I'm going to ramble about my weekend

Long weekends are my favorite, especially when they are not filled to the brim with commitments and allow for a plentiful amount of free time for the quiet reflection that has been missing in your life for some time.

Some highlights:

1. I went rollerblading on Friday (I had the day off!) around Lake Calhoun with Angela and Liz. Earlier last week I realized that I hadn't broken out the good old rollerblades all summer long, and judging by the fact that it took me about 20 minutes of sweaty frantic searching and one phone call to the husband at work to locate them, I'm pretty sure I didn't break them out last summer either. In fact, my last rollerblading-related memory has Lisa in it, and since she's been in Costa Rica for going on two years now, it's safe to say, it had been a while. If you know of a better way of stopping in rollerblades other than my tried and true method of panicking and rolling into the grass and grabbing a tree, please let me know.

2. After lunch in uptown, Liz, Angela and I did a little wandering throughout the shops in the area. We ventured into the Gap and I failed miserably in my attempt to show off my multi-tasking skills by doing two very difficult things at once: sipping diet coke from a medium sized disposable fast-food cup and shopping. That's right. Alicia + Diet Coke + shopping = One big wet mess for the very sweet and understanding Gap employee to clean up.

3. Dan's 18 year old sister stayed with us this weekend while her family was away (she doesn't like staying in their big house alone), and I realized two things about myself: I will not be a good parent of a teenager someday, and I have become a huge nerdy loser since college. His sister informed us that she would be out late, and who am I to give her a curfew (she's 18 years old for goodness sake), but for about 3.7 seconds I did think about the fact that maybe I should stay up and wait for her to get home. At 11:15, however, after struggling with all my might to keep my eyes open while watching an episode of Buffy on DVD, I just had to call it quits. Both Dan and the dog were passed out in the living room with me, neither of them having the same Buffy love as I do, so I dragged them both up and to bed. What has happened to me? 11:15 on a Friday night? That is so depressing.

4. We made blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausages for brunch on Saturday morning, and later that day I finished off the little container of blueberries. Mmmmm... blueberries. I'm thinking we're going to need to make blueberry pancakes a weekly thing.

5. More work on the house, boring, but productive. I won't say anything more about it until we are officially moved upstairs. Maybe then I will take some pictures and post them, because I am just so darn proud of all our hard work.

6. Betsy and I met up at Old Chicago Saturday night for some pizza and Margaritas, and then saw the latest chick-flick on my must-see list, Must Love Dogs. Sadly, as far as chick flicks go, this one definitely wouldn't go on the top of my list, or anywhere near it, despite my nearly lesbian lusty feelings for Diane Lane. Also, I must note, John Cusack was not looking his best, he seemed pudgy actually, and his character in this movie was the exact same character he played in High Fidelity and Serendipity, and maybe even Say Anything. I guess that's not a bad thing since I liked all those movies, but it doesn't bode well for his acting chops when all I see up on screen is Lloyd Dobler. On that note, mysteriously missing from the movie were a giant boombox and Peter Gabriel's breathy "In Your Eyes". Anyways, it was a good night, and it was fun to hang out with Bets, it's been a long time since just the two of us got together! In college one of us hardly ever even went to Target or Midtown Foods without the other, and now that there's a 30 minute drive between us, it obviously takes a little more work to see each other. 30 minutes in our city is really not a big deal, it all comes down to pure laziness on both our parts I think. ;)

8. I saw the trailer for the movie based on Jennifer Weiner's book In Her Shoes, which I completely adored when I read it about a year ago. I love that Toni Collette plays the one sister, Rose, I think she is absolutely the perfect actress for that character, I just hope that they don't make the movie all about Cameron Diaz's character, just because she's the pretty skinny one. Grrr... Hollywood please don't screw this one up.

7. I started a new book, Little Earthquakes, Jennifer Weiner's third book, which Betsy gave me for my birthday. I love getting new books, it is one of my favorite things! I could seriously spend hours in Barnes & Noble, but I try to stay away because our checking account can't really handle it.