What a day...

Wow... I've been all over this blog thing this week but it's been so exciting with the Olympic bidding and my inside of ten day countdown to the marathon. I will probably go back to being boring pretty soon.

So this morning I had a bit of a mini-crisis when I lost my wallet (if you will recall, I've already lost my Blackberry once this year when I dropped it in the hallway of a hotel in Bozeman, MT). I lost my wallet a little more closer to home, actually it was found 2 houses north of me. The weird thing is that this morning I actually walked south (as I do everyday toward the L stop). Not sure how all of that transpired but if someone grabbed out of my very easily accessible pocket of my bag (and it's easily accessible so I can get on the train stat) they didn't take anything including the rarity of 20 bucks in it (I never carry cash). Odd but a happy ending.

I'm so bummed about the Olympics but there were so many wanksters here in Chicago that were vehemently against it that it's probably better this way. I'm not a fan of protests or pompus close-minded Republicans bitching about tax money going towards something AWESOME like the Olympics. I could seriously rant about that because there are only two things for certain in life, people. Death and taxes. Don't forget that, certain Republicans who are so fond of incessantly complaining about where their tax money goes as if taxes are the greatest travesty in the world.

I do have a recommendation for any of you who do venture to Rio for the 2016 games. It's pretty much the only fun thing I did because Rio is an unsafe hellhole of crime and badness.

Yeah dawg, that's me hangliding! Peace and good luck to you, Rio de Janiero.

(and I guess I'm going to miss writing about my travels. I used to be more entertaining than dropped wallets)

Sad Day... RIP to the Vue.

This is a picture of my old Saturn VUE that my mom now drives in San Antonio. Shockingly enough, this picture was actually taken by me in SA a couple of years ago during a freak ice storm (one would have expected this to be in the frozen hell that I now live in, no?).

Sadly, the deal to buy Saturn from GM fell apart yesterday and they are getting rid of the brand. TRAGIC, I tell you. We have been a Saturn family for a long-ass time. My mom got her first one way back in the day when the brand was only a couple of years old. It was her first ever "non-used" car and when my dad bought it, he told me that it would be mine when I turned 16 (lies, I tell you because my mom loved it so much that she wouldn't give it to me). That car went through hell and back because my mom very near totalled it a couple of times. It was like a cat with nine lives.

When I was in college, my mom got an upgraded and bigger Saturn that ironically was maroon HAHAHA! My college is her college's rival and maroon was our color so I liked to make fun of this fact. She stuck a big fat silver longhorn on the back of it to spite me, I swear. And one on my old VUE, which reminds me that I need to flip that bad boy over or figure out how to "saw the horns off" next time I'm home.

When my brother started driving he got a little red 2 door Saturn coupe stick shift. I was without a car one Christmas break and he'd gotten into a little trouble that involved him not being able to drive so I learned how to drive a stick on that bad boy. I think he called it Red Rover if I remember correctly. Learning how to drive that thing was such a project that involved lots of my dad and brother yelling at me because I sucked royally at it at first.

When the VUE (SUV) came out, my mom and I practically drooled over the thing in the showroom. It was a lovely little car for driving challenged people like us because it's an SUV that sits on a car chassis so it's not a land yacht to struggle to park. After this evil man totalled my jalopy one year (STAY IN YOUR OWN LANE, IDIOT SAN ANTONIO DRIVERS!), I made my first ever car purchase of a used Saturn VUE (the one pictured above). Last year when I moved to Chicago and decided I didn't need a car anymore, my mom took over the loan for me and she gets to drive it now. It makes me a little sad and forlorn when I visit home sometimes because I dearly adored my little dream car.

Needless to say, I'm slightly crushed by today's sad news. What the heck is GM thinking? Saturn is one of the most unique and cool brands of American made cars. They run like little champions too! I'm disappointed and frankly shocked that they aren't going to try to save Saturn because I assume it's a decent seller. Those cute (and powerful) Sky convertibles supposedly have a couple year waiting list. Oh well, I'll have to find a new car brand to be loyal to and I guess it works out seeing as how my fiance despises American made cars.


*on a completely unrelated note, tomorrow is a mega-huge day here in Chi-city. The International Olympic Committee makes their 2016 Olympics decision sometime in the morning. Check out my ethnocentric mini-rant about the other bid cities for reasons why Chicago should totally win. And seriously, if Oprah can't convince them, I don't know what else the city could have done.

This just in...

So the word on the street (and by street I mean NBC Channel 5 and Brian Williams on the national news) is that my homegirl, Michelle Obama, will be repping my adopted town's bid for the 2016 Olympic Games in Copenhagen next month for the big vote. In Brian's words, it's a "last ditch effort" to "go all out" before the Olympic Committee makes it's decision next month.

As a world traveler, I'd like to share with you my theory on why Chicago should (and BETTER!) win the 2016 Olympic Bid.

The competition:

Rio de Janiero: seriously, of all places I ever visited, this one was the biggest disappointment, by far. I felt HUMONGOR sadness during my trip. Brazil is straight up unsafe, y'all. The country features, among huge disparity between the rich and poor, these lovely things called favelas, that are worse than a Detroit ghetto. And there was one that I could look out upon from my hotel room balcony. And could hear gun shots from. Favelas are everywhere. The travesty that is the sewage dumping into Ipanema beach is a whole 'nother story, but if they win the games, maybe they'll work on cleaning that up? Either way, generally, the Olympics need to be held in a place where people feel that it's safe to walk on the streets. That kind of safety does not so much exist in Rio. I was strictly instructed by the senior mamas and papas (flight attendants that regularly fly the trip) not to go anywhere alone, not wear any jewelry, not to go in the water, and most definitely not to go anywhere alone at night. This was the only city in the world where anyone told me anything remotely like that. *and I did also go to Buenos Aires, so it's not just a Latin America thing. It's a Brazil thing. Wikipedia favelas and read up if you don't believe me.* But back to my point. If there's one thing the Olympics trips out about, it's safety and after the Beijing volleyball coach family incident, I can only assume that the committee is even more conscientious about it.

Tokyo: didn't we just have an Olympics in Nagano, like 10 minutes ago? And the last Olympics were in China (Asia representation)... NEXT!

Madrid: ok, this is probably Chicago's only competition. But Spain is a small country with smallish representation at the Olympics and they had a recent Olympics in Barcelona. I realize that we had the summer games in Atlanta since then, but we're talking powerhouse-medal-front-running USA vs. Spain (did they win any medals in Beijing?) here. Plus, the Olympics between now and then is in London so that is the Euro representation.


See, it's a no-brainer. Go Chicago 2016!

*wow, I am a little more ethnocentric than I thought, eh? Of course Spain won some medals in Beijing. The Olympics brings out a little patriotic snarkyness in me, I guess.*