birthday blog.

i'm 26 today! and that's okay. 25 was much worse. although i definitely didn't get any younger this year, i am starting to embrace the fact that i will never be a teenager again. i am a lady now.

being a "getting-close-to-thirty" year old is absolutely okay.

today i drove to work in my new '89 subaru hatchback and stopped at hilander to buy snacks and lunch. no classes until 10:45 (niiice!). when i got to school, i was greeted by so many coworkers and students, with little birthday treats and offerings and well-wishes; it was so charming. and then i taught my first class how to play apples and apples and shared my bag of blow-pops. the next class watched my all-time favorite movie with me (that thing you do), and now it's my planning time and i'm blogging. once willy wonka rehearsal is over after school, i will have some time to (DRIVE!) home and relax. dinner with mom at the olympic tavern and maybe a little shopping. then drinks and celebration with some of my best friends.

it's a terrific day!

i just wish kyle could be around more. i won't see him until 11 or so...:(

short and sweet today, i have to go enjoy the rest of this lovely day!

new show!!

jolly holidays and free stuff.

a jolly holiday in the city.

sadly, it’s been almost a week since last wednesday when i spontaneously used my last personal day for a little personal fun. my mom was taking her students on a field trip and asked kyle and me to join her. kyle wasn’t able to go, which disappointed me at first, but then i made up my mind to venture into chicago alone, and what a lovely day for an afternoon in the city it turned out to be.

how refreshing to turn left onto e. state street instead of right on a wednesday morning! how carefree it feels to zip along i90, listening to exactly your choice of music!

zooming confidently into the city alone, i was proud to maneuver myself through the crazy hubbub to the exact spot where i had to meet mom. after a lovely little lunch, i discovered that the forever21 store on michigan avenue was about a block away, so i got to spend a lazy hour shopping! a few terrific dresses and a pair of pants later, i was on my way to see mary poppins starring ashley brown and gavin lee, the mary poppins and bert that i got to see on broadway!

having not liked it the first time through, i was leery as to whether or not i would enjoy myself at all the second time through. but it was even better! ashley brown is amazingly talented and poised, and gavin lee delivers relentless sophistication and merriment.

after the show, i hovered around in hopes of snagging an autograph or two. i got both ashley’s and gavin’s, which excited me. then back to the car with a pitsop at woodfield on the way home for another little shopping spree.

it was a fabulous day. i’m not sure why, but i learned a lot about myself and enjoyed being independent for a change. it put me in a bright and optimistic mood, complete with a twinge of depression upon coming back home to the daily grind.

there have been other blog-worthy events since then. friday and saturday night were spent downtown at the spring art scene, and that entailed drinks, art & photography, familiar faces, and a screen print t-shirt featuring artwork by javier jiminez.

on saturday afternoon, kyle’s frugal eyes spotted a full-size reclining leather couch on the curb of some mansion’s house. A COUCH?! A TAN LEATHER COUCH FOR FREE?! long story short, we got the landlord on our side (he has a truck), and snatched that nice little find right up. it took about an hour to reconfigure our living room, but once it was all settled, we celebrated! we have seating!

the story continues with Monday afternoon, when i picked up kyle from school. he had adam and andy with him, and i brought them all home to hang out. when we had parked on the street outside our house, kyle spotted another couch down the street a bit on the curb. “wait,” he said. “there’s a couch down there for free.”

so, really, why wouldn’t we all walk down there? upon inspection, we deemed this new couch just as good (if not better) than the first one, and so those three boys picked it up and carried it off. HAHA. as we walked up the block back to our house, the owners drove by, honking and waving, instructing us to enjoy that couch. “we will!” we shouted.

this one took much less fuss to get in the house, and only a little more rearranging.

but now, with two new (FREE!) couches, we finally have a lounge. yes, folks, a lounge. not a living room. lounge.

so it’s almost perfect. tonight i need to buy a few essential things to maximize the design and style of the room. new area rug, a few throw pillows, get some artwork framed. modern with a vintage vibe.

because that’s just the way we roll.

it’s sad to see that glorious weekend slip by and join the others as memories. it was a weekend of bohemians and artists, treasure hunts, and overnights. complimentary wine and thrift stores. scrambled eggs for breakfast and armageddon weekend on the history channel.

fabulous, as always.

(2 hours until i can leave work and start my night).

a new obsession.

zooey deschanel.







while engaged in my couch potato adventures tonight, i've decided that i love her.  she's 29 and super young and fresh.  this is inspiring to me as i turn 26 and feel 32.  it's sad to watch the female icons get younger and younger.  like hannah montana's great and everything, but i can't dress or act like her.

it's hard for a 20-something to find a stylish and fresh role model. we want someone super fashionable and fun, but WOMANLY, not girly. i kinda like scarlett johansson. she's a year older than me and she's pretty down.

but i dunno, i saw that new "cotton: the fabric of our lives commercial" with zooey and fell in love. watch it!



yeah, she was annoying in the happening, but that whole movie was annoying. so i've decided to try her on and check her out for awhile. and wear more cotton, apparently.

and trim my bangs.

the taste of spring.

easter weekend has been lovely. i'm glad my night's not completely over.

just lots of quality time with kyle, unsolved mysteries marathons (oh yeah), and extra snuggling.  extra snuggling because our furnace broke, so its been like 58 degrees in the house.  it took about two days to figure out what was going on, and then a whole day of having the furnace repairman working downstairs.  he got it up to a toasty 74 right now (ahhhh), but only because it will be off again all day tomorrow while he replaces the entire furnace.  until he got the furnace working around 3pm, there was lots of snuggling with the kitties under blankets.  it feels so good to have the house warm, however, that i still haven't stopped snuggling.  me and gus have been couch potatoes all day/night.

so i went to the grocery store on saturday and bought a TON of food.  i've been inspired to cook more lately, and i love when that happens, because it's probably better for kyle and i and cheaper.  and so saturday night i made a huge delicious pan of lasagna!  i made cinnamon apples for dessert and today i made blueberry muffins.  see how much fun i have when i don't have to work!?

since i'm still feeling in the mood to cook, i'm about to make some campanelle alfredo with tiny shrimp and garlic.  the plan is to have a lot of scrumptious leftovers this week!

easter sunday was unconventionally fun and wonderful.  we drove in to adam's house in lake zurich, and then he drove us into the city, where a big group of us had tickets to see RENT.  now rent is exciting enough on it's own, but it was especially exciting because we got to see adam pascal and anthony rapp LIVE!!!  for theater buffs, this was a huge deal.  for those that are clueless, these were the two guys to originate the roles of roger and mark when rent opened on broadway and were also the two guys in the movie version.  it was really surreal and inspiring to hear their voices singing that music live.  i mean i grew up on their voices, and here they were on a stage in front of me, my ears hearing their voices belt and sing over the rocking music that i know so well.  it was a very cool experience.  after the show it was dinner at ed debevic's, which was fine and not too annoying.  it was quite a fun easter!

other than that, i just feel ready for school to be over.  i am so focused on the future - the summery future i should say.  my mind wants to concentrate on patio furniture, road trip plans, new warm-weather clothes, and summer ales.

oh, 51 days, hurry.  i feel like i'm trapped.  nothing but routine, routine, routine.  i know that the summery feeling will come a little early when the really warm weather hits in late may.  that's when i turn school nights into backyard barbecues or parties in the park.  but it still feels like ages until then.  i'm trying to find the motivation i need to get through mid-May, but there's not much.  just a lot of work clothes, willy wonka rehearsals, and feeling sleepy.

i am READY to be rejuvinated!

15 days until my birthday.  here are the links to my wishlists - there's something for everyone's budget ::wink wink::!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/ref=sv_cm_gft_3

https://www.forever21.com/customerservice/showwishlist.asp?target=wishlist

make of our lives one life.

the twinkling party lights have finally flickered out. the supple, fragrant bouquets have dried and drooped.

a week ago today there was ebullient hullabaloo ringing around me. this joyous festival to smile and squirm about. events about to happen. dreams about to come true. dresses about to be worn. it didn't matter what happened during the day, because everything was was about the impending nuptials. my little brother got married!

to make a long and powerful story brief, it was beautiful. simple, sweet, but above all, romantic. candelight, honest vows of love, music composed by the other brother, white tablecloths. i couldn't believe how emotional i was at the ceremony, looking at my parents, then at my dear little brothers who are now men, and feeling like that safe little nest of five is now going to be forever in the past. not that this is bad news. we're simply expanding. but after 25 (almost 26 - agh!) years of the jensen five, we are now the jensen six. there's another one in our pack. as the rush of excitement flooded through me, the bittersweet nostalgia of the past played like a slideshow in my mind as my little brother put a ring on his wife's finger to the sound of the other little brother singing. and i couldn't help but be two years old again, singing with dan for my parents and playing dress up. i was cuddled up under the blankets in my brothers' room on a thunderstorm-y night trying to muffle our giggles so mom and dad didn't wake up.

my little brothers - my littermates.

well then it was time to celebrate. at the reception there was dancing and dining, toasting and talking. i couldn't believe that all of these people were all in the same room together. dear old friends, new friends, beloved cousins, doting grandparents, new relations. all merry and moving about together, mixing and meeting, holding hands and dancing.

the weekend that followed was simply more of the same. i wish families didn't have to be so far apart. having my cousins with me made everything so much fun. we dressed up for ABBA karaoke at the (new) hope & anchor english pub (i won!), stayed up late every night and slept in until mom would text us to meet for a lazy brunch.

it was so much fun that monday was almost unbearable. i went numbly about my job all week, resenting how stressful it is. the year is spiraling to an end and things just keep getting crazier and crazier. i've been an awful teacher all week because i'm so exhausted and glum.

the long weekend is here at last and i'm going to start it off low-key. no matter what happens in my life, i foresee that i will always be the type of person who beelines back into bed when i get home from work. something about standing up in restrictive clothing all day makes my body yearn for soft comforters and pillows to sink into.

and that is where i am now: tranquilized by my sanctuary and yearning to re-read a midsummer night's dream tonight.

yes, indeed.