Snowing like a mother!

It's been coming down all day. It has to be about 6 inches total. I know a lot of people had 2-3 hour commutes to only go a few miles. 3.5 hours according to one friend on Facebook. Speaking of Facebook, I added these pictures and a few more to my Winter set. I just don't think it does them justice, though. Seriously, just click on any of the ones below to see them full-sized. The "Night Landscape" function on my camera is so weird. It makes everything look like a yellow/orange-tinted version of daytime. They do come out pretty clear if you balance it on something, though. Not too bad for a little pocket Kodak in my opinion.

These were taken on the roof of our apartment building. There's a little park up there where dogs are not allowed, so we figured it was as safe a place as any to roll around in the snow and not get a poopy surprise on our boots or coats.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Happy Mid-December everyone. Can't believe I have at least 3-4 more months of this! Ack.

One of the only times you will catch me blogging about football.

The Gators won the SEC Championship today...and though I'm probably not as happy as Tim Tebow, I'm pretty damn close.

When it comes to football (professional and college), I am extremely loyal. I love two teams and only two teams: Gators and Dolphins. No one understands my love of the Gators because I went to Florida State, but I can only chalk it up to this loyalty. As sad as it is, I'm emotionally attached to them. Maybe I associate watching them with my childhood, or maybe with how I spent many many weekends (everyone's favorite time of the week, and therefore a happy feeling). Anyway, I cry when they do badly and my heart jumps when they do well. It's a fact of life.

The Dolphins have been sucking for years, and the Gators were a bit, er...off last year, so when they lost to Ole Miss earlier in the season I dismissed their chances of doing anything too fantastic and vowed not to care about football, for fear of depression setting in every Saturday and Sunday. Then Tebow came along with this (over-played, but still sorta inspirational) speech: "You have never seen any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of this season and you'll never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of this season, and you'll never see a team play harder than we will the rest of this season."

I still thought they had no chance. But I hoped. And since that day, they have kicked ass and done exactly what he said they would do. And I have been happy. Today, I cried the first three quarters of the game, but they pulled it out in the fourth quarter and won. And now they are going to the National Championship game. So while I've never seen the Dolphins make it past the first round of the playoffs (unfortunately, I don't remember watching football at the age of three or whenever they did it last), I will get to see the Gators play in the biggest game of the year for the third time. For that, I am thankful. Small victories, you know? ;)

In other news, it has been snowing all day here. It's also really really cold (which is rare when it's snowing, actually), so I refuse to go outside. I like looking at it from the warmth of my apartment, but having to suit-up and boot-up and brave the wind that numbs my face is not in the cards for today, I'm afraid. The snow is actually collecting on my windowsill, though. I was able to make a snowball and throw it at my boyfriend, all without changing out of the PJs! Again...small victories.

I did leave the apartment once today...to go to the gym...yeah, so I only went to the Bally which is located in the building, but it's something, right? Speaking of Bally, they filed for Chapter 11 this week. Hope that doesn't mean they'll close anytime soon, because I'll probably never work out. Let's face it, it's easy to get lazy in the winter.

This past week went really fast. The only major event was the previously-mentioned holiday work party on Thursday night. It was fun. Good food, good drinks. Pretty basic.

Because it was on a Thursday, I had to bring my clothes to work and get ready at the office. Some of the girls, knowing I needed help with my look, attacked my hair with product and bobby pins, trying to make me pretty. If you know anything about me, you know I never do my hair. I barely brush my hair, so to have it done was odd. It felt weird, but looked decent, I suppose. They actually got it to do what I was trying to get it to do for Halloween (stand up and look poofy in the back). Sometimes I feel like I fail at being a girl.

On another hair-related note, I LOVE Split Ends on The Style Network. It's just a casual watch for me, but as far as reality shows go, it's always really well done. Two hairdressers (usually totally opposite in look and personality from one another) switch salons for a few days. Drama ensues. Beyond fabulous. Think Wife Swap with scissors. Even Jon likes it.

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Well, the forecast said snow, and today didn't disappoint. The first real snowfall of the year always seems magical in a way. Waking up, looking out the window to see everything -- buildings, cars, trees -- dusted with white...it looks just like a Christmas (or some other wintry-type holiday) card!

And then you go out in it. Your feet slip on the pavement, your pant legs become encrusted with dried salt from the sidewalks, the bus speeds by you while you're waiting to cross the street, splashing muddy slush all over your white shoes. Ah, the joys and the hazards of winter in Chicago. It sure is pretty for a little while, though.

(The view from our window tonight -- Sears Tower and WaMu lit in red & green)

The difference between the breezy, sunny 75 degrees it was when I left Florida on Saturday and the wet, grey 23 it is here right now couldn't be any clearer. For some reason, I still choose to return to Chicago (for now). But don't get me wrong, Florida has its charms.

For the record, I had a wonderful vacation. The wedding was spectacular, as predicted.

I've uploaded a bunch of pictures to Facebook and there are more of the reception here if you're at all interested....the best part was the wild techno music and crazy dancing, of course. Unfortunately, I didn't partake due to nerves over the possibility of re-injuring my leg. I'm still not 100% about it and thought booze and jumping around like a mad woman was probably a high-risk combo. Instead, I stuck to the picture taking, which proved to be fun in itself. And as a bonus, there are no embarassing pictures of me floating around from that night (I'm sure there are embarassing pics of me somewhere from some time in my life, but if I don't have to see them, they don't exist, right?).

Speaking of embarassing...my mom showed up last Sunday with her new husband (they eloped last year, because that's totally normal for moms to do, right?) wearing this:

Yes, I got to spend the entire day with Thing 1 and Thing 2. In public places. It was fun. We ate, we shopped, we mini-golfed, we walked around Downtown Disney, we ate some more...it was all good in the end. Pics up here.

Monday and Tuesday were spent with Dan, who came over from Tampa. More shopping, more eating, drinking, saw Bolt in 3D (must've been drinking when I agreed to see a movie with Miley Cyrus in it, eh?), lots of Starbucks and interesting conversations with strangers, etc. You get the picture.

Thanksgiving with Jon's family - do I need to describe the eating? Lots of yummy vegan foods. Nuff said.

Went to Animal Kingdom on Friday which was just beyond cool. If you've gone, you get it. If you ever have the chance to go, take it. I love animals, and this felt a lot more animal-friendly than a zoo. Interesting fact about the park: Jon told me last night that the entire Magic Kingdom would fit inside of the one safari ride at Animal Kingdom.

We waited in line for about 30 minutes and the ride lasted 18 more. Now that's what I call time well spent! Everest was good as well, though far too short if you ask me. Finding Nemo show was great too.

I thought it would be really busy, considering that it was the day after Thanksgiving, but it wasn't at all. I'm guessing everyone was shopping? Or sleeping off the turkey? Or conserving money? Well, whatever the case, it worked out well for us! Pics up here.

That's it for tonight. This took way too long to write/post...which is why I give up on blogging I think. No attention span. Mad props to Walt for posting something every single day in November. I don't think I would have something to say each day, so color me impressed!

And as I write this, Jon is setting up his new 42" TV in the bedroom. It's OBSCENE. I just had a look at it. No one needs a TV that big, I'm sure of it.