It’s February, and I’m still wearing my fall outfits while waiting for winter to hit here in Chicago. This is definitely a very new conundrum.
Talk about Midwest probs. Bare legs in February? Southern residents, is this what your life is like?
Nothing like dressing up for a semi-formal event in February, right?
Really though, one of my favorite nights of every year is my company’s annual awards banquet and ceremony: The Jones-Beck Awards, or “the Becks” for short.
At the beginning of every year, the entire editorial department of the Tribune gets together to celebrate our accomplishments from the year before. I’m really lucky to have amazing coworkers that are not only great to work with, but also great to hang out with outside of work.
And of course, I always love a good excuse to get dressed up.
I know this winter has been milder than most so far and I probably shouldn’t complain, but, still. It’s January and I live in the Midwest, so here we are.
I usually start getting a little bit lethargic at this point in the year. While I do really love winter, the dark and the chill just start getting to me after the new year starts. Am I alone in this? December isn’t so bad because everyone is in a good mood anticipating the holidays, but once New Year’s is over, there isn’t really much to look forward to. Everything is just cold and dark, and life slows down. I find myself dreading the thought of going out in the cold. Stilettos and black ice? Curled hair and fleece-lined beanies? Lip liner and runny noses? Yikes. No thank you.
From January to March — and let’s be real, most of April — I am honestly content burying myself in a pile of throw blankets and bingeing on Netflix. Plus, my bank account loves this decision.
I never really got into watching TV when I was in college. My undergrad roommates loved bad reality TV. We actually had our house tagged as “Bad Girls Club 1018” on Instagram, no joke. So while I was more than willing to listen to my roommates talk about the Bachelor during wine Wednesdays or thirsty Thursdays at the bar, I never really joined in on the actual couch binge-athons.
It wasn’t until I finished up grad school that I had time to actually sit down and start really getting into TV shows. My grad school roommate Elise was a huge Netflix fan, and as soon as I ditched my cap and gown, her habits immediately transferred over. Our Netflixing actually ended up being one of my favorite memories from living together. We would pour glasses of wine, make giant bowls of queso and just binge out and laugh together from my graduation up until we moved out.
Sadly, Elise and I live in totally different parts of the country now (boo), but I still keep the cold-weather Netflix habits she instilled in me. Here’s what I’ve been watching lately, and here’s what’s on my list.
Happy new year! I know I’m a few minutes late with this kind of post, but work has been keeping me busy (holidays don’t exist for journalists) and (since I’m unfortunately incredibly sick today), this is the first day I’ve had off alllll year.
Those jokes never get old.
Anyway, I’m really not one for New Year’s resolutions. Why wait until a specific day to make a change in your life? I feel like the whole point of life is to constantly work on bettering yourself, so I continually take note of the ways I can improve.
But, given the timing, I figured I’d share a few of my goals that have been in progress for a while now.
You guys, Chicago turned into a winter wonderland overnight! It’s absolutely beautiful. It’s been snowing on-and-off all night and day, and I kept taking breaks at work to walk over to the window and watch the flakes fall over Pioneer Court and into the Chicago River. It felt like Tribune Tower was located inside a snow globe today, and I absolutely loved it.
If I had it my way, it would start lightly snowing every Dec. 1, and continue all the way through New Year’s Day. I honestly don’t understand how everyone in the South does it — Christmas season just doesn’t feel complete to me without a soft blanket of snow.
But, even if there’s no snow, the holiday celebrations must go on! I shared my “Christmas bucket list” a few days ago, detailing all the fun holiday activities I try to get to every December.
Mando and I spent this past weekend braving the cold and galavanting through Chicago to celebrate the holidays.
…If you haven’t heard that Christmas song (Plain White T’s) — look it up. I can almost guarantee that it’s going to get stuck in your head for the next day or so!
Anyway…
It’s finally Christmas season!
Call me old fashioned, but I firmly believe in celebrating one holiday at a time. For me, Christmas season kicks off on Black Friday. I worked retail in college — before “Black Friday” became “4 p.m. Thanksgiving Day” — so I always started the holidays by heading to the mall and clocking in at about 3 a.m. to begin the season. I absolutely loved it. I don’t work retail anymore, but the tradition stuck. I start my season by Black Friday shopping, and then decorating my apartment while drinking cranberry wine!
To be honest, it wasn’t until a few years ago that I started celebrating Christmas as an entire season.
And now, I try to fill the season with as many merry activities as I can.
Is now a good time to drop that super cliche Ferris Bueller line about life moving fast? Because holy crap! I feel like I blinked and then suddenly 2016 ended. It seems like Christmas decorations appeared out of nowhere, and I actually completely forgot that this week is Thanksgiving! It wasn’t until Mando started talking about holiday plans and our work schedules last Friday that I suddenly remembered.
But, I’m not going to complain. I really love staying busy and feeling productive. Work has been occupying a ton of my time lately. First, the Cubs won the World Series. Then, there was that election. And, on top of everything, I’m actually recovering from a brutal cold right now. I thought I kicked it out of my system a week ago, but then it came back in full force this weekend. Yuck. Bring on the green juice, please!
I have always loved fall. Growing up in Michigan meant that the start of fall signaled a host of my favorite things: color tours, cider mill visits, football tailgates, pumpkin carving, birthday celebrations and — of course — sweater shopping.
Fall has always been one of my favorite seasons to dress and shop for. Cooler temps let you layer, and I feel like you can get way more use of out of your wardrobe when you can pair the same pieces in different ways.
I recently read “The Curated Closet” by Anuschka Rees, and I would definitely recommend it. Anuschka has a lot of great advice about shopping for a collective wardrobe, not just individual pieces. I already do a lot of what she suggested, but it was really nice to have affirmation that I’m forming good shopping habits.
The older I get, the more I find myself knowing exactly what I like, and choosing quality over quantity. It’s not really a secret that I like keeping track of what I wear and how often I wear it. I think it’s really useful to take a step back every so often to analyze what I wear season-to-season. This lets me see what pieces have inadvertently become outfit staples that can — and should — be upgraded to a higher quality.
So, it was cool to look at the pieces I wore the most this fall, and compare them to what I wore last fall.
Public service announcement:
GET OUT AND VOTE THIS ELECTION DAY!
Fellow sugar addicts, it’s the best day of the year!
Discount Halloween candy day!
While I am not above shoveling an entire bag of $.49 candy corn into my face in one sitting, sometimes it’s fun to bring a little twist to the same treats that are eaten year after year.
One of my favorite fun size candy-based recipes is this super easy Snickers dip!
