentally preparing for the work week ahead of me, I couldn't help but think about how HAPPY this weekend just made me. This is what the holiday season is all ABOUT!!! It is, after all, the most wonderful time of year...

Alright! Now that my spirit is back, I'm totally off to start writing this year's rendition of 'Twere the Weeks Before Christiemas...

Welcome back, holiday spirit, welcome BACK!

Welcome to My First Poker Experience... Ever.

You know, while I'm all about work team events (whatever promotes that one big happy family feel... sigh.), I was inclined to back out of the poker party my team had planned for Wednesday night for a couple of reasons.

One, I have NOT been sleeping well lately (darn hotel beds) and am perpetually exhausted come, say, 3 PM. Two, well... I've never played poker before! And, MAN. These people sounded like they were LEGIT. Combine that with the fact that I scare of people (let alone competitive people) easily and... well, poker with coworkers sounded like a disaster waiting to happen.

Oh well. Twist my arm (it took all of about two seconds to convince me, let's be honest here).

I knew that the poker party was going to be my kind of thing pretty much as soon as I entered the room and helped myself to...


Weeeee!!! Holiday beer?!?! Any party that serves holiday beverages is MY KINDA PARTY!

After some food and chit-chatting, we got down to business... not like I really knew what "getting down to business" would mean in the poker sense but... well, whatever. All I know is that my coworkers started whipping out these like mini-SUITCASES filled with rows and rows of poker chips.


Let's have a double take, folks...


Aaaand that was precisely the point when the whole "addicted to gambling" side of me started to come out... even though the buy-in was only $10 (gotta love being the poker-playing rookie), the THOUGHT of how MUCH those chips could actually be WORTH was enough for my eyes to nearly pop out of its sockets. Obvi, this reaction was totally internalized because, well, I WAS with coworkers and, believe it or not, I CAN temper the chaos that IS me when in professional settings! I mean, professional lines have to be drawn at SOME point, right? (Riiiight... that's pretty much a moot point since you better BELIEVE I'll be sending this blog post to my coworkers... hello! Shameless self-advertising knows no bounds, people!).

Anyway, thankfully my team consists of pretty much the most patient people alive, who had no problems giving me a brief tutorial prior to actually beginning the game. Additionally, two people on my team provided me with different variations of poker cheat sheets (gotta love Smartphones) to help guide me in terms of what hands rank higher and whatnot.

So the game quickly commenced and, well, let's face it. I quickly got confused. Doesn't take much, really. But in my DEFENSE, there is a LOT to keep STRAIGHT in this GAME, people! I mean, Straight, Flush, Two Pair... how in heavens name do people keep TRACK of all THAT (without multiple cheat sheets, mind you) in ADDITION to keeping track of, like, "how" others at the table are betting, how one's poker face is being maintained, etc. etc.

GOD, just thinking about it in retrospect is enough to overwhelm me.

Anyway, whatever. As confusing as it was, it was actually really fun learning about the game. Surprisingly enough, I actually found the game to be strangely fascinating... even if I wasn't winning.

So there I was, just going along my merry way, studying these multiple phones' cheat sheets before making any and every move (and clearly, not pushing the bounds of my teammates' patience) when, out of the clear blue, would you look at that...


I won! I won! alkdsjflkdsjflkjLKJ! OMG, the HIGH you can GET from winning a poker hand is NO JOKE! To be perfectly honest, when I laid my cards out and people started saying I'd won, I totally lost track of even trying to understand WHY exactly I'd won. I mean, I swear things just started moving at such a frenetic pace and PLEASE. I was MUCH too distracted at the sight of... that little pile of poker chips heading my wayalkjfdslkdsjf! Not gonna lie... my palms actually got a little sweaty.

Best. Sweaty Palm. Experience. Ever.

Hahah. TMI? Anyway! And to think, that was just the start! I actually won a couple more hands... but nothing can compare to that first win. Sigh. Let's have a moment to reflect, if you will.

Believe it or not, I actually was totally as cool as a cucumber with my subsequent wins... or so I like to think. So maybe it wasn't necessarily me being as cool as a cucumber so much as it was... well, me STILL not fully and completely understanding the game just yet, let's be honest here. Well, what? How was I supposed to know that triple Queens was some kind of great hand to have?

In any event! All in all, I have to say... my first poker experience?

One. Big. Fat. Success.

Next up? Working on that poker face... ha. And I thought learning the game itself was going to be hard...