happy friday!

my coworker brian & i during the company canoe trip earlier this month. i may or may not be a little drunk in this photo.

hope you all have a great weekend! mine will be cut short due to a work trip (womp womp), but i'm hoping to see the dark knight rises again tomorrow AND my very good friends are in town from california until sunday... can't wait to see them :)

my weekend in photos.

wow, i've been bad about blogging lately. like really bad. it's been pretty much the same old around here, with the exception of this past weekend, so i wanted to share some photos from the past few days. (i finally have enough to do a weekend in photos post, ha.)

first up, thursday:
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
.

i went and saw the dark knight rises premiere on thursday with my friends tim & joe. i was SO excited to see this movie, having bought my ticket to the midnight showing almost a month ago & even taking off work the following friday. i knew it would be almost 4am by the time i would get home and into bed (i was right), and i have a hard time functioning with less than 6 hours of sleep.

so, no spoilers here, but this movie was amazing! like, really, really amazing. i am such a huge fan of the dark knight, and i want to watch both movies again, but i think i like the dark knight rises the best out of nolan's trilogy. i know, that's a big statement, but it's true.

(i'm truly saddened by the events at the aurora midnight premiere in colorado. going to a movie was always considered a "safe" & fun experience, at least to me, and it's so frightening/angering that someone could take that away from people in such a vicious act. i really think chris nolan said it best, and my thoughts and prayers are with those victims & their families.)

friday:
MICHAEL JACKSON THE IMMORTAL WORLD TOUR by Cirque Du Soleil
.

(not my photos obviously)

chester bought me tickets for the michael jackson immortal tour for christmas, and i was so excited! i'm a huge fan of jackson's, as i've said on this blog a few times, so this was the perfect gift. and i do have to say, it was worth the wait! it was such a good show, and i would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes MJ's music as much as i do :) chester & i really had a great time. 

i found the above photos through a google search: the first one was taken during "billie jean" (my all time favorite song!), the second during "smooth criminal", and the third during the finale song, "black and white".

i also took these of us before the show:

saturday:

TIM'S GOING AWAY PARTY

.

my dear friend tim decided a while back that come july, he was packing up his things & heading out west to live with his brother in LA. the final weekend with him came up a lot quicker than i was expecting or hoping, but we celebrated his last night in IL in style! we had the 1914 room at red ivy (in chicago) rented out and partied the night away with our best friend. it was such a good time, and i know tim appreciated every single person who was able to attend. he is currently on the road, going through utah the last him he texted us. i miss him so much already, but i know this will be a good move for him, and i wish him the best! i'm hoping that chester & i can make it out to california before the new year. fingers crossed!

haha, i wasn't kidding when i said it was a busy weekend! luckily we had no plans on sunday, so we were able to relax. and i caught up on my hbo shows :)

i hope you all had a great weekend! 'til next time...

a few summer photos & a nomination

recent summer photos around my area.

the wonderful jamie from xoxo, jamie brooke recently nominated me for the versatile blogger award! thank you so much jamie! it was such a nice surprise :)

onto the 7 random facts about me (this is part of accepting the award). i've posted a ton of random facts about me here on the blog (here, here, and here), and my 7 questions posts are full of them too, but i'll try to think of new ones ;) here we go...

1. i have a fear of wide open spaces. whenever someone mentions that they are claustrophobic, i just think of how it would feel to be in a tiny sailboat in the middle of the ocean (pretty much opposite of claustrophobia), and it freaks me out so much!

2. i'm coming up on my 5 year anniversary at my job in september. 

3. i've recently become obsessed with using coconut oil, especially after reading jess's post about at home beauty tips. i'm planning on trying it out on my skin at the pool this weekend (i read that it is a natural sunscreen, but don't worry, i'll bring some regular spf too). i've also been using it on popcorn, my favorite snack. i mix it with a fraction of the butter that i normally would melt on top, and it tastes amazing! it also tasted pretty good straight from the jar, too.

4. i just finished reading the end of everything by megan abbott. it's a really quick read, and i felt like i couldn't put it down a lot of the time. i was caught off-guard by how quickly it ended, so i'll have to think about it before i decide if i liked the ending. but as a whole i did like the book.

5. as much as i love the midwest, i've been thinking about other places i might want to live someday. definitely wouldn't mind doing the california thing at some point ;)

6. i do laundry really often, almost every other day. 

7. my favorite way to wear my hair, besides down & straight, is to wear a sock bun.


the next part is to nominate 15 other bloggers for the award. again, i'm going to break the rules a little on this one and nominate 5 bloggers:

modern buttercup // chanel & chocolate cake // gentri lee //  adventures in mediocrity // daniela yvonne

these are wonderful ladies with amazing blogs that you should definitely check out. (totally up to you bloggers if you want to follow along with the "rules" of the award, i definitely won't take offense if you decide not to :) you all deserve a shout out and i'm just happy to give one.)