Breathe In. Breathe Out.

On Saturday (March 1st!), I ran to the grocery store to stock up on a few essentials.  I was bundled for the arctic winter, but was pleasantly surprised when the air didn't burn my lungs going down - and it felt decidedly spring-like in the air.

Don't worry - it started snowing less than 24 hours later and the current temp with wind-chill is NEGATIVE ELEVEN.

It was nice while it lasted, right?

Luckily, I had the Academy Awards to take me out of my weather-related misery.  It was an excellent night on twitter, if I do say so myself. 

I can't decide if Ellen knocked it out of the park or not.  She definitely wasn't bad (I mean, we all remember James Franco and Anne Hathaway...), but some of it just seemed a little forced. 

I did enjoy most of the stuff she did, although I feel like Ellen came off a little more snobby than she does on her show. 

Overall, the dresses were mostly under-whelming.  Some beautiful pieces, but not much (or anything) that knocked my socks off.

There is, in my opinion, one thing that stood out for the night.  Pink, a lady that I consider to be an excellent performer but not one of my favorites, completely knocked it out of the park with her rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.  It's not a song I would EVER associate with Pink, but wow did she do an amazing job.

Furthermore, her DRESS.  If Julia Roberts had strolled the red carpet in that number, I would STILL be picking up my jaw off the floor. 

On the other hand, there is a "red dress" curse where leading ladies can't win any awards while wearing red dresses.  But she lost anyways, so it probably wouldn't have hurt.

On the flip side, the red curse didn't affect Jared Leto, who gave one of the most impressive speeches of the night while wearing his tiny pop of red.  I don't even know what else to say about his acceptance speech, but by the time he thanked his mom for teaching him how to dream... well, I hate a man with long hair (normally), but I was sold.

The only other highlight of the night was Lupita Nyong'o's acceptance speech and gown.

Would you believe she's 31?  Cause in my book, she looks barely a day over 21.  Some people have all the luck.

Oohh man, the Oscars was a nice little break from reality.... the reality of having to scrape snow off my car (again) might just be too much to bear. 

Is it summer yet?

Were you up well past your bedtime watching the Oscars go over by an hour last night?

Yawn.  Happy Monday.

Whirlwind in the Windy City

Sooo... where do I start?

I envisioned myself having allllll this free time over the past 24 hours to catch up on my life.  Mr. RH got his wisdom teeth out yesterday and I have for some reason been entrusted to make sure he doesn't die.  It's extremely terrifying.

His dad dropped him off at his apartment yesterday around noon... and the first thing he does is bend over (despite my million protests to NOT bend over) and attempt to take his shoes off.  Big bloody smile later... and I'm the one on the floor begging my brain not to pass out.

If his dad noticed, he didn't say anything.  Which is a bit terrifying, because after 15 minutes I had a feeble Mr. RH feel my forehead and even through the drugs he could feel that I was sweating like I just ran 10 miles.

Anyway, Mr. RH is recovering nicely, I'm smothering him with too much attention, and there was the mother of all thunderstorms (the first of the ENTIRE SUMMER) which kept us both awake at 3 in the morning.  Which gave me the opportunity to ice Mr. RH's face. 


Dear Lord in Heaven, please let us make it out of this alive.  And by us I mean me, because Mr. RH will certainly strike me dead here in a jiffy.  xo, Sarah

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So, I was in Chicago with some girlfriends late last week.  It was a whirlwind and so busy, but it was nice to escape on my own for a couple of days.  Even if I was a little sad that Mr. RH had time off too and we didn't get to spend any of it together!

I had several "firsts" on this Chicago trip.

My first trip to infamous breakfast joint Lou Mitchell's.  

It was ok, but really not my favorite.  Maybe I just ordered the wrong thing.

I would also like to point out I walked less than 10 blocks to get there and, because of the humidity, my big, curly hair went completely and totally straight.  Dude, this weather.

We walked all over town - miles and miles and miles.  My feet are still a little sore!

The big adventure of the trip, though, was a trip to RPM Italian.  

Don't know RPM?  Well, you might be the only one.  It is a restaurant featured on Giuliana & Bill.... as in, the restaurant that Giuliana and Bill invested in.

My friend scored us late reservations on Wednesday... so I knew we had to go.

We didn't have any grand expectations of the place.  First of all, we weren't dressed for dinner.  We were dressed for a long day in the car and a hot day in the city.  I was a mess.

So we walk in, tell them we have reservations, and wait.  I start to feel uneasy because I am so underdressed.  The place is gorgeous.

About ten minutes into waiting, an older gentleman breezes through and goes right into the dining room.

"Hey, guys, I'm pretty sure that's Giuliana's dad."  My friends are like, eh, I don't see him, whatever you say.

We get seated, have an amazing waiter, debate over food and drink for ages.

At one point, a man walks by, tries to stop at the table, gets blocked by the waiter, and keeps walking.  Lightbulbs of recognition go off in my head..... the guy is Ari Goldman, fellow RPM investor and friend of Bill Rancic.

My friends are clueless, but I am a dog with a bone.  I explain who Ari is and how I clearly have too much time to watch TV.  Ari comes back from wherever... and chats up the table.  By this point, we are all glowing and well-behaved perfect women.  An unvoiced opinion has been unanimously voted upon: we are going to be perfect and behave and see what happens.

 

Time goes by, desserts are eaten.  If you are ever in the neighborhood, you MUST have the tartufo.  Not sure what that word is, exactly, but it's a chocolate gelato inside a hard chocolate hazelnut shell.  To die for.

After we finish, who shows up again but Ari.  The girl sitting next to me gathers up her balls and says... so, is the "R" of RPM Italian in house tonight?  

And low and behold, he is.  They are filming in the back and almost finished... he is tired of talking to Papa DePandi about Obama (so  that WAS him I saw on the way in!)... so he joined us at our table.

Before long, the back room opens up and all of the cast of characters come spilling out.  Bill Rancic, several of his close friends, and Giuliana's dad.

(Unfortunately, no Giuliana herself... but this was pretty awesome.)

They all came over to our table and started talking.  There are about 30 people left in the restaurant at this point, but everyone is asking questions and talking to us.  Pretty surreal.

One of us finally gets our wits about us and asks Giuliana's dad for a picture.  My blogging heart seizes with joy.  FINALLY.

Giuliana's dad, Antonio, hops into our round booth like he is training for the Olympic hurdles.  I was nervous he was going to fall but he hopped right over the edge of the bench seat.  

Bill Rancic, standing there with a wall of iPhones and cameras, starts shouting directions.  "Scootch in, smile big, everybody say WE LOVE EDUARDO."

At this point, Eduardo (we're on a first-name basis) pulls out his phone, hands it to Bill, and asks for a picture.

DEAD.  That is my exact emotion.  

Bill, who is directing the wall of cameras, comes up with a brilliant shot.  

No joke.  I kissed Giuliana's dad in the middle of RPM Italian while Bill Rancic cheered me on.

Of course, having used up all our balls for the night, NONE of us would man up and ask Bill for a picture.  We were playing it too cool.

Even though he proceeded to circulate the room and get pictures with EVERYONE else in the place.

And then I choked again the next day at noon, when I just strolled past Bill on Michigan Avenue.  I turned around to go make a scene (and get a picture!) but I chickened out.  He looked like he was enjoying his privacy and there were SO many people out on the street.

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So that's what I did last week.  Smooched on Giuliana's dad in the middle of RPM Italian.  At Bill Rancic's urging.

Don't even get me started on the conversation we had after we were leaving the restaurant.  The other girl who did the kissing - we both IMMEDIATELY went into panic mode - um, did you actually kiss him, touch the cheek, was that alright??

Haha, we were just following directions!

Happy Tuesday!!  I'm off to nurse my sick patient.

VS Fashion Show

So, unless you've been living under a rock you know that last night was the annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on CBS.  I look forward to this show for various reasons, but mostly because (in the past), I love Heidi Klum.  Any chance I get to see my fake-life BFF is high on my to-do list.

Unfortunately for me, my power went out at about 9 pm last night, if not earlier.  We got about 5 inches of heavy, wet snow and the power was on and off all night.

Fortunately, the power must have come on for a couple of minutes so I had about 15 minutes of show on my DVR this morning.

So here's the thing.  I loved the VS Fashion show in it's heydey.  When it was known for over the top Tyra and Heidi and their big smiles and bigger... cup sizes.  When there were stories in magazines praising the VS girls' for their big smiles, big laughs, and big personalities on the runway.

What I saw in my 15 minutes of DVR surfing... wasn't that.

Granted, back in the day there was no high-def or screen shots.  I can only imagine how much more pressure is added because of today's technology.

However, when I turned on the TV all I saw were pout-mouths and concave tummies.  Victoria's big secret was all over ever single model:  padded bras!  A cup didn't runneth over no matter which way you turned!  And the lack of smiles.  Oy vey, have they not seen www.antiduckface.com?  It's like they're uneducated!

Not to mention, I'm pretty sure they blurred out Adriana Lima's ass-cheek in multiple shots.  (Not positive it was her, but there was definite blur used on someone.)  I mean, they couldn't find a single pair of underwear that covered her ass?  Or at least 1/2 of it?

And this is a total aside... but seriously, is there some magical camel-toe defender that all the models were wearing?  I mean... do they band-aid their hoo-has together to prevent accidental camel-ing?  I'm just curious.  Seriously, that WAS an impressive lack of camel.

So am I just being a crotchety old woman (no surprise there) or is has the VS Fashion Show lost some of its luster?  I mean, the show is absolutely better-produced than ever - every little detail is planned meticulously.  But to me, it's just lost some of its sparkle.  That magical little something.

Something that looks a lot like this:

And now that I have that picture on here... yeah, she does look a little scary-skinnier than I remember.  Maybe I should stick to remembering the highlights in my head.

Did anybody else tune in?  Thoughts?

Occupy Something That Matters!

Maybe I'm just jaded - or uneducated or dumb - but if I hear anything else about occupying Wall Street (or any other damn street) I'm going to lose my mind.  I don't know how to articulate it any better than to say: I don't care.  Feel free to occupy whatever the hell you choose but for the love of God I really don't want to hear about it.  Anywhere.  Twitter, the news.  Any. damn. where.

Seriously.

 

Mr. RH was about to get a smackdown when he saw my tweet and texted me asking if I wanted to occupy Wall Street with him.  NOT. FUNNY.

So, if you've been living under a rock (I have!), People Magazine named Bradley Cooper the Sexiest Man Alive of 2011.

If you are me, you will wonder... umm, what EXACTLY did Bradley Cooper do in 2011?  Umm... yeah.  Imdb.com hear my prayers.... they say in 2011 he was in Hangover Pt. 2 and Limitless.  If you have never heard of Limitless raise your hand... waves arms wildly in the air.

So, yeah.  Poor choice People magazine... let's see if people.com remains my #1 most visited website for long....

And then, I saw a Gawker.com article last night that restored my faith in humanity.  My faith in the fact that people are good and hilarious and my kind of people.

Occupy People Magazine.

Tens if not twenties of people lined up outside the People Magazine headquarters to declare their message:

Bradley Cooper is just fine,
But Ryan Gosling is divine.

 This year?  Mr. Gosling has been in 3 movies and Crazy Stupid Love was possibly the sexiest movie I've ever seen.

Case and point?  This photo.  And his wardrobe for the movie.  Holyshit.

 {photo via}

I don't want to be scandalous or embarrass him, but I'm pretty sure Mr. RH got turned on by this movie and it wasn't from Emma Stone.  Just sayin!

But really, who can blame him??

Ryan Gosling.  The REAL Sexiest Man Alive 2011.

Occupy something REAL, friends.  Celebrity magazines.

Cheers to the Future King and Queen!

As promised, I was up bright and early (I actually woke up "late" at 4:45 instead of the early 4 am. Fantastic decision) this morning to witness the marriage of Prince William and Princess Catherine this morning.

It's one of those things that no, I didn't feel that I *had* to watch it. It wasn't completely necessary. But I like to think that for the rest of my life I will remember this little moment in history.

Like man walking on the moon, inauguration of each President, and the morning of September 11th, I will always remember where I was when this big event happened. (Ten points to the person who points out I wasn't alive when man walked on the moon.)

(Photo from here)

Kate wore a dress by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen. It was a bit more conservative and understated than I personally expected, but stunning nonetheless.

What really surprised me was Pippa Middleton, Kate's sister, wearing a white very fitted dress. Not gonna lie, I was a little taken aback at that decision.

The wedding was beautiful and the vows were standard. I was impressed with the strength and handsomeness of William's voice. Kate, on the other hand, was fairly breathless with nerves.

It's a perfectly sunny day in London, and many people have been noting that it must be Princess Diana's good wishes shining down on the crowd.

Noticeably absent, in my opinion, was an open tribute to William's mother. I was expecting a rose on a chair or a specially placed candle, but I didn't see either.

It's now almost an hour after the wedding and the crowd is filing slowly into the space in front of Buckingham Palace. It's amazing to see the royal police controlling the crowd so calmly. The British people certainly have a bit more restraint than Americans, in my opinion.

Update: The Kiss(es!)

As soon as Kate took a step onto the balcony, she said "Oh WOW!" You could tell she was really surprised and just overwhelmed. She broke into the biggest smile - so cool! I love the genuine emotion.

The first kiss on the balcony was rather perfunctory. The Today Show was zoomed out and missed it live. Don't worry, they replayed their money shot so we could see it.

And then, SHOCKER, they kissed again. Unprecedented! You can tell they were a bit uncomfortable (as most royal kisses are) but it was sweet. William had his public face on but I loved the genuine emotion on Kate's face.

All in all, a lovely wedding for a lovely couple. Well done.
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In other news, I'm locked out of twitter for the day. I deleted about 20 tweets but it said I have over-tweeted my limit for the day. It's only just after 8 am. I'm out of twitter jail!

Congrats to the future King and Queen! May life bless them with many many years of happiness and health.

(And children, if the minister and news anchors are to be believed.)

Today, we are all royalty! God save the Queen! (Not for too long though, we'd like Kate to have a crack at it before old age.)

What I'm Wearing to the Royal Wedding

I haven't posted much about the Royal Wedding, but, like many of you, I have been planning my outfit for ages.

Does one wear traditional wedding attire for an 11 am wedding? Pastels? Hats?

What about jewelry? Pearls? Diamonds?

Updo? Curly hair? Geesh, the OPTIONS!

I feel so out of touch with wedding etiquette.

No worries. I've thought it alllll out for you.

Seeing as it will be 4 am when the wedding coverage starts here in Indiana.... one has to be aware of the circumstances of these outfits.

As in, I will be rolling directly from my bed to the couch in this outfit. Get excited.

Option #1: Victoria's Secret gray/white robe, navy sweatpants.

Nice, but seems to be a bit lacking in color/jazz.

Outfit #2: Victoria's Secret PINK robe, formerly condemned to the trash pile. It just seems to keep hanging around.

The color of this one is great, although this bad boy is extremely worn. It's seen me through breakups and breakdowns and really needs to go live in the trash pile.

Option #3: Leopard jersey robe, gifted to me by my BFF for my birthday.
Meow! Although this seems to highlight the guitar on my fav t-shirt rather unflatteringly. *Sigh* Nothing's ever perfect.

In all my haste to put together the perfect outfit, I had completely forgotten several things. Jewelry, hats, lip color.

And then again.... shouldn't I be dressing for my favorite member of the royal wedding?

(Photo from here)

I mean, he's still single and he's.... what, 4th in line for the throne? (Pffft, let's forget about that pesky Chelsy Davy.)

Outfit #4: Add in a hat, jewelry, some color, and the perfect spandex yoga pants.

Much better.

Let the countdown begin.... T-Minus 12 hours...

Who's going to be chatting it out with me on twitter at 4 am?? Hmm?

Oscars 2011

I feel like I've got lots to say today but let's just talk about the Oscars, ok? Okay.

First of all, it was an OK Oscars night, in my opinion. I've seen much boring-er. Like the year they did 2304 montages. Trust me, last night was practically snappy compared to that.

So, the hosts. James Franco and Anne Hathaway. Although she was weirdly awkward/excited, I thought Anne did a good job. I certainly didn't hate her. However.

James Franco? O.m.g. Grow a personality, buddy. He looked so HIGH the entire night. His eyes could not have been more closed than.... than if he actually did the whole dang night with his eyes closed. He was awkward and just awful. At least you could tell Anne was trying.

Did you all see David Seidler, screenwriter for The King's Speech, win? I should like to nominate him for best acceptance speech of the night.

(Credit: EPA)

First he joked about being a late bloomer (as he is the oldest winner in his category)... then he thanked his kids for always believing in him as much as he believes in them. (Yes, I started crying at that point.) He then wrapped up by accepting his award on behalf of stutter-ers (um, that's hard to even type!) everywhere. "We have a voice, we have been heard, thanks to you, the Academy."

Maybe I'm just sentimental but I swear, it doesn't get any better than that. Heck, that was the high point of the evening for the next couple hours of the show.

Colin Firth's win for best actor was also charming... is there anyone on the planet who isn't a little bit in love with him? I don't think so.

And then the conclusion of the night, with the kids from Public School 22 from Staten Island singing Over the Rainbow... I'll admit it, I got teared up.

All in all, defintely an improvement over past Oscars... however, why didn't Hugh Jackman co-host with Anne? That would have been excellent.

And while we're on the topic... I'd like to formally announce my campaign for next year's host.

SANDY for Oscar Host in 2012!!!!

Did you see her hand out the Best Actor award? She would be perfection on that stage - all night long. Self deprecating and adorable.

SANDY FOR 2012!!

And if this isn't enough Oscar for you check out my Red Dress Wrapup at All Things Chic.

Me & My BFF

My BFF and I... we have a lot in common.

We are both blonde.

We both enjoy walking around in our underwear.

She has four kids. I want four kids.

We are BFFs for sure.



Well, not really.


But I like her a whole lot.

(Source)

So excited to see my BFF Heidi on Project Runway tonight.

Who's YOUR celebrity BFF?

And while we're on the topic, which male celeb makes you weak in the knees?

For some reason I can only come up with one answer right now: Hugh Jackman.

(Source)

Ohh and also: Taye Diggs on Private Practice. Yum. Ohh, looks like I'll get to see him tonight too. Score!

So ladies - SPILL IT!