Welcome, Clarissa!

We welcomed a brand new member to the Express team today!! Elisa is leaving at the end of this week to prepare for her launch off to grad school, and after several unfruitful weeks of searching, we found Clarissa, who is going to be taking her place. I'm super excited to see our next chapter with her! :D 

welcome aboard!!

I was also pretty excited about lunch.... not just the salmon & green beans, but the fact that I actually remembered to bring it to work. I mean, that's half the battle, right? Haha.. 

Elisa and I took a breather [our first of the day, really] around 3:30, and opted for ice cream... because we were both embracing our inner fat kids today and it sounded awesome. 

and it was awesome!

How'd we never know about this place before?! Not cool...

It's awesome. Cute, small, locally-owned and operated... and delicious. :) 

Time Warner Cable on the other hand, has some absolutely ground to make up, and will stay in the doghouse until the end of time. While I understand it's a luxury, and this will certainly sound like a first-world rant... we signed up for this because we are blessed with the means to support it, and because we enjoy watching it occasionally. So given those two things, the fact that we spend more time speaking with customer service about our lack of service than actually having service is irritating. 

We're almost on board with whoever else has ever though and/or done this... 

last straws.. 

And I suppose if that's the worst thing that's happened to me today, we're okay :). 

It's Monday, and it's sunny. This is gonna be a good week! 

xo | cmd

Go Home, Train...

And here I thought trains only came out during the day in Illinois? Hah.

Well, apparently this was the headline that we didn't see until after the fact of today:

oh boy...

We didn't realize the root cause until several hours after we left our office. We made the decision to call it a day after we sat around like this for nearly an hour:

express yourself... in the dark

Here's hoping for the businesses [especially restaurants] in Norwood and Rookwood, that the power will be back in action by tomorrow!

xo | cmd

Wednesday: Guess What? Moving....

Here is a single-item list of ways I probably would not have chosen to start off my Wednesday:

good move, cori.

^ That is what happens when you drive 8 miles over the speed limit in a school zone in Norwood. I'm not blaming anyone here; I was driving, I had a choice, I managed to keep strong my once-every-3-years speeding ticket streak, etc..... Luckily for us all, there wasn't a daggone kid in sight. I'm not condoning wreckless driving here; don't think I am. I'm just naturally aggravated by it, and kiiiiinda wanna kick myself for not remembering the cars I see pulled over likely for the same reason nearly every other day on my morning commute. Dumb, Cori... dumb.

Anyway, with that expensive start to the morning, I was hoping the day would improve. It did, because honestly improvement is a choice of reaction to circumstance.. or something like that.. and without too much fuss the day put its fangs away.

..... Well I take that back.

.. winter?

^ Before Wicked Wednesday finally gave way, there was a 6-mile stretch of blizzard-like conditions that materialized out of nowhere on the highway. This obviously caught us all off guard, even though every licensed driver in the midwest should be used to roulette weather by now. Whatever. We made it out to the new house safely for another night of organizing. I've tasked this out now, and made it a goal to complete certain areas, one step at a time. Otherwise, I'm all over the house meddling with one thing in each room, only to have half a dozen things started and nothing finished.

tonight's goals: assemble the craft desk & book case

Mission completed!

And now, we rest. The weather forecast doesn't even know it's own shadow at this point, so we may wake up to eight feet of snow or a flood tomorrow. The best thing we can do now is sleep away the hours until we get to find out.

ZzZz!

xo | cmd

FIASCO FRIDAY

I'm all about alliteration ;)

Anyway, HOLY CRUD I am glad to see this day come to an end. [hello, backdated entry]

Today was my first run at dropping Sydni off at Mindi's before work; I came all the way from Northside and it didn't take as long as I'd thought - a reassuring thought since I'll be over halfway closer when I finally move. It was an early start though after a restless night; I was running on empty today outside of my excitement for the weekend.

I got my work phone today, along with some more Express swag... I don't know why I'm still surprised at how much stuff my company actually prints with its logos, but I suppose it's that way everywhere and it's a sign of good faring if nothing else ;)


helloooooo, express... ;)
[[this is just a taste of it, too.. haha]]

I really had no complaints when it came to my day at work. We're starting to find some consistency to a routine and things are picking up. I did decide to get my oil changed in the middle of Norwood today, and aside from the boisterous gal on her cell phone for a half an hour next to me in the lobby, there was also this to keep me entertained:


only here......

Yeah. The day was progressing just fine until it came time to head out. I made my way to Milford at a snail's rate, partially due to traffic but moreso by my own choosing of a varied route that took much longer than I'd thought. I finally got Sydni, and together we started out on the road to Illinois.

There was no making this an easy trip:
1. Car fire on 275, blocking all but one lane.
2. Motorcycle/car accident on 75/74 interchange.
3. Sheets of RAIN in the dark as we headed into Illinois, realizing then that there were tornadoes touching down not more than an hour from us.
Long story short, the usual 5-ish hour trip to Illinois wound up lasting 15 minutes short of EIGHT HOURS, and when we got to Granite, the storm had knocked power out completely. Rob's entire neighborhood was pitch black, save for the flickering candles barely visible through some of the windows.

jackknifed fed ex ... :(

I realized tonight how thankful I am for Rob's Macgyver-like ability and problem-solving skills. Since the power was out, the pump in his basement stopped working, and the water started flooding up over the drains. If it were me, we likely would've been floating by morning. Rob on the other hand, had more than one solution, and had the room looking like Frankenstein's laboratory with wires, batteries, pipes, but more importantly without overflowing water. It was a lengthy process though, one that he didn't finish until about 3am :(.

Like I said, we made it safely [amen], but this day could not be over sooner.

Nothin' like a rocky start to a weekend. Here's to the rest of this weekend (:

xo | cmd

Cinci-Wide TOUR!

Holy tour guide.

I'm fairly certain that the last time I spent even half as much time traversing all over Cincinnati in one day was when I was still with Clearchannel. Welp... records are made to be broken, yeah?

[Another backdated entry]

Here's Saturday, in a snapshot:

1. It's Just Crepes!
I called Catie and coerced into rendezvousing with us down on Court Street at one of Cinci's local digs, It's Just Crepes. Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. They make crepes. Lots of 'em, pretty much however you want 'em.

it's just crepes. it's just awesome.

2. Eden Park
My FAVORITE place in all of Cincinnati. Enough said. This was my hideaway in college and well after: I couldn't tell you how many times I escaped to the overlook if for nothing else than to just retreat into myself and turn off school, work and whatever else was current news for me. I of course wanted to take Rob there; he thought it was great... duh (: 

overlook from cincinnati, across the river into kentucky | eden park

3. Round 'N Round: Norwood, Rookwood, Kenwood, Hyde Park, Indian Hill, Loveland...
Yeah... I know, it's a lot. After Eden, Rob and I took off on an adventure through all the hills [as opposed to the rolling flatlands of Illinois... :| ..] into some of my old stomping grounds. We started off North, and made a quick round through Norwood [Trish & Catie, I had a sweep of terrific memories on this jaunt!!], aka Norhood, where I used to live. We trekked up through Rookwood Commons, into Hyde Park Square, and through there into Hyde Park. I was instantly reminded of just how compact Cincinnati really is: the wide variety of neighborhoods you can see in just 20 minutes is a night & day contrast, and just about everything in between. Hyde Park wound up a hill through Madison into Madeira & Kenwood, and eventually into Indian Hill. We passed the mansions and stopped to get gas just past my old house in Miamiville, in Loveland. *PHEW!

l-r: old house on floral [hey trish & catie!!]
buca di beppo, rookwood commons | rookwood/norwood
kenwood towne centre | madeira/kenwood
mushroom house [aka atlas house] | hyde park

4. Eastgate Jungle Jim's. 'Nuff Said. 
My only [& I do mean only] irritation with the brand new JJ in Eastgate is that they built the daggone thing after I moved out of the area. Prior to that, the only location was in Fairfield, which although was not an awful commute, was still further than I cared to venture just to go grocery shopping. Well, I should visit more, because JJ is definitely more than just a grocery store. Picture an average grocery store... in any given country. Now combine ALL of those stores into one mega-space, and you've got Jungle Jim's. If you can't find it there, I'm gonna bet you won't find it anywhere. Sorry, Trader Joe's. Let's face it, what other international market has a mini zoo out front??!


teaser! [look it up yourselves, yo]

5. Newport on the Levee. Welcome to Kentucky [again]! This is one of the little gems of the greater Cincinnati area [for the folks back in IL/MO, this is kind of like the bordering between IL & STL.. yes, it's that close]. I forget how nice it is sometimes to have a levee view and to be able to see it from both the Kentucky side and the Ohio side. Pretty cool. 

newport [view from the cincinnati side]

6. Township Fields & Tavern... & Brittany!
In a random turn of conversation yesterday, Brittany sent me a note asking if I knew of any job-seekers back in that area for her company. I told her I'd be back for the weekend, and she insisted I make an appearance for her roommate's 30th birthday over in Newtown. I love backwoods shindigs, I love Brittany, and I love birthdays, so of course that was a given.

love... and love.

7. OTR! [Over the Rhine]
Before you old school Cinci folk freak out, let me go ahead and say that when I first heard that OTR is now a happening spot [as opposed to the crim-infested zone it was when I lived there the first time around]. I didn't believe it when Nader told me that months ago, but it's true. I'm truly proud of the progress Cincinnati has made in developing the area and making it more of an amiable place. We met with Catie at her place, then along with some of her coworkers, strolled off into the evening and wound up in the heart of OTR at The Drinkery. 

i love them.

8. Shangai Mama's
Ya heard??! Hahaha. This is another call on our part that would've been considered negotiable five years ago. The reason I say that is because these were trips usually made after long nights of other questionable decisions and accrued liquid courage. None of us were in that state when we got to SM's, but I must say... it was delicious. Go figure! Plus, we ran into Nick, Roxy & Kenji [shocking]. Not a bad way to wrap up a night downtown.


soooooooooooold.

Oh sleeeeeeep. Hello (: (:

xo | cmd

Cincibackdated Entry, Chyup.

I MADE IT!

& THIS IS BACKDATED! Haha.

The weekend has started, regardless of when I'm writing this. I made it back to Cincinnati in one piece, checked into the hotel, and have managed to find some people I have missed to the end of this earth and back.

c.m.c | it's love. hahah

Happy me.
And happy weekend, friends :)

xo | cmd