N is for...

N is for Nikki, who I asked to assign me a letter to participate in the ABC Game that's been floating around... and she gave me 'N.' Coincidence? I think not :-)

So, here are my 10 favorite things, that start with an N:

1. NCAA March Madness – For me it’s hands down the most exciting time in college athletics, really any athletics unless the Cards are in the World Series! To top it off, I won my NCAA Basketball Pool at work this year, no matter how the game turns out tonight. Woo-hoo! Check out my perfect West and nearly perfect South & East bracket divisions:

2. November – I love the fall and it’s the month we got married.

3. Nighttime – I’m a total night-owl; I feel like I’m missing so much if I go to bed early!

4. “The Net” – Give me Internet or give me death. Seriously though, I actually think I may be addicted to “the net”.

5. Neighborhoods – Chicago is a huge city made of a ton of neighborhoods. They each have a unique vibe, and I love exploring them. I have lived in only 3 over the 4 years I have been here, so I have a long way to go! According to wikipedia there are around 228 named neighborhoods of Chicago and 77 distinct community areas. Yikes!

6. Notes – Remember passing notes to your friends/boyfriends in grade school & high school? I used to keep a box of them, talk about memories! And now I still love to send handwritten notes to my friends via snail mail, I just don’t get around to doing it nearly enough.

7. Noodles – Mmmmm... I love my strings of carboliciousness!

8. Numbers – I have a weird thing with numbers. 16 & 73 are my favorite and have been since I was a child. I think I was a bit OCD as a child and those numbers were for some reason my obsession.

9. Networking – In person and online. Professionally and Socially. I love connecting with people and introducing people I know in my life with others that they would never know on their own, without that connection. Networking makes the big ol' world seem very small after all.

10. Nicknames – Now this is not to be confused with simply shortening a name, like David to Dave, etc. I love the nicknames you have for people/pets that have become so diluted, you are not even really sure why you call the person or pet that any more, or at least how or when it started. Our dog Louie is called everything from "Larry" to "Lucifer" to "Luda" to "Boo-Bear". Do you have any fun(ny) nicknames for your friends, family or pets that may sound like nonsense to most? 

Thanks, Nikki! If anyone else wants to play, leave me a comment, and I'll assign you a letter!

Memories...

My husband and I were not high school sweethearts, in the usual sense of the word. We haven't dated since we have been 16, but we have been friends that long... very good friends. And over that 10+ years we tried to date once or twice, but it never stuck until, well now obviously, but until 3.5 years ago when we started dating "for real" and knew it was the real thing.

I look back at how lucky we are to have that solid friendship over the years, but still have each experienced different things: dated different people, went to different schools, lived in different cities, etc. We each have our own unique set of experiences in early adulthood, but we also get the pleasure of being together in the end without having to ask all those "surface" getting to know you questions, or ever having to worry/wonder about each other's pasts. It's perfect really... which is why I married him! Well, that and his killer smile ;-)

What spawned this post was my little sister, Jessica. Tonight, she managed to rummage through my parent's basement and find some photos of me and Dave from high school and early college. She then proceeded to scan them and post them to facebook, tagging me in them for the world to see. So I thought, why not post a few fond memories on my blog as well.

High School: 1998 (He was a Senior & Winter Dance King, I was a Junior)

My college Sorority formal: 2001

And here we are today: NYE 08/09

Oh my, how the years fly by!