Fancy Fridays

TGIF! 

Another week in the books, and another Friday to usher in the weekend!

I hit the road after work and made a beeline north for an hour to Beavercreek, which has happened more this year than it has in the last five.. but who's counting? Jennica's back in Dayton, and that's all that matters.

friday morning... vs. friday afternoon :) 

So let the twintastrophy begin.
Or something like that.

We made tentative plans to go canoeing tomorrow, so we decided I'd come up tonight and we'd kick off the weekend 12 hours early :). We started with dinner by the river, inside because it was raining outside... a fact we were fine with because it now freed us from having to get up early and stain her deck in the morning.. shhh..

dinner date! ♥

From dinner, we hit a row of nightcaps.. forgive me if I forget all their names; all I know is that this wonderful friend that I've known for almost 15 years is back in Ohio and barely an hour away. We'll have lots more nights like this and that makes my heart so, so happy.

[selfie station..]

Man.. this girl. I'm a firm believer in surrounding yourself with a tribe equally as - if not more - weird than yourself. They're the ones that push you to be your most authentic self; JS, you are definitely one of those and I couldn't be more thankful for our friendship... allllll 15ish long friggin' years of it. ;) 

Cheers to the weekend!

xo | cms 

Thursday SnapChat Revival

It's been a few days since I explored what new and inventive ways SnapChat has developed to weirden us a little more. I hopped on today during my break to peruse through the stories that others have posted, and browsed some of the filters I haven't seen yet. 

This... is one of them: 

And then there were two that I'm sure are provoking indignant looks from all the self-proclaimed feminists out there [& I'm not saying you're wrong... ]. I'm not entirely sure who's responsible for dreaming these up, but they are pretty funny, and of the three, I'm a huge fan of the intergalactic star explosion. I'm not much of a French Maid nor am I that chick from the J. Howard Miller poster, but I can definitely get on board with goofy glasses and outer space.

no. yes. definitely no.

Fast forward several hours later to when we were home and Sydni got ahold of my phone. She knows and loves Snapchat, and although she never actually sends anything, I've got a reel full of saved Sydni faces in a wide variety of filters. Some fun from tonight: 

like mother like daughter

 And Rob, my beloved fiance:

fresh. and fluffy. and freakish. 

We took a few others, including a faceswap that is just. too. terrifying to share here [you will have to believe me on that..], but we did come up with the pair that we're maybe joking about including with all our wedding invites that will be mailed out in the very near future:  

you should most definitely come and hang out with us.
most definitely. 

Life's too short to be anything but joyfully goofy when the time calls for it.
Tomorrow's FRIDAY, ya'll.. woooo HOO! 

xo | cmd

Sunday Fun Day in ChiTown USA...

I momentarily forgot where I was again this morning when I opened my eyes, but was immediately reminded that the city awaited us on the other side of the window, 31 stories below:

sunday in the chicago atmosphere

Departure mornings are always a test of initiative, memory, checklisting, communication and the ability to play travel tetris with your luggage, pillows, etc. so you can haul it all in one trip without the bellboy's help. At least that's how it was for us this morning, trying to drag ourselves out of bed, put ourselves together to look mildly human, pack all of our things in a makeshift sense of semblence and then leave the hotel room without leaving anything... behind.

It's a miracle we remembered where the car was parked.

As challenging as the check out process can be, the drive up to Southport Ave. was the complete opposite:

blue skies cruise, a marina and miles of happy people enjoying the day! 

Speaking of happy people, I think we were ALL happy when Britta descended from her apartment a few blocks away to join us for brunch at Southport & Irving! I'd told her I'd love to see her while we were in the city, but I really didn't expect her to come dressed just like Ali.. haha. 

No seriously, I can confidently say that Britta and I hold the record for the shortest amount of time taken for two strangers to become instant friends, but Ali and Britta just came in a close 2nd. I mean the two of them practically dressed like twins, without even a chance to plan it.  

instafriends! 

french toast, ya'll..
southport & irving | chicago, il 

We ate, we laughed, and we snapchatted. Ali & Damanji are officially SC Assassins in my book; they both managed to get some fantastically troll-esque captures of me. Damanji took the liberties of drafting a side-by-side comparison, and I've gotta say, he's not wrong...

grampy troll... and cori. :0|

more snappy fun.. these are reactions to some of the questions our table
received in the span of the hour we were there.. 

After Southport, we traveled just around the riverbend! CORNER.. to GingerSnap; it's a place Ali found online and committed us to because it says Ginger, and because she is the lens behind GingerSnap Photography. So it makes sense. Right? Right.

it's like the place was made for her! 

reunited!! 

In case you missed what I said about Britta & Ali dressing up like twins, there's this nicely posed sorority picture as proof: 

twinsies! 

Damanji & I have been pretending all weekend that we're as hipster as we feel, so we seized this opportunity to do something hipsterish, in the doorways [to the soul] on this street, illuminated by the light of a thousand serenading high-efficiency lightbulbs. Or something. 

you look so.... pensive

Q: How many hipsters does it even take to change a lightbulb?
A: It's a number you probably haven't heard of yet...

deep in thought about life, the universe, and probably donuts.... 

Q: How many kale smoothies did I drink before this picture? 

A: I'll build you the answer out of upcycled pallets. Stay tuned.

yayyy for friends! ♥♥

We finally said our see-ya-later's to Britta, and loaded up for the trip back to Naperville. From there, it was quick hello's and farewell's to the family,l and then Damanji and I were back in our separate cars, bound respectively for STL & Cinci. 

At least it was as beautiful day for a drive! 

don't skip these, kids... don't skip these. 

almost there :) 

they're much prettier in the daytime! 

Happy birthday, Ali... I hope you had the best birthday yet, and I miss the fun already! It was such a fun weekend meeting some new faces and reuniting with the familiar ones! 

See you on the flipside, blogbots..

xo | cmd

Ali's 25th, Day 2: Tattoos & Other Chicagoland Things

Waking up in the rises above Chicago really wasn't a bad way to start the morning:

good morning, chicago  ♥

Our Saturday adventuring started with a brunch at The Chicken Shop, this adorable 2nd floor cafe in the Fulton Market District:

get outta here, that's adorable. 

georgia peach rooibos + chicken&waffles
the chicken shop | chicago, il

Nom nom NOM. 

Across the street from our brunch place was this: 

next time! 

We were cutting it close on time, so we didn't get to stop in, but it - along with about 400 other places - are on the bucket list for next time. 

The big ticket item on our agenda today was the pitstop at Dream City! 

dream city | chicago, il 

Part of my birthday present to Ali was getting a tattoo together, one of the things we've surprisingly not done yet. We agreed on the design, and the rest was up to the artists at DC Tattoos. Thanks to Leo the steady-handed artist, it was the quickest tattoo session I've ever been in, and in no time we were done! :)  

ali on the left, cori on the right 

thank you, leo! 

We headed back to the hotel afterwards, where the pictures of tattoos continued into the afternoon/evening, even as we were getting ready for the rest of the night: 

"God is greater than the mountains & the valleys" 

twin tattoos... and that stupid strand of my hair the just. never. listens! 

ali's new ink

damanji is clearly enjoying this moment.. haha

So the rest of the night was laid out to us in the form of The Apartment, which is not an actual apartment, but rather an upper level clubhouse of cool people, because I mean.. we were there, right? [insert post-corny joke rimshot here...]

ANYWAY, we had a handful of Chicagoland friends out for the night as well, which made for a fun night of music, spirits, dancing and of course, Snapchat: 

"social anxiety face." 

look at all the snapchats i stole from ali! 

chicago friends!

snapchataholism

blue lights flatter nobody... obviously. 

happy people... happy birthday, ali!

And then, what happens to be my favorite picture of today, was a random photo opp in the hotel elevator on the way home:

31st floor, please!

And we owned our night. Ali, I hope your birthday weekend has been everything you've hoped for, and then some. We love you to the moon & back!

Tomorrow we leave the city behind, and head back home. *Yawn. Can't wait [dull face]. Haha. 

G'Nite! 

xo | cmd

Mondays Are For SnapChats

Except today, that wasn't necessarily true! We walked into the office this morning to learn that Riss was out, and thought the day might carry a similarly petulant attitude. 

But alas, that wouldn't be the case..

It all started with this: 

hiiiiiii guyyyyyyyssssss... 

Can I HELP YA?! If there's one thing this weird gourd filter did, it game me alien eyebrows that are on point, man... Haha.. I sent that darling portrait off to a few close friends [and now am sharing it with the general public? #whatever #ImComfortableWithMyAlienNoggin]

From there, it blossomed into a morning and afternoon filled with work, but also littered with endearingly-awful portraits [.... kinda] of some lovely people I know:

ali. in all her snappy glory. 

i. am. sooooooo.... pretty. gosh. jealous? 

i seriously cannot.... ahhahahahaha
rob... kristin

Ya'll know Rob by now, but maybe not Kristin - she's one of the 2 incredible gals with whom I co-exist at the office, and I love the lady to pieces.

Except... when we try this. Now I'm just scared of her:

face swaps. maybe not our thing? 

^ She kinda looks like the lady version of Kim Jong Un (with a double set of teeth and a brute looking scar that's actually my hair?!), and I look like like a younger, female Asian Gary Busey. As funny as it is, it's definitely unsettling, and I'm thankful that in real life, our faces truly do much better suit our respective faces ;).

And of course, some filter fun:

wooo! 

Guys, this is the kind of mood that needs to come around every Monday. Can we vote to end the sullen, moody Mondays and exchange them for ones that are light, fun and productive?

Happy Monday, blogbots; have a terrific week!

xo | cmd