Summer fun-ness

You may be wondering what I've been up to. Or maybe you haven't been. Either way, you are about to find out. Oh, the magic of blogging!

First of all, I visited Chicago two weeks ago - and it was amazing! There is so much I didn't get to do (I needed to stay there a week longer!), but what I did do was completely awesome. One of the places I had to visit was the Threadless store. If you've never heard of them, check out their website - if you like unique t-shirts or creating your own designs, you'll love it! Anyway, I visited the store and bought myself a shirt. They also have art prints for sale based on the t-shirt designs. The best part is that they release the newest designs in the store before they release them online - so I got my shirt early, and actually wore it on the day it was "officially" released! Very cool.

Another place I made sure to visit was the Chicago Public Library. This is apparently the largest library in the country (and with 79 branches, there's really no doubt in my mind about that), and the main library is called the Harold Washington Library Center in downtown Chicago. I visited the library on a Sunday - I expected the place to be packed (my library is a madhouse on Sundays!) but found that it was quite peaceful. There were 9 floors - I didn't visit them all, but I could tell that each was laid out the same way. The exception was the 9th floor, which was a beautiful open room with a few tables and a glass ceiling. Surprisingly, only one person was using the space to study when I went up there. If I lived in Chicago, I would be up there everyday! You could even see the top of the Sears tower through the glass. The library had a very modern feel, but I have to say that I wasn't really impressed with the layout of the floors or the use of the space. The walls and decor were... well, not very exciting either. Not bad, just not as impressive as I had hoped it would be. But overall, it was a very nice building.

Check out all of my Chicago pictures on my Flickr page.

In other news, last weekend I was in the Pride parade with Spin Columbus. We did pretty well and everyone seemed to enjoy our performance - we got a lot of compliments afterwards, which made everyone feel really great. This weekend I will be performing with them again in the Doo Dah parade on July 4th - come out and see us if you can (and if it doesn't get rained out)!

Erica's realization of the month: Sunglasses are AWESOME. I bought a pair for myself on the way to Chicago, and I instantly felt both way cooler than usual and much more vacation-y. Now I wear them all the time, and I'm not quite sure how I have lived almost 26 years without them. In fact, I'm pretty sure people smile at me more when I wear them - this is probably either because of the aforementioned coolness factor, or perhaps because they can't see my eyes (and thus can't see the weird look I would have normally been giving them). I have also started noticing just how bright the world is without them - and when I drag my groggy self into work in the morning, the last thing I want to see while driving there is anything bright and sunny.

What exciting revelations have you had this summer?

Time? What time?

Is it the end of May already? Lately it seems that I have been too busy to even think. Between work and being the Company Mangaer for Spin Columbus, I haven't been home or online nearly as much as usual. In fact, last night I watched 18 WebbAlerts - that's how far behind I had gotten! But I was determined to watch them all, because Morgan Webb is my hero.

By the way, I love my DVR - since I'm gone all of the time, I miss most of the shows I really enjoy watching. But no more. Like the new American Gladiators - I can watch it anytime if I'm gone on Monday night. Oh and if you don't watch that show yet, you really should. After watching this week's show (and being introduced to the new, "silent" gladiator named Steel), I thought it would be funny to come up with some rejected gladiator names. I can't remember what I came up with right now, but they were probably funny. Unfortunately, Carson Daly did that exact gag on his show that night! I don't know what makes me more upset - that someone beat me to the punch, or the fact that it was Carson Daly that beat me to the punch. Sadness.

Now that I'm caught up with TV and the internet, I need to start reading - I have an ever-growing pile of books that I just haven't had time to sit down and dive into yet. Maybe soon?