Summer Vacation Part 7: The End with The Wall

This is my last post about something vacation-y that I'm spending a bunch of money on to have fun this summer. My Aunt Susie and I went to see Paul McCartney last summer at Wrigley Field in Chicago. We had so much fun we decided to see a concert every summer together. She let me pick the one for this year, and I chose The Wall performed by Roger Waters at Wrigley again.

Our mini vacation started with a trip on the South Shore Train from Dune Park all the way to the end of the line (Millennium).

We then caught a taxi and checked in at our hotel- Best Western Plus River North. It was rated three stars on Priceline, and it was an okay hotel. It was decorated nicely, but the hallway smelled funny.  The place seemed to get my allergies going as well.

Our hotel room also had a nice view...

We were just down the block from the Rainforest Cafe and the Hard Rock Cafe. We choose to eat at Hard Rock Cafe for lunch.

I also bought a t-shirt (which is a tad bit small for motivation) and some earrings.

At least you can wear earring no matter what size you are!

The location of the hotel was great since we could easily walk to Michigan Avenue and go shopping which we did before concert.

Only $15 for a pair of Levi's from the Levi store!

On our way back we passed a Subway, so we got that for dinner and headed back to the hotel for a nap.

After our nap and changing clothes, we hopped on the red line. We actually kind of knew what we were doing on the subway this time which was nice.

The shirt I wore to the concert. I got a lot of compliments on it.

Once we got to Wrigley, we went straight in and found our seats which were pretty darn close to the top. The view was really nice since we were in the middle of the park. If we go back again to see a concert, I will definitely be getting seats here again.

As you keep reading, I talk about "grandma and grandpa." I didn't realize that grandma (the lady with the tie dye and bandanna) was in my picture until I wrote this post!

I didn't take a picture of this, but I did have a bottle of water to hydrate and a hot pretzel to keep the blood sugar from getting too low before the concert started.

As we were waiting for the concert to start, we were people watching. The crowd was quite different from our concert last year and interesting to watch. We had grandma and grandpa sitting down a few rows from us who were wearing tie-dye shirts, long hair, and bandannas and looked like they never left Woodstock.

As the concert started, I tried to take some pictures, but they just didn't turn out well. My aunt thinks she might have gotten a few good ones, so I'll try to get them from her sometime. I will put a few of my blurry ones up though.

Some really neat things from the show were...

• An airplane flying down on a string from the top of roof over the audience to crash into the wall and burst into flames which was really cool. 
• Roger Waters started and ended the show dressed up as a dictator with a uniform, glasses, and red arm band with a logo with two hammers on it. He even shot into the audience with a toy gun at the end.

• As the songs played, there were images and videos projected onto the wall to go with songs. Some of the most moving images were pictures and stories of people (children too) who were killed in some kind of warfare.

• During the first half of the show the wall was slowly being built up brick by brick until there was a full wall by intermission. During the second half of the show the wall came back down again.
• For "Another Brick in the Wall Part 2", there were children on stage singing the "children's part" and fighting a huge evil teacher robot.

• For the song "Mother" he performed a duet with himself. He played along with a video of himself performing the song in 1980.

• The pig was alive and revamped. It was a huge balloon pig (about the size of a bus) that was black with red and white "big brother" type slogans all over it. It floated over the audience that was seated in the field and eventually crashed in the back after floated around for several songs.
• If you would like to read a concert review and/or see the set list, visit this link.
• If you go to YouTube and type in Roger Waters Wrigley Field 2012, you can watch some videos that show what I'm talking about.

After the show, we made our way though the sea of people at Wrigley and again through another sea of people to get to the subway and back to the hotel. We chit chatted a bit, got ready for bed, and were asleep by 1:00ish.

The next morning we got breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel. Naughty me got a Belgium waffle, but I have no photo as proof. ;)

We then walked down to Bloomingdale's to check out all expensive home stuff we can't afford. When we got to the top floor with the furniture we found a table that was set. It had name cards in frames at each plate, but only one frame was facing the aisle. The name was Shirley. That has meaning to us, because my Aunt Shirley (Susie's sister) passed away a few years ago (way too young due to cancer). It was kind of weird since it isn't a common name, so I checked out the other names and they were all common names like John. I'm not much for signs, but this one did get to me a bit.

After our shopping trip, we went back to the hotel for one last thing. We wanted to check out the rooftop deck. It had a nice view, so we both took some pictures and bid Chicago goodbye.

29 More Days

Today was a pretty typical Monday and I don't really have too much to write about today. I am happy to say that I've done a good job on working towards my goals today. I did my stretches this morning and everything I've eaten is on plan except for the carmel on my carmel apple I just ate as part of my dinner. I did give myself a goal of eating 80% on plan, so that is okay. All that is left is 30 minutes of extra exercise. I plan on cleaning the great room and doing some laundry which should take me more than 30 minutes.

Here is what I ate today:

Breakfast at 5:30

A snack at 7:30

A snack at 10:00

Lunch at 11:30

A snack at 2:30

Dinner at 4:30

I also had a carmel apple.

A snack probably around 6:00 or 7:00

A Haircut and a Costume

This weekend was busy with trying to clean the house, get some shopping done, and doing things for work. The first thing I did on Saturday morning was get a haircut.

If you are wondering about the shirt, it is Ralph from The Simpsons. Ralph has some of the best lines!

How come my hair never looks this good when I do it myself?

After that I went grocery and other various things shopping. I was looking for a gray cardigan, black skirt, black tights, a magic wand, and a cape. Why you ask? It is to make a Hermione Granger costume for work. They are having a Reading for Fun Day and would like staff and students to dress up as a favorite character from a book. I would love to be Scarlett (from Gone With the Wind- my favorite book), but I don't think that anyone would know who I was. I made a fake tie and Gryffindor patch for my costume with some fabric, ribbon, pin backs, photo paper, and hot glue. I was getting my craft on and this is all you get to see until I put it all together tomorrow.

Another random find from this weekend was a good microwave pizza that is 200 calories a serving. It is by DiGirono and they have different kinds, but I had the supreme.

My eating and working out wasn't very good this weekend, but has been much better today. Always easier to get back on track on a Monday. I also got an e-mail about a walking challenge in the school corporation where I am working through the wellness program. I immediately signed up. It was only $40 (and that is for a really nice pedometer and USB port for it) and it looks to be fun with teams and prizes. I figured it would be good motivation to get working out again.

Here is the food for today...

Breakfast was Chobani, oatmeal, and a fruit strip around 5:30 this morning.

My first morning snack was a Nutrigrain bar at 7:30.

Later in the morning I had baby carrots, chicken lunchmeat, and a Special K bar- 10:00.

Lunch was Progresso soup and Wheat Thins at 11:30.

My afternoon snack was cinnamon almonds, a fruit strip, and a Special K bar around 2:50.

Dinner was Subway- diet Coke, ham and turkey on wheat with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, green peppers and light mayo, and a yogurt parfait at 4:30.

I'm guessing that later tonight I'll be eating one of these...

Exercise won't be much tonight- either cleaning the great room or a short walk.

Sweet and Sour

I picked the name for this post with a purpose. I had a few "sweet" or positive things that I wanted to write about and I have a few "sour" or negative things I wanted to write about. With that being said, here I go...

Sweet

• I'm finally back on track with eating mostly on plan.
• I'm doing better at the harder exercises on the Wii Fit. I can make it through the whole push ups (girl style) and side plank exercise and lunges without feeling like I'm gonna fall on the floor.

This shirt was so tight I was embarrassed to wear it when I first bought it and now it is too big so I'm using it to workout in! Also I can fit into my old workout shorts!

• My Valentine's roses (or should I say rose plant) are starting to bloom and look healthier, but there are still a few dry leaves.

• Paul McCartney is on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. The article about him is the only one I've had time to read so far.

• I have a great student I'm giving piano lessons to on Wednesdays. She makes my Wednesday afternoons so much better!
• I baked some pumpkin brownies again and they are delicious!

• I've been talking to my aunt and we already have tickets to see Roger Waters of Pink Floyd perform The Wall live. We have also been talking about possibly seeing Ringo and his All Starr Band since they are coming to the Horseshoe Casino.
• Since I'm having trouble with some negative feelings and feelings about the past, I've been thinking more and more about really making an effort to play the flute. It lets me get emotions out and soothes me in a positive way. Yea for a hopefully soon implemented positive habit.
• I can finally wear that St. Joe shirt that I bought for work back at homecoming.

Sour

• I'm having trouble with being upset/angry with someone and I'm trying my best to get over it. I don't like this feeling of anger inside of me nor do I like things that have happened in the past to bubble up and mix with these new feelings.
• I had a rough day at work. I had a great time with my first grade and third grade classes, but the kindergarten, second, and fourth grade classes were a little bit rough. I was physically exhausted and my mind was mush by the end of the day. I love my job, but there are days that are tougher than others.
• I'm still struggling with the snacking monster. I only ate a couple of rice crispy squares, so it isn't the worst I've done.
• I've gained a little bit of weight back with not being on plan last week. It still has yet to come off.

Food for the Day:

Breakfast:

Snack:

Snack:

Lunch:

Snack:

This is the time where I ate those rice crispy squares along with this snack.

Dinner:

Snack:

Exercise: Wii Fit and stretches