Bundle Up!

Welcome to the full front of winter, everyone! Regardless of where you're spending the next few icy months, you've probably begun to notice some severe symptoms of sniffly winter. Depending on your location, possible symptoms include: virulent outbreaks of sniffilus (a serious case of the sniffles, easily contagious), a seven-hour stretch of time between sunrise and sunset, a surplus of hot chocolate, tea, and coffee invitations, the arrival of indoor sports seasons, peppermint everything in coffee shops, little ponds of ice water on your window sills, etc. In some regions, the arrival of winter could simply mean you wear a t shirt instead of a tank top with your short-shorts (Yes, Hawaii, I'm talking to you!). For those of you holing up in Polar Vortex-ridden areas, here are some tips for staying snuggly-warm in the windy icebox we call winter.*

*Please Note: during the worst of what was called the Polar Vortex, the Chicago area, with windchill of negative 45 degrees, was deemed too cold for the polar bears. The zoo put the polar bears inside to protect them!

If this is you, please read on.

Zip Up Early
Before braving the beastly weather, spend a quality 2-5 minute-- entirely bundled and zipped--indoors to up the initial temperature of the inside of your coat before cooling off outside.

Invest in Accessories
Supplement your parka with the added coverage and insulation of hats, ear muffs, scarves, gloves, and leg warmers. A little extra fluff goes a long way and traps in valuable extra heat.

Improve Your Shower Skillz
Serious--this one is huge! Shut the door and steam up the bathroom before even contemplating removing your pants. Wait until it's more comfortable outside your winter furs than inside them, and hop on it! AFter showering, dry, moisturize, and re-robe like a speed demon ASAP. Post-shower slippers or socks are MANDATORY; don't let all your newly acquired heat pour out your feet onto the cold floor.

Style Your Scarf
Everyone has a different hair situation, and depending on whether you have a shiny bald head or a forest of crazy hairs up there, you need to wrap your scarf differently. If you have hair, putting your scarf under it tends to help; if you're hairless, cover the vulnerable space between the end of your hat (which you are wearing!) and your collar with the scarf. THIS IS YOUR HAIR SUPPLEMENT. You will thank me later for this no matter what the mirror says!

Those Legs
Ask any athlete who wears cutoff running pants (like tight capris) what they hate about winter, and they will say "The two inches of freezing cold on my legs!" What they mean by this comment is that the two-inch space between their sock line and the bottom of their capris gets absolutely massacred by the cold and wind every time they venture outdoors. The solution? Um, sweat pants, anyone? If that's not your style, slip on leg warmers before and after working out to fill in the gaps between heat and heat.

If you're still freezing cold after all these auxiliary tips (auxiliary meaning you ought to already own a parka and smart cold weather shoes), comment for more ideas to keep you hot as ever in the coolest of places ;) .

Types of Collegiate Eaters

As a seasoned college first-year, my age-wisened collegiate experience has revealed to me a curious methodology for characterizing the bizarre habits of freshmen, called Eating in College. For your curious convience, I have catalogued the major types of collegiate eaters below. To parents reading this post, one of these selections is most likely how your child eats when not under your loving supervision.

The Childish Eater
This Eater was my first discovery upon entering college. The Childish Eater, liberated from the careful meal planning of his or her parental units, quickly reverts to his or her infantile eating habits. These toddler-tummied individuals tend to eat Froot Loops for breakfast, pizza for lunch, and more pizza or fish sticks for dinner. Dessert is ALWAYS chocolate chip cookies, and snacktime means lollipops or bubblegum.

The Secret Snacker
Either due to a constant appetite or constant access to unmonitored food sources, the Secret Snacker is always on the prowl for some sneaky noshing. This student (and yes, I admit I am occasionally this student) eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner...and a pre-breakfast snack, an after-breakfast snack, a pre-lunch snack, an afternoon snack, an after-dinner snack, and a midnight snack. Keep your eye open for mysteriously disappearing food; if you noticed that your cereal box is suddenly empty, or that your granola bars vanished overnight, or that four of the cookies your mother sent you have dissolved into devastated crumbs, you might very well have a Secret Snacker in your midst. This individual will either start to order pants one size up, or will soon take the first step to correcting his or her hungry habits: subbing in fruits and vegetables for fries or chips at dinner and lunch.

The Man of Many Meals
I have met several Men of Many Meals in college (the word "man" is included in the title because I have yet to meet any women who admit to this, but that DOES NOT mean they aren't out there), and their dietary habits descend from one of three sources: perpetual hunger for food, perpetual hunger for muscle, or perpetual hunger for helping their sports team win. Remember the string bean boys from high school who eat ridiculous piles of food and complain that they're still hungry? They don't go away in college. Their appetites just grow along with their height, and,  with my college's invention of Fourth Meal (a fourth official meal of the day that occurs between 9PM and midnight), Men of Many Meals often surface in the dining halls for breakfast, lunch, dinners 1 and 2, and fourth meal. Those with perpetual hunger for muscle tend to have meals of chicken breast and salad or broccoli approximately three to five times a day. I suppose the lack of fats in their diet doesn't help their bellies stay full for long. Finally, those with the hunger to win with their team: AKA football. I swear that the football team eats half of our school's food. The players, who attend, again, three to five meals a day, pile their trays high with chicken, and hamburgers, and salad, and fruits, and cake, and cookies, and pizza, and pasta, and, well, whatever else fits on the tray between three trips up to the buffet.

The Fake Eater
In college, it becomes more difficult to hide eating disorders or food allergies. After a while, it is simply too challenging to ignore the boy who is allergic to gluten, milk, red meat, and green vegetables, and the girl with an eating disorder. Hopefully, though, the Fake Eaters will learn to enjoy dining hall food before their four years are up.

The Homesick International Students
Several students in my dorm struck a new chord of sympathy from my heart when they wept and wailed over something that simply must be called home-cooked-food-sickness (homesickness, except with a desire for home-cooked food, instead of simply home). One boy went knocking on thirty different doors on his quest for rice, explaining that "I cannot consider my feast a meal unless it has RICE!". Students in some dorms even have special food lockers and professional kitchens, in which they whip up their secret homeland food specialties for a taste of the familiar. And, honestly, you've just got to love the collection of individuals who have Polish sausages, local beers, exotic fruits, and cupcake-shaped sprinkles shipped to their dorm rooms.

Wear the Rainbow

The rainbow stairs at Uniqlo!

Famous Skittles commercials encourage viewers to "Feel the rainbow. Taste the rainbow." If Skittles knew what was in its best interest, it would certainly partner with Uniqlo, a Japanese clothing company whose motto seems to be "WEAR the rainbow--rain or shine". Uniqlo offers a fantastic array of attractive, weather-proof clothing--in every color in the rainbow (and even a few extras, just for kicks). As a new inhabitant of oh-so-weather-spoiled Chicago, I have a very personal appreciation for the wonders of Uniqlo. This San Francisco-based store (soon, possibly, to be in Denver, as well) offers warm and thin heattech clothing. For those of you who aren't quite so used to dressing comfortably and presentably in cold weather, this means that Uniqlo gives you the opportunity to be warm enough in your clothes without adding an entire foot to your body size, because the fabrics are thin and effective.
Uniqlo's heattech clothing is actually pure magic. When my mother sent me a few heattech shirts to try, I was cautious and only opened the packaging of one shirt. After ten days, during which I wore the same shirt approximately six times, I decided it was time to invest in a few more. Yes, there was even one day when I wore my heattech shirt the entire day, changed out of it to do laundry, and immediately put it back on after yanking it out of the dryer. As Uniqlo's website explains, there are seven unique properties of heattech: heat generation, heat retention, soft texture, odor control, stretchable comfort, anti-static, and non-deforming. Translated, this means that heattech shirts help your body keep the heat it generates and naturally gives off, while simultaneously generating heat from the moisture your body releases. This process ensures that your warm body gives off less odor. The fibers of heattech clothing are designed to be form fitting and comfortable to give a "second-skin" kind of feel, which helps you feel less bulky in those cold winter months.
So far, I own more heattech shirts than I would care to admit, and you will be delighted to know that heattech long sleeve t shirts, short sleeve t shirts, camisoles, tank tops, pants, socks, scarves, and turtlenecks are all currently available (and well worth it!). Uniqlo even came out with over-the-knee heattech socks. Can you imagine anything more wonderful?! Furthermore, heattech clothing come in ziplock-ish plastic packages and countless color and pattern combos. In a manner similar to that of H&M, Uniqlo has several fits and styles of clothing, and releases those forms with different, trendy patterns and colors. IE once you discover your perfect size, you can wear ANYTHING in ANY COLOR. For example, I recently purchased a long sleeve heattech t shirt in a pattern of cheery red with little blue apples all over it.
If you're looking for more diversity, Uniqlo also offers customers an array of outerwear, underwear, accessories, pants, and sweaters. Their puffy coats are deliciously warm, and since they come in more colors than Ugly, Uglier, and Ugliest, you won't feel like a fashion martyr when wearing them. Uniqlo underwear is designed to ensure that you never have lines showing through your clothes, either on top or down below. The pants selection is also impressive; Uniqlo has a skinny jeans bar extensive enough to rival independent jean bars and H&M pants selections alike. Also, I recently discovered heattech snow pants! Never had I ever seen such a thing--in purple, too.
If you, loved ones, or friends are planning on bundling up this winter, do yourself or your friends a service and stock up on some Uniqlo heattech. Not only will your body be happier this winter, but your mirror won't hate your for wearing ugly winter clothes, either!
So, whenever you're ready to wear the rainbow, check out Uniqlo here, on their website!

The Hottest Chocolate Around

A few years ago, the "bar" trend caught on like wildfire. In major metropolises around the globe, entrepreneurs opened blow-out bars, brow bars, and jean bars; customers flocked to water bars, chocolate bars, and champagne-only bars. Chicago is home to many such wonders, but the Crown Jewel of them all is Mindy's Hot Chocolate, a restaurant located in the Wicker Park area and famous for its delicious desserts and heavenly-yet-sinfully good hot chocolate. Mindy's features an impressive hot chocolate-oriented bar near the entrance of the restaurant; a unique hybrid of tantalizing, luxurious, and comfortable, there is no doubt that Mindy's is on par with several other divine miracles.

The Hot Chocolate Menu

What is it, you might ask, that makes their hot chocolate just so good? As a single sojourn to this chocolate oasis will reveal to you, Mindy's magic arises from its high-quality ingredients, exotic menu, and home-made touch. Any hot chocolate consumed on Mindy's premises is made with "fancy" chocolate, AKA high quality and high concentration cacao, and, of course, lotsa love.
The menu is rather incredible. If you're feeling traditional, you can opt for a classic hot chocolate or dark hot chocolate. If you are more on the adventurous side, the menu will indulge your risk taking with any combination of caffeine and chocolate, reinventing the mocha in mesmerizing ways. Their pumpkin hot chocolate offering summons the joy of the holiday season, and the Black and Tan feature is simply incredible. Think two thirds dark chocolate hot chocolate and one third fudge. Yeah. Major Yum. I recommend sharing one unless you have a sweet tooth the size of a teddy bear; but rest assured that even shared, Black and Tan will satisfy your darkest chocolately desires in the tastiest way possible!
Mindy's also likes to stress that everything on the premises is Mindy's-made. You can purchase paper bags full of various hot chocolate powders pharmacy-style, to enjoy them in the comfort of your home. If you visit, be sure to try the homemade marshmallows--they're delicious and dangerously sugary!
In short, I highly recommend visiting Mindy's, especially in the winter; nothing warms the heart like a divine cup of cocoa :)

The marshmallow. Can you see the marshmallow!!!!??????

Mad for Hats

Ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of year again--that time when everyone, no matter how big or how small, how short or how tall is absolutely mad for hats. Perhaps it has something to do with a change in weather, or an annual revitalization of a lust for the hipster lifestyle. Regardless of cause, it's incontrovertible: hats are back for autumn and winter! If you're of the demographic with blessedly hat-friendly hair, now is the time to rejoice--and if you are on my side of things (the hat-hair side of things, that is), there is hope for you yet, I promise!

Ignore her scowl. I personally always
grin in this hat.

The Cutest Hat in Question

I bought the Net Bow Beanie hat in grey from Topshop less than a month ago, and I have yet to go a day wearing it without receiving at least three compliments (approximately eleven were received on one day). This cute, chic, and elegant beanie is comfortable, warm, and, of course, adorable! It comes in grey or black, complete with a thin-woven knit hat and a polka-dotted bow on the tippy top. I highly recommend for everything from hipster-izing a boho look to keeping your head warm on your way to a professional-attire event.

First World Problems: II

Dear Reader,

You didn't think that we were finished cataloguing first world problems yet, did you? Good! Because we're not even close.

This post has to do with first world problems involving telephones. IE if you ever feel like the saddest, most unfortunate person in the world because your iPhone has crappy service in the basement of a skyscraper, you might want to think again about the actual direness of your situation.

First World Telephone Problem 1: STOLEN!
My friend recently detailed this horrific yet ridiculous party oops of his. Can you find his error?
"Jordan, I'm so mad! I got 200 dollars and my cell phone stolen from me at a party last weekend."
"200 dollars and a phone? Ah man, that sucks! What HAPPENED?"
"Well, there was a pool at the party and I went to jump in. So I took my wallet and phone out of my pocket and put them on top of my sweatshirt. When I came back they were gone!"
"You leave your wallet and iPhone on top of a pile of clothes unguarded in a place full of strangers?"
"It was just an hour!"
"Of course it was (face-palm). "And you keep $200 cash in your wallet?"
"Yeah. Maybe I shouldn't..?"
Yeah, maybe not..

First World Telephone Problem 2: Basic Phones
The summary: you are in a foreign country and purchase a temporary, basic phone to use only for a few phone calls and text messages.
Your POV: I have the worst phone in the world! It weighs a pound, and holds battery life for two hours! The screen is so tiny that I need to turn the lights on and hold it up to my face to see it, and it literally has 15 buttons: 10 number keys, 2 symbol keys, hang up and answer, and on/off--and 0 special features.
The reality: you have a modern device that makes miraculous international calls and allows you to communicate with people on the other side of the world. You no longer live in the 1600's, when "instant" communication took one year--and a fortune--more than it does today. Congratulations. Sorry if the wrapping isn't pretty.

It's Electric!

Are you one of those incredibly wise persons who whole-heartedly acknowledges that running is some exquisite form of torture? If the answer to this question is "yes", then you might be shocked to learn that I USED to be one of you--but have now joined the ranks of the Enlightened Few who have discovered how to make running fun, and as painless as possible.
My divine epiphany arrived the night of August 30th, in Downtown Denver at the Electric Run. The Electric Run is a 5K that starts at 8:30 PM, and uses 1 million Watts of sound and light energy to create an incredible 5K experience. Rockstar Energy helps sponsor the charity event, and there are tons of free energy drinks and neon cups offered to runners/walkers/joggers. The Electric Run temporarily transforms cities into run-through-able nightclubs for participants. We ran along parking lots and sidewalks downtown, and into stadiums, tunnels, and warehouses, each of which had a different musical theme booming and a unique light show experience. For example, one tunnel was lit with blue/purple lights and filled with bubble machines! Another unique lighting display was a piece of "light art" featuring umbrellas and neon lights! 
Participants dress in glow sticks--and, in our case, self-decorated tanks that we attacked with glow-in-the-dark paint--and occasionally tutus and LED-customized shirts for the run. Although I know very little about the politics and ins and outs of 5K's or any other sorts of runs, it does seem that the Electric Run is a very supportive run, complete with volunteers cheering you on at every corner, and energetic music blasting and bright lights flashing around every turn :) In other words, the Electric Run is a running dance party!
At the very end of the run, in a huge stadium, is a dance party for a few hours, complete with more DJ-ing, dancing, glow stick throwing, and merchandise-handing-out. 

In short, I definitely recommend this run to anyone who likes running, kind of likes running, kind of doesn't like running, and feels slightly apprehensive about the activity. You will all very much enjoy it! Also, in case you're not a sprinter by nature, it's so accessible to walkers that several people even pushed babies in strollers through the race! 

So next year, ladies and gentlemen. Don't forget to sign up!!