A Day at the Movies

Today, a co-worker and I were given movie passes to go see Wallstreet because our VP of sales took the rest of our sales division to go see it last week. We took a 1/2 day, went to the movies and saw The Social Network instead. We thought this would be more beneficial to our job of course :-)

Let me just say, I loved this movie. I found it really interesting to see how the whole facebook phenomenon got started. I've always had a love/hate relationship with facebook. I remember the days when it was called THE facebook and only college students had access to it. That's what I loved about it. No creepy myspace-ish friend requests.

I first heard about facebook from a friend of mine from UW-Madison. We were talking on the phone and in the middle of the conversation she says, "Oh! Jenny poked me!" I responded with, "What the hell are you talking about?" Within in a few weeks I found out. I loved facebook because it was an easy way for me to keep in touch with my friends and classmates. I did not, however, enjoy finding out via facebook that the guy I was seeing at the time had a girlfriend.

My co-worker thought that Mark Zuckerberg was an asshole. Which he was portrayed as. I thought him to be genius. Which he is. What he did to his "friend"/business partner was horrible and sucky, but I understand why he waited to start generating revenue from the site. When facebook came out with advertisements, I was not happy at all. But I stuck with it because I was addicted a loyal facebooker.

Overall, it was a great way to spend the rest of the work day. It was a great movie, very informative and I highly suggest going to see it. Especially if you remember thefacebook.com cira 2004.

Going the Distance

One of the reasons that I like participating in races is for the charity/organization in which I'm running for. The Chicago Rock N Roll 1/2 donated a portion of their proceeds to the American Cancer Society. This meant a lot to me because LC's grandpa died of cancer last year. It was the first time he and I had ever gone through something like that in our relationship.

So when I signed up for the race I'm running on Oct. 30th, I looked to see what charity the race would be sponsoring, and I couldn't find anything. I'm guessing this was more of a "fun run" as there is a Halloween costume division. Who can run 13.1 miles in a Halloween costume anyway? I found it really hard to stick to my training because I didn't feel like there was a purpose (besides creating a PR) for this run.

Until yesterday. I was on the University of Chicago Celiac Disease center website. I was looking at their events and fundraising page. They have a charity called, "Going the Distance". It's a DIY fundraiser going to benefit the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center and to raise money for education, research, and advocacy. I have never done a fundraiser on my own but I am sold. This will be what I am running for.

A few months ago, my mom was extremely ill. They thought she had MS and those tests thankfully came back negative, but her doctor could not find out what was wrong with her. Months went by and my mom's symptoms got worse. Finally, her doctor decided to do a simple blood test and test her for Celiac Disease. Sure enough, that's what she had. So I will be running this race in honor of my mom, who will be there to watch me cross the finish line.

What is Celiac Disease? It's an inherited autoimmune disorder that affects the digestive process of the small intestine. When a person who has celiac disease eats gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley, the individual's immune system responds by attacking the small intestine and inhibiting the absorption of important nutrients into the body.

I know I don't have a ton of readers, but I'm appreciative for all the ones that I do have! If you want to find out how you can help just e-mail me directly at brewcitybride@gmail.com.

xoxoxo,
Maria

9 Months to go...Our Photographer

After the cake has been cut, the first dance has been danced, all you have left to remember your day is your photographs. So this was the second most important thing to me. I wanted a photographer who could take really great photojournalistic pictures and who wasn't outrageously priced.

We met Olga Thomas, last October. She was so nice, very laid back and did wonderful work. All for a price within our budget. So after talking to a few other photographers, we decided that she would be the one to take our pictures. I just love her work and everytime I see a new wedding that she worked on, I just get more and more excited for ours.

She came to Chicago and did an engagement session with us in May. Here's a link to some of the pictures. I blogged about it an earlier post.

Yesterday, The Donuts Won

This whole week has been super busy and I've been slacking on my 1/2 marathon training (yet again). I will give myself a pat on the back for running 7 miles on Sunday though. Well done, Maria! Anywho, yesterday I was scheduled to run 4.5 miles and do strength training. I was super excited and motivated, until I came in to work and saw that my manager bought us donuts and munchkins because it was the last day of the month. Pumpkin donuts. And muchkins. Right by my desk. Fail! Despite the fact I was broderline hyperglycemic, I still attempted to run and it did not go well at all. My legs kept cramping up and my feet felt like there were bricks in them. I did not make it 4.5 miles. Instead I did 2.5 and forced myself to do some speed work, so the workout wasn't a total bust. So yesterday, the donuts won and it definitely wasn't worth the defeat I felt. Next week I'll be back on track. 1/2 marathon in 4 weeks and this time I'm determined to beat my last 1/2 marathon time AND not feel like I"ve been hit by a truck. Side note, 9 months and 2 days before the wedding!

Weekend Recap

I haven't stayed in Chicago for the past 6 weeekends. For the past 6 weekends I have had something to do. In Wisconsin. This has been fun (weddings) and exhausting (drill!) at the same time. It has kept me busy since LC's been gone (we're almost at the 2 month mark!) but I have not had a moment to myself or a day to just breathe. So this weekend, I finally got to stay in my favorite city and my favorite lady came down to visit me (my mom).

She arrived on Saturday morning, via train, and we spent the day searching for a fabulous MOB dress, lunching, and discovered my new love...Sprinkles Cupcakes. We started out on Michigan Ave and searched every department store, high and low, and could not find anything that she LOVED but, she got some ideas of what she was looking for. I told her not to buy anything unless she loved it because the wedding is still 9-ish months away and I wouldn't want her to have buyer's remorse. After our failed shopping trip, we stopped and ate at Food Life in Water Tower place. About 6 weeks ago, my mom was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Long story short, she can't have anything with gluten in it or she gets very sick, and gluten is in EVERYTHING! So I was so happy that Food Life offered a list of gluten free foods that she was able to eat. After lunch, we walked around the Gold Coast area, looking for more stores that had MOB dresses. We didn't find anything, but instead stumbled upon Sprinkles. I've heard a lot about this place but wasn't sure where it was located. I came across it on accident so it was a MUST that we try it. I tried the banana cupcake...AMAZINGNESS. And my mom had the Red Velvet cupcake, gluten free of course.

Later that night, we enjoyed some sangria & mexi food at Zapatista. Although they didn't have a gluten free menu, the waiter was very knowledgable in what my mom could and couldn't eat.

Sunday morning, I got up and went for a run. Sunday was my "long day" in my 1/2 marathon training. Despite the windy conditions running north, I completed 7 miles in an hour and 10 minutes. Running back (with the wind) was a piece of cake. After my run, we went to Whole Foods to get things that we needed to make Chili for dinner. My mom had never been to a WF before and she was in heaven. They had tons of stuff that she could eat. It's too bad that the closest one is about 45 minutes away. I told her that she should franchise one, it would be really popular where they live. I spent the rest of the night studying, while my mom cooked me dinner and took care of Ollie. It was nice to have someone there to take care of me for a change! Next weekend, I will be heading back to Milwaukee for drill...bleh!

Here I go again!

A good friend of mine from high school, M, is getting married about a month before me. To get in shape for her wedding, she's been running. A lot. The other she posted on facebook that she was about to run 10 miles after work. Ugh!

After I ran my first 1/2 marathon, I've been lacking some serious motivation to go out and just run. It's easier for me to run when I have a goal or something to train for. You would think my wedding dress would be motivation enough. Not so much. So, last night I signed up for another 1/2 marathon that M talked me into running with her. Yes, even though I felt my body had been hit by a truck the following day, I am running another 1/2. I'm officially addicted.

The race is at the end of October, which gives me 6 1/2 weeks to train. I started running again this week and doing cross training. I WILL stick to a training plan and make it my top priority for the next 6 1/2 weeks. I made the mistake of not training properly the first time around and I have learned from my mistakes.

So here I go again, 1/2 marathon #2!

10 months to go-Our Reception Venue

Happy Friday! Today officially marks the 10 month mark until the big day. Every month, on the third, I will be blogging about some part of our wedding planning process. I love weddings, but I can only write so much about them before it starts to get mundane.

Wedding planning, so far, has been a rollercoaster of emotion. I can sum it up as this: "Wedding planning is the most fun I'll never want to have again." I was really excited at first. I think I bought every wedding magazine out there the day after we got engaged. From excited, I became really overwhelmed with all the decisions that had to be made. Then came frustration. I found a great venue in IL, and my mom threw a fit because I wasn't getting married in WI-where I'm from. Long story short, she won that war-but I picked out the best venue in Milwaukee. Now I'm content and everything is falling right into place. Before LC left, I wanted to make sure that we got all of the imporant stuff decided together and that I wasn't the only one making the decisions. The first thing we did together was look for the reception and ceremony site.

We will be getting married in a church just outside of Milwaukee and our reception is going to be at Pier Wisconsin in the Discovery World Museum. I fell in love with this space instantly and I knew that I would. It was new, it is on Lake Michigan, it would be perfect for a summer wedding, it was out of our budget. LC and I found a place within our budget that we liked a lot and that we thought would be just fine for our wedding. But when my mom got wind of us getting married in IL and not in WI, she thew a fit. She wouldn't talk to me and she was really beside herself. (Can we say momzilla?) So to make her happy, I decided to look at venues in Milwaukee. I found two others that I really liked but were in the suburbs. LC and I decided to try to keep it in Milwaukee because that would make it easier for our guests traveling from Chicago. And that's how we came to decide on Pier Wisconsin. We're getting married on a Sunday so that brought down the cost some. I'm so happy that we were able to find a place that EVERYONE could agree upon. Our wedding date coinsides with Milwaukee Lakefront's big bang fire works display and we will have an awesome view of it! I can't wait for our big party.